The first round of the 2008 Nissan Qashqai Challenge series took place under sunny skies in Milan at the weekend, with the crowd in Parco Sempione being treated to an amazing dirt jump final. Before then, though, the qualifying rounds had to whittle 40 riders down to 15. It was very tight, with even impressive runs from Tyler McCaul not making the cut. Entry to the final Qashqai Challenge events in Munich and London is conditional on a high placing at one of the earlier rounds – McCaul will be back for another shot in Madrid next week.

The fifteen finalists ran in reverse order, ending with the top qualifier Martin Soederstrom from Sweden. In the finals the wind picked up and riders had
to be strategic with their three runs, as their two best scores were
combined. In the first round, Norway’s Trond Hansen uncorked a clean front flip over the final jump for a good first round score. In his next round he earned the highest score of the day as the first rider to pull a clean 360 over the first jump, straight into a one-footed 360 invert, followed by a tire grab to set up for an opposite 360 over the last double. Which is even harder to do than it is to read.

Joining Hansen in the final events in Munich and London will be Mischa Breitenstein, Sam Pilgrim, Kurt Sorge and Damjan Siriski.