Pastrana Has Golden Flair

It wasn’t the no-footed back flip that brought the Home Depot Center crowd to its feet. Nor was it the so-called kiss of death, a handstand on the bars with the body arched outward. It wasn’t even the Saran wrap back flip, in which one foot is passed between the hands and then back to the peg.

Rather, it was a simple trick Travis Pastrana negotiated immediately after his routine. He rode his motorcycle up a steep dirt incline and flipped himself off the back seat, landing clumsily on his feet. The bike went flying and the applause shook the arena stands.

It was Pastrana in a nutshell: electrifying performer and ultimate showman.

“I love the X Games because it’s the one time of the year when we can come and show off for the masses,” the rider said afterward. “We get to show what we’ve been working on all year.”

It was those moves performed 30-40 feet above ground, of course, that earned Pastrana the gold medal in Saturday night’s Moto X freestyle competition.

But his triumph also earned the flashy competitor from Annapolis, Md., a measure of redemption.

It was at the same X Games venue in 2004, when Pastrana came into the final undefeated in X Games competition but battered and bruised, that he was forced to settle for silver. Nate Adams of Murrieta claimed the gold with a masterful routine and stamped himself as the first serious threat to end Pastrana’s dominance.

On Saturday night, Adams, who suffered a broken right toe during qualifying, could manage only a third-place finish behind veteran Kenny Bartram.

Afterward Adams, who with Bartram was the only rider to perform a difficult and dangerous flat-spin 360-degree rotation, suggested that judges and fans tend to favor Pastrana because of his increasing legend.

“For me or for us to beat him we have to give 100%, more than 100%,” Adams said. “I don’t want to take anything away from Travis, though. He’s earned that status.”

The past several months have been tough for Adams, 21, who suffered the worst injury of his career during an event last October in Italy.

He crash-landed while attempting a back-flip combo 30 feet above ground. His leg was broken cleanly at the femur. His knee ligaments were torn and his shoulder dislocated.

He spent two weeks in an Italian hospital, watching soap operas in a language he didn’t understand. Then he had to endure another round of surgery after he returned home.

He appeared good as new in winning a freestyle event last month in Madrid. On Saturday he broke his toe after landing hard past the down slope after a back flip on his first qualifying run, jamming the digit into the front of his boot.

“It’s the third time I’ve broken it; I know what it feels like,” he said.

Pastrana said it felt good to finally compete with no serious health issues. Last year he came into the Moto X finals seeing double and wearing a deep-purple bruise on his face, the result of a face-plant during a mistimed landing during a qualifying run.

He had previously won four X Games gold medals in four competitions from 1999 to 2003. Clutching his fifth in the interview room, he said it was a relief to have posted a score of 92.80 on his first of two runs in the finals, because he knew it might hold for the gold.

The riders were allowed two runs and credited with their best single run.

By finishing the first round with the top score, Pastrana was the night’s last rider and watched as the others, one by one, failed to match him.

“Usually in practice we try only one really stupid, uh, really crazy trick,” he said with a laugh. “If I needed one I had it in my bag, but I didn’t want to use it unless I had to.”