Vienna Air King 2010 updates

The fifth anniversary of the Vienna Air King on April 10th and 11th welcomes over 60 riders from 14 countries. Athletes from Canada, USA, Russia, New Zealand, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic will hit the dirt jump line right in front of the Viennese city hall.

This year will be a premiere for everyone in mountain biking since this event will be the take-off for the Freeride Mountain Bike (FMB) World Tour 2010. First pictures of the course building give a preview of the hard rocking trick action you can expect.

Not only well known riders like the former Vienna Air King winners Benny Korthaus (2007, Germany), Sam Pilgrim (2008, UK), Martin Soderstrom (2009, Schweden) or freeride stars like Jamie Goldman (USA) and Darren Bearclaw (Canada) are on their way to Austria’s capital. Also a whole bunch of promising young talents like Pavel Aloykhin from Russia will be among the top riders:

Niki Leitner (AUT)
Darren Berrecloth (CAN)
Graham Aggassiz (CAN)
Jakub Vencl (CZE)
Jan Todt (CZE)
Tomas Zjeda (CZE)
Andi Wittmann (GER)
Benny Korthaus (GER)
Simon Kirchmann (GER)
Kelly McGarry (NZL)
Bartek Obukovicz (POL)
Mischa Breitenstein (SUI)
Linus Sjöholm (SWE)
Martin Söderstöm (SWE)
Grant Fielder (GBR)
Sam Pilgrim (GBR)
Jamie Goldman (USA)

The head of course construction, Andi Brewi, who also built last years’ dirt lines, modified the jumps set-up for 2010: “The starting tower is nearly 2 meters (6ft) higher, as well as the following dirt landing is built much bigger to create a perfect step down that can also be bombed with tricks.

Due to the step down at the start, you will be fast enough for the following 6-pack. These three jumps feature complete new wooden take offs that are bigger sized than the years before and have a super smooth transition. These are combined with dirt landings, as well as a quarterpipe at the very end of the course that gives all riders the chance to proof their park skills.”

The riders will definitely go for it – in total there are 10,000 Euros of prize money, as well as three Panasonic digital cameras for the Top 3 and an extra HD camcorder for the winner. In general it will pay out to show some absolutely stunning tricks: directly after two hours of qualification runs on Saturday afternoon from 2:00 pm on, the Panasonic-Best-Trick-competition promises an inferno of trick combinations from 4:00 pm on. The winner of the best trick session can look forward to 500 Euros cash and a Panasonic HD comcorder.

The Saturday will be topped off by the official Vienna Air king riders party at the U4 Club. But the TOP15 riders from the qualification shouldn’t party too hard, because the Vienna Air King finals are scheduled for Sunday 2:30 pm.

The Vienna Air king is the perfect kick-off for the bike season 2010 and the first Tour stop of the FMB World Tour. On April 10th and 11th, the Argus Bike Festival will attract more than 100,000 visitors to enjoy the bike exhibition and a great variety during the two days program. If you can’t make your way to Vienna, feel free to follow the live stream of the Finals on Sunday from 2:30 pm (CET) on www.watch26.tv/live. The live judging can be followed on: http://live.eim-solutions.com/vak10.