![[masthead]: [tagline]](/images/impact/mastheadicon_dewtour.jpg){kind=small}
-
DEW TOUR NEWS
- TICKET INFO
-
Get admission info, prohibited items, etc...
-
MORE - Festival Village
- Daily Schedule
- 3-D Map
- WEATHER
-
Cleveland forecast
- VISIT CLEVELAND
-
Get tourist info, events, more
-
MORE - Downtown Hotels
- Hotel Search
- Dining
- Concerts
- Events
- GOING OUT GUIDES
-
University Circle: Art Museum reopening
More
-
GOING OUT GUIDES - The Flats
- Gateway District
- Little Italy
- Ohio City
- Tremont
- University Circle
- Warehouse District
- Museums
- Theater
- MORE DEW TOUR
-
Browse by day posted:
Browse by week posted:
AST Dew Tour ends on an up note
by Tom Benning, Plain Dealer Reporter
Monday July 21, 2008, 5:54 AM
The four-day skating and biking competition brought 51,327 fans to North Coast Harbor and an estimated $10 million in economic impact to Cleveland, Dew Tour officials said.
But a little wind and rain did.
"I really didn't want the rain to affect the contest," said BMX rider Steven McCann from Melbourne, Australia. "If it's raining, you can't ride. If it is windy, you won't see big tricks."
Despite occasional weather problems, the Right Guard Open - Cleveland's leg of the Dew Tour - ended successfully Sunday. The four-day skating and biking competition brought 51,327 fans to North Coast Harbor and an estimated $10 million in economic impact to Cleveland, Dew Tour officials said.
An early afternoon downpour threatened Sunday's events, but when the sun came out, fans and athletes were treated to huge stunts. In the BMX park contest, 20-year-old Mike Spinner landed the first quadruple tail whip a trick where the bike frame spins four times around the front end. The stunt was so unexpected, it took the crowd a moment to realize what he'd done.
Spinner's trick continued the Dew Tour's reputation for breaking ground.
McCann, 25, was the most active action-sports athlete this week. He was the only person to compete in all three BMX (Bicycle Motocross) disciplines, and finished fourth in dirt, third in vert and eighth in park.
Park consists of ramps and props designed to simulate riding in a city park. Dirt is a series of earthen jumps. And vert is a giant half-pipe - a U-shaped ramp with high sides.
On Sunday, there were lengthy lines to see the BMX park finals and a freestyle motocross exhibition. Marlene Olbrysh of Middleburg Heights brought her granddaughters Katie Sheppard, 14, and Shaylyn Sheppard, 11, and their friend Ally Foreman, 14, to the Right Guard Open. It was their first time seeing action sports in person, and they left impressed.
Dew Tour officials said they would like to return to Cleveland next year, but that there were no official decisions yet.
Freestyle motocross rider Greg Hartman was upgraded to fair condition Sunday at MetroHealth Medical Center after suffering a head injury Friday night during an FMX exhibition.
Hartman, 24, of Cleveland, Texas, was knocked unconscious and suffered head trauma after he attempted a back flip and fell off his bike during the landing. FMX rider Blake Williams said Hartman also punctured a lung on the crash.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
tbenning@plaind.com
Dew Tour rules.
Make sure to keep it here in Cleveland.
Awesome event. Downtown Cleveland is sooooooo cool, it's a shame that it's surrounded by ghettos
It was an amazing event! Went there Sat and Sun and it was a blast and downtown really is cool, at least though it is not surrounded by the same ghettos of Chicago, NYC, or Detroit now that would be bad.
Bobharo,
That's the sort of ignorant statement that one expects from the kind of people who drive in for one big event a year.
Fortunately, the "ghettos" you're referring to have been getting noticed by travel reporters from the NY Times who called Tremont the "Soho on the Cuyahoga," and praised the urban rejuvenation in Ohio City (see http://travel.nytimes.com/2005/05/20/travel/escapes/20hours.html?_r=1&oref=slogin) and the Chicago Tribune's Monica Eng, who had nothing but glowing praise for Cleveland's restaurant scene...and the places she wrote about, were in the urban neighborhoods you so derisively call ghettos.
So, eat at your strip mall Applebees and live in your split level ranch. I'll take the cool architecture, interesting people, and diversity of Ohio City, Tremont, Detroit-Shoreway, Little Italy, and the Heights over crabgrass ghettos of Medina, Westlake, or Mentor any day of the week.
- LATEST POSTS
-
• AST Dew Tour ends on an up note 5:55 a.m. ET
• Action-sports stars of AST Dew Tour make the leap to celebrity status 7:49 a.m. ET
• Greg Hartman, FMX rider from Texas hurt, at AST Dew Tour in Cleveland 9:43 p.m. ET
- DEW TOUR TALK
-
LATEST COMMENTS
