SAM PILGRIM: FIRST EUROPEAN EVER ON THE FMB WORLD TOUR PODIUM
The second of 2 Diamond events of this year’s Freeride Mountain Bike World Tour season is over and gives the World Tour a perfect ending. Even before the Red Bull District Ride it was clear that the official FMB World Tour Champion is called Brandon Semenuk (CAN) and would take home the golden CamelBak Better Bottle.
However, the battle for the top 10 spots remained exciting until the end. With his result at the Red Bull District Ride, last year’s FMB World Tour Champion Cameron Zink came a close 2nd. TSG’s Sam Pilgrim’s victory at the Red Bull District Ride lifted him onto the podium of this year’s World Tour. The overall FMB World Tour ranking is now complete and we have an ultimate list of the world’s best freerideers.
At the end of the FMB World Tour, this is the final top ten ranking:
1. Brandon Semenuk
2. Cam Zink
3. Sam Pilgrim
4. Messere Anthony
5. Martin Söderström
6. Cam McCaul
7. Yannick Granieri
8. Greg Watts
9. Darren Berrecloth
10. Kurtis Sorge
The Red Bull District Ride is the most legendary urban freeride event in the world and a truly deserved final for an extremely successful World Tour. The freeriding cream of the crop gathered in Nuremberg, Germany to battle it out on a course of biblical proportions.
And now Nuremberg has a new hero! In beautiful weather, TSG’s Sam Pilgrim delivered a truly impressive run. Our team rider won 1st place at the final event of the Freeride Mountain Bike World Tour with over 4 points ahead of Martin Soderstrom (SWE) and over 6 ahead of Brandon Semenuk (CAN). Trick after trick, the 12 riders who qualified for the finals raised the bar of the sport; you just don’t see tricks of these dimensions everyday. When Sam Pilgrim took off from the obstacles, all of Nuremberg held its breath at his performance. At every hit he showed another trick and convinced the jury with his consistently high level of tricks throughout all 6 Districts. It was plain to see that he was thoroughly enjoying the course.
CHECK OUT THE FMB WORLD TOUR SHOW WITH TSG’S AARON CHASE FROM THE RED BULL DISTRICT RIDE
The winner of the 26TRIX fueled by Monster Energy at the Bikepark Leogang is called Brandon Semenuk (CAN). The qualifying took place on Friday in beautiful sunny weather. In front of a breathtaking mountain backdrop, the dirt superstars who had come to Leogang from all over the world showed tricks on an extremely high level. Just in time for the finals, the weather unfortunately turned. Even though the newly designed course was able to withstand the pouring rain relatively well, the finals had to be cancelled and in the end, the results from the qualifying decided who the winner in Leogang was. Instead, the riders showed their best moves in a spontaneous best trick contest.
Judges and riders decided together to take the qualifying results as a final ranking. Because of the bad weather forecast, the riders had been prepared for this possibility and already went full throttle in the qualifying.
The course had gone soft and muddy overnight from the rain and it was questionable whether the riders could complete their runs without risking major crashes. Fortunately, the qualifying was already carried out on such a spectacular trick level that spectators and riders did not feel cheated out of the legendary trick action expected of the contest.
It was the 2nd run that helped TSG rider Sam Pilgrim come in on 3rd place. He showed a backflip tuck no hand, 360 x-up and backflip x-up one foot. After an extremely stylish 360 tabletop, he finished his run with a backflip and 360 tailwhip.
Fise in Montepellier is history. Here is a short summary of our team rider results.
Sam Pilgrim has extended his winning streak with a third slopestyle victory that puts him solidly in the lead for the FMB World Tour overall points. UK National team rider Sam Reynolds ended up 6th.
