On the fast and steep Mont e de l'Observance in Lyon, IIDA crowned its champions at the end of a very close and interesting season.
The best of the best was at the start of the most attended competition of this year (99 riders from all over the world, France, Austria, Germany, Italy, Morocco, Australia, Colombia and Israel): expert champions and young guns, with some more than welcome returns such as Alexandre Zweili, the Swiss kite-skater who, when decides to come back to his original discipline, is always next to the top of the ranking, Lionel Cattier, back to the races after a long series of injuries and his son Geoffrey, at his first competition this year after the world 5th place in 2007.
Harry Perna, fully focused on the race, showed probably his best performance of the year.
His perfect run allowed him to let the Moroccan jet Samir Hali one second behind him. Silver is Samir's career best anyway: congratulations to this extremely talented rider, still with a great future in front of him.
Daniel Ladurner did not feel comfortable on the new course in Lyon and struggled with the first left turn since practice runs. Despite this lack of feeling, he has been able to set a time good enough to step on the podium once again and to win his third world cup in a row.
Excellent 4th was the strongest downhill rider of Switzerland (together with the boarder-X champion Christian Montavon, 8th in Lyon on a course which did not fit his needs for tight bends and hairpins),20 Years Old Alex Zweili from Lausanne.
Alexandre Lebrun's 5th place was a great final for an excellent season, the best of his still short career. 2007's world no. 12 will step on the IIDA overall podium this year. Congratulations to him, who is going to be one of the stars of the discipline in the second decade of the 21st century.
Women's scene has been living on the duel between the two France's and World's fastest girls Marjorie Phlippoteau and S verine Christ-Thomas for a long time. The latter usually coming to close but clear wins. But Marjorie, from Paris, loves Lyon: she used to be extremely efficient even on the old course, but on this new one she placed the perfect run and for her opponents there were no chances at all.
Feldkirch's Austrian Sandra Ladurner, consistent on the third step of the podium, managed to be third in the overall ranking, too, letting Marie Marchand (FRA) 4th.
The German veteran Renate Frey, 7th in Lyon, finished her season on the world's 5th spot, congratulations!

We have to be sincere today. We were expecting much more from the world's capital city of downhill.
Problems with timekeeping frustrated both riders and public, affecting heavily the final ranking, too.
The course was great as usual, in the center of the town, with a very good standard of safety and a lot of public, but letting timekeeping aside, the speaker (who was speaking only French) could be heard only from the finish area, and provided no information at all to the public about who was descending, about the start order, and so on.
The riders' cars were trapped in a parking lot with dirt on the ground, luckily it was not raining.
Big lacks of info in the press release, too all these aspects should be fixed if they want to host the World's most important race next year.

An article on the whole season will be published soon, as well as full results, pictures, videos and the 2009 provisional calendar. Stay tuned

Inline skating is fun, inline downhill is extraordinary fun

(Gaby Leuenberger, SWI, former Inline downhill World Champion, Zell Am See, Austria, year 2000)

France dominates the scene in the Alsatian wet race of Climontstation, with two full podiums.
Among men, after Parent, Cedric Buxin shows to be one of the upcoming stars of the discipline and PUC's Emanuel Michonneau gets third place for the first time in his career.
In women's category, S verine Christ-Thomas, just married, won again in front of her strongest opponent Marjorie Phlippoteau and local hero Marie Marchand.

Even a not-too-difficult course like the one in Alsace might become really demanding under heavy rain: three braking turns heavily challenged our riders both from the technical and the psychological points of view.
Rain wizards, lighter and more technical riders seem to have a small advantage, in fact David Parent, Cedric Bruxin, but also Greg Pinto from Paris, one of the best in the world on wet surfaces, set great times in the first run.
In the second one Emmanuel Michonneau stepped on the podium with a consistent 1'50"76 in a very close race which gathered top 4 riders in less than one second!
French Poirier and Brichet are beginning to attend the top spots of WC races, this time together with the great German surprise Theo Frommlet, for the first time in his career in the top ten.
Among women a very good first run deceived Marjorie Phlippoteau, but a nearly perfect second one gave a deserved victory to S verine Thomas, one of the greatest champions of downhill history. She showed to be able to win on any course, with any weather. Chapeau.

