Q&A

• TAC Format 24 riders are qualified, invited by wild cards or got access as TTR Top 10 from the previous season. The practice at TAC 08 starts on Monday February 18th. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday is dedicated to practice. The contests are on Thursday evening and Saturday daytime.
• Philosophy In TAC we are not looking for the one single trick. We want to see variation and innovation. And we don’t want to punish you if you bail when you try something new or extremely difficult – or stylish. In the early days we had pure jam sessions where riders could drop in whenever they wanted within a loosely defined time frame. While growing into a bigger spectator and TV event, we are trying to combine the freedom from the original jam sessions with the timing issues for TV and entertainment and sports excitement for viewers and spectators. Our ambition is still to keep it as fun and rewarding for the riders as possible.
• The Cut There will be a qualification on Thursday where 16 guys makes the cut for both Thursday and Saturday finals. The 8 riders that don’t make the cut are out of the competition, but they are welcome to stay at the hotel and enjoy the action for the rest of the week. The qualification format goes like this: Two heats of 12 riders. Each rider gets three runs. The lowest score is deleted (in the tv graphics). The two best runs add up a score. On top of that the judges look at all three runs and give an additional variation score. These two scores together, the trick score and variation score, add up a total score. This means that it is important to stick two different tricks. This will be crucial for your variation score. You don’t have to, but you should. Two great Rodeos will give you two solid trick scores, but it will give you low variation score. When deciding your variation score, the judges can look at your third trick as well. It might be that your two best scores are the same trick and your lowest is a new trick. Then the judges shall take this into consideration when giving you your variation score.
• Thursday contest – Evening Classics All 16 that made the cut start. There will be 3 sections of different main trick categories: Straight airs, upside down tricks and spin tricks. Each rider will get 2 jumps in each category whereas the best count. You will not get scored by point, but with money. Each jump can get maximum 1000 Norwegian kroner. Total amount of prize money for this contest is 96 000 kroner (the bank), which equals 1000 kroner per jump per rider and 32 000 kroner for each section (equals 32 jumps). Off course not all jumps will be rewarded with max money. The winner of each section will take the leftover (the table). For instance if 20 000 kroner has been paid in the upside down section, the winner collects the table which is 12 000 kroner. The final result graphics is called the Moneymakers, and is a list over….yes, the best moneymakers of the evening.
• Saturday Contest – The Finals The semifinals is the same format as the qualification on Thursday (see above). 16 riders in one heat, 3 runs, 2 best scores + variation score. The best 8 guys enter the final where each rider gets 5 runs. The 3 best scores counts + variation score. Meaning you should go for 3 different tricks to get best possible variation score. Remember: Your 3 best scores will be displayed in TV graphics and on the big screen. This will happen whether all 3 tricks are the same. But don’t be scared! As said before, the judges will take a look at all your 5 tricks before deciding your variation score. So if your three highest scores are from a McTwist, but you have stuck two more – and different tricks – at a lower score, the judges will take this into consideration when deciding your variation score. The variation score will be decided after each single rider’s run in the fifth round. We have had a lot of feedback that our previous overall judging after the contest was hard to understand. Before we had one intermediate list after the finals, but the judges did changes in this list in a 10 minute break after the finals based on overall analysis of all runs. Now we will have the final result list immediately after the last rider. We also believe it will create a lot of excitement among spectators and TV-viewers. But most importantly we really hope this format work out for you guys. If there are any questions or input, feel free to send us an e-mail, call us or simply bring up the issues at the first rider meeting. We are looking forward to see you in Oslo this year. The party program should be good as well…