Robbie Maddison & Co Enthrall Mumbai Crowds At Red Bull FMX Jam

Freestyle motocross (FMX) as a global sport is very niche to begin with. FMX involves riders pulling off crazy antics mid-air on their motocross bikes. Globally, there are many troupes of such FMX riders who host stadium-packed sold out shows. But in India, we have not been exposed to such dedicated shows since 2012 when the Red Bull X-Fighters flew into Delhi and wrecked havoc at India Gate. Until yesterday, when top FMX athletes pulled off death-defying tricks once again at the Red Bull FMX Jam Mumbai.

The six-rider group did three sets of stunts of 15-20 minutes each, of which the six-man tandem run was perhaps the trickiest and most enjoyable to watch. The group was led by FMX legend Robbie Maddison astride a KTM 450. Maddison is the man responsible for executing several motorcycle stunts in movies, some noteworthy ones being his stunt work for the protagonists' roles in the Vin Diesel flick xXx: Return of Xander Cage, and as James Bond in Skyfall.

He was joined by Tom Pages, the current Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour champion, who rode a two-stroke Yamaha 250. Alexey Kolesnikov, a Russian who is the first man in his country to land the famous backflip, was the third Red Bull athlete. Martin Koren, Radek Bilek & Julien Vanstippen were the remaining three riders of this troupe.

The guys started off slowly with several Heel-Clickers and other such motorcycle-grabbing tricks. But they soon enough were doling out the Kiss of Deaths, Supermans, Cliffhangers, Whips and ultimately, Backflips. In the final set, the guys did the six-man tandem run in which four riders did Backflips.

Even though we had to wait for nearly seven years for such an event to return to India, we hope that Red Bull brings these crazy guys to India more often.