French freestyle motocross rider
Thomas Pagès (born 25 March 1985) is a French freestyle motocross rider famous for his unique tricks and his style that has mostly excluded backflips for the past few years. The biggest achievements of his career were becoming the champion of the 2013 Red Bull X-Fighters world tour and winning the gold medal at X Games Austin 2015 in the Toyota Moto X QuarterPipe competition for his Bike Flip.
Biography.
Early life.
Pagès was born on 25 March 1985 in Nantes, France, to parents Geneviève and Olivier as the youngest of three brothers. In the 1990s his parents purchased and renovated a house in the French countryside where they had plenty of space to experiment with all sorts of sports. He rode his first real motorcycle when he was 15 years old, stating that he had his first motorcycle of sorts with 19 months.
Early career and hiatus (2005–2009).
Together with his brother Charles he started with BMX racing where they suffered their first fractures of collarbones and knees along with some broken teeth. They soon went on to ride their BMXs in dirt and in order to achieve even higher jumps then switched to motor bikes. They had ridden motocross bikes on tracks before, but only built their first ramp in 2005. Pagès rode at his first freestyle show very soon after his first attempts at La Bosse de Bretagne in July 2005, though he states that his best memories stem from Bercy in 2006. He and his brother had only really been racing on their motocross bikes before receiving their invitation for the event, but showed up on the day being able to perform all the tricks of that time, including the backflip.
In November 2007, Pagès became the first person to land a Double Grab Backflip on dirt, which he repeated at MXWC in April 2008, where he came in second in the Best Trick competition. The same year he and his brother were the first riders to catch frontflips on film and he then went on to be the first person to ever attempt a frontflip in a Freestyle Motocross competition at the Red Bull X-Fighters tour stop in Fort Worth, Texas in June 2009, but backed out in mid-air resulting in a crash from which he stood up immediately.
Later in 2009, Pagès got frustrated with the face of the competition and the constant need to perform backflips, ultimately resulting in him quitting Freestyle Motocross and even selling his bike. In a documentary that was released by Red Bull in 2014, Tom said that he had developed depression during that time and it took the help of a renowned sports psychologist to overcome it and to get back onto a bike.
His psychologist was also the person who suggested that he stop backflipping and instead focus on the tricks which he enjoyed performing. While objecting at first, Pagès further thought about the idea and ultimately decided to give it a try by performing so-called “new age tricks” that hardly any or no other riders were performing at that time, developing his own tricks and by going back to the roots of Freestyle Motocross with whips and classical right-side-up tricks.
Return to freestyle motocross (2010).
One of the first tricks he mastered was the Volt body varial which he first performed in a competition at Bercy motocross 2010. Having been under the impression that he had to better his brother's performance, Charles attempted a frontflip which he over-rotated, resulting in a crash that mostly affected his head. Tom later said that his brother had a cut under his eye that had blood rushing out of it. Charles was in coma for a week and had to learn daily tasks, such as writing, completely from scratch as his motor functions were strongly limited. Part of that was him going to circus school where he redeveloped his athletic abilities. As of 2012, Charles is back riding his bike, but not yet in a competition.
As Tom was the only source for financial income for the brothers, who had a house together in South France, near Hossegor, he went back to riding shows and demos and worked more intensely on a comeback to competition.
Return to Red Bull X-Fighters (2012).
Despite being invited from time to time, Pagès never returned to Red Bull X-Fighters until he was certain that he could be successful on the circuit, which was finally the case in 2012 when he came back for the second tour stop of the year in Glen Helen, California.
Upon his return to Freestyle Motocross competitions he still refused to do any upside down tricks like backflips, but instead focussed on bringing in his new tricks, like the Volt body varial, the 540 Flair or his very own Special Flip, and on the execution and extension in existing tricks. He became a runner up at his first event in Glen Helen, coming in fourth in Madrid and finally winning his first ever Red Bull X-Fighters event in Munich, Germany. That season he went on to battle Levi Sherwood in the closest ever final of Red Bull X-Fighters in Sydney, Australia, with both riders going into the last tour stop sharing first place in the world tour. He crashed twice on his final run, doing the Volt and attempting the first backflip, an Indy Flip, since 2009 which he jumped with the wrong gear, in a head-to-head competition against Sherwood, who went on to win the final and the 2012 Red Bull X-Fighters world tour.
2013.
Only a few days before the start of the 2013 season, Japan’s rider Eigo Sato, who was a good friend of Pagès’, died after crashing a backflip in training, leaving behind wife and children. Pagès, along with several other riders, started an initiative to collect money to support his family. He later changed the designs of his bikes, jersey and helmets in memory of his deceased friend.
Pagès won the first event of the 2013 Red Bull X-Fighters world tour in Mexico City, Mexico in a final against Dany Torres of Spain, wearing a signed jersey of Sato's.
