Thomas Pagès

Biography

Early life Pagès was born on 25 March 1985 in Nantes, France,

Later in 2009, Pagès got frustrated with the face of the competition and the constant need to perform backflips, ultimately resulting in him quitting Freestyle Motocross and even selling his bike. In a documentary that was released by Red Bull in 2014, Tom said that he had developed depression during that time and it took the help of a renowned sports psychologist to overcome it and to get back onto a bike.

His psychologist was also the person who suggested that he stop backflipping and instead focus on the tricks which he enjoyed performing. While objecting at first, Pagès further thought about the idea and ultimately decided to give it a try by performing so-called “new age tricks” that hardly any or no other riders were performing at that time, developing his own tricks and by going back to the roots of Freestyle Motocross with whips and classical right-side-up tricks.

Return to freestyle motocross (2010) One of the first tricks he mastered was the Volt body varial which he first performed in a competition at Bercy motocross 2010. Having been under the impression that he had to better his brother's performance, Charles attempted a frontflip which he over-rotated, resulting in a crash that mostly affected his head. Tom later said that his brother had a cut under his eye that had blood rushing out of it. Charles was in coma for a week and had to learn daily tasks, such as writing, completely from scratch as his motor functions were strongly limited. Part of that was him going to circus school where he redeveloped his athletic abilities. As of 2012, Charles is back riding his bike, but not yet in a competition.

As Tom was the only source for financial income for the brothers, who had a house together in South France, near Hossegor, he went back to riding shows and demos and worked more intensely on a comeback to competition.

Return to Red Bull X-Fighters (2012) Despite being invited from time to time, Pagès never returned to Red Bull X-Fighters until he was certain that he could be successful on the circuit, which was finally the case in 2012 when he came back for the second tour stop of the year in Glen Helen, California.

Upon his return to Freestyle Motocross competitions he still refused to do any upside down tricks like backflips, but instead focussed on bringing in his new tricks, like the Volt body varial, the 540 Flair or his very own Special Flip, and on the execution and extension in existing tricks. He became a runner up at his first event in Glen Helen, coming in fourth in Madrid and finally winning his first ever Red Bull X-Fighters event in Munich, Germany. That season he went on to battle Levi Sherwood in the closest ever final of Red Bull X-Fighters in Sydney, Australia, with both riders going into the last tour stop sharing first place in the world tour. He crashed twice on his final run, doing the Volt and attempting the first backflip, an Indy Flip, since 2009 which he jumped with the wrong gear, in a head-to-head competition against Sherwood, who went on to win the final and the 2012 Red Bull X-Fighters world tour. According to Pagès this was the result of him not being able to train as much as he'd liked to because of France's rainy weather. The event commentators also said that during a chat with Pagès earlier in the week, he'd said that he had to change the way he executes most of his tricks because the bike loses power in the high altitude of Mexico City. This was especially apparent in moves like the Flair where he would usually use the bike's power to start off the rotation, whereas with less power he had to use much more muscle force to induce the 540 degree twist of the bike. It is noteworthy that among the top three riders that night, only tour stop winner Levi Sherwood was riding a 250ccm bike (KTM SX 250), though it is known that he makes many alterations so the power is closer to that of a 350ccm bike. Second-placed Josh Sheehan rides a Honda CRF 450 and Dany Torres in 3rd rides a KTM SX 350.

The next event, which took place in Osaka, Japan, went even worse for Pagès. After riding in practises and the qualifying, he had to decide that he couldn't ride for safety's sake as the dirt was not good enough to perform tricks as dangerous as the 540 Flair, let alone the much talked about Bike Flip. Pagès had originally come to Japan with his only goal being to perform the Bike Flip. Because of his qualifying result he was still ranked ninth in the Osaka final results, which granted him 20 points for the overall rankings.

The first success of the season then came at the third tour stop in Madrid, Spain. Pagès managed to land the Bike Flip in all three rounds, which saw him beat Josh Sheehan in the final, despite Sheehan's flawless performance including a Double Backflip, to achieve his first victory of the season and gain 100 points. The final is considered to have been the greatest and closest ever event final in Red Bull X-Fighters history, with both riders putting down perfect runs including futuristic tricks.

The last two events of the season in Munich, Germany and Pretoria, South Africa both ended with a quarter-final exit after Pagès crashed at both events in his first run. In Munich he crashed on his second trick already, the Bike Flip, as he pushed the bike too far away from him. He was lucky to remain uninjured as the bike crashed down on him. However, it was damaged beyond immediate repair and Pagès was unable to continue his run, therefore losing the round to Germany's Luc Ackermann, a then 17-year-old FMX talent.

At the final event, which was also the 50th Red Bull X-Fighters event, he managed to bring in several tricks before crashing an initially landed Flair Tsunami. He didn't manage the full 540 degree rotation, instead landing at about 450 degrees, which resulted in him running out of space and the bike dropping down the edge of the landing hill where it got stuck in between the dirt and the quarter pipe. As he came in first and second respectively in the qualifying in those two events, he still ended up in fifth place at both events and secured 45 points each.

He ended up in fourth place in the final overall rankings behind new world tour champion Josh Sheehan, Levi Sherwood and Dany Torres with 235 points.

2015 For the 2015 season, Pagès debuted a new bike, that he designed together with Yamaha. Everything about it was designed to be ultra-light, reaching a total weight of only 100 kg, while it also has increased power. However, while that bike clearly offers advantages for Freestyle Motocross, the new design also makes it harder to handle, as it is easier moved off course in mid-air.

Pagès started the 2015 Red Bull X-Fighters season with a quarter-final victory against Adam Jones before then losing to eventual winner Clinton Moore in the semi-finals of the Mexico City event on 6 March. It is notable that he did not show either the Bike Flip, which he debuted at the 2014 Madrid tour stop, nor his newest trick, the Alley-Oop Flair, that he announced to the public in a YouTube video on 25 February 2015, while Moore threw down a Volt, a near-perfect flatspin 540 Flair and the Bundy, a trick he invented himself and which is roughly comparable to Kyle Loza’s Electric Doom.

The next big event of Pagès' 2015 was X Games Austin 2015 where he won his first ever X Games gold medal in the Toyota Moto X QuarterPipe competition. He initially planned on doing first the Bike Flip and then the Alley-Oop Flair, but after crashing on the Bike Flip on his first try, he gave it another shot which he landed with little difficulties and received a total of 95.33 points.

His sponsors include Red Bull, Alpinestars, DC Shoes, Oakley, Yamaha, RiderZone.net, Yamalube, KS Tools, Moto Club of Pecquencourt, CTI, GPR Stabilizer, Dra¹gon tek, Spy, Bell, Bihr racing, Akrapovïc and Kutvek Graphics. It was broadcast in Germany and Austria before the Munich event on Servus TV on 19 July 2014 and was also available to watch on Red Bull TV for a month.

Achievements

2012 1st place at Red Bull X-Fighters 2012 in Munich 2012 Red Bull X-Fighters world tour runner up FMX Awards “Best European Freestyle Motocross Rider” 2012