France shows to be the core of World Inline downhill, with lots of top riders, expert champions and young guns. At the same time, French organizers have still a lot to learn to set up really world-class events.
This time riders had to face long delays, not enough safety on the course, a lot of problems with timekeeping and prizegivings.
With the unexpected cancellation of the race in England, the 2008 IIDA World Cup seems to be still widely open. The battle for the men's title is going to be between David Parent and Daniel Ladurner, with at least 5 riders who can still fight for the podium. The women's category has only one place on the podium still available, and Marie Marchand from France will have to clash with Austria's Sandra Ladurner.
The new exceptional course in Lyon will bring in the final verdict in three weeks.

This year's Maryhill IIDA World Cup and igsa Skateboard World championship started with 2 full days of practice, then continued with 2 days of practice and timed runs for the IIDA race, and concluded with the igsa mass races on the fifth day. The inline field was small, but the skateboard field was huge (over 150 skateboarders, and over 200 racers in all disciplines). The first practice day (Wednesday) started with some bits of rain showers as practice started, but from there on it was almost all sunny and clear, with winds varying from strong to ridiculous. The wind was strong enough at one point we had to wedge our helmets between rocks at the top to keep them from getting blown away when we didn't have them on. The course speeds are slow, mostly around 40mph, but the 17 turns mean there's never a dull moment on the course. Light braking is needed for a few turns sometimes, depending on the wind direction. The winds also made it dicey, mostly they were nice tailwinds, but there were a few crosswind and headwind spots, and gusts wrecked havoc at times. Smaller racers struggled with the wind gusts, which caused some crashes and pushed at least one skateboarder completely off the track.
Dave "Canada's Fury" Hughes won both day's inline time trials (and the IIDA race), using lots of fast striding at the start and in a couple turn exits. Overall the inline field was slower than last year, partly due to the erratic winds and partly due to being less motivated by the small field. Day one then had George Merkert and Scott Peer in the same second, followed by Warren Focke and Dave Lambert, with Tim Huber crashing and finishing slow. Day 2 was slower overall due to gustier winds, but Tim managed to jump into the second slot for the IIDA results.
Igsa race day was 4 man elimination, 2 heats of 3 in the first round (top 2 in each advanced), followed by 2 man consolation and 4 man final. In heat 1, Scott and Tim got the jump on Dave Lambert out of the start and held a gap to the finish to advance to the final. In heat 2, George and Warren took advantage of Dave Hughes' limited race day experience and advanced to the final. In the final, George led into turn 1, but Scott slingshotted after turn 2 into the lead with Tim with him. That order held until close to the end at the gate straight (next to final straight), with Tim drafting/training Scott, George and Warren riding solo behind. In the straight George displayed his fast roll and shot into the lead, just before Pucker Up, a left 90 leading into the right 180 known as Cowzer's, which had a crowd of crazy cheering Portland downhill fans lining it. But George started braking, and Scott shot into the lead again, and entered Cowzers on a nice wide line. At which point George and Tim dove inside to pass in the turn, leading to thoughts of a big pile up crash in front of the cameras (NBC intends to televise the race, at least skateboard, as well as a bunch of websites like Silverfish and mags like Concrete Wave). But we exited into the wind in the final straight skating hard: George, Tim, Scott, and Warren a bit back. Scott slingshotted off of Tim in the final straight, in pursuit of George. George swung wide for a nice smooth entry into the last turn, which left room for Scott to slingshot to the inside lead. George had a smoother roll on the outside and almost passed back, but couldn't quite reach the finish first and dove and crashed across the line in a crowd pleasing display. Warren got the pass on Tim to complete the podium.
There were lots of parties, with 2 bands each night on Saturday and Sunday after awards, plentiful food and drink, major pranks, 5 days of skating, and a fun time for all!

The third step of the world cup took place on the legendary slope of Col d'Izoard, in the French Alps. During two days of a perfect but cold weather David Parent won his first world cup competition after many years on the circuit and several podiums, in front of the 2008 world champion Daniel Ladurner (Aut and the greatest of the surprises, Cedric Buxin from France.
Some riders like the 2008 French revelation and current World No.5 Alexandre Lebrun pushed the limit too much and crashed, fortunally without any serious injuries.
The women category has been dominated by the French 2008 Vice-World Champion Marjorie Philippoteau in front of her teammate Marie Marchand and Sandra Ladurner of Austria.
During training runs on Saturday the organization, (far from being perfect as far as the race itself is concerned) set up on the other side of the mountain a world speed record attempt for longboards. Swiss champion Martin Siegrist pushed the official world record from 100.6 km/h up to nearly 105 km/h.

