This was last week in France, some of the coolest trails.
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Thursday, May 28, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
FISE baguette interview!!
Kelly rode in the final at FISE Slopestyle in Montpellier, it was a super hot day, a bit windy but it was a sick contest.
Check out this clip with Phil and AT interviewing the riders with a Baguette..
Here's some pics of Kelly riding the course and the crowd during the finals! After the MTB Slopestyle we watched the BMX Street Pro Final and it was insane!
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Kelly competing in FISE MTB Slopestyle finals
FISE is going off.. we watched the BMX finals last night.. sickest tricks were a Front flip tail whip and a 1080...
Here is a clip about the course with Phil Sundbaum..
The Qualifiers were yesterday.. here is the list of 15 who go on to the final today at 4pm.
23/05/2009 à 18h40
QUALIFICATION MOUNTAIN BIKE PRO :
QUALIFICATION MOUNTAIN BIKE PRO :
Qualifications Mountain Bike Pro
1 Pilgrim Sam1 (1st=)
1 McDermott Lance (1st=)
2 Montgomey Mike
3 Denoes David
4 Ferry Pierre Edouard
5 Granier Yannick
6 Bibiloni Thomas
7 Mc Garry Kelly
8 Niki Leitner
9 Cauquil Tom
10 Reboul Loris
11 Pace Danny
12 Ladislav Klauz
13 Kirchmann Simon
14 Acarie Valentin
15 Plane Damien
Pics: The temporary skate park built out on the water for BMX, Skate and Roller, the Road gap of the slopestyle MTB Course, View of the first drop from the bridge, Kelly riding the super wall ride in practise, the first drop front view:
Friday, May 22, 2009
Eat snails, ride trails...
We caught up with the Summer of Shred crew in the South of France before the FISE Comp started and went on some cool day missions to ride.
First we checked out a slopestyle bike park which was pretty cool.
But by far the best spot was these cool trails covered in red poppies.. there were so many lines and the weather was perfect.
First we checked out a slopestyle bike park which was pretty cool.
But by far the best spot was these cool trails covered in red poppies.. there were so many lines and the weather was perfect.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
FISE!! France..
We're in Montpellier, France for FISE (Festival International Sports Extreme). It is an amazing set up with Wakeboarding, Skate, Roller, MTB Slopestyle, and BMX near the centre of town!
The finals will be live online at www.fise.tv but those of you in NZ will probably be fast asleep.
Will post some pics after the event.
The finals will be live online at www.fise.tv but those of you in NZ will probably be fast asleep.
Will post some pics after the event.
Friday, May 15, 2009
France! Morzine, Les Gets
We’ve heard a lot about Portes Du Soleil so thought we better take a look. We arrived in Morzine and met up with Kelly’s mate Tom he used to work with in Whistler, hung out in the pub all and caught up. The next day we had a look around Les Gets and Morzine and can only imagine how awesome it will be when summer kicks in – 24 lifts accessing the area and you can even bike into Switzerland, this is certainly a spot we want to visit again. Unfortunately, it was like a ghost town, between seasons, nothing was open and we didn’t see anyone out on bikes. We found a track up Mt Chery so Kelly did a run but it was pretty wet so we called it a day and headed towards the coast...
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Thun - Swtizerland
After Solothurn we made our way to Thun, on the way we stopped off in Bern and made use of the uphill train at Gurten to ride down a flowy bermy trail. After that we drove to Steffisburg and met up with one of the riders from the comp – Ramon. The jumps were set up with with a small line of doubles and a much bigger one which Kelly was stoked on. That night we went into the town of Thun and the boys rode up a tree for a photo.
We checked out the cool bike shop that Ramon’s dad ownes – Acefactory and then continued on our trip in the direction of France.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Bike Days Festival Switzerland
Driving up from the coast of italy, we noticed a certain change in scenery as we approached Switzerland – big mountains on the horizon!
We drove into Switzerland over the Simplon Pass which was really high and there was still tonnes of snow. The views were breathtaking and there was hardly anyone on the roads. We diverted to have a look at the Matterhorn and then stayed in Visp. The next day we drove a lot of the back roads of Switzerland to get to Solothurn the location for the next competition.
Solothurn is an old city with a historic centre surrounded by a high wall and three towers through which you can enter the pedestrian only streets. The festival – Bike Days, was located just outside the wall with the BMX/MTB jumps in line with it. There was also an XC race, the start line was just outside the wall of the city and the competitors did a start loop through the village and then looped through the festival site for feeding etc. They looped right infront of the dirt jumps with a sprint finish. It was a good set up because the XC spectators were up on the bank to watch and had a clear view of the jumps, and vice versa, when people were watching the dirt jumps there were XC racers blasting past. Cool way to integrate the two disciplines. There were lots of market stalls showing off their products, you could test ride all sorts of bikes and there was a free Downhill Shuttle up Weissenstein so I made use of that whilst Kelly had practice.
