This weekend was all about the Rookies in Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis. We are looking back at some exciting days at the Kona MTB Festival with the fourth race of the iXS RDC and the iXS International Rookies Championships.
After last year’s great success of the MTB Festival, Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis returned and invited riders and visitors to Tyrol again. The schedule was filled with nearly all the facets of MTB: a pumptrack contest, a Slopestyle FMB Bronze Event, the fourth round of this year’s iXS Rookies Cup and – as a special highlight – the iXS International Rookies Championships.
Ike Klaassen
More than 200 riders from 17 different nations made their way to Tyrol to compete in both of the iXS races, providing the crowd with some mtb action at the 1.7 km track. A mixture of high speed passages, roots and rocks made it far from easy and set the tone for a demanding race. Organization and crew of the festival did their best again and even somehow managed to take another step up this year with a huge screen in the finish area and a live broadcast by Pinkbike.
The Rookies Cup 2015 includes riders from the age of 11 onwards, competing in 5 races in 3 different countries. The concept of the cup clearly is to help young riders to prepare for transnational and international series in the future. Therefore, all participants of the series are divided into 8 different categories.
Friday started with the first official training session and the seeding of the iXS Rookies Cup. This first official run did not only define the order of starters for the next day, but also presented a first chance to gain some important points for the rankings. After all there is only one more race left after this weekend. Andrew Dorritt (GBR – Junior Mondraker Team Schladming) of the Pro Junior U19 category set the best time of the day with 3:17.344 minutes, while Till Ulmschneider (GER – MRC Young Guns) dominated the Pro Junior U17 category with only 3:19.394 minutes. High speed and small gaps between the riders in the seeding raised overall anticipation and made for an exciting race.
Valentina Höll
Saturday’s race started with the non-licensed riders. The U13 category was dominated by Leon Widhalm (AUT – Mountainbiker.at), who already succeeded in his seeding, collecting all the points for the standings. Ike Klaassen (NED – Santa Cruz) and Tom Schlierenzauer (AUT) completed the podium. In the U15 category Janosch Klaus (SUI – Team Project) finished fastest with a 5-second gap towards Anton Metsärinta (FIN – DHT) in second, followed by Gabriel Wibmer (AUT – Alutech Cycles) in third place. The Pro Youth U17 and Pro Junior U19 categories included many ambitious and talented young riders, fighting for the first victories of their careers. In the Youth category, no one was as fast as Moritz Ribarich (AUT – Sports Nut Team) who finished with a time of 3:11.255 minutes, hence took the title and even would have finished in second in the Junior category with this result. Felix Krüger (GER – MRC Young Guns) finished in second place, while Jack Tennyson (GBR – Madison Saracen Dev Team) ended up in third. The best time of the day, however, was set in the Pro Junior U19 category by Andrew Dorrit with 3:10.348 minutes. He finished 1.8 seconds faster than second place Maxime Fransolet (BEL – The Fast Maxime DH Team), followed by Bennet Newkirk (USA – Team Project) who completed the podium.
Two days in the books, but one still ahead! After two days of the RDC, the Rookies’ agenda included yet another high-class event: the iXS International Rookies Championships.
After some training sessions, the Championships were officially opened by the so-called Fathers and Mothers, as the event is not entirely restricted to the youngest riders, but also tries to include their parents. But it was not only about the parents either! The Family Challenge was searching for the fastest team of both child and parent. In the end, Marko Joobst and his son Maxim Eichler (GER – U15 male) were crowned the fastest father-son-duo.
Awards ceremony
After this special competition it was finally time for the Championships to officially start. In the U13 male category Ike Klaassen finished fastest, followed by Gustaf Johansson Jones (SWE – Chalet Augustine Hinterglemm) and Leon Widhalm. Janosch Klaus won in the U15 male category, while Gabriel Wibmer and Marko Niemiz completed the podium. After an unfortunate RDC run, Valentina Höll (AUT – YT Industries) still reached her goal with the victory in the U15 female category with a 1.8 second gap towards Anna Newkirk (USA – Team Project), while Ottilia Johansson Jones (SWE – Chalet Augustine Hinterglemm) ended up in third. Moritz Ribarich went even faster on Sunday than in his RDC run and set an incredible time of 3:10.474 minutes, crowning him champion of the U17 males. Jan Flor finished in second place, followed once again by Jack Tennyson in third.
If you followed the race via live timing or live stream, you can be sure that you got a glimpse of the future downhill elite. And this is not only because of their speed, but also because of their overall performance in the whole competition, especially in terms of fairness and profession. And of course also Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis has to be mentioned again as the perfect fit for an event like this. With a region that is blessed with a bike park and a family-friendly environment it fully qualifies for the need of each and every participant and visitor of the whole festival.
For more information, visit ixsdownhillcup.com
Results iXS RDC: ixsdownhillcup.com/media/6980.pdf
Results iXS IRC: ixsdownhillcup.com/media/6998.pdf
Replay iXS IRC: pinkbike.com/news/main-ixs-international-rookies-championship-2015
Photos: Thomas Dietze © extreme-pics.de