Last weekend most bikers headed to the beautiful Lago di Garda joing the Riva Bike Festival. Highlight was the King of Dirt, a FMB Bronze Event.
Congrats to the first 4 winners, looks like a TSG rider’s get together.
1. Thoams Genon
2. Amir kabbani
3. Patrick Leitner
4. Pete Henke
We couldn’t come to Riva, but escorted Sam Pilgrim to Solothurn for the Bike Days. Sam defended his titel of last year and placed first before Tomas Zejda and Mehdi Gani.
Ramon Hunziker is the poster child for mtb dirt jumping, slopestyle and freeriding in Switzerland. We have been supporting Ramon for couple years now as ambassador and are happy to now welcome him in the international pro team.
After lots of contest experiences in Europe Ramon entered the international stage in 2012 with an invitation to Redbull Rampage im Utah. And he made it to the finals, ranking 16th. Big mountain contests are among Ramons favorite as he likes tricks as much as free riding and is a talented and creative rider in both disciplines.
Being part of the Swiss Flying Metal Crew, Ramon supports rookies, builds bike courses and organizes own events like the Rocket Air in Thun.
As soon as the ice in the arena of Thun is melting, The Flying Metal Crew redesigns the area into a huge bike dirt jump course. Expect some of the world’s best mountain bikers fighting for price money over 10.000 swiss franks on April 12-13 and battle for important points in the FMB World Tour.
This year Rocket Air can boast with 3 great news.
Watch Manufacturer Swatch took notice of this fun and spectacular event and has committed to the next edition of Rocket Air as the title sponsor.
If you can’t make it to Thun, you can now watch it worldwide streamed live in HD. Qualifications and the Swatch Trick Showdown on friday evening. Finals on saturday.
And last but for sure not least, The Swatch Rocket Air tops last year setup with a longer and even more challenging course, bringing it to a next level. A new huge big air in the middle of the stadium with FMX jump dimensions awaits the riders. Starting from the nearby parking deck over a 6 meter high stage the riders need to exactly calculate their flight in order to not touch the 10 m high ceiling.
Can’t wait to be there! Meet us and our riders Sam Pilgrim, Thomas Genon Amir Kabbani and more.
At only 19 years of age, TSG’s Thomas Genon wins the Red Bull Joyride at the legendary Crankworx Festival in Whistler (Canada) – the most prestigious Slopestyle-contest in the world. The underdog surprised the mountain bike world with his victory as this young talented rider was not seen as threat for the top spot on the podium. In a tough battle with Martin Söderström, for 1st place, he came out on top, leaving Martin to take a 2nd place. Freeride icon Cam McCaul gained 3rd place.
His performance, especially his 2nd run in the finals, couldn´t have been any better: Thomas started his winning run with a 360° x-up off the starting drop, followed by a tailwhip on the boner-log and a backflip no-hander over the first gap jump. The young Belgian impressed the worldwide audience with his smooth and perfectly timed frontflip – a trick which Thomas is renowned for. He then proceeded to execute a huge double-tailwhip over the first hip and a tuck no-hander over the second. Further down the course, Thomas exited the fruit-bowl with a 360° x-up, to set himself up for the daring backflip on to the cabin feature – Thomas was the only rider during the event to attempt this. He completed his run with a 360°, dropping off the cabin rooftop, 35 feet on to the final landing. Despite an exploding back tire when landing the drop, Thomas rode through the victory-arch masterfully, taking the win and gaining his competitors’ respect. The Belgian demonstrated his tremendous skills earlier this year by winning two FMB World Tour events in Austria, the Dakine Airstrike at Saalbach and the 26TRIX-Contest in Leogang.
Fuelling the suspense at Joyride was the failure of other big name riders to make it in to the Super-finals: Cam Zink and Yannick Granieri experienced a hard fall, just like the current FMB World Tour leader Brandon Semenuk who didn´t make it into the top eight and consequently the Super-finals.
Dakine Airstrike – Saalbach’s urban Slopestyle competition and official FMB World Tour Silver event attracted some of the top European dirt riders. Last years winner Amir Kabbani, Germany’s hottest rider at the moment, took to the gnarly course which starts with a step down from the roof of a house, with the intention to retain his crown as King of the Dakine Airstrike. Although his run was near perfect and featured some of the most technical tricks out there at the moment, the young gun Thomas Genon stood between him and his crown. Thomas Genon shredded the course to pieces, determined to beat last year’s result of 2nd place.
Genon took off from the rooftop with a massive tailwhip flowing down the course to further execute a super high frontflip step up on the satellite dish, a 360 down and a 360 double barspin on the final jump. Thomas’s flow and range of tricks took the title away from Kabbani. In 3rdplace came Tomas Zejda (CZE), 4th place Clemens Kaudela (AUT) and 5thPatrick Leitner (AUT).
The premiere of the TSG King Of The Air in the evening of June 23rd, 2012 was a complete success. The crowed was stoked by the unbelievable trick performance on the 12m respectively 15m large Big Air kickers. At sunset the MTB and BMX dirt riders jumped into the night, accompanied by the happy atmosphere of the public.