A hot day of races in a hot weather.
A wonderful victory by Daniel Ladurner with 37 degrees on the course on Saturday, some good surprises and a nearly perfect organization have been the highlight of the second IIDA world cup race of the year. The 2008 World Champion set the record of the course with 1'49"45, more than 1.5 seconds faster than Harry Perna and almost 3 seconds faster then the new national champion of Italy Nicola Piron. Racing at home with a lot of support, the former Italian speedskater stepped on an IIDA podium for the first time in his life. On not-too-fast courses he is going to be a very strong opponent for everybody.
Samir Hali (MOR) pushed the limit and crashed in the second run, while Alex Lebrun was incredibly fast on a course that should not have been perfect for his style. David Parent of France got 7th place, just before Davide Tacchini, at his first race of the season after an injury. He got his 4th second place in the National Championship.
In the Women's category S verine Thomas confirmed to be the fastest girl on the planet, preceding as usual Marjorie Phlippoteau (both French) and Austria's Sandra Ladurner. With no Italian women on the course, Marie Marchand was 4th again and good news came from the young lady from Lyon Albane Deloule, back to competitions after 11 months.
On Sunday, an exciting non-IIDA boarder-X competition took place on the same course, with Harry Perna who took his revenge beating Daniel Ladurner by 0,003 seconds, the photofinish was necessary to know the winner! Bronze medal for Samir Hali and 4th place for the local hero Piron, who crashed heavily in the final's Schivanoia curve.
Among women, with the forfait of Marjorie Phlippoteau, easy victory for S verine Thomas, in front of Sandra Ladurner of Austria and Maria Marchand from Nancy. Columbian Jessica Vergara, with her 4th place, got her first final in a world-level competition.

The 2008 adrenaline-packed RedBull Race in the Sarajevo 1984 Olympic Bobrun will take place next May 29-31, 2008. After a test race in 2007, the wonderful Capital City of Bosnia will host a really big event, with lots of riders and spectators..and adrenaline!

2007 selected invited international riders:

Daniel Ladurner, Werner Ladurner, Markus Huber, Frank Lutz (Austria)

Philipp Auerswald, Tobias Woehrle (Germany)

S bastien Laffargue, Greg Pinto (France)

Angelo Vecchi, Davide Tacchini (Italy)

David Grossenbacher (Switzerland)

Jean-Yves Blondeau (South Korea)
Ask them about their feelings after the 2007 experience!

News coming soon at  www.redbull.ba
2007 photos: www.redbull-photofiles.com

The leg-burning 3,5 km course of Maryhill, in the State of Washington, very close to the boarder with Oregon, quite unusual for standard European Races (3,5 km long, with 17 turns, none of which requires braking) saw the magnificent victory of the 6-time German Champion Tobias Woehrle, who set the best time in both runs. A great surprise came from the USA national Champion Scott Peer, who, in the second run, highly conditioned by strong wind gusts, was 14 seonds faster than in the first one! Davide Tacchini of Italy, maybe not deeply satisfied by his third place here, finished his season in the best possible way, stepping on the overall World Cup podium saving fourth place for Tobi Woehrle and fifth for Geoffery Cattier of France.
The Boarder-X race of Saturday found at the end the same ranking of the time-trials, with Tobias Woehrle who got solid victories both in the 4-men semifinal and in the six-men final. The fight for the second place was mainly between Davide Tacchini and Scott Peer, with former US national Champion Warren Focke drafting but never able to pass them. The really international field showed some new young hopes for the future of our discipline on the other side of the ocean. The 21 years old Canadian Dave Hughes finished sixth in his first international race and we all think he can still improve a lot, both tecnically and tactically.
This IGSA-too race pointed out a different way of considering inline downhill in the U.S.A. Overseas our discipline is almost a gravity-only sport, in which aerodynamics might be more important than a good skating tecnique or an effective braking power.

