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Our Materia which I got sponsored from Daihatsu Switzerland for two months. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
EuroTour 2008 Two months, 5 races and plenty of roads to skate in between. Here are some of the memories: Like last year, I'm traveling together with the Canadian Mischo Erban. Our EuroTour started on July 3rd when we drove towards France. The first stop was Annecy with its steep and turny road on the Semnoz. We met some friends in the city and enjoy a nice summer evening. Unfortunately it rained the next day so we couldn't ride. Mischo and I decided to spend time slacklining and we found a good, dry spot somewhere in Annecy. On friday, the road dried and we did 3 runs each. |
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On top of Col du Galibier. We slept «à la belle étoile» as the French would say. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The next pass on our list was Col du Galibier. The road is rough and bumpy but worth a visit if you're on the way to Col d'Izoard. It was nearly dark when we arrived on top of Col du Galibier. With the setting sun and a beautiful panorama we cooked 500g of pasta. The stars were too nice so we slept «à la belle étoile» as the French would say. 06:00 wake up, wake up. Its cold and with the first rays of sunshine I did my first run down after my premier 5 years ago. The road is really rough but I found it a good challenge this time. Mischo did a run too and we continued towards Serre Chevalier. We bought breakfast in a small bakery. The lady was gorgeous. Since there's quite some traffic on Col d'Izoard during the day, we did some more slacklining and hiked up a mountain to cook a mushroom soup at the top. Late in the afternoon it was our time to do some runs. In the evening it rained again. The road was nearly dry the next morning and we both waisted some more rubber. The first ten kilometers from the top down the north side of the pass is really nice with around 20 hairpins. There's a fast section after 7 minutes of intense footbraking and cornering. I love that road. Some locals told us Col d'Agnel would be another good road in the area. The pass is right on the border to Italy. The italian side looked way nicer than the french side but it was blocked cause they had just repaved it. We didn't ride it cause we probably would have hiked up for at least two hours. |
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Col du Galibier is rough and bumpy. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Col d'Izoard - isn't it beautiful? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Slacklining on the Col d'Izoard | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Our next stop was Mont Ventoux. Coming from the cold mountains into the hot lower areas was strange. We almost stopped to swim in a river near Sisteron but then preferred skateboarding on Mont Ventoux. I called up my friend Cedric Burel (Downhill Skateboard World Champion in 2005) and he joined us for two runs. Mont Ventoux is famous for its fast runs which should not be ridden during the day due to tourists and thousands of cyclists. Cedric invites us to his new place near Mont Ventoux. We ate dinner and talked for a long time. |
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The 3 corners in the middle of the course | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Peyragudes Deluxe Cup, France IGSA World Cup 9. - 12.7.08 On monday we drove to Peyragudes. I was disapointed when I saw the road. Some sections got repaved with gravel some days ago. Other than that, the road is nicely tared, fast enough and also has some interesting corners. I was struggling with the right hander after the fast section and crashed in my warmup run and in the first timetrial. After those two crashes I switched from Bigzigs to 83mm Flywheels and everything worked great. The second timetrial wasn't much of an attack but rather a safe run to ensure my spot in the race. Due to bad weather forecast, the race has been moved from saturday to friday. The race started with some easy runs. The righthander remained my crux. Most riders slide way too much which results in a slow exit speed. I used to footbrake early and usually got way better exit speeds. On most runs I stayed behind and tried to pass in my strong section right after my crux. My plan worked great and I got into the final. |
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Practise run with Mischo and Mike Zietsman. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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1 Kevin Reimer 2 Scott Smith 3 Martin Siegrist 4 Mike Zietsman |
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Heavy fog was rolling up the mountains and we couln't see much further than 50 meters. It was dramatic. Riders ready - set - go! My start was bad which didn't bother me at all. Mike Zietsman crashed in the tight right, I'm on third place. Kevin Reimer and Scott Smith were both too fast and I couldn't catch up anymore. I should have risked a bit more yet I was happy with my 3rd place on this technical racetrack. It started raining right after the race and didn't really stop anymore until we were back in Switzerland. Ranking (100 participants):
