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ented on a motorcycle." The X Games' supermoto format presents riders with another unique chal- lenge, requiring them to pull in for a gal- lon of gas and rear-tire change. Unlike last year's format where the teams could time their own pit stop, this year they had a designated three-lap window. And those laps turned out to be the turning point of the race, as well as the source of a bit of controversy. The pit window (on laps 18, 19 and 20) was to be designated by a "3, 2, 1, PIT" sequence displayed by track workers starting on lap 15. But when the "3" went up, there was a miscommunication with the Graves Yamaha team, who called Doug Henry in prematurely for his stop. "We thought everyone understood," race director Don Canet said, "The pro- cedure was really quite straightforward. But unfortunately for Graves, they messed up." "That was confusing," KTM's Kurt Nicoll said. "They did the riders meeting and I understood it; it was three, two, one and then you could pit. But I think people just really didn't pick it up. I think when the three went out, they thought they had three laps to pit." "About three turns prior to the pit entry," Canet said, "there was a signal pit area where we allowed the teams to have a signal pit guy throughout the race. My understanding was that Henry saw the signal board from his crew that had his number on it, which was his indication to come in." The "19" signaling Henry could have been misconstrued as the lap number by other riders, or perhaps it was a more general misunderstanding of the proce- dure. Either way, confusion stirred up among other teams and riders. Micky Dymond lost time pulling into pit row multiple times, and expressed his frustra- tion with the confusion after the race. "ESPN - I don't know where they broke down," Dymond said. "They gave me the three, two, one sign and then the Pit Now sign and then I circulated from the floor up and around; they gave me a second Pit in Now sign and I went in the pits and they waved that off and made me go around another time. The next time I came around, the pits were so full that I had a collision in the pits and it was a mess again. Somebody messed that up pretty bad." But race director Canet maintains that Home Depot Center Los Angeles, CA August 6, 2006 AUGUST 23, 2006 • C Y C L E N E W S 46 X Games 12 Raising the Bar The most talked about moment at X Games 12 was, of course, Travis Pastrana's Moto X Best Trick-winning double backflip. Many people, including Travis, had serious doubts that he would cleanly land the stunt, but to everyone's surprise and relief, Pastrana perfectly executed a world-record-breaking full double backflip, raising the bar in freestyle motocross and making X Games history (see Captured on page 84). One of the first peo- ple "TP" hugged afterward was his mother, Debby Pastrana. We caught up with her for a few words after the event. Of everything Travis has done, was this the most nerve-wracking? Everything Travis does is nerve-wracking. He always tries to raise the bar, and every time, at that moment, it's nerve-wracking. Like when he jumped in the Grand Canyon, I thought I was going to die then, too. Now that he's accomplished the double backflip, do you think he'll try building off that, too? I'm sure he will. You think, "How can he raise the bar even higher?" But when the back- flip was done, people thought it couldn't be raised anymore, but now they're doing all the tricks upside down. Travis is a creator and innovator and he doesn't want to see the sport die, so that's why when he did a backflip, he had all of his competitors over to teach them because he was like, "I don't want the sport to die, so we're all going to learn how to do a backflip." Pretty much that's what he's always done. I think the double backflip may be a few years, but they'll be doing tricks off of that, too. It's scary that they keep pushing the limits. But you have confidence in Travis' abilities? Yeah, people don't realize that Travis is extremely calculated. People think he's reckless and he's really not. He's involved with so many things and trying to create and innovate so much that people don't see that side of him. I know that he is not going to do anything unless he feels 100 percent sure. When he wrecks, he's surprised that he wrecks. Since he has confidence, I know everything's okay. What was it he first said to you after the double backflip? We were hugged so tight. He just kept saying, "Mom, I love you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." And he said, "Thank you for supporting me." What he was saying I'm sorry for was to put me through what he does. Travis is very close to his dad and myself and he hates to see us stress out over what he does. Do you ever wish you had a little girl? Yeah, really! [laughs] I don't know. Some of those girls can get pretty wild, too. Jeremy McGrath lost his medal chances after his dry break didn't fully seal after his pit stop, forcing him to pull back in for a second stop. The two freestylers, Carey Hart (46) and Travis Pastrana (199), entertained fans with their own midpack battle.