The Out of Bounds Weekend 2008: Pure freeride fun even though 26TRIX got cancelled

Last weekend, fast changing weather conditions didn’t curtail the riders’ and spectators’ joy during the mountain bike freeride festival in Leogang. Austria: racers battled one-on-one in the Kona Top2Bottom Terminator, world’s best dirt jumpers showed some of their hottest tricks and the legendary “De Buam” after-party more than coped the expectations. The weather didn’t make it easy for the riders, spectators and event organizers. Long periods of heavy rains alternated with short sunny moments on Thursday (purposed 26TRIX training day) as well as on Friday, when the 26TRIX qualifications were planned to be held. All the rain turned the dirt line into a muddy track. The course builders tried to cure the berms and jumps with flamethrowers, but the rain came back too fast every time, so there was no chance to secure a proper ridable course. Many big name riders – such as Andreu Lacondeguy, Cam McCaul, Timo Pritzel, Sam Pilgrim, Benny Korthaus, Jamie Goldman, Martin Söderström, Lance McDermott, Alex Pro or Trond Hansen – had a good time in Leogang anyway. If they were not using the very few and short chances to show their skills on the 26TRIX jumps, they raced Leogang’s go-car track, battled each other with water balloons or shredded the various trails of the bike park. At least it was not raining in the evening, so everybody could enjoy the barbecue party including a bunny hop contest in front of the B3 on Friday. Martin Soederström stoked the other riders showing 180’s and barspins up to 85 centimeters (34 inches), but Marius Hoppensack was the only one to make the one-meter-mark (almost 40”). So he got the props of everybody and 200 euros in cash on top. The Saturday did not bring any changes in the weather conditions, but a weather forecast that could not have been worse: rain all weekend long! So on Saturday midday it was decided to cancel the 26TRIX comp. All the pros kept on shredding the Bikepark Leogang tracks and the Kona Top2Bottom qualification showed some nice racing action. The “De Buam”-party rocked Leogang afterwards: Leogang’s event hall was filled up with hundreds of people and a lot of women in particular. No question, the riders had a very good time till the early morning. The finalists of the Kona Top2Bottom Terminator must have left the party earlier, because they showed hot rocking dual slalom action on Sunday morning. It was Andre Wagenknecht (Team RSG 52 Stollberg) to win the competition in a hard one-on-one battle against Florian Gottschlich. Right after his last run, Andre was pretty stoked: “It was a perfect weekend: I decided to come to Leogang just at the end of the week and the dual track here showed up to be built the way I love it. Winning the Kona Top2Bottom is a great feeling, but I had a good time riding the other bike park trails during the last days, too. Oh yeah, it was really a perfect weekend!” Oakley’s biggest bag and 200 euros in cash will make Andre’s travels even more comfortable in the future. But following finalists got cash and non cash prices, too: Florian Gottschlich (Norco Schwalbe), Andi Zehentner (ASKÖ Trendsport X-Dream) and Adrian Kapsalis (RSV Garching). It could be stated, that the Out of Bounds Weekend was fun for everybody who didn’t care about the weather. But just to be sure that you didn’t get it wrong: the 26TRIX is not meant to be cancelled in complete. The event organizers are confident of being able to find another date in 2008 to celebrate this great international dirt jump competition. Of course some points have to be clarified before, but the riders promised to come back to Leogang to rock the awesome and huge sized jumps! For further information about the Bikepark Leogang, its events for 2008 and the variety of tracks available, please visit: www.bikepark-leogang.com