Meaclem topples favourites in Mons Dual Speed & Style

Dual Speed and Style is always an exciting race format to watch, but Thursday’s unlikely win by Billy Meaclem was especially dramatic to watch.

“It’s crazy. So many people here supporting me,” said the 19-year-old from New Zealand after crossing the finish line. “I’m blown away.”

Meaclem had just bested slopestyle legend Martin Söderström, the winner of last years event. It was an upset few would have predicted at the start of the evening, and the last of a string of victories over veteran riders the rookie Kiwi had to make just to get into the final.

“It’s insane. I’ve been looking up to him for years,” said Meaclem. “It’s a dream come true just to ride with him, let alone take the win over him.”

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Söderström seemed as impressed with Meaclem’s ride as the vocal crowd was. “I’m really stoked for that kid,” said Söderström, “It was really cool. You could see that he was really pushing it, riding on the edge, and it seems that everything just worked out perfect for him. I even had to pull out a really hard trick in the second run, and I crashed, so that was it. But I’m really happy with second, and it feels like a fairytale story for him. This could be a big start for a big career.”

Meaclem had used his speed to put the pressure on Söderström, leading to the Swedish riders crash on the final run.

Before he could face Söderström, Meaclem had to get through American Greg Watts, who podiumed in the event at Crankworx Innsbruck in 2018.

“It feels really good,” Watts of his bronze. “I wasn’t sure how hard everyone else was training. I saw Instagram and, like, Kyle Strait was doing sprints at the BMX track…I was like, ‘That’s a bummer because I’m sitting in a foot and a half of snow.’ A lot of expectations not knowing what other riders are up to, but it all came together for me, so I’m pretty stoked.”

Semi Finals – Upsets and flats

In one semi-final bracket, and anti-climactic match-up of two potential winners ended early when Thomas Lemoine over rotated a truck driver, blowing a rear tire as a result. That sent Söderström to the final, as Lemoine headed off to try change his tire on time to get back on the bike for his bronze medal match up.

On the other side of the bracket: confusion. Local Christchurch, N.Z. rider Billy Meaclem was up against veteran Speed & Style competitor Gregg Watts. The two riders have very different approaches to the event, with Meaclem relying on blazing speed to put the pressure on Watts, who aimed to max out his tricks score on each run.

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In Run 1, Meaclem crossed with a significant time advantage, but Watts threw a big backflip to barspin, barspin back, barspin, reversing the barspin direction twice while inverted. It’s alot to cram into one jump, and the judged didn’t seem to catch it all on first pass. When the scores popped up, Watts was obviously confused by his score. Heading back up to the top of the course, a quick check in with the judges resulted in an adjustment. Neither rider seemed 100% sure what the differential was, but it was time to drop in on run 2.

Again Meaclem pushed the pace, but Watts seemed closer behind on this run. The Kiwi added a bit more style to his speed, and was able to topple Watts and move on to the final against Söderström.

Gold Medal match

Having come out of the confusion in his runs against Watts on top, Meaclem was set to take on another big name in the sport: Martin Soderstrom. Again, the local rider was relying on speed against a rider with a deep bag of tricks. Soderstrom has a solid turn of speed on a pump track, though.

After one run, it was Meaclem in front, barely. The local kid has a a razor thin 0.19 second advantage over the Swedish star. Foreshadowing what would happen next, Söderström joked with the rookie Speed and Style competitor that he was toppling all the old pros. On the first jump of Run 2, Söderström went down helping out Meaclem on his unlikely road to the top. The Kiwi, looked back, saw the win was his, and started his victory lap half way down the course, fist pumping through the air over the second jump to the roar of the home crowd.

Oceania Whip-Off Championships

Meaclem rode his momentum from Dual Speed and Style onto a second podium Thursday. Just hours after his upset win, Meaclem finished third in the Oceania Whip-Off Championships behind Austria’s Peter Kaiser and American Ryan Howard.

Local rider Vinny Armstrong of New Zealand took top spot in the women’s event, followed by Whip-Off veteran Casey Brown of Revelstoke, B.C. and Australia’s Ronja Hill-Wright.