It’s a big year for the Summer X Games, with three events in 2026 instead of the traditional single annual contest. It’s a huge opportunity for athletes to win more medals and help progress the sport. I spoke to Patrick Evans about his experience at the MoonPay X Games Sacramento Moto X Best Trick event.

This year, the focus was on one jump – the Next Gen Ramp. Still relatively new to the sport, the ramp forced riders like Vicki Golden, who competed in Best Whip, to put aside their usual riding and relearn their tricks off a much bigger take-off.

Even though Patrick Evans is a Best Whip gold medallist, controversy surrounded this year’s event after X Games banned electric motorcycles from competing in Best Whip due to what organisers believed was a potential unfair advantage.

“I watched Best Whip. It was weird not being in it. I still enjoyed watching everyone throw down the day before Best Trick, but I did wish I was out there too,” said Patrick.

The gold medal showdown really came down to who was the most prepared. Tom Richards, Rob Adelberg, Ben Richards and Patrick Evans were the standouts, and that was purely down to the time and effort they had put into their training.

Spoiler alert – Patrick Evans threw down a super-smooth Front Flip No-Hand Nac Nac, a never-before-seen trick that was actually the first time he had ever landed it. It earned him the Moto X Best Trick gold medal.

When I spoke to Patrick, it was only a few days after his win and he was still absolutely stoked. We got talking about his preparation for Sacramento.

“Man, I put so much time into the airbag for this. I set up the airbag at Twitch’s place and since then I’ve roughly done about 800 front flips.”

It was interesting asking him about his routine.

“I was originally doing it every morning, but I realised Best Trick is at the end of the day, so I changed it up and waited for my head to be tired. Then I’d go to the airbag late in the afternoon, getting ready for that feeling of being tired when I got to Sacramento.”

The pressure at X Games as an athlete is immense. It’s a mental battle, with lots of sitting around, and it’s easy to go ‘cold’ while you wait for your run.

“I was having night terrors the week leading up to it. It wasn’t about crashing or anything. You (Lance) were even in them,” he laughed. “I dreamed I was at an Airbnb and it was just chaos, with everyone around me causing trouble and stopping me from getting out of there and going to the venue.”

“On the day, I made sure I slept in as much as I could. I turned up 10 minutes before practice. You know me, I was still geared up early and on the bike before practice even started. After I did two front flips, that was all the practice I needed. I went back to the hotel, chilled some more, then tricked my brain by doing my morning workout. I was fully awake when I showed up to the venue and left it until right before contest time.”

Patrick had his entire family there to support him. Even his mum was wearing a shirt that read ‘Patrick’s Mom’, which was awesome to see.

The riding this year was a huge step forward. The body varials performed by the Richards brothers were an obvious crowd favourite, while Rob Adelberg, the front flip specialist, threw down a massive Shaolin Seat Grab combo. Every one of those tricks had never been attempted before.

Patrick said the most nerve-racking part was the wind, but with all the preparation he’d put in leading up to the event, he was clearly confident.

“It was a weird feeling to land and ride away from something I’d been training so much for. It was almost like muscle memory. I’d done so many to the airbag that riding away, I was comfortable, terrified and stoked all at once.”

“I couldn’t have done it without all the support from everyone around me, like the Maddison family, Twitch, my wife, Fasthouse, Stark, Weedmaps, ThrillSeekers, Heat Wave Visual and many more. It takes a village and I’m forever thankful.”

Patrick’s victory is a prime example of hard work paying off. There’s no doubt there are plenty more gold medals to come.

Congratulations, Patrick!