District Ride Nuremburg

Cheers,

didn

Thanks for the update…

What's it like to watch the event? It seems like it's in alley ways all the time, so it'd be impossible to watch a whole rider's run. Where do most people like to watch?

did you see Splinky wondering around, looking stupid? did he have a ham sandwich in his crack?

Ok, here[HTML_REMOVED]#180;s the update.

I arrived at around 9.30 am in Nuremburg, right in time for another practice. First thing I saw when I arrived there was Timo "T-Mo" Pritzel doing a backflip up on the Braun Box, nice. Soon it became obvious that today the riding would be a lot better than yesterday.

Right at the beginning of the 2nd qualifying run Gareth Dyer lost a crankarm landing hard after the big drop. Kyle Strait showed some very nice style doing some flips, a super man and a tailwhip. Basically there was a lot of that standart-stuff like backflips, no foot can cans etc. especially tailwhips seemed to be very popular with many of the top riders pulling on off on the last dirt jump (Berrecloth, McCaul, Basagotia etc.). The highlight of the 2nd qualifying run certainly was Lance McDermotts frontflip on the last dirtjump… such a sick trick, unreal. Unfortunately it started raining right at the end of the 2nd qualifying run, or should I say it started poring down like crazy? Since there were so many wooden structures there had to be a 2 hrs. delay in order to let all the wood dry.

The top 10 qualifiers advanced to the finals and the order was reversed, so 10th placed qualifier started first and so on. So the first rider up was Kyle Strait. Of course he did the big drop, then showed some very solid moves like no foot cans, supermans etc. but the highlight was a double tailwhip (!) on the last dirtjump. I couldn[HTML_REMOVED]#180;t believe what I saw and the crowd (according to the speaker close to 30000!) went nuts. What a sick move. Unfortunately he cased the landing a tiny bit and the judges didn[HTML_REMOVED]#180;t seem to like that. Anyways, next one up was Gee Atherton, again solid moves like backflips and 360s, some very nice street riding (considering that he mainly races downhill, his street skills were quite impressive) and a big back flip. Lance McDermott unfortunately destroyed his rear wheel casing the wooden tranny of a curved wall ride so he canceled his run, having kept in mind that there was a 2nd final run anyway. Then Adam Hauck came… Standart program, a tailwhip, a backflip… solid, but nothing special. Andreu Lancedeguy went big, flipping the stairset, 3[HTML_REMOVED]#180;ing the spine, some more very solid moves. The crowed liked him a lot and he tried take the lead, doing a backflip, a super man seatgrab and a 360 on the set of doubles but he cased the 360 and messed up the landing. Next up were Paul Bas and Darren Berrecloth and to be honest there wasn[HTML_REMOVED]#180;t anything super special about their runs. Flips, whips and 3[HTML_REMOVED]#180;s, standard program. Same for Timo Pritzel and Amir Kabbani who were up next, solid runs but nothing special. The last rider up was Cam McCaul who performed very well in the qualifiers and he also took the lead after final run 1, showing a barrel roll (it was more like a corked flip though), and the other "standard" tricks.

Unfortunately after finals run 1 it started poring down again but this time it stayed rainy, so the riders and organization decided to call it a day and announce the winners after run 1. Very unfortunate, I[HTML_REMOVED]#180;m sure there would have been some sick stuff in the 2nd final run but it was obvious that this decision had to be made. Couldn[HTML_REMOVED]#180;t do anything about that. So Darren B got 3rd, Paul B 2nd and Cam McCaul won the competition. The overall district ride winner obviously was Paul Bas.

After all it was a nice contest, there was a very cool atmosphere, all the riders were hanging out, signing people[HTML_REMOVED]#180;s shirts and just having fun and many people in Nuremburg (even 60+ yrs old people) seemed to like it a lot. Actually I noticed that especially people who weren[HTML_REMOVED]#180;t into mountain biking cheered the most and respected the riders[HTML_REMOVED]#180; performances a lot. Unfortunately it started raining twice which messed up everything, but I enjoyed it a lot, got to see the Front Flip I was waiting for, took some nice pictures that I[HTML_REMOVED]#180;ll post tomorrow and had a great time. Looking forward to next year!

What's it like to watch the event? It seems like it's in alley ways all the time, so it'd be impossible to watch a whole rider's run. Where do most people like to watch?

Yes, true. You usually get to see only one district "live". But there were big screen TVs in every District so it was no problem knowing what was going on. Most people hung out in the Street District (about 3000) and on the Market Place where the finish and the last set of dirtjumps was (about 10000 people today).

McCaul is going off this year! The last couple years he's been hangin' around fourth or fifth place at almost every slopestyle event. With a win at this contest and second place at Crankworx, not to metion multiple other wins in various dirt jump contests, he seems to be breaking out of his shell.

the vids are up on http://www.freecaster.com/

thanks for the update Ed von Schleck!!

it's a pity about the rain.. it would've been cool to see what would happen if there was a 2nd run.

in every picture and every video i see of the competition, the crowd is unimaginably large.. such great exposure for the sport, and that course looks incredible. check out www.redbull-photofiles.com for photos

Damn, neither NSMB nor Imagevenue.com lets me upload the pics, it always says that Safari (my web browser, I

in every picture and every video i see of the competition, the crowd is unimaginably large.. such great exposure for the sport

cool thing is that due to the public interest the amount of riders has really exploded. us germans are avid spectators.

us germans are avid spectators.

No you're not, thats why we had to bring it to the city and throw it in your face.

WHat are you up to anyways Mic? Heading to Canada anytime soon? I AM!!!!