A great day of top level downhill on a small but funny course. In this way may be resumed the 5th world cup race of the 2007 edition of the circuit. Daniel Ladurner and Harry Perna (FRA) get 1st and 2nd place as usual: only 4/10 of a second separating them at the end. Samir Hali of Morocco, always very effective on this course gets his first podium of the season, while the 2007 French revelation Nicolas Varin after his great result in Izoard, takes the fourth place. If he is going to take part in every race next year, he will be a candidate for the overall podium. Among women, fantastic success by Marjorie Phlippoteau, who put almost three second between her and the second, Emilie Sadoux, also from France. Marie Marchand from Nancy gets his second podium in a row and is now only one point from the overall third place. The fight for top three positions in the 2007 world ranking is still very close: in the men's category only the last competition in the USA will decide who will get the third step of the Podium: Geoffrey Cattier from France, Davide Tacchini from Italy and the German colossus Tobias Woehrle (95, 93 and 92 points respectively) have almost the same chances to finish 3rd. Still some chances have also the Austrian blockhead Werner Ladurner and the 2007 World Champion Harry Perna. Among women the title might still be won by the two world's fastest girls Severine Thomas and Marjorie Phlippoteau, while the third step of the podium might be taken by Valentina Liguori of Italy and Marie Marchand from France (110 and 109 poits so far). This is going to be a very good season for our discipline, in which you have to wait the last run of the last race to know the winner! See you all in after the race in Maryhill, WA -USA- which will take place in ten days, on September 13-15. Pictures, videos and links coming soon!

On the always superwonderful french course of Col d'Izoard the Austrian and the French dominate the race. David Parent (FRA), Angelo Vecchi (ITA), Marjorie Phlippoteau and Marie Marchand (FRA) on the podium again. As usual on the fantastic corners of the Col d'Izoard, in South-Eastern France, despite the organization which, as expected with more than 200 riders and four disciplines (Stand-up, Streetluge, Buttboards and Inline downhill) had to use the whole day for racing, everybody spent a good weekend of funny downhill. It has been really a BIG event, with a superfast freeride on friday (almost 100km/h for the inliners on the steepy downhill of the other side of the mountain), training on saturday morining, and a very hard race on sunday. Two kilometres long, and with six turns which required braking, the course showed to be one of the most challenging ones on the circuit. As far as IIDA World cup is concerned, after the first run, David Parent from France was surprisingly first, after him Angelo Vecchi of Italy and Daniel Ladurner (Austria), very good fourth was the youngster from Lyon, Geoffrey Cattier. After these four guys, seven athletes gathered in one second! In the womens' category Severine Thomas and Marjorie Phlippoteau (both French) dominate the scene with two impressive times which would place them in the top ten among men! In the second run, a strong wind got improving the performance a very hard work for everybody, in fact, at the end, only a few riders set their best time in this downhill. Among them, Daniel Ladurner, who, with a simply perfect race of 1'54" won the competition, being almost three seconds faster than David Parent and Angelo Vecchi, who couldn't improve their previous time. Same ranking of the first run for women, too, so that Severine Thomas officially won the world cup, succeeding to Marjorie Phlippoteau, still her strongest opponent (in fact second this year). For an all-French podium, Marie Marchand got third place yesterday, but italian national Champion Valentina Liguori, despite her fourth place in Izoard, is still fighting for the overall third place. Waiting for the next race in Lyon on September 1-2, the fight for the the men's category overall podium is still very hard: in fact, if with Daniel Ladurner (AUT) and Angelo Vecchi (ITA) which should be solidly first and second, the German Tobias Woehrle, the Austrian veteran Werner Ladurner, Davide Tacchini of Italy, Christian Lins (AUT) and 18 y.o. Geoffrey Cattier (FRA) can still win the bronze medal. Full results and Pictures soon.

