Dew Tour makes annual stop in Utah bringing plenty of high-flying action

SALT LAKE CITY — Sometimes peer pressure feels less like pressure and more like encouragement to overcome fear.

At least that's the way it felt to Mike Spinner in his first Dew Tour competition this year in Chicago.

"I tore my ACL doing a quad tail whip," he said of an injury he suffered last summer. "I had to have surgery; it destroyed my 2009 season. To me, 2009 never actually happened."

An injury that severe is extremely painful. But maybe more difficult to overcome than the physical damage is the fear that accompanies the long, hard road back.

"The mental side is even worse," he said. "The progression of BMX is such that you have to be so on top of your game. Having eight months off my bike was tough. I had to re-learn all my tricks, and then I had to evolve to still be one of the best riders."

He'd planned to roll out a "safety run," which he described as a routine full of tricks that would land a rider in good position to go into the finals but weren't so risky they'd put him out of contention.

"My good friends were there and one of them was screaming to do the quad tail whip," he said. "It sounds crazy but I thought, 'Okay, let's do it.' "

He dropped onto the course and immediately pulled off the same trick that landed him in the hospital a year earlier.

"I pulled it, did my other tricks ... and when that buzzer when off, I was gasping for air," he said. "I dropped my bike in happiness. I thought, 'I did it! I'm back!' "

Spinner won the competition in Chicago, which was the second stop on the 2009 Dew Tour, but his first competition. He is currently in second place overall for BMX Park behind Daniel Dhers, who will also be in Salt Lake City this weekend for the Toyota Challenge.

Salt Lake City is the fourth of five stops on the Dew Tour, with the championships scheduled for Oct. 14-17 in Las Vegas. The six-year-old tour offers action sports athletes the chance to compete on a circuit that is similar to league play or World Cup circuits for more traditional sports.

The Dew Tour has individual winners at each stop, but athletes accumulate points in hopes of earning the yearly championship in the final event.