ABILENE, KAN. (July 25, 2016) – A horsepower of another kind will roar into the Abilene rodeo arena August 3-6.
Meet the Cowboy Kenny Steel Rodeo Tour, featuring Matt Buyten and Alex Cervantes! Matt and Alex ride into the arena on a dirt bikes and love to thrill crowds with their freestyle motocross!
Matt and Alex will do tricks, ranging from the can-can to the kiss of death to the cliffhanger and the dead body! They love entertaining at rodeos, and will ride their dirt bikes during each night of the Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo.
Matt, from Minden, Nev., is a four-time gold medalist from the X Games Step Up, winning gold in 2011, 2010, 2006 and 2003. He’s finished in the top three of every XG Step Up contest he’s entered, from 2003 through LA 2013, and he finished in seventh place in this year’s Step Up games, held in Austin in June.
Alex, from Mexico City, Mexico, is a 28 year old rider who’s competed in FMX since 2006. He’s one of the top three riders in Mexico, and his signature trick is the double nac.
Matt and Alex will show off some of their best tricks: the Superman C Grab, the stripper flip (one foot through the handle bars, with the back arched, upside down in a back flip), and the tail end back flip, with both feet through the handlebars, and legs spread as if he was doing the split. Matt, who is in his thirties, is very flexible and slender and some of his tricks look like Gumby!
Matt loves rodeo fans. “It doesn’t seem to matter what rodeo we go to, or where we are, everybody is so genuine, down to earth, and appreciates what we do. In the rodeo world, when I jump the ramp, everybody’s blown away. And to do tricks off it, it’s like they’ve never seen it before.”
Riding dirt bikes and doing freestyle is crazy to normal folks, but to Matt it’s not as crazy as riding bulls. He draws the comparison: “If you told me, in eight seconds, I was going to crash, even if I landed the trick, and then my bike would get up and chase me down, like a bull, that’s the difference between bull riding and dirt bikes. I can pull on the clutch and stop.”
The Steel Rodeo Tour is sponsored by City Cycle Sales, Inc., and Superior Sanitation, and the riders will do their tricks over a Superior Sanitation Truck parked in the arena during each night of the Abilene Rodeo.
See the Steel Rodeo Tour each night of the Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo in Abilene August 3-6. Performances begin at 7:30 pm each night. Rodeo tickets are $11 in advance for adults; at the gate, they are $13. For children ages 4-10, tickets are $7. They are on sale online at CKFF.net, at West’s Country Mart, Don’s Tire, and other locations across the area.
For more information on the Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo, visit the rodeo’s website at WildBillHickokRodeo.com or call the Central Kansas Free Fair office at 785-263-4570. Cowboy Kenny’s website is SteelRodeoTour.com.