RESULTS MTB SLOPESTYLE
1. Sam Pilgrim
2. Yannick Granieri
3. Mehdi Gani
4. Louis Reboul
5. Thomas Genon
6. Sam Reynolds
7. Lance McDermott
8. Daryl Brown
In BMX our ambassador and Dutch national Daniel Wedemeijer aired 3.65 m on the quarterpipe at the new park course in Montpellier and won the Playstation High Air Contest. He ended up 7th in the BMX Dirt final right after Ricardo Laguna who got 6th.
RESULTS BMX DIRT
1. Chris Doyle
2. Ben Wallace
3. Pat Casey
4. Jean Batiste Peytavit
5. Alessandro Barbero
6. Tristan Musso
7. Daniel Wedemeijer
8. Ricardo LAGUNA
Congratulation to our riders! We will post some videos later.
Enjoy Sam Pilgrim’s newest mountain bike freeride edit. Filmed in Colchester, England, in MAY 2011. The video includes dirt jumping, street riding and skatepark action all on a MTB!
This edit contains maybe the smallest flair Sam has ever done, as well as a scary drop off a bridge which was near death and some new banger tricks!
Yeah Sam!
At the 2nd event of the FMB World Tour in Thun this past weekend, TSG’s Sam Pilgrim is able to cement his lead in the current World Tour ranking with yet another victory. After another solid performance it looks like he will be a tough one to beat this season. Pilgrim is in the lead ahead of Yannick Granieri (FRA) who was able to collect valuable points with a 3rd place in Switzerland. Szymon Godzeik (PL) took home a well-deserved 2nd place from the Rocket Air, allowing him to climb up to number 4 in the overall FMB World Tour ranking.
More than 5000 spectators came to watch the Rocket Air. Congrats to Sam.
The Vienna Air King is over and the asphalt on the Vienna city square is still glowing from all the hot biking action. If you didn’t make it to Vienna last weekend, the highlight clip lets you relive the atmosphere, excitement and tricks.
Around 70 riders from 15 nations gathered on the city square in Vienna this past weekend to try and take the throne at the 6th edition of the Vienna Air King. Never has Vienna seen more high-profile riders at one competition and the level of tricks showed that during the 2011 season we can expect the bar to be raised. Once again, TSG’s Sam Pilgrim (UK) prevailed against the competition and takes home the 2nd victory in a row and 3rd overall from the Vienna Air King. Even though Yannick Granieri (FRA/2. place) and Greg Watts (USA/3. place) tried everything to take the crown from Pilgrim – in the end nobody was able to push him off the throne.
About 120,000 visitors overall strolled over the city square in Vienna and were not disappointed at the first event of the FMB World Tour. During the finals on Sunday, the riders pulled tricks out of their sleeves that not only the spectators were impressed with. Judges and the riders themselves all agreed that the level of tricks was higher this year than it had ever been. Obviously, the level of tricks at a contest grows in direct relation to the jury’s demands – which is why Sam Pilgrim had to give all he had to make it to the first place during the three runs out of which two counted towards the result. He showed a sick trick at every jump and was able to convince the jury with his consistently excellent performance. From underneath the Red Bull arch he shot into the line with a backflip tabletop and followed it up with a backflip nohand. Next up was a 720 and to finish up a super clean 360 tailwhip.
Results:
1. Sam Pilgrim (GBR/TSG, NS Bikes)
2. Yannick Granieri (FRA/Commencal)
3. Greg Watts(USA/HARO)
4. Martin Söderström (SWE/Specialized)
5. Mehdi Gani (FRA/Probikeshop)
6. Sam Reynolds (GBR/DMR Bikes)
7. Tomas Genon (BEL/UMF)
8. Szymon Godziek (POL/Dartmoor Bikes)
9. Bartek Obukowicz (POL/NS Bikes)
10. Pavel Vishnevi (RUS/Blackmarket Bikes)
11. Antony Rocci (FRA/Rick the World)
12. Tomas Zejda(CZE/Dartmoor Bikes)
13. Jakub Vencl (CZE/Rose Versand)
14. Niki Leitner (AUT/YT Industries)
15. John Alm Högman (SWE/Scott Bikes)
