|
Bearclaw, Super T, Wade and |
Words by Florian Haymann and Dimitri Lehner
Canadian freeride stars Darren Berrecloth, Tyler Klassen, Wade Simmons and Thomas Vanderham recently joined the crew from BIKE Germany magazine for a wicked road trip right after the BIKE festival in epic Riva del Garda, Italy. And it didn't take long for things to get a little crazy. It was on the autobahn when we were watching Simmons and Vanderham bumping Bearclaw and Super T's Adidas van with their Volkswagen Passat at nearly 150 km/h. Thank god nothing happened - just imagine what would happen if those guys were involved in a high-speed car crash. The next freeride competitions and videos would have been pretty boring without these adrenaline cowboys. |
 The intrepid travellers: Wade, Bearclaw, Vanderham, and Super T - Photo: RonnyKiaulehn.com |
Nobody seemed to be any worse off after the highway antics, and a few minutes later Wade passed by smiling and flashing the victory sign: it was the first time he had driven a car at 200 km/h.
The day before, we brought the freeride elite to the BMW bike park in the Bavarian forest, close to the border of the Czech Republic. In Germany, the park is famous for its so-called Evil Eye trails, Europe's longest North-Shore style trail.
 Skinnies, German style - Photo: RonnyKiaulehn.com |
The wooden ladders and skinnies are built with typical German precision, "[b]ut the builders forgot the most important thing," said Wade. "The flow is missing. Most drops have no smooth landing or the obstacles are so close to each other that you lose all the momentum." "There's no point in creeping down," agreed Super T. The highest drop was around 10 feet, which is barely enough to show some style on the way down, but Bearclaw still managed to impress the crowd with no-footers. |
What made the trails hard to ride? Thomas Vanderham summed it up: "The course is packed with a lot of stuff - trees and roots in almost every landing, and that sucks up all your momentum." Even Super T had some weird crashes on the skinnies, which were full of knots and hard to ride on to.
Overall, the bike park is not as bad as it may sound. It offers two DH tracks, one bikecross, dual and dirt lines, so there was a lot of distraction for the boys. That evening, Tyler and Thomas discovered their love of drinks called Radler (which means "biker" in German, and is a mix of Sprite and beer) and Russian (Sprite and wheat beer) in a beer garden.
The next day was a big one for Super T, as he had just signed his new deal with Fox by fax in the morning. We found a sweet 18-foot drop for him in a forest near Nürnberg, but Tyler wasn't first to do the stunt, however; someone else had left a one-foot-deep mark in the soil some days ago.
"Looks sweet," Tyler said and launched into the abyss. He landed way smoother than the last guy and the kids standing around watching were stoked. Bearclaw went next and used his entire repertoire of tricks to get over a 25-foot-gap. Some kids tried to imitate the jumps, and one crashed hard head-first into the ground. When he got up, there was a stick with a leaf still stuck in his eyebrow. He was a little dizzy, but smiling and hitting the ramps moments later - all inspired by the Canadians. Next stop: Darmstadt. Some students called us in our office a couple of weeks before the road trip, telling us about their private little North Shore next to the university campus there. We told them that Wade Simmons would be in Germany shortly, which made them build even harder and more enthusiastically. Darmstadt is also the hometown of Stijn Deferme, the Belgian DH champ and a Red Bull competitor in Jindabyne, Australia and Utah. Stijn was suffering from a displaced shoulder that came courtesy of Cedric Gracia on the BIKE-Fest in Riva, but he was still dirt jumping beside the wooden structures. |
 Bearclaw showing how it's done Photo: RonnyKiaulehn.com |
Bearclaw soon lost interest, and instead of riding he shot some footage for his video project called "Run for Your Life II." Thomas liked the trails: "They are more like back home. Nice flowy stuff," he said.
Later in the evening we hooked up with Dirk Janz, the German Rocky Mountain and Race Face distributor, and his family. Affected by litres of red wine, Super T, who formerly appeared to be a quiet person and Mr. Understatement, now discovered his talent for entertaining the crowd. Tyler tried removing the bottom of a beer bottle by hitting it hard on the top (he saw that in a motocross video), but he underestimated the strength of German beer bottles. His hand must have really hurt the next morning.
 Wade - breaker of femurs and signer of bikes Photo: RonnyKiaulehn.com |
Our final riding spot on the trip was Würzburg. We hooked up with Larry Westney, Cannondale's marketing manager, in this U.S. army base town and he showed us his favourite spot. It wasn't long before we were being followed by a group of locals who couldn't believe that Simmons was there. They were freaking out, trying to call all their friends with their cell phones. One of them sent us an e-mail saying that having Wade and Thomas on their local trails was the best day ever. Not only that, Wade also signed one of the guys' RM7 "Wade Simmons edition" personally. That guy did a 15-foot-drop right in front of his idol's eyes, but because of his injured leg, Wade couldn't make the jump and let Thomas go for it. "I feel so useless," Wade said and made us laugh. Even though he wasn't able to ride everything, Wade showed so much finesse and style on the trip through Germany in search of the freeride movement that he helped start. |
