15 opportunities for gold, silver and bronze over the span of five days, includes the spectacular UCI 2020 Mountain Bike World Championships in Saalfelden Leogang. Organizers Marco Pointner and Kornel Grundner give exciting insights into how the event is organized, especially in difficult times: “We have seen ourselves increasingly responsible for making the World Championships possible for the riders, teams and sponsors, but also for the fans.”

Five days of pure action with 15 golden chances – Saalfelden Leogang, the host of the World Championships, gives the heavily adjusted mountain bike calendar a bit of security. Approximately eleven weeks before the start of the UCI 2020 Mountain Bike and Pump Track World Championships, which will take place 7-11 October, the title battles in Downhill, Cross-Country, E-Mountain Bike and Pump Track are taking shape. After consultation with the UCI, organiser Saalfelden Leogang can now officially announce the schedule for the quadruple World Championships.

The festivities will start in the usual manner with the Cross-Country Team Relay race on Wednesday, October 7. On the same day, two more medals will be awarded when the E-MTB stars, both women and men, take to the track. On Thursday, the juniors will compete for gold, silver and bronze in Cross-Country. On Friday, the men’s U23s will compete in Cross-Country. Afterwards men and women will duel each other on the Pump Track for the coveted rainbow jerseys. The Pump Track competition will signal the end of the third day of competition.

The World Championship weekend starts with the U23 Cross-Country women. In the Olympic discipline, the two Elite competitors will then give it their all on the demanding circuit. The final day of competition on Sunday offers four more decisions – all of them Downhill. First, the Junior women and then the Junior men will rocket down the Speedster, before the Women’s and Men’s Elite finish the quadruple World Championships.

Spectator situation still uncertain

Despite the uncertainty caused by the Corona pandemic and the resulting difficulty in planning, the organisers are trying to make the title races accessible to spectators. A decision on this has not yet been made. All current information is also available at: www.bikewm2020.com

“Prepared for all eventualities” – 3 questions for the organizers Marco Pointner and Kornel Grundner

Organizers Marco Pointner, CEO Saalfelden Leogang Touristik, and Kornel Grundner, CEO Leoganger Bergbahnen/Bikepark Leogang, give exciting insights into the origins of the quadruple World Championships and the organizational challenges:

How did it come about that Saalfelden Leogang now hosts the quadruple World Championships?

Marco: “The UCI contacted us and asked if we saw an opportunity to integrate the Cross-Country and E-MTB competitions of the World Championships from Albstadt into our Downhill and Pumptrack World Championships. After we checked everything internally, it was clear to us that we could tackle a quadruple World Championships and that we wanted to take on the challenge.”

What are the biggest challenges right now?

Kornel: “The short-term is not optimal and rather unusual. The tracks for the Cross-Country competitions have yet to be completed. But the biggest challenge is that we are prepared for all eventualities. We don’t know how the pandemic will develop. Thus, we are currently working on four different “corona-ready” concepts. First of all for all athletes and teams, then for the entire media sector from journalists to TV teams, for all our own employees and helpers, as well as for spectators along the track and in designated corridors. Of course, we want spectators on the track, that’s just part of it and what makes Leogang and mountain bike sport so special. But the top priority is that we can host the World Champs and not endanger anyone.”

Nevertheless, the quadruple World Championships is extremely gratifying for the Saalfelden Leogang region, isn’t it?

Marco: “Of course it’s a great thing for us, for the Saalfelden Leogang region and for Epic Bikepark Leogang. We have invested a lot over many years, have developed as a reliable UCI partner and can once again underline our status as a top bike destination. But for us, it was also about the sport, the riders and everything around it. We have increasingly seen ourselves as responsible for making a World Championship possible for the riders, teams and sponsors, but also for the fans.”

For more info, head over to www.bikewm2020.com

© Photos by: Stefan Voitl and Klemens König

Following a successful Red Bull Rookie of The Year (ROTY) in 2019, the finish of which saw French rider Timothé Bringer travel to Crankworx Rotorua with a Wildcard and achieve a Top 10 finish, the FMB World Tour was looking forward to expanding the ROTY Award in 2020, but things don’t always go as planned. 2020 wouldn’t be the same without crowning a new Rookie of the Year, so in order for this to happen, the FMB World Tour is bringing back the video contest from last year and raising the stakes.

The times are changing, that much is clear. With an almost empty FMB World Tour Calendar for 2020 due to rescheduled and cancelled events, the Red Bull Rookie of the Year Award is going fully digital. In order to be eligible, riders must be 16 or older and below age 22 (age range: 31.12.2003 – 01.01.1999) and in possession of either an FMB World Tour License or an FMB Free Amateur License will be eligible to participate.

