Almabtrieb

Jungholz, Austria

Jungholz is a small Austria village in the foothills of the Alps. The town has a couple of ski lifts, and a seemingly endless supply of hotels.

The course starts at the edge of Jungholz. A large right hand sweeper leads into a high speed straight, which takes the rider 2/3 of the way down the course. There is a slight kink about half way down that requires breaking on a wet course. As you pass a restaurant the is a hard left turn. Almost immediately following is a set of s hairpins with a large patch of grass, perfect for spectators. Picking speed through the carousel, the course crosses the bridge into Germany and the finish.

Thursday, July 7

Sometimes I wonder why I go to sleep, cause it seems every time I wake up for a street luge event, its raining, today was no exception. I decided to sit out the morning practice, but about 20 die hard riders didn't. Each run they hit the hill a little harder.

The rain didn't let up throughout the day, but some continued to ride.

That evening there was a free BBQ at the tent. After we ate, we got to see the premiere of Standup, a show mostly about Daddow and Freeman's experience in Europe last year, with footage from Almabtrieb, Altburon, and Chamrousse.

Friday, July 8

The weather hadn't improved much, it is still wet and dreary out. Of course people kept riding.

After lunch I decided to suit up, qualifying would start soon, and I was going to get a time. It had stopped raining, but still very overcast. Hopefully the course would dry up. Some of the riders had a hard time finding proper head gear.

There was a long delay as there were problems with the timing system. We ended up getting some practice runs in before lunch, as they worked on the timing system. The course continue to dry out.

The locals set up a place to eat, and served sausages near the start. Since my hotel was across the street, it was where I ate. There was also some food at the main tent for those camping at the campground. During lunch the weather began to clear up and the sun came out.

We got some practice in after lunch, before qualifying started. Marcus ran tech near the finish line, and teched boards throughout the afternoon. Red Bull girls showed up with free Red Bull. Unfortunately they won't be here tomorrow. I was worried about qualifying, I was even wondering if I was going to race at all. By the time we did qualifying, the road was bone dry. I am sure I had a horrible qualifying time, as I was braking way to much for the turns, but I was very happy to run in the dry.

Since the bus wasn't coming back up, and our hotel was at the top, we used my car to get back to the top. As the car started going up the hill, the standup and inline guys came out of nowhere to hitch a ride to the top, for one last run. I think we had a dozen guys hanging on at one point!

The Americans stopped for dinner at the half way restaurant before heading to the party at the tent. They will be handing out the 2004 World Cup Trophies. One thing I've learned, especially when the timing is questionable, if you don't want to miss the awards ceremony, hang out with those receiving the awards. Even better hang out with the guy giving the awards out.

Buttboard and Luge: James, Gravity Bike: Kessler, Standup: Haller

After the awards ceremony there was some live entertainment. Someone played with fire outside. And one of the riders played guitar inside.

Saturday, July 9

I woke up to nice blue skies for a change. We got a couple of practice runs in, and then the standup race started. In the Alps the weather can change fairly quickly, so they wanted to get standup in while the weather was nice. Before each round, the rest of us were able to get a practice run in. I was asked to deliver the schedule to the announcer at the half way point. It gave me a chance to watch some of the standup racing, along with the rest of the crowd. There were several houses located on the course, and the crowd used them wisely.

I had lunch up at the start again. The townspeople also had a yummy bake sale.

After lunch we got a couple more practice runs in, then we had the buttboard race. Other disciplines continued to practice. It adds a little more time to racing, but it allows people who are in only one discipline to get as much time on the hill as people in multiple disciplines. David Dean won the race on the power of his start.

Gravity Bikes and Dirt Surfers raced next. Two of the bikers ended up pulling out, and there ended up being a 4 man race, but it was still GP style. Burel, who started in last because of a wreck in the previous heat, won the race because of a powerful start. The Dirt Surfers also did a GP start, which looked a little better with six racers.

Street luge was the next set of races. With just over twenty racers, most of the first heats were three man heats. With a poor start and conservative turns I was finished after the first heat. I wandered up to the spectator area to watch the rest of the racing. Dean was generally far out ahead of each of his heats. Apparently it was BYOB.

To make things interesting, and because this race originally started has a standup race, the standup semi finals were held last. And then the woman's race was run.  Followed by the standup finals.

Once again we hit the half way restaurant for dinner. Then it off to the tent for the party. First we had a live band to get things started. After the first band, the organizers Stephan and Yorke presented the trophies.

Buttboard: Dean, Baumann, Chaperon

Gravity Bike: Burel, Garcia, Kessler

Dirt Surfers: Uysal, Gut, Hutter

Street Luge: Dean, James, DeKyndt

Women's Standup: Nobre, Vogler, Luginbühl

Men's Standup: Burel, Barat, Haller

After the prize giving the party really started. I am not sure what the name of the band was, and they had odd uniforms, but they made some very loud music. After the band left, a DJ played music until the wee hours of the morning. Not quite the same party as last years Almabtrieb, but still a blast.

While a few people saw the paramedics, and I was a little worried about the vehicle that said "die" on it, but there were no serious injuries this weekend. The road was a lot of fun, with high speed straights, and a very technical section. The town was also very happy to have us here, and are looking forward to seeing us next year.