Glen Helen Qualifying
X Fighters
www.redbullxfighters.com Australia's Rob Adelberg took top honors in the Qualifying session in Glen Helen on Saturday on the biggest Red Bull X-Fighters track ever built, beating Tom Pages of France into second and Japan's Taka Higashino into third ahead of the main event later on Saturday where the world's best freestyle motocross riders will be leaping up to 30 meters in distance and 15 meters high while performing gravity-defying tricks.
Rob Adelberg was outstanding on the incredibly difficult FMX course
carved into the Southern California hills. The Australian ace, who was fourth
in Glen Helen a year ago, earned the best Qualifying score of the day on
Saturday, an 85.1, from the panel of five judges. Pages, who is second overall
in the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour standings, was close behind with an 83.8
even though he did not perform his most electrifying tricks on the difficult
course. Higashino was third with 83.6 points.
The Red Bull X-fighters World Tour leader, Dany Torres of Spain, had an off
morning on Saturday with mostly cautious jumps and was back in seventh place.
Also struggling was last year's winner, American Todd Potter who finished 11th,
and Australia's Josh Sheehan, who was eight. Both Potter and Sheehan
crash-landed during their runs. Defending champion Levi Sherwood of New Zealand
had to pull out of the competition in Glen Helen due to a shoulder injury
suffered in training.