The Red Bull Rookie of the Year Award 2020 – All the Details Revealed!

COVID-19 might have thrown a spanner in the works when it comes to riding contests, but we’re upping the stakes when it comes to the Red Bull Rookie of the Year Award! Alongside the Red Bull Rookie of the Year Award, we’ve introduced two new categories – the Athlete’s Choice and People’s Choice Award, each with their own set of prize packs. 

Once again Red Bull and the FMB World Tour have once again teamed up to bring you the Rookie of the Year Award, which aims to highlight young riders (between the age of 16 and 21) from around the planet, asking them to submit a trick-filled video which will be judged by an FMB World Tour judging panel and the winner will get the chance to compete at a Crankworx FMBA Slopestyle World Championship event.

RED BULL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR AWARD

This season, the Red Bull Rookie of the Year Award will go to the winner of the Red Bull Best Line video competition. The riders who scores the best line will receive a Wildcard to a Crankworx FMBA Slopestyle event in 2021, including both flights and accommodation, as well as an additional €500, – in cash. Last year’s winner, Tim Bringer from France, was super stoked on the chance to compete and prove himself in his very first Crankworx competition, which took place in March of this year in Rotorua, New Zealand, where he finished 10th.

I was so stoked to finally ride my first FMB World Tour Diamond event! Riding a Crankworx course is definitely scary, but also fun at the same time and it just felt great to ride with everyone, especially since I´ve already known most of the guys from before the competition, so it was all about good times in New Zealand!” – Tim Bringer, Red Bull Rookie of the Year 2019.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR VIDEO FOR RED BULL BEST LINE

To enter this year’s Rookie of the Year competition, each athlete must either have a current FMB World Tour License or a free FMB Amateur License and be between 16 and 21 years old (born between 01.01.1999 to 31.12.2003). It is also mandatory to register for the event on the FMB World Tour website.

The clips must have a maximum length of 1 minute and must contain at least 3 consecutive tricks in one line. Cuts and additional music are not allowed.

Once you have finished your registration on the FMB World Tour website, it is time to upload your Rookie of the Year submission through Instagram with the following hashtags included:

#ROTYBestLine #fmbworldtour #Redbullbike

Please note that only posts containing all three of the hashtags will be eligible.

All eligible submissions will be judged by a panel of FMB World Tour judges – some of the same ones that judge at many of the FMB World Tour events. The judging panel will consist of Grant “Chopper” Fielder, Geoff “Gully” Gulevich and Paul Rak.

Grant Fielder had this to say about what they’re looking for when it comes to video submissions – “We’re looking for a rider who shows a high variety of well executed moves, a rider who will be able to adapt to the highest level of Slopestyle contests.

PEOPLE’S CHOICE & ATHLETE’S CHOICE CATEGORIES

This year brings even more chances to win prizes! We are introducing two new award categories: The Athlete’s Choice Award and the People’s Choice Award.

For the Athletes’ Choice Award, the winner will receive a FMB World Tour License for the upcoming season as well as €750,00 in prize money.

The Athlete’s Choice winner will be selected by a roster of well-known FMB World Tour professionals, including current riders as well as veterans. Riders like Emil Johansson (SWE), Lucas Huppert (SUI), Tim Bringer (FRA) and Anton Thelander (SWE) have confirmed their participation and will be joined by others.

The third category, the People’s Choice Award, will give a voice to mountain bike fans from all over the world, giving them the chance to vote for their favorite Rookie of the Year submission. The cash prizes for this category are awarded as follows: First place receives €750,00, while second place gets €300,00 and, last but not least, the third placed rider in this category will walk away with €200,00.

In order to make voting for this category as seamless and as fair as possible, all Red Bull Rookie of the Year submissions will be uploaded to Clippero, an online challenge platform, which will allow fans to vote for their favorite video on a scale of 1-10. People’s Choice voting will be opened once all submissions are in and all submissions can be found here: FMB World Tour Clippero.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR “PEOPLE’S CHOICE” VIDEO – AS A RIDER

1.    Head over to the FMB World Tour Clippero Challenge Page
2.    Click on “Enter Challenge”
3.    Register
4.    Upload your submission
5.    Get your friends to vote for your submission

HOW TO CAST YOUR “PEOPLE’S CHOICE” VOTE – AS A FAN

1.    Head over to the FMB World Tour Clippero by clicking here
2.    Watch the submitted videos
3.    Click on Judge Entry to cast your vote
4.    Once you’re ready to cast your vote, you’ll need to register to the platform
5.    Following registration, you’ll be able to cast your vote on the submitted videos
6.    You get one vote per video, from 1 – 10, so either leave a 10 on your favorite video or choose a Top 3, Top 5, or if you’ve got the time, watch them all and give them all a grade!
7.    Drop a comment on the video with your favorite part from the video – the riders will appreciate it!