As part of the ROTY Award in 2019, the Red Bull Best Line was included as an extra contest result at an FMB World Tour Silver level. In 2020, the ROTY will be chosen through this video contest by a panel of judges.

The Rookie of the Year Award recipient will receive a Wildcard to an upcoming Crankworx FMBA Slopestyle World Championship stop, excluding Red Bull Joyride, their flights and accommodation covered, as well as a financial prize and their FMB World Tour License for the 2021 FMB World Tour season.

What’s changed from last year is that there will also be two additional Award categories; Athletes Choice and People’s Choice.

Athletes Choice is exactly what it says – a winner will be chosen by a panel of FMB World Tour professionals, whereas the People’s Choice will be carried out through online voting by the fans and supporters of the FMB World Tour and their athletes.

More details, including video submission details, ROTY timeline and Prize Packages for the additional categories, will be announced in the coming weeks, so keep an eye on www.fmbworldtour.com for the latest news.

License Structure

a) FMB World Tour License

The FMB World Tour License makes it possible for athletes to compete at all FMB World Tour Events, if they are qualified for the respective event level. Every athlete with this license will be listed in the FMB World Ranking and will have their own profile on www.fmbworldtour.com.

b) FMB Free Amateur License

For athletes, who just want to compete at Bronze Level Events, the FMB is offering a FREE sign-up. Coming with no cost whatsoever, an athlete who registers here will be listed in the global Amateur Ranking. The best amateur at the end of the season will receive his FMB World Tour License for the following year, so he can take the next step, compete and collect points for the FMB World Ranking.

Sign up for your license here: https://fmba.memberpro.net/main/body.cfm?menu=register

Keep your eyes peeled for further information about live webcasts and calendar updates on www.fmbworldtour.com.

During his previous Archive episodes Danny MacAskill made us realize how much effort goes into each of his banger moves. Sometimes a five second segment took several months of preparation and hundreds of fails. In his fourth episode Danny explains the risk and struggles behind the hippy hop knee slide from the 2015 movie “This is Drop & Roll”. After already having modified his bike and his shoes, it was only a matter of the right timing but at the end the whole team had to pull a night shift till Danny finally made the trick happen.

“In that night I definitely went through a lot of different emotions. After a few hundred goes I was starting to doubt whether or not it was possible for me to land it, but you just have to persevere. The key is believing that the next time it’s the one that you gonna land.”

Photo by © Rutger Pauw

During the 2020 season, the family-friendly bike region Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis is on the hunt for the #bestbikebanger, i.e. the best bike photo, shot within Bikepark Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis or on the surrounding single trails. The competition begins with the bike season’s kick-off and the winners of the #bestbikebanger challenge will be announced after the season. Anybody aged 16 and over, who owns a smartphone, has an Instagram channel as well as a little creativity and a good eye for photos is welcome to participate.

Mountain bike professional Jackson Goldstone and his family already did it. The four Canadians were actually the ones to initiate the #bestbikebanger challenge during their recent visit to the sunny plateau high above the Tirolean Inntal valley. This first challenge had Jackson and his sister Bailey compete at the bike park with their parents who rode on the single trails. Now it’s your turn!

Head out to the bike park or the single trails and unleash your creativity to shoot the #bestbikebanger. Every picture connected to biking counts. It doesn’t matter if it was taken shredding a rock garden, root sections or spectacular jumps in the bike park or simply enjoying the magnificent panoramic views on Scheidtrail or brand-new Jochtrail.

To participate in the challenge, you need to post your #bestbikebanger on your Instagram channel with the hashtags #bestbikebanger and #serfausfissladis while tagging their Instagram account @bikeparkserfausfissladis. The first prize will be two nights accommodation including breakfast and All-Mountain Rides tickets for the Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis bike region for a family of four, valid for the 2021 bike season.

The challenge runs throughout the whole summer season 2020 (27 June – 18 October) and all correctly tagged posts from this period will automatically be entered. Throwback pictures from the past years are more than welcome, too. The jury, consisting of pro rider Jackson Goldstone himself, representatives of the Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis Tourist Board and Bikepark Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis, are waiting for your banger shots!

What makes an ordinary picture a #bestbikebanger? Ron Goldstone, Jackson’s dad and by his own account winner of the internal Goldstone family challenge has this advice: “I think if you see a shot that makes you want to do what the person is doing, then that’s the best banger. It could be riding in a beautiful location, like the Frommestrail, or hitting a sweet berm or jump.”

For more information on the Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis #bestbikebanger-challenge please go to:

www.bike-sfl.at/de/service/gewinnspiel

In this third episode of Danny MacAskill’s Archive, Danny himself dives into Wee Day Out and explains the process of learning another quite unusual trick – the iconic Backwards Roll.