Saturday was the qualifiers and with a field of 30 riders it was tough to make the cut of only 10 riders into the final round the following day. There were some sick tricks thrown down and Kelly was stoked when he found out he was the 10th rider to make it through. During the finals there were crowds of spectators cheering. Each rider got 3 runs and 2 counted toward the super final of 4. The final 4 were doing gnarly double tricks like no handed flips and tailwhip 360s. Kelly placed 10th overall and even got some prize moolah! Met some awesome people at the comp such as Ramon Hunziker who bought us to our next destination – Thun. Thanks Stefanie for the great company and a place to stay.
We drove into Switzerland over the Simplon Pass which was really high and there was still tonnes of snow. The views were breathtaking and there was hardly anyone on the roads. We diverted to have a look at the Matterhorn and then stayed in Visp. The next day we drove a lot of the back roads of Switzerland to get to Solothurn the location for the next competition.
Solothurn is an old city with a historic centre surrounded by a high wall and three towers through which you can enter the pedestrian only streets. The festival – Bike Days, was located just outside the wall with the BMX/MTB jumps in line with it. There was also an XC race, the start line was just outside the wall of the city and the competitors did a start loop through the village and then looped through the festival site for feeding etc. They looped right infront of the dirt jumps with a sprint finish. It was a good set up because the XC spectators were up on the bank to watch and had a clear view of the jumps, and vice versa, when people were watching the dirt jumps there were XC racers blasting past. Cool way to integrate the two disciplines. There were lots of market stalls showing off their products, you could test ride all sorts of bikes and there was a free Downhill Shuttle up Weissenstein so I made use of that whilst Kelly had practice.
Saturday was the qualifiers and with a field of 30 riders it was tough to make the cut of only 10 riders into the final round the following day. There were some sick tricks thrown down and Kelly was stoked when he found out he was the 10th rider to make it through. During the finals there were crowds of spectators cheering. Each rider got 3 runs and 2 counted toward the super final of 4. The final 4 were doing gnarly double tricks like no handed flips and tailwhip 360s. Kelly placed 10th overall and even got some prize moolah! Met some awesome people at the comp such as Ramon Hunziker who bought us to our next destination – Thun. Thanks Stefanie for the great company and a place to stay.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Venezia, Pisa, Cinque Terre - seeing the sights in Italy
Immediately after hopping out of the train station we were immersed in the maze of streets, passages, bridges and canals that are Venice. No way to ride a bike here so we just checked out all the sights and then caught up with Kelly’s Turner buddy Francesco and Carlo who we had met at the King of Dirt Comp in Italy. They took us on a 50c gondola ride (couldn’t justify the fancy schmancy $180 NZD trip) and a cool bar where only locals go. We then went to Francesco's pad which was unreal, had a wine on the rooftop overlooking Venice and enjoyed a delicious Italian pasta meal cooked by Carlo and talked bikes most of the night. Good times!
After this we missioned around Italy some more before making our way to Switzerland for the next comp- Bike Days. We hung out with a ton of other tourists and checked out the leaning tower of Pisa the cruised around the beautiful Mediterranean coastline at Cinque Terre national park. We rode our bikes around a cool track to these cute wee fishing villages dotted around coast after the park ranger had packed up for the night (the trail was only for walking, but they don’t patrol it after 7pm! - suckers).
After this we missioned around Italy some more before making our way to Switzerland for the next comp- Bike Days. We hung out with a ton of other tourists and checked out the leaning tower of Pisa the cruised around the beautiful Mediterranean coastline at Cinque Terre national park. We rode our bikes around a cool track to these cute wee fishing villages dotted around coast after the park ranger had packed up for the night (the trail was only for walking, but they don’t patrol it after 7pm! - suckers).
Venice:
The main square, a typical venice street, drinks on the roof of Francescos house overlooking Venice:
Italy - King of Dirt comp at Bike Festival
Ihave to admit being a little nervous of going to Italy because it was my first time in a country speaking a language I could not understand at all. My high-school German lessons and fluency in Dutch were fine for Holland and Germany but Italy was different. We were lucky to be welcomed by a cool trio who had recently moved to Italy from Brazil and spoke English. They lived in a little village of 800 people up in the mountains.
