Fall, it is getting cloudy, cold especially here in the Alps in Leogang. The dirt is getting hard, roots and north shores are getting frozen and slippery. You are looking back to a epic Mountain bike season and you are thinking “is it really over already for this year”? The Bikepark was already closed, so we decided to shuttling some last runs in Leogang.. The first day we came up to the top station pretty early in the morning and the fog was still lying in the valley. That was a pretty epic scenario. The riding was kind of different because the whole ground was frozen already but still a lot of fun. As well we got some shots from John hitting the 26trix jumps. That was the last shredding day of the season 2012, the next week it started snowing and the season was really over. But now the snow is melting already and we are already stoked and can’t wait for this season.






Whistler. The nowadays synonym of Mountain biking. Spending one season there full of riding your bike, experience the lifestyle there and the all around thing. That was the main idea before I decided to spend almost one year there. And when I am looking back now to that time I am glad that I made that decision. There is one big wave in that village and when you meet all those people there, they are there for the same reason like you. They are all on the same wave and you feel there like a bunch of people being there for the same reason. Mountain biking. That is just that unique community which gives the encore to that mind blowing offering how you can your bike there.



I was living in house with almost 10 mates. Most of the mates where riding bikes, our storage room was full of bikes. And the season went on. Andi Tillmann from the Infocus was living with me. Nicola Pescetto from the CPGang spent a season there as well and many buddies from back home came for Crankworx and we made up this video. We wanted to capture how fun a A-line train is, that whole lifestyle is and how big the trail offer is beside Whistler, Squamish the next village just for an example. For people from Europe it is unimaginable how big mountain biking is there, how endless the Canadian forests are, and how nobody is giving a shit if you are building a trail in there or not.



Whistler is such a all over awesome place. Exept riding bikes you can do so many more things in the summer time. FUN is probably the best word, to describe the lifestyle in Whistler. It is all about it. Doesn´t matter if you go rope swinging to the lakes, Wednesday local night in buffalo bills, everything is just so good. There is one vibe in this town and all the people are having this vibe, that’s the awesome thing there.

British Columbia is for sure a place where mountain biking is born and developed a lot.

And I met Scott Collingridge. He is living in Whistler. Funny guy. He told us there is way more good riding around and he had a car. So we decided to make a trip down to Squamish and we found such good trails. Probably the best trail was Grin and Holler with those ladder jumps at the end.

With that video we wanted to show you Guys how sick Whistler is, how sick the lifestyle over there is and first of all how sick mountain biking is. That is probably the main message and we hope you will enjoy that video.

Anton - Lahnvalley Crew

Thanks to:
team in[focus]
CP GANG
Andrea Manzara
Maximilian Morsbach







Trails. Probably the best way to experience pure freedom on your mountain bike. One of the best times for that in Austria is in the fall, when leaves are turning every colour you can imagine and the high alpine bushes shine red. A slight breeze cools you down and the lower forests wait covered with leaves and ready to drift.



We decided to make a small edit of one of Hermann’s typical loops. He lives in the valley Lahntal. After a full day of school he rides up his home trail and gets to a mountain ridge which connects Leogang (where one of the best mountain bike parks in Europe is located) with Lahntal. On the other side of the ridge is Saalbach Hinterglemm, home to amazing single track and a bike park.
After reaching the top, and eating a 'jausn' (a typical Austrian smoked ham sandwich with bread and some bad smelling cheese, that’s way better than a Cliff Bar by the way) he earned not only the stunning view over the Austrian Alps, but also the amazing ride down his home trail.



That’s how it should be, eh? After a day of school, hours in natures, a lot of fun, and some sport, the day is truly fulfilled. We all know what they say, ''a ride a day keeps the doctor away!''

-Lahnvalley Crew





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!

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

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



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



White Style 2011 - Interview with Grant Fielder

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!