August 22, 2005

Bike-Festival - Lago di Garda Trentino

Bike-Festival - Lago di Garda Trentino Heat and ideal weather conditions reigned at the Bike Festival 2005! The sun burned down on the 2000 marathon enthusiasts from the start to the finish. All others welcomed the nice weather and enjoyed the sun while watching all kinds of activities taking place at the festival site.

Huge Jumps and crazy widths – Saalbach-Hinterglemm’s Airshow Two powerful doubles and 24 dirt jumpers were the perfect ingredients for a great dirt session. After warm-up and training it was apparent that Timo Pritzel and Marcus Wallborn would fight for the top places. Both showed off with amazing tricks and impressively high jumps. Wallborn was definitely showing the most difficult tricks; unfortunately his landings were not quite as clean. Pritzel’s jumps impressed with an unmatched height and eventually brought him the victory. A cheering and excited audience was also guaranteed by the long jumping contest. After being pulled up to 70km/h, Bobby Root jumped a distance of 21 meters. In the end the organisation decided to cancel the event after the first bad fall and a second botched landing, due to safety concerns.

Scott Nightsprint The 32 best sprinters qualified for the finals and amazed a large number of viewers. After finishing qualifying with the fastest run, Carmine Falco was seen as a likely winner of the contest. He fought hard and made it to the finals. A small mistake at start, followed by a risky pass, ended in an unfortunate mass-crash in the first curve. Only Tibor Simai could escape the collective crash and in doing so finished in first place, defending his 2004 title. Thomas Schäfer crossed the finish line in second place ahead of Carmine Falco, who ended up third.

Bike-Marathon – Garda Trentino The highlight of the Festival was the now famous marathon, which attracted nearly 2000 competitors. For the first time the marathon (80 km) was held as a UCI World Cup. For those not wanting to compete with the pros, the choice to go on a smaller lap was available.

Scott Junior Trophy 82 teenagers were able to show their racing skills on a 7-kilometer course. Although the wheels of those racer's bikes might be a bit smaller, their competitive spirit and enjoyment is just as big as anybody’s. One thing's for sure – the stars of the future are already on their way (or rather on their bikes...)

Big Ed is among us All yearround Big Ed will travel Europe and be present at the biggest sporting events. Big Ed introduced himself to the bike community at the bike festival for the first time. And don't worry – he will be back!