The biggest highlight was brought by the 16 year old US American Nicholi Rogatkin with his Quadwhip, a world first on a dirt landing. This guarantied him the win in the BMX discipline in front of Patrick Guimez with a sweet Flipwhip. Daniel Tünte whipped himself on the third place with a Triplewhip.
In MTB we saw a tight decision between Bienvenido Albas Frontflip and Xavier Pasamontes Flipwhip, both over the 15m gap. At the end Bienve came out on top with his Frontflip. The Belgian Thomas Genon ended up third with a Double Tailwhip.
Followed by a 30 minutes jam session jury and public additionally crowned Best Trick, Best Style and Fans Favorite. This was when the creativity exploded, as the riders had many tries to land their tricks. The German Simon Moratz (BMX) took home the Best Trick title with a 360 Backflip.
Best Style won Desmond Tessemaker (BMX) with some unbelievable Supermans. This was a really tight decision, as TSG rider Thomas Genon (MTB) scored heavily with a beautiful 360 Flatspin.
Bienve Aguado Alba and the Swiss Ramon Hunziker split the price money of Fans Favorite.
More trick highlights were shown by Desmond Tessemaker (BMX) with a Pendulum to Tailwhip and a Cannonball Superman, Markus Hampl (BMX) wowed with a 360 Superman Seatgrab und Pasamonte (MTB) with a Backflip Superman.
TSG rider Daniel Wedemeijer landed during practice way to far a slightly over rotated 360 and crashed heavily. He had to go to hospital. Luckily nothing was broken and he got off with a swollen blue face. Recover fast Daniel!
Within the jury was nobody less than BMX and MTB legend Timo Pritzel, who didn’t wanted to miss our first own event. He enjoyed the mountains of Laax during some downhill sessions.
We are looking forward to next year’s event!
Results BMX:
1. Nicholi Rogatkin, USA
2. Patrick Guimez, FRA
3. Daniel Tünte. GER
4. Desmond Tessemaker, NED
5. Hampl Markus. GER
6. Simon Moratz, GER
DNS Daniel Wedemeijer, NED
DNF Lluis Lacondeguy, ESP
Results MTB:
1. Bienvenido Aguado Alba, ESP
2. Xavier Pasamonte, ESP
3. Thomas Genon, BEL
4. Amir Kabbani, GER
5. Kelly McGarry, NZL
6. Jonas Janssen, GER
7. Ramon Hunziker, SUI
TSG King of the Air Best Trick: Simon Moratz, BMX, with a 360Backlip
Best Style: Desmond Tessemaker, BMX, with a super extended Superman
Fans Favorite: Split between Bienvenido Aguado Alba, MTB & Ramon Hunziker, MTB
We crown the King of the Air and invite the world’s best mtb and BMX dirt riders to Flims for the TSG King Of The Air at the Dakine Trailfox. On June 23rd, 2012 the riders battle on two kickers with gap length of 12m and 15m, bringing new dimensions on swiss ground.
Besides crowning the MTB and BMX King of the Air, titles like Best Trick, Best Style and Fan’s Favorite wait for the riders. A total of 14.000 CHF pricemoney will be distributed amongst the winners.
Confirmed riders are the 26TRIX winner Thomas Genon (BEL), the german machine Amir Kabbani (GER), Bienvenindo Aguado Alba (ESP), Jonas Jannsen (GER), Tobi Wrobel (AUT), Ramon Hunziker (SUI) and Kelly McGarry (NZL).
For BMX battle the Lords of Dirt organizers Patrick Guimez (FRA) and Markus Hampl (GER), the italian stylemaster Alessandro Barbero, TSG ambassador Daniel Wedemeijer (NED) and Daniel Tünte (GER) as well as Lluis Lacondeguy (ESP) and Desmond Tessemaker (NED). More riders in negotiation.
TSG ambassador Thomas Genon from Belgium is the new 26TRIX champ 2012!
With a technical straight and extremely versatile mix he was able to push the Swedish trick machine Martin Soderstrom and Sam Reynolds (GBR) on the two lower spots of the podium. Thomas, a good example for the rapid progression in freeriding, showed almost everything that the world elite has in repertoire in 2012: From front flip, 360 barspin to x-up, to double tailwhip, a decade aswell as an gigantic 360 flatspin at the last jump. His broad variety, greatamplitude and high trick difficulty was rewarded with the first place in the end.
Thomas definitely made clear that we can expect more from him in the future. The 18-year old Belgian went home with 6,000 Euro prize money and lots of FMB World Tour points.
It’s the first time in 2012 that the FISE Slopestyle in France is a Gold event of the FMB World Tour and expectations were correspondingly high. Thousands of spectators came to the spectacular course in the middle of Montpellier to witness a great show from the usual suspects. After last years victory at the FISE Slopestyle Sam Pilgrim was able to defend his title and once again took home 1. place from Montpellier.
Thomas Genon ended up with a great 4th place!
Amir Kabbani got 6th.
Congratulation to all TSG riders.
FINAL RESULTS
1 PILGRIM Sam (TSG)
2 SÖDERSTRÖM Martin
3 GRANIERI Yannick
4 GENON Thomas (TSG)
5 REYNOLDS Sam
6 KABBANI Amir (TSG)
17 ALBA Bienve (TSG)
23 HENKE Peter (TSG)
25 HUNZIKER Ramon (TSG)
