Lublin Sportival 2016

May 31, 2016 at 11:01
by Simon Nieborak  
Lublin Sportival 2016

I have travelled to almost all corners of Europe chasing dirt jumping competitions. Places in Germany, Austria and France are popping up regularly in the events calendar, but for the past couple of years, Poland has seen some strong movement in a good direction. Dirt Jumping contests are happening there more often now and they bring many talented riders from all over the globe. And so it happened that my hometown, Lublin, is so cool to put money on the table and do something great for the community. After a successful debut of Lublin Sportival in 2015, it came back again as a bigger event for old and new fans of freestyle mountain biking. This time it grew up in ranks up to FMB Silver Event. Lublin, a major city in the south-east part of Poland turned out to be a perfect host and all riders who came over to compete will remember it as something special. I am happy that events like this are happening in this part of Europe, this shows how much our sport means to people in general and how entertaining it is to everybody who is willing to watch it.

But events like this do not just organise themselves. There are many people behind the curtains. This time, it was actually someone who we all know very well, pro-rider, Szymon Godziek has taken upon his shoulders all this weight of putting together a dirt jumping competition. See below how Szymon, his crew and all the riders he invited spent a weekend in Lublin.

Lublin Sportival 2016

bigquotesI saw the first edition of Lublin Sportival on pictures and videos and found it as the only potential competition that Poland could go big with. So last year we had an appointment in Lublin and decided that we wanna make first silver FMB World Tour event in Poland there. We started the first preparations at the beginning of 2016. I had to decide how to build the course and what to build. I always enjoyed jumps in Switzerland for example at Rocket Air. The Flying Metal Crew always use pallets to build the landings, and then they cover it with dirt. We wanted to build the same way. So when I was at Rocket Air this year I asked the guys for some advice and everything worked just perfect. We used 1400 pallets and one mobile landing. With a six people crew, we started building the jumps on Monday before the comp. Everything went perfect and I tested the whole course on Friday. It was fun and safe. This is what I wanted to build to make a comp with best tricks. Saturday was a competition day. It was super sunny and hot. I even felt like I didn't want to compete cause I already had enough stress and pressure to make everything perfect. But couldn't give up and I tried to put everything away and focus on my runs. My runs went awesome. I landed everything I wanted to do and it gave me top spot. Pretty happy about that. After the finals, we had a 30-minute best trick session which was mental. Everybody sent it huge. We've seen so much crazy stuff which you don't see at other comps like front flip superman seat grab from Adolf Silva, 360 double downside tailwhip from Nuno Pintas, 720 cork downside tailwhip from Ryan Nangle or a huge frontflip on a step-down by Bienvenido Aguado Alba. Insane level. Everyone was happy after the comp and that was what it was all about to me as an organiser to make the riders happy. Healing vibes to Elof Lindh who broke his heel on a bad crash during the finals! - Szymon Godziek

Lublin Sportival 2016
Szymon Godziek is one of those riders who isn't afraid to get their hands dirty while building a course.

Lublin Sportival 2016
Lublin Sportival 2016

Lublin Sportival 2016

bigquotesPerfect course is when you don't have to pedal and brake for every obstacle. I think we did a good job as the track was fun to ride. Yes, the course could be longer, hopefully, next year we'll have that opportunity - Szymon Godziek

Lublin Sportival 2016
Maciej Malas, Szymon's right hand when it came to building the course. Maciej was working super hard from dusk to dawn to make sure everything is safe and smooth to ride.

Lublin Sportival 2016
Bienve shows good habits from La Poma Bikepark. He helped out so much!

Lublin Sportival 2016
Because there's never enough hands-on projects like this, every rider was happy to help wherever they could. Here's another Catalonian, Adolf Silva giving a hand to Szymon when moving the kicker.

Lublin Sportival 2016

Lublin Sportival 2016
Lublin Sportival 2016

Lublin Sportival 2016
Szymon who was responsible for designing the course had to test it as well. Luckily, he did the math right.

Lublin Sportival 2016
Last sun rays of the day...

Lublin Sportival 2016
Next day, all riders met at the top of the tower to start a long day full of riding under the blazing sun.

Lublin Sportival 2016
Lublin Sportival 2016

Lublin Sportival 2016
One of the judges, Patrick Guimez, checking out the course.

Lublin Sportival 2016
Ryan Nangle beating his demons. The first go on new, big jumps are always a bit scary, even for very experienced riders.

Lublin Sportival 2016
With time, all riders started to feel more and more comfortable with the jumps, which was clearly visible by looking at their tricks.

Lublin Sportival 2016
Kuba Sidzina with a massive suicide no-hander over the step-down.

Lublin Sportival 2016

Lublin Sportival 2016
Bienve was getting ready for the finals by practising his best moves.

Lublin Sportival 2016
Dawid, younger brother of Szymon, paid us a short visit, too. These brothers were born to ride bikes!

Lublin Sportival 2016

Lublin Sportival 2016
The scorching sun meant a lot of maintenance during the day.
Lublin Sportival 2016
Bienve shared a pro-tip of how to quickly pack the jumps. The guys loved the spade rodeo.

