Kurt Sorge leading up to 2011 Chatel Mountain Style

I had a fun 2010 season, but as for contests It did not go so well. I planned on going over early to the Chatel Mountain Style to do some riding in the Alps and to help give insight on the final touches for the course. The day before practice started, we went on an all day ride through the Alps for Canada day. At the end of the day the stoke was too high and I got zesty and broke my collarbone. So not only did I not get to defend my title for the Chatel Mountain Style but my whole contest season and chance to compete for the first FMB title was out the window.

My plan for 2011 was to balance all the filming and shooting I do with the contest circuit. I got a few film shoots under my belt in the spring and then it was time to get into contest mode... But our winter was so long that this year's spring riding lasted till mid summer making it hard to get away from the big bike and ride my little bikes on the little to no jumps we have in Nelson BC.

My first FMB comp was Jump Ship, it was a really fun weekend. But I ended up crashing in my finals' run and spraining my foot pretty bad and was not able to ride my bike again for 3 weeks until I arrived in France.


After a long day of traveling to France, I built my bike and took some pain killers and set out to test my foot on some DH laps with the boys before practice started. It ended up feeling pretty good, I could only notice it on really hard compressions. So we were getting fired up to go practice! I decided to do a few more laps and on the 4th lap of the day I was following Gully and he ended up going off course and smashing into the dirt wall on the side of the trail, which sent him flying back into the middle of the trail. I had no where to go but over... I tried to toss my bike and leap over him, but ended up clipping him and getting my leg tangled in my bike and going tomahawking down the trail. I got up and felt relatively fine until I looked at my shin... I had a 3 inch gash right to my shin bone. So off I went to the first aid tent. I arrived there and after cleaning it up they said, "I could either drive 2 hours to the hospital to get it stitched up or I could get them to glue it up right there..." So not wanting to make the 2 hour drive one way and then sit in a hospital all day and miss practice... I went with the glue... wrapped it up and headed for the Chatel Mountain Style.



The contest saw the best weather to date, and everything was dry and fast instead of the usual grease. The contest went well, I was stoked on my first run and ended up sitting in the hot seat. Being in the hot seat, I was to go last and see if I needed to step it up or not and I had a good feeling I was going to have to step it up.


I ended up being bumped into 3rd and with my final run in my head I was prepared to step it up. I ended up getting my flip no hander on the top big jump, but crashing on the cliff drop to a really flat landing near the bottom of the course, throwing away my chance for gold! But I was stoked on 3rd and more eager to come back next year than ever. I'd like to thank all the Bike Patrol and Sebee for putting on such a sick contest, and the village of Chatel for being so rad. Stoked to come back!

-Kurt Sorge