Freerider fans pleased with the region and festival atmosphere

Around 9,000 freeride fans stayed overnight in Saalbach Hinterglem last weekend (9 to 11 July) to be there for ethe premier of the Dakine FREERIDE Festival powered by Nissan. Spectakulare side-events, over 40 exhibitors with 86 brands, many well-known professional bikers and three days of unbroken sunshine made for a fantastic festival at one of Europe’s best freeride destinations.  

“The premier went really well. We’re very pleased with the way the event ran, the number of visitors and, of course, the wonderful weather in this dream location,” enthuses Monika Weber, event manager for hosts Delius Klasing. Wolfgang Breitfuß, director of the tourist association of Saalbach Hinterglemm, puts it in a nutshell: “This was one of the wildest events we have ever held in Saalbach Hinterglemm.” “This is just how I hoped the FREERIDE magazine festival would be: a relaxed atmosphere, spectacular side-events, wonderful weather and plenty of freeride opportunities for all visitors. My wishes have come true and I am very pleased with this great debut festival,” smiles FREERIDE editor-in-chief Dimitri Lehner, referring to the magazine’s first festival.

The program for the first Dakine FREERIDE Festival in Saalbach Hinterglemm offered top-class freeride sport over three days. Anyone wanting to experience freeriding in its purest form far away from the bustle of the festival site would have found just what they were looking of in the “Big 5 Bike Challenge” (www.bik-5.at). This XXL tour, covers an altitude difference of 5,000 meters, but only barely 1,000 of these have to be conquered by the riders from their own strength thanks to the 5 operating cablecars. Over 200 riders took the tour over the weekend.

The side-event for the first day of the festival took place on the Friday evening. In the “Maxxis Dual Eliminator”, 92 riders, both male and female, took to the slalom course designed by trail builder Joscha Forstreuter. After the heats, the 16 fastest men and four fastest women competed in the final that evening. The man against man/woman against woman race provided plenty of excitement for the many hundreds of spectators along the route. The women’s final saw Austria’s Steffi Marth and Angie Hohenwarter, both of whom had come fifth in the 4X European championships of 2010 and 2009 respectively, co head-to-head against each other. In this heat, Angie Hohenwarter managed to take a slight lead in the first third of the trail and held onto this advantage until she reached the finishing line.

The winner of the men’s race in the “Maxxis Dual Eliminator” was Rüdiger Jahnel. The Austrian, who is placed 155th in the world 4x rankings, won out over his compatriot Georg Sieder in an exciting and extremely close-run race. Afterwards, riders and spectators came together to celebrate at the riders’ party in the “Goaßstall”, the place where it all happens in Saalbach Hinterglemm.

The “Maxxis Dual Eliminator” course was once again the center of attention at midday on Saturday, when 64 junior freeriders aged from 6 to 15 had a chance to show off their skills in the first “Kids FREERIDE Challenge”. Extreme biker Bobby Root presided over the prize-giving, handing out lots of gifts from FREERIDE magazine and Dakine.

In the afternoon, in the “YT Best Trick Award” powered by Bagjump, 22 participants - the youngest just 10 years old - offered an impressive air show. The side-event was presented by dirt jumper Marius Hoppensack. The enormous air cushion provided by Bagjump meant that a soft landing was guaranteed. The Dakine FREERIDE Festival in Saalbach Hinterglemm was the first event in which the 15 x 15 meter cushion was used. The jury comprised three YT riders, Dominic Amberger, Tobi Wrobel and Niki Leitner, who finally judged the best jumper to be Patrick Leitner from Vienna. The runner-up was Frenchman Yannick Granieri, while third place went to Jonas Berndt from Bochum. At the end of the competition, Patrick Leitner had two reasons to smile: he had won the event and he had a brand new bike from YT Industries as his prize.

The whole of Hinterglemm was on its feet on the Saturday evening for the “Marzocchi Airstrike” slopestyle contest, anxious not to miss this spectacular show. The course, which was designed by Joscha Forstreuter, was difficult enough. The riders jumped from one hotel roof to the next and wallrides and kickers followed. Thus, they had plenty of opportunities to demonstrate their skills to the judges and to the hundreds of spectators in the heart of Saalbach Hinterglemm. The best-known members of the jury in this slopestyle contest, which is part of the Freeride Mountainbike (FMB) World Tour, were Timo Pritzel, Tibor Simai and Rob J. After the 26 professionals had completed the course twice, it was up to the jury to choose the top 5, who would be allowed one more opportunity to impress the public in a final run.