At the next tour stop in Dubai he was re-beaten by Sherwood in the semi-finals after crashing an Indian Air backflip, who then lost in the finals against Torres. He was the runner up in Glen Helen, where the finals had to be cancelled due to high winds and the qualifying results were announced as being final. During the qualifying, which was not broadcast, he showed a variation of the 540 Flair, combining it with a Superman. At the fourth tour stop in Osaka, Japan, where he instead showed a 540 Flair Indian Air variation, he was again the runner up, losing this time to hometown hero Taka Higashino, while the judges’ decision was heavily debated.
The day of the event in Madrid on 19 July it was announced that the last tour stop in Pretoria, South Africa had to be cancelled as the safety of riders, staff and audience could not be guaranteed. After Josh Sheehan, his quarter-final opponent, had to pull out due to a fractured collarbone and ankle, which he suffered in a crash at the end of his second qualifying run, it was clear that Pagès had won the 2013 Red Bull X-Fighters world tour as he would at least come in third place and therefore had more points than any other rider could have achieved. Even though he didn't even have to compete to win the world tour he went on to win his semi-final against fellow Frenchman David Rinaldo and the final against Taka Higashino. At this event the fans finally got the see the Superman variation of the Flair while it is said that he also did a Kiss of Death Flair during the qualifying, which would be an even further stretched-out version of the Flair Superman. Also during the qualifying as well in both his semi-final and final runs he successfully landed Cliffhanger backflips, finally breaking the curse of his former attempts. To the astonishment of both the crowd and the commentators, he announced in an on-air interview after his victory that he had not pulled out every trick during the 2013 season.
2014.
For the 2014 season Pagès changed his appearance, this time wearing a bright multi-coloured jersey and pants along with a new helmet design, both of which re-featured parts to remember Eigo Sato. Sato's signature is featured on the new helmet while a "R.I.P. Eigo Sato" design is placed next to his own name on the back of his jersey. On another helmet that he introduced later in the year, Sato's counterfeit is featured as the main design element on top of the helmet.
The 2014 Red Bull X-Fighters world tour did not start off as comfortable as 2013 did for Pagès. On leaving the ramp to perform his Volt body varial during his quarter-final run, a head-to-head competition against Adam Jones, the bike slightly leaned forward, making it impossible to complete the trick, resulting in a Dead Sailor (a jump without a trick). Later in the same run he crashed on his 540 Flair Superman variation and only put in a few more jumps for the audience, being out of contention to advance to the semi-finals anyway. Having come in third in the qualifying he still secured fifth place and therefore 45 points for the overall ranking. According to Pagès this was the result of him not being able to train as much as he'd liked to because of France's rainy weather. The event commentators also said that during a chat with Pagès earlier in the week, he'd said that he had to change the way he executes most of his tricks because the bike loses power in the high altitude of Mexico City. This was especially apparent in moves like the Flair where he would usually use the bike's power to start off the rotation, whereas with less power he had to use much more muscle force to induce the 540 degree twist of the bike. It is noteworthy that among the top three riders that night, only tour stop winner Levi Sherwood was riding a 250ccm bike (KTM SX 250), though it is known that he makes many alterations so the power is closer to that of a 350ccm bike. Second-placed Josh Sheehan rides a Honda CRF 450 and Dany Torres in 3rd rides a KTM SX 350.
The next event, which took place in Osaka, Japan, went even worse for Pagès. After riding in practises and the qualifying, he had to decide that he couldn't ride for safety's sake as the dirt was not good enough to perform tricks as dangerous as the 540 Flair, let alone the much talked about Bike Flip. Pagès had originally come to Japan with his only goal being to perform the Bike Flip. Because of his qualifying result he was still ranked ninth in the Osaka final results, which granted him 20 points for the overall rankings.
The first success of the season then came at the third tour stop in Madrid, Spain. Pagès managed to land the Bike Flip in all three rounds, which saw him beat Josh Sheehan in the final, despite Sheehan's flawless performance including a Double Backflip, to achieve his first victory of the season and gain 100 points. The final is considered to have been the greatest and closest ever event final in Red Bull X-Fighters history, with both riders putting down perfect runs including futuristic tricks.
The last two events of the season in Munich, Germany and Pretoria, South Africa both ended with a quarter-final exit after Pagès crashed at both events in his first run. In Munich he crashed on his second trick already, the Bike Flip, as he pushed the bike too far away from him. He was lucky to remain uninjured as the bike crashed down on him. However, it was damaged beyond immediate repair and Pagès was unable to continue his run, therefore losing the round to Germany's Luc Ackermann, a then 17-year-old FMX talent.
At the final event, which was also the 50th Red Bull X-Fighters event, he managed to bring in several tricks before crashing an initially landed Flair Tsunami. He didn't manage the full 540 degree rotation, instead landing at about 450 degrees, which resulted in him running out of space and the