Courtesy: http://www.bmwmotorcycles.com

At last weekend's European Stuntriding Championships in Amsterdam, Holland, BMW Motorrad's Chris Pfeiffer successfully defended and retained his European title for 2007. The 36-year-old German rider won the three-round event, with Brazilian AC Farias taking the runner-up spot, and newcomer Narcis Roca from Spain finishing third.

As the contest got underway it soon became obvious that Pfeiffer had some serious competition, as almost all the riders had considerably improved their freestyle routines during the past year. "At the free practice I didn't feel well prepared, as I'd taken a week off to let my knee recuperate," said Chris. "A lot of young French riders showed up who had never been involved before and they were the biggest surprise to me, as they've brought in a lot of new and fresh style - and at a high level. One of them, Seb 5, even took the lead after the first round, as he pulled a 62-metre long stoppie. He told me he was terrified and that he was convinced his bike was going to flip because the rear wheel was so high in the air, but he managed to carry it off ok. I managed 48 metres, which was good, but nowhere near his run."

The first round consisted of a three-minute freestyle program; a compulsory section including the longest stoppie possible with only a limited acceleration-space; a slow-as-possible wheelie over 50 metres; and a 'donut' around a centre marking. The second round consisted of four minutes of freestyle, where Chris managed to take the lead and show a brand new trick for the first time - 'switchback donuts'.

"This is a tough trick and I'd been practising it for a long time before showing it in public. You sit backwards on the tank - or airbox cover in the case of the F 800! It's pretty hard to clutch in at high revs, as you need to get the rear wheel spinning. What makes it particularly difficult is that everything is back to front because of the way you are sitting, which makes operating the controls confusing, but it helped me take the lead in this round."

After this, the best ranked 12 riders advanced to the finals, where they had six minutes of pure freestyle riding to perform. Fortunately for Chris, his third and final run was his best of the day and impressed the judges enough to award him the clear victory.