In an, as usual, greatly organized event in northern Italy, 25 y.o. Christian Montavon of Switzerland takes the victory with an impressive 1'51'75 in the second run. The two favorites Harry Perna (FRA) and Daniel Ladurner (AUT) could not improve their time in the second downhill and had to applaud the king of the "Schivanoia hill". One of the most talented riders in the world is back after a few difficult years, we hope his great performance will give help inline downhill in Lausanne, his hometown and the Mecca of downhill for many years. Among women Marjorie Phlippoteau and Severine Thomas confirm to be the two most powerful female riders on the circuit, getting gold and silver respectively. Valentina Liguori of Italy finished third before crashing hard in the boarder-X final. The spectators had the chance to watch an exciting fight for the national title, too. Angelo Vecchi and Davide Tacchini had both great performances, with Angelo out in front after the first run, Davide who passed him for just 1/100 of a second in the second one, before the last downhill of Angelo, who set 1'53"28, 3/10 of a second faster than Davide and enough for his second Italian national Title and for the 4th place in the World Cup race. The hunt for the World Cup Overall ranking is still open, with Daniel Ladurner, Harry Perna, Christian Montavon and Angelo Vecchi who may still win and another 5 or 6 riders who still have the chance to step on the podium. On Sunday the Boarder-X races took place. Exciting as usual from the quarter finals, this time the first rounds have been a little boring because of many riders who did not compete after they had taken part in the time trial race. Anyway beginning from the Quarter Finals the show was great for the hundreds of spectators on the course. The second semifinal was really spectacular, with three riders who hawked on the finish line at the same time. The judges had to study carefully the photo-finish to decide: Christian Montavon and Tobias Woehrle (Ger) in final, Mathieu Prudent and Angelo Vecchi at home for 3/1000 of a second! The start list of the men's final was really top-level and fully international: Montavon from Lausanne, Switzerland, Harry Perna from Lyon, France, Daniel Ladurner from Feldkirch, Austria and Tobias Woehrle form Albstadt, Germany. At the end, after a long drafting and pushing fight Daniel Ladurner took his revenge, jumping on the finish line in front of Harry Perna and Christian Montavon. Tobi Woehrle, 4th, was anyway very happy for his qualification. In the women's category, this time was Severine Thomas who took the victory after the other three riders (Marjorie Phlippoteau, Marie Marchand and Valentina liguori) crashed hard in the first big turn. Valentina had to take a tour on the ambulance, but she will be, as strong as usual, on top of the hill of Col d'Izoard in two weeks!

After a full day of top level competitions on the challenging German course in Albstadt-Ebingen, France took both the world titles, in the women's category, top three positions were French, with Marjorie Phlippoteau and Emile Sadoux.
In the men's world championship, silver medal was for last year's world number one Daniel Ladurner of Austria and Bronze for his teammate Domink Dobler.
In the World Cup runs Harry Perna won the 30 points in front of his strongest opponent Daniel Ladurner and of the surprise of the day, the 34 y.o. Frenchman from Annecy, David Parent. Among women, same ranking of the World Championships for top three (Thomas, Phlippoteau, Sadoux), with Valentina Liguori from Italy who took the fourth place in front of Marie Marchand (FRA).
In the German National Championship two fast runs carried Tobias Woehrle to a solid victory, in front of Theo Frommlet, who improved a lot his technique this year.
Among women Sandra Knupfer from Bitz easily won her third national title.
The 65 riders at the start gave life to a really spectacular show on the 2400m of the course, with breathtaking slides and top speeds over 80km/h.
The course was technical, physically demanding and fast enough to show the best of our sport: 11 countries represented, long straight lines, hard braking turns, at least 2500 spectators for the final, a great day of downhill racing!
Harry Perna, who is only 20 years old, took his second world title after the one at home in Lyon 2 years ago, confirming to be the strongest opponent for Daniel Ladurner, the three time World champion and dominator of the last seasons.
The Bronze medalist Dominik Dobler, as usual does not miss any important race, even if this year his trainings could not be as effective as in the previous years.
Everything can happen in the next world cup races, with Daniel Ladurner, Harry Perna, the Italian Angelo Vecchi (who got his third 4th place in a row yesterday), David Parent (FRA), Mathieu Prudent (also French, 5th in the World Championship), Tobias Woehrle (GER), the Austrians Christian Lins, Werner Ladurner, Frank Lutz and Markus Huber, Samir Hali (MAR) and Davide Tacchini still fighting for the podium.
The level of our discipline is getting higher and higher every year, and some new young guns (anagraphically or sportly) showed their real power, with France which is still the heart of inline downhill in Europe.
Very interesting was the prize giving of the Junior German Title, during which we saw on the top of the podium a new guy, Moritz Noerl, born in 1991 already one of the top slalom skaters in Germany, we will hear about him in the near future.
Talking about young riders, Geoffrey Cattier, 18 years of age from Lyon finished 10th with an impressive 2'32"54 on a course which was not for him at all.
On Sunday the spectacular 4-men heats races took place, with an interesting format with two separate races for top 32 and for places from 33rd to 64th . This formula gave life to close races in the first rounds, too. At the end Daniel Ladurner took his revenge winning the race in front of Harry Perna, David Parent (FRA) and Christian Montavon from Switzerland, always in the final in group races. Severine Thomas won the women's competition one more time in front of Marjorie Phlippoteau and Emile Sadoux.
Full results are available, pictures coming soon...