Lublin Sportival 2016
Polish crew of riders was strong. Here's Daniel Zawistowski with a perfect 360.

Lublin Sportival 2016
Adam Glosowic doing a backflip off the step-down.

Lublin Sportival 2016

Lublin Sportival 2016
Petr Andreev was killing this jump. He was clearly hungry for a good finish on the day.

Lublin Sportival 2016
Soon after practice, the qualies started. All riders lined up to give their best and fight for the finals.

Lublin Sportival 2016

Lublin Sportival 2016

Lublin Sportival 2016

Lublin Sportival 2016

Lublin Sportival 2016

Lublin Sportival 2016
The crowd gathered in large numbers to witness the finals. It's good to sometimes take mountain biking out from mountains and show it to the general public.

Lublin Sportival 2016
After the first round in qualification, Szymon was sitting in second. He definitely wanted to improve his score before the end of the competition.

Lublin Sportival 2016
Lukas was out of luck in this comp. He did not finish both of his final runs.
Lublin Sportival 2016
Over-rotated tailwhip 360, which stopped him from doing good in the competition.

Lublin Sportival 2016

Lublin Sportival 2016
Tobias Wrobel had no luck either, 11th place for this guy.

Lublin Sportival 2016
Elof Lindh started off so well. Until...

Lublin Sportival 2016
Bad luck struck him painfully.
Lublin Sportival 2016
The medical crew treated him instantly.

Lublin Sportival 2016
Elof broke a heel in this unfortunate accident. He already thinks about coming back stronger than ever. Wishing you all the best, buddy!

Lublin Sportival 2016
Marcin Rot aka Roteiro, current Polish MTB Dirt Jump Champion finished in 9th.

Lublin Sportival 2016

Lublin Sportival 2016
Nuno from Portugal was one of the hardest riding competitors in Lublin. A mechanical issue with his own fork messed up his plans for a podium.

Lublin Sportival 2016
Bienve and his signature trick, 360 Indian air.

Lublin Sportival 2016
Bienve was looking to go big in his second final run. Unfortunately, he had a big crash...

Lublin Sportival 2016
Loek Quaedflieg earned 6th spot with his stylish tricks.

Lublin Sportival 2016
Petr Andreev was proudly representing Russia. His style of riding resembles Pavel Alekhin's. Russian riders are amazing with how good they are and how indestructible they are. The jumps will crumble to pieces before they give up on landing a trick, which they want to land.

Lublin Sportival 2016

Lublin Sportival 2016
Max Mey finished in 4th. Who knows, maybe he would be on the podium if he wouldn't dab his foot on this double tailwhip...

Lublin Sportival 2016
Tomas loves spinning combos. And he always does it with so much style!

Lublin Sportival 2016

Lublin Sportival 2016
Second Frenchman on the podium. Well done to you, Simon Pages.

Lublin Sportival 2016

Lublin Sportival 2016
Szymon landed the run he put up in his head and fully deserved the win.

Lublin Sportival 2016
Straight after the finals, Best Trick started. As Bienve can front flip pretty much everything, he sure nailed the big front flip on the step-down. On the very first go!

Lublin Sportival 2016
Adolf Silva was trying mega hard to land his trick!
Lublin Sportival 2016
Same goes for Ryan Nangle. These two started their own battle on tricks.

Lublin Sportival 2016

bigquotesIn my head, I go for a flip 3 downside whip, but I think it kinda looks like a cork 7 downwhip. So stoked to land this trick at such a cool event. The best trick session was insane. So fun battling it out with Adolf to get our tricks. - Ryan Nangle


Lublin Sportival 2016
Frontflip seat-grab superman was the winning trick.

Lublin Sportival 2016
Congratulations Adolf! You crazy dog!

Lublin Sportival 2016
Top 3. Respect to them and all the riders who put up an insanely great show!

Lublin Sportival 2016


MENTIONS: @lunatyk / @FMBA



Author Info:
lunatyk avatar

Member since May 4, 2008
92 articles

14 Comments
  • 10 0
 those old buildings made a nice backing for the event and the pictures as well
  • 7 0
 ah i wanna see a video of this flip 3 downside whip, sounds insane.
  • 1 0
 Probably looks wild.
  • 4 0
 That big, white building on the hill goes "OMG Sooo much stoke". Once you see it...
  • 2 0
 Haha so true
  • 2 0
 Very strange a redbull athlete in his own country, would build and ride the course. Under monster being one of the main sponsors who put up the cash To make this event happen. Hmmm
  • 3 0
 A frontie superman seat grab and an Indian air-3 might be two of the raddest trick combos I've heard of in a while. Sweet!
  • 3 0
 Sick write up Szymon! Such a sick weekend ????????
  • 3 0
 Time to book my ticket for next year , looks good :-)
  • 1 0
 Szymon Godziek is way too corkside. You know i have cuddles, whatever that means.
  • 1 0
 Looks gr8 see yaa next year
  • 1 0
 Yup! Very cool!
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