Tom Pagès
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Thomas Pagès |
| Nickname(s) | Tom, DJ Pagès T[1] |
| Nationality | French |
| Born | 25 March 1985[1] Nantes, France[1] |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Motocross, Freestyle Motocross |
| Event(s) | X Games, Masters of Dirt, Red Bull X-Fighters, Nitro Circus live |
Tom Pagès (born Thomas Pagès on March 25, 1985 in Nantes, France) is a French freestyle motocross rider famous for his style that excluded backflips for the past few years and his unique tricks. The biggest achievement of his career was becoming the champion of the 2013 Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour[2].
Biography
Pagès was born in Nantes, France. He rode his first real motorcycle when he was 15 years old, stating that he had his first motorcycle of sorts with 19 months. Together with his brother, Charles Pagès, 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 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 of 2005, though he states that his best memories stem from Bercy in 2006.[1]
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 Best Trick. The same year he and his brother were the first riders to catch frontflips on film and Tom 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 down in mid-air resulting in a crash from which he stood up immediately.[3]
In 2010 he decided to take a break from competitions and instead focus on free riding and shooting movies after some crashes of friends[4], some injuries of his own and most likely the most traumatic experience being his brother’s crash after attempting a frontflip at Bercy 2010 that put him into coma for a week. After that Charles had to learn how to speak and walk again and went to circus school to work on his balance.[5] As of 2012, Charles is back riding his bike, but not yet in a competition.[6]
Pagès returned to the Red Bull X-Fighters in Glen Helen, California in 2012 after his last appearance in Texas 2009. Upon his comeback to freestyle motocross competitions he refused to do any upside down tricks like backflips, but instead focussed on bringing new tricks and perfecting others that other riders didn’t even attempt, like the “Volt” body varial, the “540 Flair” or his very own “Special Flip”. 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 since his comeback, in a head-to-head competition against Sherwood who went on to win the final and the 2012 Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour.[6]
Pagès came back to the start of the 2013 Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour in Mexico City, Mexico which he won in a final against Dany Torres of Spain. At the next tour stop in Dubai he was once again 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 the final results. 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 540 Flair Indian Air variation, he was once again the runner up, losing this time to hometown hero [[Taka Higashino[[. That event was very special to Pagès and the other riders as Japan’s rider Eigo Sato had passed away after crashing a backflip earlier in 2013. Pagès has since honored his close friend with his new bike design resembling Sato’s and his current Alpinestars jersey featuring a picture of Sato and the numbers 1978-2013, being his year of birth and death respectively. The day of the event in Madrid on July 19 it was announced that the last tour stop in Pretoria, South Africa had to be cancelled. 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. Also during the qualifying as well in both his semi-final and final run 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.
Trivia
Pagès’ role models in freestyle motocross are Travis Pastrana, André Villa and Manu Troux.[1]
His favorite movie is Scarface while his favorite actor is Jim Carrey.[1]
During his spare time he likes BMX, golf and spud guns and likes to eat french bread with butter.[1]
His favorite trick is his Tsunami Indy, while he is proudest of his Double Grab backflip, the Volt and the Special Flip.[1]
He is currently riding a Yamaha YZ250[6] and also enjoys riding a Yamaha YZF-R6 on race tracks[7]
Pagès is 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) tall and weighs 143 lb. (65 kg).[1]
His sponsors include Red Bull, Alpinestars, Oakley, Yamaha, RiderZone.net, Yamalube, KS Tools, Moto Club of Pecquencourt, CTI, Moskova, Bud Racing, GPR Stabilizer and Kutvek Graphics.[4]
Achievements
- 1st place at Red Bull X-Fighters 2012 in Munich[8]
- 2012 Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour runner up[8]
- 1st place at Red Bull X-Fighters 2013 in Mexico City[8]
- 1st place at Red Bull X-Fighters 2013 in Madrid[8]
- 2013 Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour Champion[8]
Awards
- FMX Awards “Best International Freestyle Motocross Rider” 2012[9]
- FMX Awards “Best European Freestyle Motocross Rider” 2012[9]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Brothers Trip, Biographies of Tom & Charles Pagès
- ^ An Unforgettable Night: Pagès aces best run ever to win world tour title
- ^ ESPN profile of Thomas Pagès
- ^ a b Profile at Oakley.com
- ^ Interview with Charles Pagès about his crash
- ^ a b c Profile at RedBullXFighters.com
- ^ Picture of Tom Pagès with his Yamaha R6
- ^ a b c d e Red Bull X Fighters history
- ^ a b Red Bull article on Thomas Pagès