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Almabtrieb, Jungholz, Austria IGSA World Cup 16. - 19.7.08 After a short stop in Liestal we drove to Jungholz. In contrast to Peyragudes, most people know this track from the World Championships in 2005 and 2007. I like the racetrack, even though I'm always getting passed in the top section. My part starts with footbraking and the corner section right after. It rained for the first few days and we lost one and a half days of practise. Some riders practised in the wet. The weather changed and we had some good runs. It was interesting to see some of the young Canadians riding the carussel without footbraking. It looks crazy but I still think it's not the most effective way to ride those corners. Like the year before, I didn't do too well in the timetrials. There's a feeling that heavier riders roll faster in the first section. However. Racing was good until I met Erik Lundberg SWE, Kevin Reimer CAN and Stefan Rüefli SUI in the semifinal. Either kevin or Erik did a false start. I waited at the start until they got back. Nobody has stopped them on the track which was a bad decision. We all got a rerun. I did a mistake in the carousel and was on the bad side afterwards. I couldn't pass Erik and Kevin. Erik almost crashed further down. Stefan Rüefli and Kevin Reimer qualified for the final. Erik didn't ride the small final. So it was just me, Mischo and Patrick Rizzo. Rizzo tried not to footbrake and probably started sliding way too late. He went straight into the haybales. Mischo got a good exit speed and there was no way for me to catch him. That was the 6th place for me. Actually I was hoping to make it into the final at that race too. Once more I had to accept that luck and hazard play a big role in our sport. Ranking (122 participants):
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That was close! It looks as if Stefan Rüefli is smiling inside his helmet. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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And another crash. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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It looks like a freeride but it was a race heat. The boys in white pretended having lost their bipnumbers and should be disqualified therefore. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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It was delicious. Well, mastercook Rob McKendry knows how to do it! Probably the best thing that has happened in Thalgau beside Mischo's win... |
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Thalgau, Austria IGSA World Cup 23. -26.7.08 Again, one day of practise got rained out. Other problems, mainly a lack of organization, lead to delays during the whole event. There was a shortage of marshalls every day. Ridermeetings usually started at least one hour late. The amount of information was poor. The first timetrial got cancelled after the first 5 riders. There's absolutely no point in running timetrials in the wet if it can be done on dry road the next morning. I qualified as 7th, Mischo dominated both timetrials. Due to another mistake of the committee I crashed at the end of the quarter final. A rider from the round before us was still on the road, blocking our run at the finish. I fell on my back and slid into the sidewalk, hitting two kids and a guy in a wheelchair. Both kids were brought to the hospital, luckily without any severe injuries. This accident could have been avoided. Mischo won the race with a huge lead. |
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Ghosts on the road - outside the creepy hotel. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The day after the race Mischo and I drove towards Italy. We stayed on the Grossglockner Pass and waited for the evening which was our only chance to ride those busy roads. After a good dinner in a restaurant I took the chance and did some fast runs. We spent the night in a creepy hotel. Luckily it was warm and sunny the next day. But we were way too late to ride so we went for a hike. Since there's a road almost to the top of the mountains, there are tourist everywhere. After lunch we left and drove towards the Dolomites. I knew that there are many good roads in the Dolomites. We drove up to the «Drei Zinnen» where we cooked food and slept in a very small tunnel from world war one. We also walked around those amazing rocks. Unfortunately there are thousands of tourists hiking in this area every day. The road up to the «Drei Zinnen» is steep and has to be ridden next time. Cortina d'Ampezzo wasn't far away so we went to check out some more roads. We found all those awesome roads people told us about and both did a few runs before it rained. With no good spot to set up the tent we went to a campground right below Marmolada. The area is awesome and I wish we could have spent more time there. It rained again in the evening. Our road dried overnight! We skated one, two, three, four different roads at one day. With less and less rubber on our soles, we started sliding more which was fun. This time we found a good spot to camp. We cooked rice with vegetables and mushroom sauce. Mischo wanted to use some of the mushrooms that grew right there but I refused. Actually we wanted to skate that one road again in the morning. It rained almost the whole night and the road was still wet in the morning. Due to a thick forest we assumed it would take too long to wait and we drove straight to Venice. Mischo wanted to visit the city. There were many things to see. You have too much money and don't know where to spend it? Go to Venice, it's freakin expensive! We went for dinner in a restaurant. Never buy gnocchi if you're hungry. The plates are small. There are a few campgrounds near Venice, and we were really proud we found one that night. Italian road signs are confusing. The area around Venice is completely flat and not very appealing to downhill skaters. This made us drive straight to Teolo. |
