Johannes Fischbach und Eleonora Farina officially are 2015’s Champions of the iXS European Downhill Cup. They were the fastest out of 300 riders from 26 nations and were crowned the winners of the season at the fabulous season finals in Leogang!
Since 2008 the iXS Cup pays a visit to Leogang at least once a year. It has been one of the EDC’s venues right from the start and played host to some of the biggest events of the Downhill scene. This year, the final round of the European series was embedded into the Biketember Festival, next to the Specialized-SRAM Enduro Series, the Scott Junior Trophy and a C1 XCO race. What a weekend filled with mountain bike action – the perfect setting to close the season!
The downhill track received a well-deserved face-lift just in time for the World Cup. Less bike park and more action – and Aaron Gwin made sure that this new course will go down in history already with his incredible chain-less run at the World Cup. Of course, it has been slightly modified for the European Cup and the riders can look forward to another demanding track with lots of fun and action on offer.
Everything was set for the weekend and the only thing that had the riders a little worried was the weather. Whereas Thursday lured the riders outside with sunshine and warm temperatures, the forecast was really bad for the upcoming race days – wind, rain and low temperatures. Against all odds the weather during the training sessions was still at its best, but the mountains always bare some surprises and the weather changes faster around here than you can change your tires.
Saturday’s seeding was important especially for the Elite Men category. While the other categories fought for their positions in Sunday’s starting order, the Elite Men fought for one of 30 seats in the Super Final.
Johannes Fischbach
Often, the podium consists of well-known names and faces, but sometimes new faces occur and surprise with their results. After his great success in the European Championships 20-year-old Jure Zabjek (SLO – Unior Tools Team) set a seeding best time of 3:29.789 minutes and automatically also belonged toLeogang’s odds-on favorites. However, Johannes Fischbach (GER – Ghost RRP) is a real strong competitor and was only slightly behind Zabjek. In the Elite Women category the female European Champion Jana Bartova (CZE – Ghost RRP) also dominated the seeding. While Zabjek already nearly managed to seal his title in the overall rankings, the result of the Elite Women was still far from clear and would have to be decided in Sunday’s final race.
In the U17 Youth Andrea Bianciotto (ITA – Korax Lapierre Dirty Team) was already crowned champion and had nothing to lose in Sunday’s race. He did not take part in the final run, but at this point we do not know if that was due to his success or for another reason. Maybe it was the weather, because it finally started raining on Sunday morning. Fortunately it stopped raining in time for the race and the track even had some time to dry. Moritz Ribarich (AUT – Sports Nut Team) was the only rider of his category who finished faster than 4 minutes and thus won the race with a 7-second gap towards Jakub Zbikowski (POL – ABC- Arek Bike Camp). This brought him the second place in the standings, followed by Joe Parfitt (GBR – wideopenmag.co.uk), who ended up in eleventh place in Leogang.
Carina Cappellari
Similarly clear was the result in the U19 Junior category: Loris Revelli (ITA – Argentina Bike) constantly collected points during the season and in the end the second place in Leogang sufficed to make him the 2015 champion of the standings. Today, however, Benoit Cougoureux (FRA – Les Gets Bike Park) dominated the race, followed by Revelli. Silas Grandy (GER – Nicolai) ended up in eleventh place, but still defended his position as vice champion in the standings. Cougoureux finishes his season with the third place in the standings.
Although Rostislav Stencel (CZE – Elitebikes One energy) dominated the Pro Masters category, he did not reach the podium in the standings. Frank Hedwig (GER – Rad-Art) came in second, while Mads Weideman (DEN – madsweidemann.com) ended up in fifth. Nevertheless, Weideman took the title of the standings, followed by Michal Sliwa (POL – Myslenice) in overall second and Frank Hedwig in overall third.
Eleonora Farina
In the Elite Women category Jana Bartova finished with a best time of 4:15.623 minutes and a clear 5-second gaptowards Eleonora Farina (ITA – Mangusta Bike Team) in second place. In the overall standings, however, it is the other way round: Farina took the title of the season, while Bartova follows suit in second place. Carina Cappellari (SUI – Radon Magura Factory) ended up in third place in both competitions, in Leogang, as well as in the overall standings.
The Elite Men Super Final was even more exciting than usual, as it did not only influence, but decide the result of the 2015 standings! Slawomir Lukasik (POL – NS Bikes FroPro) was the first man down the hill after having some problems in the seeding and he set a time that was 10 seconds faster than Pablo Seewald’s (ARG – Radsport Frei) best time in the Small Final. While Lukasik relaxed in the Red Bull Hot Seat Markus Pekoll (AUT – MS Mondraker), Nick Beer (SUI – Radon Magura Factory) and Wyn Masters (NZL – Team Bulls) tried to beat his time – without success. In the end, it was Bernoit Coulanges (ROC VTT Oz-En-Oisans) who finished even 4 seconds faster. Now all eyes were on Fischbach and Zabjek. But German Champion Fischbach crossed the finish line a second behind Coulanges, and Zabjek finished second-but-last in the Super Final. Still, this result brought him the third place in the standings, while Lukasik takes the second place. 2015’s official Champion is Johannes Fischbach. Congratulations!
Sławomir Łukasik
Another year of the iXS European Downhill Cup is in the books and the riders are released into a well-deserved off-season. Next year the EDC enters its ninth round with more high class venues and top riders! Until then: ride on!