A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès

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A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès
Red Bull

A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès

A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès

A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès

A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès

13th pictures

A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès
Red Bull

1/13
At first glance, the southern French see Seignosse …

A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès
Red Bull

2/13
… maybe that he enjoys going to motocross and freestyle events, …

A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès
Red Bull

3/13
… But by no means that he is one of the greats of his genre …

A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès
Red Bull

4/13
… and skilfully bypasses the breakneck backflip.

A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès
Red Bull

5/13
There he sits, the dream of every mother-in-law: freelancer, well paid, active worldwide and an absolute expert in his field – only Thomas Pages should better keep quiet about freestyle at the first encounter.

A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès
Red Bull

6/13
It may sound absurd, but what sets this driver apart, …

A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès
Red Bull

7/13
… are stunts with lower risk.

A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès
Red Bull

8/13
This is how Pages descends in the air from time to time, …

A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès
Red Bull

9/13
… mimes Superman …

A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès
Red Bull

10/13
… and likes to turn himself upside down …

A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès
Red Bull

11/13
… or over the heads of his audience.

A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès
Red Bull

12/13
He hasn’t seen a backflip since a tragic accident.

A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès
Red Bull

13/13
Thomas Pages is without a doubt one of the best motocross freestylers in the world.

Sports & scene

A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès

The tricks of the motocross freestyler
How Thomas Pagès became one of the best motocross freestylers

The tricks that motocross freestylers stage make even insiders catch their breath. Thomas Pagès is one of the best – because he decided to say no.

Peter Mayer

11/08/2012

Portrait: Thomas Pagès

Thomas Pagès could be a student, maybe a PE teacher. Slim, slim, fine features, good manners. One of the desired son-in-law type. At least as long as he finds the right words for his professional activity for his mother in law. Freelance, high earning, global work. After all, it wouldn’t have been fraudulent.

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A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès

The tricks of the motocross freestyler
How Thomas Pagès became one of the best motocross freestylers

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Because the southern French from Seignosse, a few kilometers north of Bayonne, is a motocross freestyle professional. One of the best on earth. After all, he is the current runner-up in the world’s most prestigious freestyle series, the Red Bull X-Fighters Tour. Thanks to the media power of the eponymous sponsor of this series, it was clicked millions of times on the Internet, acclaimed by hundreds of thousands in stadiums from Dubai to Sydney and only became known in Munich. Maybe, definitely, because the 27-year-old stayed true to himself until that August evening of this year in the Olympic Stadium and simply said no. No to the backflip.

To believe that you could assert yourself without a backflip in the increasingly thrill-hungry scene, that was no longer ignorance, it bordered on arrogance, yes naivety. The backflip on a motorcycle became the standard repertoire of all aerobatic pilots shortly after its premiere by freestyle pioneer Carey Hart in 2000. A place at the top of a freestyle contest without the motorized upside-down insert was simply impossible. And that’s why Thomas joined in until the backflip claimed his first victim. At a competition in Costa Rica, Jeremy Lusk, one of the best in the business, didn’t spin out and crashed headlong onto the landing hill. The 24-year-old succumbed to his injuries 48 hours later. It was the day that Thomas Pagès decided to say no. When his brother Charles, who was five years older, barely got away with his life after a failed front flip (forward somersault) at the Paris-Bercy Supercross, Thomas was finally certain: Either freestyle motocross was done for him or he needed a new one to find your own way to success.


A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès


Red Bull photo files

No to the backflip: Here, too, it can be clearly seen that any risk has been avoided.

And he found it. Again and again the Yamaha rider hammered into his newly created jumps on the training ramps. Flair, Volt or Special Flip are the names of the tricks in which the Gaul, letting go of the machine in the air, rotates around his own axis or (see photo above), after a 450-degree turn, rolls down the landing hill that has been piled up at a right angle to the jump. Unconventional stagings that – what an irony of fate – have long since lifted him out of the crowd of backflippers and to which he ultimately owes his very own way back to the top.

Because the victory in Munich was the first with which a freestyler could convince a jury without backflip variations. It’s good to be able to say no once in a while.                                                             

Freestyle dates


A portrait of one of the best X-Fighters: Thomas Pagès


Red Bull photo files

On good days, Pagès lands the Flair after a 540-degree turn.

While Thomas Pagès and the superstars of the freestyle scene catapult themselves from the ramps worldwide in the Red Bull X-Fighters Tour, the events of the Night of the Jumps (www.nightofthejumps.de) focus on both drivers and venues Central and Eastern Europe. And quite successfully. The tour is professionally organized, the show is well staged and, with five stops in German-speaking countries, offers moderate access routes.

New: The Nitro Circus Tour initiated by icon Travis Pastrana (www.nitro circuslive.com). On motorcycles, BMX bikes and bizarre mobiles of all kinds (shopping trolleys, wheelchairs, etc.) the US troop is presenting a crazy show and is making a guest appearance in Europe for the first time. After all, four times in Germany and Austria.

Night of the Jumps April 27, 2013 Munich
3rd / 4th May 2013 Basel
24./25. May 2013 Hamburg
17./18. January 2014 Linz
7/8 March 2014 Berlin
May 10, 2014 Mannheim
May 31, 2014 Gelsenkirchen
4th October 2014 Cologne
Nitro Circus 23rd November 2013 Hamburg
November 26, 2013 Manchester
November 28, 2013 Birmingham
November 29, 2013 London
5th December 2013 Antwerp
December 7, 2013 Arnhem
December 9, 2013

Cologne

12th of December Berlin

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