This weekend saw 30,000 spectators follow the latest stop of the Red Bull X-Fighters Jams in the Turkish city of Çanakkale – the site of ancient Troy – held directly in front of an enormous replica of the famous wooden horse on the Aegean coast.

In 2010, the Red Bull X-Fighters Jams, a series of international freestyle motocross exhibition shows, often attracted just as many fans as the events making up the main Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour.

ÇANAKKALE (TUR). This year’s Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour 2010 featured stops in Mexico City, Cairo, Moscow, Madrid, London and Rome, with each and every spectacular event a sell-out as America’s Nate Adams successfully defended his title. At the same time, the Red Bull X-Fighters Jams, designed as a series of FMX exhibitions to showcase the main Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour, have themselves been attracting tens of thousands of fans to spectacular locations across the planet to witness riders such as Ronnie Renner (USA), Jimmy Verburgh (BEL), Nick Franklin (NZL), Petr Pilat (CZE) and Nick de Wit (RSA) demonstrate just what fans can expect at the World Tour events.

Across the globe – from Lima and Taipei to Prague, Pretoria and, as was the case this weekend, the ancient site of Troy – every single one of the Jams has drawn enormous crowds. Jimmy Verburgh, the organiser of the Red Bull X-Fighters Jams and one of the regular riders, explains their popularity: “People know about the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour from seeing it on television, and they use the Jams as an opportunity to check out freestyle motocross live.”

Whatever the event, Jam or World Tour, the performances of the pro riders in 2010 have left fans on all five continents often rubbing their eyes in disbelief at the tricks on show. This season the members of the international freestyle motocross elite competing in the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour 2010 completed almost 800 jumps, of which over 500 were flip tricks, and flew 17,000 metres in the process, making them true kings of the skies. In 2011, fans and riders can look forward to the biggest and best edition yet of world’s largest FMX tour, featuring events at exclusive locations such Brasilia and Dubai.