After a short break for deliberations, the jury agreed: Tobi Wrobel, Peter Henke, Yannick Granieri, Geoff Gulevich and Amir Kabbani would take to the rooftops one last time. The “Marzocchi Airstrike” was judged on the basis of the best of three runs. Amir Kabbani opened his show with a 360 jump from the second rooftop to the large timber landing ramp. He followed this with another perfect 360 before finishing with a perfect double table. However, Frenchman Yannick Granieri also put on a superlative show. His final flip whip crowned a perfect third run. The jury and public were left in no doubt: one of these two riders would take the content title. And that’s exactly the way things worked out. Tobi Wrobel (YT Industries), who is 43rd in the current FMB World Tour rankings gave an excellent performance to take third place. Second place went to Yannick Granieri (Commencal) – 10th in the FMB World Tour rankings. This means that the deserving winner of the “Marzocchi Airstrike” was Amir Kabbani (Mongoose). He is currently ranked third in the FMB Word Tour rankings.

Day three of the Dakine FREERIDE Festival in Saalbach Hinterglemm powered by Nissan also had plenty of delights in store. The highlight of the festival – the “Scott Gang Battle” – was on the agenda. However, while the 398 participants were preparing for the mass downhill, 14 riders saddled up for the “Rose Speedwheelie” contest. The riders picked up speed and lifted their front wheels at a marked point on the steeply sloping road. Among them were FREERIDE editor-in-chief Dimitri Lehner, Timo Pritzel and, of course, the wheelie king himself: Bobby Root. With a speed of 60.60 km/h, there was never any doubt that the Californian world record holder for speedwheelie riding would win the event. Second place was taken by Julian Reder, who was just behind Bobby with 59.5 km/h. Third place went to Morris Fessler with a speed of 58.53 km/h. Former champion Timo Pritzel raced to 4th place. The speed camera recorded a speed of 57.23 km/h for him. Dimitri Lehner achieved 49.65 km/h in his fastest run, taking 11th place. Naturally, having won the event on his back wheel, Bobby Root insisted on completing the course all over again on his front wheel.

The “Scott Gang Battle” was the sporting highlight on the Sunday afternoon and crowned the close of the first DAKINE FREERIDE Festivals powered by Nissan in Saalbach Hinterglemm.

This new race format is a mass start downhill, similar to the popular Avalanche series. There were some spectacular sights for the thousands of spectators at Austria’s first mass downhill. A total of 398 riders from nine nations accepted the challenge of the 1,000 meter altitude differential on the eight kilometer route of the X-Line on Saalbach’s Schattberg and “battled it out” for a total prize purse of euro 3,500. There were separate starting categories for women, masters (over 40’s men) and men in “gangs” of 120 racers each. Following a couple of broad S bends from the Schattberg’s western peak, the starter field fed into the X-Line downhill route - an exciting single trail with only a few decisive places at which overtaking is possible. Of the women, Elke Rabeder from Bad Goisern (Revolution Racing Team) demonstrated the best tactics and stamina, placing herself at the head of the field with a sensational time of 13:23.20 minutes. Carinthian Angie Hohenwarter, die Siegerin of the “Maxxis Dual Eliminator”, followed in second place with 13:25.77 minutes, in front of Allgäu’s Ines Thomas with 13:32.40 minutes. The masters made it perfectly clear that they weren’t ready to be put out to grass just yet: Abbou Frédéric from Team Bionicon took first place with a time of 12:14.86 minutes in front of Thomas Martin (freeride-allgaeu.de, 12:42.82 minutes) and Holger Meyer from Munich with 12:49.66 minutes. Thus, the winners’ rostrum was an all-German affair. The best time of the day was achieved by Rüdiger Jahnel (specialized-mountainbiker.at) from Seewalchen am Attersee. Having already won the “Maxxis Dual Eliminator” on Friday with a clear victory, his sensational time of 11:42.00 demonstrated that he is also unbeatable in the mass downhill. Vorarlberg native Johannes Graf from the Kraftstoff team took silver with a time of 11:43.56 minutes and Mario Sieder of the Austrian national team won the bronze with a time of 11:50.19 Minutes.

Now that the festival is over, its time to start thinking about the next one. Constructive discussions have already been held about the second Dakine FREERIDE Festival Saalbach Hinterglemm powered by Nissan. The dates are already fixed. Next year the freeride community will meet again in Saalbach Hinterglemm from 8 to 10 July.

Photos for free download at http://images.saalbach.com