If you want to check out the leaderboard to see which rider is currently in the lead, or how your friend’s video stacks up against the competition, check out the leaderboard.

Gabriel Wibmer Releases “An Almost Perfect Dream”

Gabriel Wibmer has roughly one year to go before he graduates from high school. Between studying and going to school, he needs some two-wheel-action to take his mind off. Right in the middle of doing his homework, the 18-year-old dozes off, dreaming of riding his bike. Join him in “An Almost Perfect Dream” and watch Gabriel’s latest video here:

Gabriel originally planned to focus more on the Downhill Season in 2020 and to participate in a few World Cup races as it would have been his last season in the U19 category. “However, Covid-19 put a damper on my plans and almost all races were cancelled, so we used the time wisely to realize a slightly bigger project,” said Gabriel about this year’s situation. He is already looking forward to the day when he will be finished with school so that he can fully concentrate on his riding career. In his latest video “An Almost Perfect Dream” which he shot this summer in his home region of East Tyrol, the high school student dozes off while calculating binomial formulas and dreams of what he likes to do best – tricks on his bike. Right at the beginning, the 18-year-old impresses with a mind-blowing Backflip-Frontflip combo on the trampoline. Afterwards, Gabriel continues with a number of spectacular tricks, some of which took Gabriel up to six days to learn. The final front flip into the “Tristacher See” lake brings the 18-year-old back to reality and to his math tasks. Some Making-Of clips of his newest video will be released soon and are definitely worth watching. Needless to say, Gabriel is proud of his video project and excited to see the three months of hard work pay off:” The original idea for the video actually came to my mind after a long day at school. Who doesn’t know the feeling of being knocked out and tired and then taking a nap? I had a dream about THE perfect bike day. Then I suddenly woke up because I had a crash in my dream, haha. So, the idea for the clip was more or less pretty random, but I think the video is really worth watching.” Cover Photo © Stephan Wibmer

Bike Kingdom Lenzerheide celebrates a nearly perfect debut season

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Bike Kingdom Lenzerheide opened its gates for the first time at the start of the 2020 summer season – and they did it with a bang: “The Legend of Tommy G” led the way in a spectacular, albeit not too serious fashion. A kingdom for mountain bike riders was to arise in the Swiss Alps. Not even mixed-up 2020 could stop it. The late bike opening was compensated by a corona-induced bike boom. Looking back, the rulers of the Bike Kingdom are more than happy with its debut season. The Bike Kingdom App proved itself not only as the digital extension of the trails, but also helped to spread the riders more equally across the kingdom and to reduce conflict with hikers – an issue that still shows room for improvement.

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Photo by Sterling Lorence

The announcement of the Bike Kingdom was a complete success. The YouTube clip “The Legend of Tommy G”, produced by Anthill Films, reached one million views within just two weeks. Of course, Lenzerheide’s repositioning includes new trails, such as the Top Fops singletrail, which connects the June Hütte with the Alp Fops or the “Urdenfürggli Twister,” which is riddled with tight switchbacks and takes riders to the Mottahütte, are just a few of the new offerings. There is also a new skill center at the Rothorn station, new drops in the bike park and the Bike Kingdom App of course. These efforts weren’t in vain: the Lenzerheide holiday region had the biggest increase in overnight stays compared with previous years across Graubünden and third-biggest across Switzerland. The cable-car companies speak of a record summer. Furthermore the “Bike Kingdom” project has been nominated for a Milestone, the official Swiss Tourist Award.

Photo by Lukas Imhof

Marc Schlüssel, Head of Marketing in the holiday region Lenzerheide looks back on a very special season in a very special year: “With the creation of the Bike Kingdom, the holiday region gave a new form of identification to old and new bike fans. Our aim, this very repositioning, that creates a USP in the market while satisfying all the rider’s wishes went very well.” Ironically, Covid-19 and the associated bike boom helped with the launch: “With the Bike Kingdom, we reinforced the topic ‘bike’ at the right time, thus Corona, and we started on the road to a successful development in future.”

The testRIDE event, which saw 2,000 people attend during three days, as well as the Bike Kingdom Feast, with special guest Tommy G, were a huge success. Both events had to take place on a smaller scale as originally planned but proved that the prevention concepts work.

All bike enthusiasts who are planning to make the most of this season, can still enjoy the Bike Kingdom until the 25th October. The X-Calibur Quest is a final highlight before the season ends: Ride number 3,000 down the Motta Express – one of the Bike Kingdom’s new trails – will be awarded with a Rocky Mountain Instinct BC Edition full-suspension bike.

#bikekingdom #bikekingdomlenzerheide

 

For more information on Bike Kingdom Lenzerheide please visit:

www.bikekingdom.ch
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bike.kingdom
Instagram: www.instagram.com/bike.kingdom

Title image by Christian Egelmair.

