NIZZA

Once again it was time for the annual LVC season opening at the Cote d'Azur. After the inaugural trip last year there was no question that we had to return to the land of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Super Yachts that offers some first class hidden gems for mountain biking. We were blessed with beautiful summer like weather for the whole 10 day trip. It only rained once over night, which turned out to be the best thing that could have happened. On the picture below you see the corner jump we build in literally 15 minutes as the clay like dirt at the spot could be worked with like Play-Doh - dream come true building conditions.


Also the rain converted the overly dusty, almost Kamloops like dirt back into into a more grippy surface. Although the fun never stopped on the loose dusty conditions the days before, I guess I speak for all of us by saying that drifting into a loose, dusty berm just never gets old. For those who do not think alike, please check the photograph below for references.


There is one thing you'll have to be aware of when riding dusty trails at the Cote d'Azur all day. There is a severe danger of dehydration and suffering from a dry throat. Luckily the friendly French Men came up with an easy to apply cure that is both affordable and tasteful. As you can see on the picture below we easily adapted to this culture, coming rather close to a medical addiction or true French heritage as the locals called it.


If you ever make your way down to the Cote d'Azur for riding purposes be sure to check out Blausasc, this spot is insane, definitely one of Europe's best hidden gems. The terrain is a dream come true. It offers everything from fast, flowy downhill tracks to an endless selection of natural obstacles to play with like the sweet drop below, that we stumbled upon next to the fire road leading to one of the downhill tracks there. The best part is that most everything can be linked into a fun line which makes the whole valley there a huge freeriding playground.


This playground offers anything you could ask for. From fun little obstacles and jump lines to serious big mountain lines. Those by the way come in all sizes and varieties from short pinner lines with little consequences built in, over medium rough lines, to insane huge lines that are definitely bigger than your health insurance allows.


I guess after hanging out there for 10 days, there is no doubt why Fabien Barel calls this very valley his home. Just like there is no doubt that we'll return next year as this place offers more potential then you can possibly cover in one trip.
Thanks to: Alpinestars, Bikepark Leogang, Birdbox and Daniel Jakubowski



JOHN
We met John a few years ago and it is always a sick session when he comes to my backyard in Maishofen next to Zell am See. This year he was hurt and he could not ride for about three mounths. Two oparations stopped him from doing what he does best. This little edit shows some of the first sessions after his healing. This guy likes to go high with some style!






Lahnvalley Crew Playgrounds

Here's a little edit we put together over the summer months. We captured all of our favorite playgrounds that we've rode during the last couple of months. One definitely has to be our home base, Bikepark Leogang. If you love fast, bermy single track, make sure you check out the awesome trail riding in the upper park, in any case get a sneak preview right here. Big props go out to our friends at Bikepark Leogang for the awesome support of our crew and especially during the shooting. As much as we love riding trails we love to put in a hard days work to build new lines on our home riding area. This edit features some of the newly build sections in our backyard. Lastly of course, every real mountain bike addict will recognize the shots taken on the legendary lines in the Whistler Bikepark. We recently visited our/everybody's favorite spot, Whistler, BC. No doubt it's hard not to have a good time there. Thanks to all our sponsors who support us immensely. Enjoy!

We are proud to present our new sponsor: K9 Industries!

10.08.2011

At the moment hermann is riding a spring and a Handlebar sponsored by this young brand.




Hermann, Martin and Daniel at the Côte d'Azur

21.03.2011

Late February I decided to escape the cold snowy climate in my hometown Lahnvalley, Austria, to finally kick off the downhill season in southern France. My friend Martin was also fascinated with the idea of an early season start and joined in on the trip.
To escape the cold, snowy climate in my hometown Lahnvalley, Austria, I met up with Martin Schüller, Team Rider for Rotwild Bikes, to go on a trip to Nice at the Côte d’Azur in France, where our fellow friend Daniel currently lives. The plan to go and visit Daniel arose from the frustration both Martin and I had about the long winter in northern Europe and was nourished by what Daniel told us about both weather
and trails in and around Nice.
The town of Nice is nestled in the beautiful Mediterranean Alps right at the sea side, which makes the town perfect for riding as well as chilling on the beach. When Martin and I arrived at Nice we were welcomed by blue sky and boardshort temperatures in February. Despite the perfect conditions we didn't touch our bikes for the first two days as the intense party life in Nice got the best of us! After regenerating from the hangover we finally got the bikes out and were blown away by the terrain awaiting us. The first stop was the local home depot to buy a good old $8 shovel and shape up some berms. All together the terrain in the mountains around Nice is just awesome, it features everything from smooth flowy trails, to gnarly technical tracks. All this combined with perfect vista of the Mediterranean Sea. The mountains around Nice have perfect forest service roads that are not blocked off and which can be used as shuttle roads, that way blood sweat and tears are saved for the downhill only. Being exhausted from a whole day of full on downhill riding, Spanish style tapas prepared by some hot ass Canadian chicks, studying in Nice, couldn't stop the crew from crashing the place and trying to prove themselves in bad behavior. Waking up from another bad hangover we decided to take it easy and explore some new terrain. As most frenchies are not known for too much hospitality towards foreigners, we experienced the opposite with the bike shop owners in Nice, these guys rock! Our good friend Antoine (“oder wie er heißt”, german for: we do not really remember the dude's name) drew us a picture perfect map of all the sickest trails around town. Sure thing he was right about the trails and we were totally stoked. Now being equipped with our trail map which was still kind of vague as to where to go exactly as it basically only showed pinpoints on top of mountains, we figured our way around and stumbled upon some of the best trails the Côte d'Azur has to offer. To tell you the truth we are talking everything from like fast flowy to über steep technical stuff that is likely as gnarly as it gets.
Overall it’s been a great trip that ended with a (you guessed right!) big party. The next morning Martin and I switched on the auto pilot and made it home safely. One thing is for sure this hasn’t been the last time we will visit the Côte d’Azur for some awesome pre-season trail riding!



Today we took some shots on the trail

05.02.2011

Hermann´s new ride: Santa Cruz v10 Carbon
Weight is under 16kg/35lbs!
- special thanks to Thomas Blech!

04.02.2011

White Style 2011 - Interview with Grant Fielder

18.01.2011

night.

Cutting the next video...
...coming out in few hours!!


Yesterday we made some shots for the next video.
It is coming out soon


Gabriel found this nice video!