IGSA Downhill Skateboard World Championships 2007 - Almabtrieb - Jungholz - Austria

11. - 14. July 2007

After a short morning at school Mischo, Frank and I left Liestal in late afternoon. We got my parents car which was quite a big help. A quick stop had to be made in Zurich at the Airflow workshop. Traffic was tiring. In Lindau we took the 'Deutsche Alpenstrasse'. It just stopped raining and we saw a rainbow and a beautiful sunset. We got to Jungholz at about 22:00 and directly checkt in at our hotel. The rooms at Pension Katharina are really nice, Mischo and I even got room number 1. We went to the campground and cooked ravioli. It took us quite a while cause my gas cooker didn't work properly. Alot of people were there already.

As expected it rained on wednesday. We signed up and hung around at the racecourse checking out Bassi and some Swedes riding in the wet. It was fun to watch. Mischo, Frank and I then decided to check out the Auerberg. That was the venue for the Almabtrieb in 2003 and 2004. In 2004 I also got my first World Champion title on this track. It's always nice to come back to such a mystic place. We should have brought our skateboards. The hill was dry. We drove to the Neuschwanstein castle to check out some Japanese. People waited 3 hours just to get into the castle. That was too long for us so we went back to Jungholz. By the time we arrived there, the course was almost dry so we did a few practise runs. In the evening we cooked tomato rice in the riders tent. That wasn't enough so we bought curry wurst and a steak sandwich.

Waking up when it rains isn't really motivating. We took it easy and had a long breakfast at our hotel. It didn't stop raining so we drove to Wertach to buy food. Did some more practise runs in the afternoon. I started having fun on the course, beeing able to footbrake really late for the left right crux. My mother arrived. In the evening we cooked alot of pasta. While sitting there and cooking, Mischo Magun and I had our 3M shop open to sell bushings, gps fixies and rubbersoles.

On friday we di the timetrials. In the first round the racedirector Eimer started the timing gate with his hand. There's a precise system but it's started by hand. Due to my complain, the times were started by the riders leg in the second run. That's how it should be all the time. Timetrials are important and humans make mistakes. Everyone improved their times in the second run. Bassi Haller won, followed by Mischo Erban. I got 6th. For me it was the first time in two years not winning timetrials. My mother invited Frank, Mischo and me for dinner at the hotel Alpenhof. It was a really good meal with salad. Chris Hart from Airflow Skateboards has just arrived. A riders meeting was scheduled for 21:30. I can't remember anything they told us. Mischo and I went to bed, both nervous.

Saturday - race day! We woke up late, the sun was shining. The downhill skateboard race was held in the afternoon and there were no practise runs planned before lunch. 64 of 87 riders advanced to the head to head elimination. The first two runs were pretty easy. I was able to get away from the other riders early. Then I met Erik Lundberg. He was really fast on the straight, but in the corners I got closer and closer. He was looking back and stood up before the finish line. I was still in tuck and passed him. Wasn't necessary and doesn't really matter cause we both advanced anyway as number one and two... The semifinal was hard. It was Mischo Erban, Erik Lundberg, Fredrik Lindstrom and I. These riders are all very fast and all of them wear aerohelmets. I was using my small round Beat Engel helmet with the swiss cross. So everybody passed me in the first half of the track. I didn't mind and waited for the footbraking. I caught up and was able to pass Fredrik in the right hand corner. Mischo and Erik were really close, going into the following left hand hairpin. They both took a bad line, letting the inside free for me. I passed both of them. Mischo passed me shortly before the finish line. I couldn't believe it. Once again I'm in the final. We took the shuttle bus to get to the top, still not knowing who advanced to the final from the other half of the elimination. It was Jo from France and Bassi Haller. We had to wait for a while but then it was time to race. I started fast behind Bassi. Mischo passed me as soon as it was getting steep. Jo stayed behind me. Bassi and Mischo both didn't footbrake enough. The slid and again I had the inside line for myself. I passed Mischo and then Bassi. From this moment I didn't look back anymore. I waited for Mischo to pass me but he didn't come. I won my second World Champion title in a row with a 20m lead. Going over the finish line first was an amazing moment. I still can't believe it annd I'm really happy. Unfortunately the racing behind me wasn't that clean. I was in front and didn't see anything so I can't say anything. I want to congratulate Mischo Erban for 2nd place at his racing premiere here in Europe. After some quick interviews we both walked half way up the hill to see Magun. He was so happy, telling me he knew I was gonna win. I didn't think that I get a chance on this hill... That kind of helped me. Never before have I raced as relaxed. Yorck came up the hill on his motorbike saying the TV crew is waiting for me. So I got a ride with him to the top. Half an hour later I raced against Spiderman. Unfortunately I crashed in the left right corner. Din't footbrake enough... Anyway I didn't have a chance against the crazy french guy. I did some more filming with the Galileo TV crew. Then we had a tiring discussion with Marcus and the race organizers, who wanted to dq Mischo because of Jo's crash. I translated french/english for Jo. Bassi pushed but didn't really crash. What's the definition of a crash? The rule says you're not allowed to push on the course but people still do it. I wish racing became a bit more clean... In the end the podium remained the same. I did another interview for the Swiss newspaper 'Sonntagsblick'. We took some cool fotos in a field. Mischo and I quickly went for a shower and then came back to the riders tent for the pricegiving. We got some food. The ceremony sucked. The crowd was shouting 'ausziehen, ausziehen' which means show your butt. Bassi, Mischo and I didn't do it and got buehd. Some people even shouted 'streber, streber, streber'. Well, I can live with it. I wasn't really in mood for the party afterwards. I signed some of my Airflow posters and gave them to my friends and went to bed.

On sunday we had a champagne breakfast! Chris, Mischo, Frank, my mom and I drove back to Switzerland. We made a stop in Hard to skate the concrete bowl. Even though it was way to hot and we were too tired it was fun. We went swimming and then drove back home.

I'd like to say thank you to my sponsors, especially Airflow Skateboards, Magun and Abec11. Thanks also to my parents and my professor W. Baumhakl.

1st Martin Siegrist - CH - Airflow Skateboards
2nd Mischo Erban - CAN/CZE - Landyachtz
3rd Bassi Haller - GER

for full results please visit the IGSA website

Pictures by Eric Manzi, Frank and Mischo. Thanks alot!

official event website: Almabtrieb

Sport aktuell (16.07.2007) SF1 Swiss television

daily news report (15.07.2007) RTL2 german television

the pass - youtube video

heute (19.07.2007) free swiss newspaper

Volksstimme (19.07.2007) regional newspaper Baselland

Baslerstab (25.07.07) free newspaper in Basel