Live to ride

High flying mountain bike action as the Audi Nines ‘Send it to the Moon’.

Spending a week in a disused quarry is not everyone’s idea of fun, but when it’s the Audi Nines MTB Freeride Festival, it’s the only place to be.

20 September, 2018


Think Audi Nines and you immediately imagine extraordinary ski and snowboard runs, spectacular aerial displays and a course that looks as though it was designed by a seriously twisted individual. But the latest instalment of the Audi Nines took a different form, as the brand lent its support to an extreme sport of a different kind.

The Audi Nines MTB Freeride Festival in Rhineland-Palatinate, saw 20 of the world’s best extreme mountain bike riders (MTB) take part in a week long event held at a disused quarry in the Hunsrück mountains with the theme ‘Send it to the Moon’.

The Audi Nines MTB 2018 event was held in co-operation with the new Bikepark Idarkopf facility. When it opens in 2019, it is set to become the largest mountain biking location in Germany with 23 kilometres of tracks.

Although the pristine snow of the Australian Alps was swapped for dirt, the action on the wild course was no less spectacular – and the course again looked like the brainchild of someone with not only a serious imagination but a complete disregard for the laws of gravity.

The action over the week was ‘off the chart’ with riders from around the world pushing the envelope over the specially designed course. 

...20 of the world’s best extreme mountain bike riders (MTB) took part in a week long event held at a disused quarry in the Hunsrück mountains...

It was the first time for Audi as sponsor of the event as part of its continued commitment to extreme sports

The course was designed specifically for the competitors complete with 14 spectacular elements on a freeride line with challenging obstacles and a complete slopestyle course replete with drops, jumps and hips. The course in the Hunsrück-Hochwald region was developed by a design team comprised of mountain bikers Patrick Schweika (GER) and Sam Reynolds (GBR) following the simple motto “by riders for riders”. 

But the competitors are all more than just riders, with some of the stunts putting them more in the category of pilots than MTB riders. 

It was the first time for Audi as sponsor of the event as part of its continued commitment to extreme sports. Alongside the new title sponsor, the focus this year was on the new format of the competition, which saw the event expanded from its usual single day format to take in the whole week. This gave the athletes more time to prepare and perfect techniques over the course for the cameras and then, after viewing the video material, the riders assessed each other’s performance in a total of four different categories. 

For those into their extreme mountain biking, the competitors list was the veritable Who’s Who of world competition with Sam Reynolds (Best Freeride Line), Sam Pilgrim (Best Slopestyle Line), David Godziek (Best Trick Slope Style), Adolf Silva (Best Trick Freeride) and Lukas Schäfer (Best Style) emerging victorious in the Audi Nines MTB Freeride Festival. The starting field also included Nicholi Rogatkin (USA), Emil Johansson (SWE), Szymon Godziek (POL), Diego Caverzasi (ITA), and Geoff Gulevich (CAN) as well as Germany’s top MTB riders Nico Scholze, Tobi Wrobel and Amir Kabbani.

Best not try this at home!