The 2012 X-Games ended with an explosion of Orange power in Los Angeles on Sunday night with KTM riders Taddy Blazusiak (right) and Maria Forsberg winning golds in the newly inaugurated Endurocross event, the first time it had made an appearance in the X-Games program.

To round off a great night on the track for KTM riders, it was Mike Brown who took the silver in the men’s event, finishing 14 seconds behind Taddy. KTM rider Kurt Caselli also tackled the difficult course and finished seventh. The X-Games event also counts as the first round of the GEIKO Endurocross championship 2011 where KTM’s Taddy Blazusiak of Poland will be looking to renew his world championship title.

The Endurocross course for the Games was typically challenging and strewn with ten laps over seemingly impossible obstacles like tires, rock pits, a pile of split lumber, log paths, fallen trees and a water pit. But while Taddy emerged triumphant he had his difficulties in the made the finals only by way of the last change qualifiers. From then on it was plain sailing for the Polish rider who in June won his fifth consecutive Erzberg hare scramble on Austria’s iron Mountain.

“This track was a little bit more like the European tracks like we have back home, a little bit more spread out,” Taddy commented. “You could hit the stuff faster, and that actually suits my riding style better. You just try to push yourself to the limit and that’s what I tried to do and you had to make a decision in the split of a second. I’m really happy, I had a steady start, I wasn’t going over my head and I just worked my way through.”

“It’s my first time at X Games and it was great. It’s fun to watch and there’s always something going on in this sport. I hope we get to come back again next year and put on a good show for everyone,” Brown said.

For Forsberg, a big name in women’s offroad racing in the USA, it was her first X-Games appearance and she lived up to her own high standards by emerging the winner over the tough course of obstacles in the arena. “It was really challenging because all the girls out here are really good riders,” she said. “Enduro cross is about consistency so I tried to just stay on the bike as much as I could.”