The house we stayed in in the little village of Lenzumo:
It was great fun staying with them and it was cool to show them an insight to the mtb world at the Bike Festival. The highlight was the Festival closing night after the King of Dirt comp when the whole expo site came to life with drunk Germans (who all come to this festival in Italy), a crack-up Italian band playing on the stage and way too much free beer, wine etc at all the company tents.
Kelly rode every minute possible while we were there, after not riding in Holland he was hangin out for it. I went and checked out the festival site and the cool Italian town with little streets and cool old buildings. The comp itself was pretty cool to watch, Kelly did some solid runs and it was hilarious hearing the announcer talk about him in German and Italian.
After the comp a rider came up to Kelly to ask him to sign his Turner bike – he had seen him in Red Bull Rampage Coverage and was stoked to see him in Italy. He was very stoked on Turner and getting to meet Kelly. When we told him our next stop was Venice, he was very excited because that’s where he is from and he immediately asked us to visit him.
Kelly rode every minute possible while we were there, after not riding in Holland he was hangin out for it. I went and checked out the festival site and the cool Italian town with little streets and cool old buildings. The comp itself was pretty cool to watch, Kelly did some solid runs and it was hilarious hearing the announcer talk about him in German and Italian.
After the comp a rider came up to Kelly to ask him to sign his Turner bike – he had seen him in Red Bull Rampage Coverage and was stoked to see him in Italy. He was very stoked on Turner and getting to meet Kelly. When we told him our next stop was Venice, he was very excited because that’s where he is from and he immediately asked us to visit him.
Kelly signing the Turner bike:
Our Riva crew - Rafa, Andre and Marcela - Thanks for showing us a good time!
The festival by night - party time!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Riva Del Garda KingOfDirt
Every year there is a Bike Festival in Riva Del Garda, Italy, which is right on the Garda Lake. They also host a MTB Dirt Jump comp which I entered. They built the jumps purposely for the contest, even though the scheduled comp day was hot and sunny the previous heavy rain forced the contest to be postponed from Thursday to Saturday. Luckily we had meet some awsome locals that let us stay on their couch for a few days!! The jumps weren't the best that I have ridden (sandy and soft) but it was still fun to shred with ze large German contingent.
when the comp ran on saurday quite a few spectators showed up and I found it hilarious to hear the german announcer talking about me...
I rode ok , just kept it real and stuck with the tricks I know as it was the 1st comp of a long trip, I got 8th overall .
Josh Bender was at the festival to do his "air show" ..which consisted of him gettin towed in by a moter bike and huckin a massive gap (suprise??), the show was cancelled because his partner Bobby Root broke his shoulder racing the enduro. Me and Bender discussed HUCKING TO FLAT techniques any ways. the next day I went and shot a few pix with ALE from Marzocchi up in the mountains behind Riva del garda it was sweet and me and Sha rode one othe rockiest down hill tracks I have ever ridden in my life! Whoa!
After the that we loaded all the bikes on the back of our BEAST of a car and headed to check out Venice
when the comp ran on saurday quite a few spectators showed up and I found it hilarious to hear the german announcer talking about me...
I rode ok , just kept it real and stuck with the tricks I know as it was the 1st comp of a long trip, I got 8th overall .
Josh Bender was at the festival to do his "air show" ..which consisted of him gettin towed in by a moter bike and huckin a massive gap (suprise??), the show was cancelled because his partner Bobby Root broke his shoulder racing the enduro. Me and Bender discussed HUCKING TO FLAT techniques any ways. the next day I went and shot a few pix with ALE from Marzocchi up in the mountains behind Riva del garda it was sweet and me and Sha rode one othe rockiest down hill tracks I have ever ridden in my life! Whoa!
After the that we loaded all the bikes on the back of our BEAST of a car and headed to check out Venice
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
3 Countries in one day...
After a mammoth of a mission we finally bought some wheels thanks to Kelly's legend of a cousin Luke and his Family in Holland. Here's the beast (and the car) in a wee village in Germany... 
The first leg of our trip took us through 3 countries, beginning in Holland and into Germany cruising the Autobahn and getting passed by Audi's, Mercs and BMW's pinning it!
The first leg of our trip took us through 3 countries, beginning in Holland and into Germany cruising the Autobahn and getting passed by Audi's, Mercs and BMW's pinning it!
We cruised from Germany through Austria to Italy. We were wowed by some cool typical Bavarian villages such as Dinkelsbuhl and Rothenburg.
Then we checked out one of King Ludwigs castles which was pretty flash. Kelly spent most of the time looking for places to ride his bike on the castle grounds.
We drove straight through the Austrian mountains to get to Italy and rocked into Riva Del Garda in Italy for the Bike Festival pretty late so didn't see much scenery until the next day....
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