The fourth and unfortunately also the last day of the iXS Dirt Masters Festival completely focused on the iXS German Downhill Cup. In their final runs, Nick Beer and Kim Schwemmer were the fastest riders of their respective categories and took home the title.
Once more the iXS Dirt Masters Festival says farewell to riders and visitors, as the good weather also already did earlier today. Light rain accompanied the riders throughout the whole day and turned the rather dusty track into a slippery mess, at least those parts outside the forest. But the conditions made the race even more interesting.
In the morning the riders had a last chance to practice and to get used to the course under these new conditions. In the final run they provided the crowd with a last show which was a worthy completion of a memorable weekend. Even though the weather was not exactly good, numerous visitors came to the track and cheered for their favorite riders, creating an incredible atmosphere.
In the Masters category Martin Schneider (GER – Bikepark Albstadt) went fastest, followed by Wilfred Van De Haterd (NED – Nicolai Factory Team) and Benjamin Herold (GER – Team NRG).
Max Hartenstern (GER – MTB-Bande Schatzki) won in the U17 Male category, while Moritz Ribarich (AUT – Sports Nut DH Team) and Felix Krüger (GER – MRC Young Guns) completed the podium. In the U19 category Max Warshawsky (AUS – Bergamont Hayes Components Factory Team) succeeded, followed by Jonas Mucha (GER – RSV Elxleben e.V.) and Simon Weber (GER – MRC Young Guns).
Fastest rider of the Elite Women category was Kim Schwemmer (GER), which brought her a first title. With her best time of 2:16.018 minutes she was slightly faster than Carina Cappellari (SUI – Radon Magura Factory Team), who had already finished in second place in the seeding. Motocross rider Maria Franke (GER – Next Racing Generation) finished in third place and has now definitely proven that she does not necessarily need a motor to be fast. Seeding run winner Casey Brown (CAN – Bergamont Hayes World Team) had some problems at the track and only ended up in eighth place.
In the Elite Men category Nick Beer (SUI – Radon Magura Factory) again set the best time. The reigning Swiss Champ finished his final run in only 1:57.688 minutes. With a small 1.5-second gap Rupert Chapman (NZL – Bergamont Hayes) finished in second place, followed by Manuel Gruber (AUT – Radon Magura Factory) in third.
With this, also the last race of the weekend is in the books and staff and all the other helping hands can finally sit back and relax after the last traces of the weekend have been removed. A mixture of talented, ambitious and motivated riders, top brands, enthusiastic fans and exciting battles made it a memorable Whitsun weekend. Let the numbers speak for themselves: 35000 visitors, 1 200 participants, 100 brands in the expo and 180 cubic meters of waste – and all that in only 4 days’ time.
Behind the scenes, planning and preparations for next year’s festival have already begun. And those of you who can’t wait for the next iXS Dirt Masters Festival should definitely mark their calendars with a huge red cross at the weekend of 13 th to 16th May 2016. We will be right here waiting for you with more races and contests and a huge birthday party: Come and celebrate the 10 th birthday of the festival in Winterberg with us! See you there!