Emil Johansson – South Island MTB perfection

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When Swedish slopestyle pro Emil Johansson gets on his bike, he demonstrates playful ease in everything he does. He shows his unique style once again in his latest video project “Emil Johansson | South Island MTB perfection”, which was shot in Queenstown, New Zealand this March. In the breathtaking 3-minute video clip Emil jumps over huge kickers and proves with impressive tricks – including a 360 tailwhip windshield wiper – that he is completely at one with his bike.

“Back in March as the world was slowing down I was forced to extend my stay in New Zealand after Crankworx Rotorua 2020. It gave me a chance to make a good situation out of an odd time and I learned up with Scott Robb and Hunter Paul to film some fun on the bike”, says Emil about filming his new clip in New Zealand.

Bike Magazine x RASOULUTION – The Interview

Tarek Rasouli shares a long history with the German Bike Magazin. As one of their main pro bike models/riders for more than a decade, Tarek is looking back at countless memories, ups and downs as well as some of the first freeride photos and clips that were made during the pioneer days of mountain biking.

Tarek´s sister Nathalie Tanos represents the second half of RASOULUTION. Being very close to her brother, the passion for two wheels quickly swapped over. Next to being a BMX racer for years, she experienced Tarek´s career up close, from his Rockstar days to his life-changing injury, all the way to the start of his second career.

For the 15th birthday of RASOULUTION, Bike Magazin made their way to hold an interview with Nathalie Tanos and talk about how everything came together.

To read Tarek’s own words and his story, make sure to check out the whole piece in the September issue (10/2020) of Germany’s BIKE Magazin.

Saalfelden Leogang is gearing up for the UCI 2020 Mountain Bike World Championships

UCI Weltcup1

Three weeks until the UCI 2020 Mountain Bike World Championship in Saalfelden Leogang kick off and preparations are in full swing. From October 7 to 11, the world’s best Cross-Country, Downhill, E-MTB and Cross-Country Relay riders will compete for World Championship medals in 13 competitions. The circumstances are a particular challenge, but World Championships organizer and CEO of Saalfelden Leogang Touristik, Marco Pointner, is looking forward to the World Champs: “We want to organize a great and successful event, and everyone has to make their contribution,” says Pointner.

 

For the first time since 2012, UCI Cross-Country races will be held in Saalfelden Leogang. In addition to a new section for the Downhill track, a completely new Cross- Country course is currently being built and partly shared with the second UCI E-Mountain  Bike World Championships, which will take place on a slightly modified Cross-Country route.

 

“Unfortunately, we have to do it without our numerous mountain bike enthusiasts, but we respect the decision of the authorities. The health of everyone involved and the implementation of the event are clearly in the foreground. In addition, we are in contact with TV broadcasters and streaming providers worldwide so that mountain bike

fans can follow the action as it unfolds, from the comfort of their own homes. In

Austria, for example, the races will be broadcasted on ORF Sport+ and on Red Bull

TV”, says Pointner.

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For further information on the triple Bike World Champs can be found here:

https://www.bikewm2020.com/en

Photos by Moritz Ablinger.

 

 

Take a Ride with Fabio Wibmer in his new Saalbach Gondola!

Fabio Wibmer fans will be quite surprised when they suddenly find themselves being greeted by their idol in one of the gondolas at Saalbach Hinterglemm.

The partnership of the Austrian bike destination and Fabio Wibmer continues for more than three years by now and having his very own gondola at the Kohlmaisbahn cablecar in Saalbach is another great way to celebrate the close cooperation between the two. The entire gondola has been designed according to Fabio´s wishes and turned out to be a feast for the eyes. Its outside is completely covered with photos of Fabio shredding the trails of Saalbach.  A friendly “Servus Leitln” welcomes you in the gondola which is Austrian for “hello guys” and is definitely one of the phrases Fabio is known for. But there is more! Fabio´s gondola has its very own selfie point, which fans can use for a quick photo session on their way up, sitting next to a life size print of Fabio.

The lifts in Saalbach are open until 4 October, which will be your last chance to take a ride in Fabio´s gondola for the 2020 season. So, what are you waiting for?

 

Photos by Nathan Hughes.

 

RASOULUTION Celebrates it’s 15th Birthday: Velobiz Feature

15 years ago, shortly after Tarek Rasouli successfully organized and hosted his very first bike event called “Ride to the Lake,” RASOULUTION was born and a great amount of event requests followed quickly.

Nowadays, the agency is deeply connected within the biking industry and is on everyone’s mind when when it comes to pushing the mountain bike scene and helping the sport progress. As part of its anniversary, Velobiz made their way to our office in Munich to talk about the history of RASOULUTION, its ups and downs and how the sport has emerged and grown throughout the years.

“We want to help bring athletes into the limelight, stoke the fans and make them ride their bikes, whether on the trails or on pump tracks all around the world – that’s what motivates my team and myself!”

Enjoy the read. Even though it’s in German, we thought it would be a good opportunity for you to expand your language skills. 

Photos by Yorick Carroux.