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Inside the Dolomites. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Teolo, Italy Inline World Cup 1. - 3.8.08 A few years already, there's an Inline World Cup happening in Teolo. The road is straight and fast in the beginning, turning into a zigzag hairpin section with at least 7 hairpins. The run is short but intense. I like it. There's an opening ceremony on friday night with free food for all competitors. On saturday morning practise started with a small delay. Fruits and drinks were ready at the bottom of the hill. Everybody got two timetrials in the afternoon. The organizers had a mess with the timing system. I won and got a big trophy. Again all riders were invited for dinner, this time in a nice hotel park. The downhill skateboard category only had 8 participants. I got into the final and won the race ahead of Frank Uhlmann who showed a good performance, as expected. Teolo isn't a big skateboard world cup but riders are treated like athletes, which makes for a totally different atmosphere. The event was a nice experience and fun to attend. Ranking:
After a delicious pizza for dinner we drove all the way up north to that steep, big mountain pass. It's close to the Swiss border. Right, the Stilfserjoch. 45 hairpins, 14 kilometers, 25 minutes, that's the east side. Be prepared for everything, this road is crazy! We arrived on the pass at 02:00 at night and slept until 06:00 to do one run each early in the morning. I did the first run, not knowing the road. It was tough! But I liked it very much. Surviving on such a road is definitely a challenge. I realized too late that the west side would have been much nicer to ride. Who cares, next time we'll do both sides! Stefan Rüefli and Frank Uhlmann also made their way up to the pass but both didn't like the road very much. We all drove back to Switzerland and bought Swiss bread and Swiss yoghurt for breakfast, which was a delicious experience after being away for almost three weeks. |
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Stilfserjoch east side: 45 hairpins! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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My tight, green speedsuit. It can help getting a better topspeed. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Col d‘ Izoard, France Coupe de France 22. - 24.08.08 We're back on the Col d'Izoard. The racecourse on the north side of the pass is nearly 2km long and has 7 corners which mostly have really flat exits. It's really technical. There aren't many places to pass other riders. Five corners require some heavy footbraking. Col d'Izoard has become my favourite race and I didn't want to miss the chance of winning it for the third time! The event started with a freeride on the south side of the pass. A turny section leads into a long, fast straight section where riders get topspeeds around 100km/h. It started raining after a few runs. The road dried later that day and we did some more runs. Dinner has been served in Queyras, the dessert wass awesome: a delicious applepie... In a small ceremony, the top riders from 2007 recieved special numbershirts with their names printed on it. For the second time already, William made an exclusive shirt for me, this time it was all red. I appreciate that nice gesture. On saturday morning we get two practise runs on the racecourse. I crashed in the first run and my new board went straight into the rocks beside the road. Luckily only the front kingpin got bent. It was replaeced quickly. I found the fast line and all my braking points. Once again I dominated both timetrials. Christoph Batt is getting faster and faster though. In the evening there was a Guinness speed record attempt, again on the south side towards Queyras. I brought an all new speedhelmet and one of Beat Engels old speedsuits. The wind wasn't too bad. My first run was 105.950 km/h. Nobody else got a faster run that evening. I've gone faster on other roads and many other riders have achieved top speeds around 120 km/h, but none of them has ever been measured officially. Will Guiness really accept my attempt? |
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I'm not feeling really happy about the record cause I've ridden way faster on other hills. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Looking back - I think I got it! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Now that's a victory! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Since the inliners had their race on sunday morning, I had enough time and slept late. The fastest 32 riders qualified for the race which happened in the afternoon. I was happy with the fact that I also dominated all runs to the final. Usually I was ahead of everybody else from the start or at least after the first corner. Now I knew - I need to win that race for the third time. I wanted the triple! Final: From what I heard the start was close and not too far away from a crash. Well I didn't see anything. I only looked back twice. After Réfuge Napoleon I knew, that I'm going to win again. The last two corners and the following 100 meters to the finish were wonderful. I love that feeling when you know that nobody can take away your victory! Christoph Batt got second which was, to my knowledge, his first podium ever. Frank Uhlmann got third. Once again, Switzerland has fully dominated the race on Col d'Izoard. It's not really astonishing that all three riders on the podium were using Abec 11 76mm Flywheels and Magun trucks. Thinking back, I realized that in the finals of the three editions of the race, 8 out of 9 riders were riding 76mm Flywheels and again 8 out of 9 riders were on Magun trucks. 2006 - 2007 - 2008! The triple! My victory is becoming almost routine! Mischo, Frank and I ate pizza in Briançon. Frank stayed for some more French freeriding. Mischo and I drove back to Switzerland. It was a long drive but we had to get back home as quickly as possible to catch our flight to Portland on monday. Ranking (60 participants):
TV reports: Izoard Speed Record - Izoard Legendary Race |
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1 Martin Siegrist 2 Christop Batt 3 Frank Uhlmann |
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Thanks to all the photographers! I hope I didn't forget anyone: Caro, Mischo, Quaso, Sven von Schlachta, Dim, Yorck Dertinger, IGSA, CND |
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