1. THE VENUE
At just over a one hour drive from Salzburg in Austria, Leogang's bike park - nestled on the slopes of Asitz mountain - has been operating since 2001. With the likes of Kona coming on board to sponsor the park in its early days, it steadily developed into a destination for European riders seeking quieter alternatives to Morzine and Les Gets. While a steady stream of riders hit the trails in Leogang, its sister town Saalbach-Hinterglemm over on the other side of the mountain grew in popularity thanks to its annual freeride festival. As that scene developed, Leogang's own development continued, and bit by bit it built its reputation for being a popular destination for riding and competitions in its own right, even though back in the early and mid 2000s it only had a small number of trails on offer.
Its massive North Shore complex, dirt jumps and 4X course soon had riders of all disciplines visiting, and in 2010, Leogang held its first UCI Mountain Bike World Cup which saw Greg Minnaar take the win. The World Cup has been held in Leogang ever since, excluding 2012, which is when the bike park played host to the MTB World Championships where once again Greg Minnaar took the top step.
From the archives; MTB Cut and Chain Reaction Cycles bring us their recap video from the 2010 race.
2. THE TRACK
It's a bike park, so the tracks are going to be...bike park. Scratch the surface however, and you'll find Leogang's race track is a white knuckle ride at full speed, and because of that, year on year we have seen a whole lot of drama transpire without fail. The 2.5km downhill track used for the World Cup gets tinkered with every year, but essentially it is fast and full of big jumps, steep berms, roots and rocks. Situated on the Speedster track, the trail designers and builders have been busy building more high speed sections as well as extending the final jump in the finish line area.
Out of the start gate, riders enter the Asitz Gamber section; steep and fast with a few tricky rocks thrown in for good measure to complicate riders' line choice into a series of sharp berms and then into a rock garden. After exiting Steinberg Rocks, the track heads into a tunnel and out into a meadow towards the Stöckl Forest. This year, there is a new route over loose forest soil, uncovering lots of roots and stumps which will throw the racers off their pace for the Stoana Mää Jumps. Clean landings here are crucial for maintaining speed. Re-entering the forest, the Roots of Asitz await. Traitorous root carpets and rock gardens will test their technical skills. Will the riders pin over and hope for the best, or weave their way through? With the finish line in sight, the Stairs of Contrast rock-face leads the riders onto the Hollywood Section. This last, high speed passage will send them over an 18m/59ft table and onto the finish line.
3. THE WEATHER
"More clouds than sun with a couple of thunderstorms around in the afternoon" is the forecast for both Saturday and Sunday in Leogang this weekend. That's nothing unusual for Leogang; it's sunny one hour and then it's thunder and lightning the next. Statistically, although June is one of the warmest months of the year for Leogang, it is also the month with the highest amount of rainfall per day. Thankfully, these days the downhill track holds up pretty well in these conditions, although that can't be guaranteed for the new section. Who knows whether things will be as wet and wild in the woods here as they were in Fort William last weekend.
4. THE VANQUISHED
Leogang has been a bit of a gremlin track for Gee Atherton, having finished second behind Aaron Gwin in 2011, and second behind Greg Minnaar at the World Championships in 2012. Leogang 2013 was the ultimate kick in the teeth after not only finishing in fourth but missing out on valuable points for the overall Championship title. Leogang 2014 didn't go to plan either, with Gee only managing twelfth.
5. THE VICTORS
| If you have everything under control, you're not moving fast enough. - Mario Andretti, 1978 Formula 1 World Champion |
Although it is a bike park, there's an element of letting things get a bit out of control at Leogang. One of the most successful riders at Leogang is Greg Minnaar; coupled with this and his win last weekend at Fort William under his 2015 belt, will we see the South African dominate this weekend too?
ELITE MEN RESULTS:June 2010 // UCI World Cup no.3 // Greg MINNAAR // winning time 4:05.65
June 2011 // UCI World Cup no.3 // Aaron GWIN // winning time 3:44.18
Sept 2012 // UCI World Championship // Greg MINNAAR // winning time 3:21.79
Sept 2013 // UCI World Cup no.6 // Steve SMITH // winning time 3:23.96
June 2014 // UCI World Cup no.4 // Josh BRYCELAND // winning time 3:18.75
ELITE WOMEN RESULTS:June 2010 // UCI World Cup no.3 // Sabrina JONNIER // winning time 4:52.70
June 2011 // UCI World Cup no.3 // Floriane PUGIN // winning time 4:29.43
Sept 2012 // UCI World Championship // Morgane CHARRE // winning time 3:50.65
Sept 2013 // UCI World Cup no.6 // Emmeline RAGOT // winning time 3:52.87
June 2014 // UCI World Cup no.4 // Manon CARPENTER // winning time 3:42.52
Leogang has played host to plenty of drama at the finish line in its time, with the likes of Stevie Smith's win in 2013, and in 2014 when Josh Bryceland won his first ever World Cup win. Although not strictly speaking a 'winner' in terms of the top step of the podium, who can forget Aaron Gwin's epic tireless run down the hill last year?
For the Elite Women, the French have dominated Leogang in the past, with only Manon Carpenter breaking the trend in 2014. Rachel Atherton has never won a World Cup here, so with the win at Fort William last weekend in the bag, this elusive track will no doubt tempt her to put in that extra pedal stroke.
Stay tuned to Pinkbike for all the news from Leogang this weekend.
With thanks to Rasoulution Agency for the additional content.
MENTIONS:
@shimano /
@rasoulution / @natedh9 /
@parisgore /
@mdelorme
"Gwin is on fire with no tire"
Thanks - i'll be here all week, try the nuts.
BTW - I was going to call out to I Only Ride Park, but too derivative. Leognar?
Nice article by the way.
As for Gwin, he sure knows how to scrub and float over stuff that others get hung up on.
Honestly, I think it's probably better than the alternative for 99% of riders, but edge cases sure are interesting.
div id="fb-root">/div>script>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/de_DE/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));/script>div class="fb-video" data-allowfullscreen="true" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/RedBullBike/videos/778651005585784/">div class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore">blockquote cite="/RedBullBike/videos/778651005585784/">a href="/RedBullBike/videos/778651005585784/">/a>p>It's a little wet underfoot here at the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Leogang, Austria/p>Posted by a href="https://www.facebook.com/RedBullBike">RedBull.com Bike/a> on Donnerstag, 11. Juni 2015/blockquote>/div>/div>
Nevermind.... Found it using Google.
www.redbull.com/us/en/bike/events/1331684160070/uci-mtb-world-cup-2015-round-5-leogang-austria