"THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!"

Mexico City (Mexico) April 3 (PROTEXT/ots) - “THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!”Mat Rebeaud wins the Red Bull X-Fighters in Mexico City, 42.000enthusiastic fans in the world’s largest bull fighting arena, Live-TVtransmissions in Mexico, Guatemala and Venezuela: Mexico City celebrated atthe Red Bull X-Fighters an exhilarating Freestyle Motocross night. The endof the evening came shortly before midnight, when the jury passed theirfinal judgment after three rounds and altogether 18 fantastic rides: The23-year-old Swiss rider, Mat Rebeaud, is the winner of the Red BullX-Fighters 2006 in the Mexican 20-million- metropolis. The first surprisethat the fans experienced in the Monumental Plaza de Toros, which hadalready been sold-out for weeks, was at the start: Not as previouslyannounced, there were not nine but rather ten riders at the start – AndreVilla, the Norwegian, who was originally planned as the substitute rider,rode so convincingly in the final days of training that he was hastilycalled up as a permanent starter.

How correct the decision was, the 23-year-old, who lives in Spain, wasalready able to prove in round one: He crammed breath-taking difficultiesinto his first ride; only Travis Pastrana was awarded more points from thefive-member jury, which included Mexico’s most popular bull fighter,Eulalio Lopez Zotoluco. This was the matador’s jury debut at an FMX event,where he was given the responsibility of rating the “Voice of spectators”,that is, the enthusiasm of the public, by scoring this into points. Thelater winner Rebeaud had just barely slid his way into round two, by theway: With 70 points, he had placed fifth – the sixth-place Australian,Robbie Maddison, was eliminated with 69 points. In the semi-finals with thefive best riders, Travis Pastrana also made his mark in the opening run:The American “Wunderkind” inspired the crowd and jury with a great rideaccompanied by Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Great Balls Fire”.

Andre Villa had bad luck: The Norwegian who was promoted as Pastrana’sbig challenger fell in his last jump and thereby missed the seeminglysecured entry into the finals. For him, the workday ended just as it didfor the Spaniard, Dani Torres, who remained 1.5 points behind Ronnie Rennerwith 74.5 points. In the third and final round, the crowd cheered as theFreestyle Motocross show got unleashed – first by public favorite and lastyear’s winner, Renner, then by Rebeaud. The Swiss KTM pilot laid down abrilliant and unbelievably precise run, riddled with tall-orderdifficulties. He thus forced Pastrana to take greater risks – and the bestFMX rider of the world then risked too much this time. Just after halfwaythrough his 120-second run, he had a heavy crash, but thankfully was ableto leave the arena however on his own two legs. “That is what our sport isall about”, said Rebeaud after the victory which he celebrated with aMexican Sombrero on his head. “I risked it and won. This is an unbelievablevictory. It is probably the best day of my life.”

RESULTS RED BULL X-FIGHTERS MEXICO CITY 2006: 1. Mat Rebeaud (SUI) 2.Ronnie Renner (USA) 3. Travis Pastrana (USA) 4. Dani Torres (ESP) 5. AndreVilla (NOR) 6. Robbie Maddison (AUS) 7. Nate Adams (USA) 8. Eigo Sato (JPN)9. Sebastian Mejia (COL) 10. Johan Nungaray (MEX) More Information:info@redbullxfighters.com www.redbullxfighters.com

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