Maddison Triumphs at the Triomphe!

Posted by Steve Matthes on Thursday, January 01, 2009

 Comment (0)   Email Print

 

There’s a line in a Counting Crows song that says, “If you wrap yourself in daffodils/I will wrap myself in pain,” and that makes about as much sense as what Robbie Maddison was going to try and do last night. When the east coast was ringing in the New Year, I was standing directly below a beautiful replica of France's famed Arc de Triomphe thinking that I might actually witness somebody dying on a motorcycle.

The atmosphere was definitely one fitting the holiday that the jump fell on. Shaun White was standing beside me, Travis Pastrana was in the house, and there were a bunch of dudes wearing sunglasses and girls wearing next to nothing in the cold Las Vegas night. Red Bull, as always, did it up right. It seemed that the party people wanted to see this thing go down as well before straggling off to wherever they were going. After all, it was Vegas and you can do pretty much whatever you feel like doing. We huddled together in the Media/VIP area (thanks Jordan!) and watched the big screen as part one of the night's festivities, Rhys Millen back flipping a truck, went array. Peering up at the Triomphe I thought about how sixteen hours ago I was up on top interviewing Maddison and how the jump just seemed, like that Counting Crows lyric, silly. On the ground the feat seemed amazing, but when you stood up on top, well that’s when you had to think about the skill and brass ones that jump took.

The man they call ‘Maddo” was going to be stepping up on top of this 100-foot structure and then dropping off and you could feel the tension in the air. Of course we saw what happened, Robbie made it and we all collectively exhaled upon him first making the leap up and then again when he dropped off. There was a split second on the step off where I really thought he was going to be in trouble; he went a little long and the results was a busted up hand when he nailed his clutch perch. You had to be there to see the impact on the landing, it was a drop out of the sky that had to hurt. Not that the step up was any easier, I was genuinely surprised at how hard he had to hit the ramp. His speed runs were 54 mph and that was pretty damm fast standing right beside the narrow ramp. There was not much room for error, yet Robbie hit all his marks, did everything right and we saw something amazing. I didn’t get a chance to talk to Robbie after the jump but I’m sure if you got him to open up and be totally honest about why he chose to do this jump, you wouldn’t hear about the money, the exposure, or the fame. You’d probably just get an answer of “Because it was there.”

 

 

Posted by Steve Matthes on Thursday, January 1st, 2009 at 2:44 pm

 Comment (0)   Email Print

 

 

RECENT COMMENTS

 

ALL COMMENTS

 

In order to post comments you must be logged in. Log in HERE or create an account HERE

• 2009(30)0
• November(1)0
• Thinking of Sgt. David Cho
• October(2)0
• Bercy Blog: Day 1
• We Are All Americans
• September(3)0
• The Racer X FFL: Week 1!
• The Racer X FFL: Week 2
• The RX Office: Where Work Goes to Die
• August(2)0
• Mud's Creek
• What Was Travis Thinking?
• June(5)0
• Luke Burkhart Back on the Bike
• Matthes Travels
• Matthes' Road Trip To Berlin
• Matthes' Second Day in Germany
• The Matthes of Venice
• May(2)0
• Daniel Blair's Season Review
• The Weege is Wrong!
• April(4)0
• Bowyer's Seattle Blog
• My Racer X Gas Card Experience
• The Racer X Gas Card Experience
• The Scoreboard and the Wildcards
• March(4)0
• Bill and Steve's Excellent Adventure: Day 2
• Bill and Steve's Excellent Adventure: Day 3
• Bill and Steve's Excellent Adventure: The End
• Bill and Steve's Excellent Florida Adventure: Day 1
• February(2)0
• The Dark Days of The Dog
• The Wisdom of the Weege
• January(5)0
• BBMX On The Information Superhighway
• Blair's Houston Race Report
• Jacob Saylor's Houston Report
• Maddison Triumphs at the Triomphe!
• WWHHD?
• 2008(87)0
• December(10)0
• 22 and Counting: Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki Rolls Towards Anaheim
• East or West?
• Favorite Riders
• Foust In, Pastrana Out for Race of Champions
• HHR Mini Olympics 2008
• My First Motocross Race
• Racer X FFL Results - Week 13
• Racer X FFL Results-It's Over!
• Racer X FFL Results-Week 12!
• Rattray Coming to America!
• November(12)0
• Even More Items Added to the eBay Auction for Blair Morgan
• JNCC Blog: Day 3--Practice!
• JNCC Blog: Race Day!
• Metal Mulisha Blog
• Only Two Days Left in Blair Morgan Auction!
• Racer X FFL Results - Week 11
• Racer X FFL Results-Week 10!
• Racer X FFL Results-Week 9!
• Racer X FFL Results: Week 10!
• Swiss Supercross Update
• The World Vets
• Third and Final Wave of Stuff for Blair Morgan Recovery Released
• October(22)0
• Another Energy Crisis - by DC
• Blair Morgan eBay Auction Update
• Doublin Gap: Day 1
• Evil Knievel?
• Ferry on KROC
• Getting Even and Getting Odd
• Grant-tastic?
• High Point
• High Voltage: Reed and Moss Jolt Super X Australasia
• It's a Major Step for RC, and We Can All Watch it Live
• JNCC Blog: Days 1 and 2
• Larry Hughes Flashback
• Missing McFarlane
• Racer X FFL Results, Week 8
• Racer X FFL Results-Week 5!
• Racer X FFL Results-Week 6!
• Racer X FFL Results-Week 7!
• The Big Picture at the Australian Grand Prix
• Top Gun Showdown
• Top Gun Showdown: Day 1
• Top Gun Showdown: Day 2
• Who's Going to Win?
• September(43)0
• "Blogservations" After the First MX1/MX2 moto
• "Blogservations" after the MX1/MX3 moto
• "Blogservations" after the MX2/MX3 Moto
• "Blogservations" From MXDN
• "Blogservations" From MXDN - Saturday Morning
• "Blogservations" from MXDN - Sunday Morning
• A Parade In Sweden?
• A Steel City Saturday
• Blah, blah, blog...
• Blair...
• Brothers in Arms
• Durham Signs?
• English Vacation
• Goodfellas: Italy and World Championship Motocross
• Is There a Wey?
• Jacob Saylor's GP Experience
• James Stewart in New York Times
• Looking for MXoN Info?
• Matthes on Throttle Jockey TV
• Memories of DV and Swedish SX Results
• Mike Alessi Update
• Motocross of Nations
• Must See: Rick James Stewart
• MXoN Road Trip: Day 2
• MXoN Road Trip: We're here!
• New Poll! Check it out!
• Poll: Class Names for 2009 MX
• Racer X Fantasy Football League - Week 1 Results
• Racer X FFL Results - Week 2!
• Racer X FFL Results - Week 3!
• Racer X FFL Results- Week 4!
• Remembering RC vs. K-Dub
• Road Racer X at the Indy Moto GP
• Rockstar Energy Drink U.S. Open Tracks
• Saturday's MXoN Blog
• Silly Season-of-the-Century
• Stewart's MXoN Goggles
• The Racer X Google Calendar
• Welcome to the Racer X Staff Blog
• Well I’m Not a Doctor, But I Do Race Motocross
• What Will Pro Circuit Do?
• What's MDK/KTM Going to Do?
• What's Yamaha Going to Do?

• Racer X Staff Blog
• Blogandt
• DMXS Radio
• Sarah Smile
• Road Racer X
• Solitaire
• Whipped