Neustift Head to Head Rail Battle

This past Monday, Neustift in the Stubai valley got rocked by one of the chillest and funnest inner-city jib contests that have ever come through Austria. Martin Rasinger and the guys from BagJump dropped a jib line in the middle of town that included an up-tube onto a picnic table, followed by a giant kinked box and finishing up with a flat tube. The jib zone was mobbed by spectators like an illegal cock fight whilst a DJ kept the music pumping to keep the riders hyped and pecking and clawing at the jibs.

Here are some shots of the crew laying down the battle ground:

Practice started at 3 o'clock, but me and my homie Dominik Brunner didn’t really pay attention to the time cause we were busy partaking in activities I can't really disclose in this space. We basically showed up 5 minutes before the comp was supposed to start, so I really don't have much to say about what happened at practice. The contest was held in a head-to-head format with 4 heats of 5 riders each. A lot of good riders battled it out, including local heros Michi Schatz and Danny Mösl. Some riders from Slovenia like Mitja Kodric and Nejc Ferjan dropped some hammers too. The contest itself was hosted by the wildly talented Benny Mösl, who couldn't compete due to an injury.

Alex Beer transfering from tube to table, back tail

Michi Shatz visualizing his fancy moves before drops in

Dominik Brunner frontsiding into first place

Steve Grumser slip slappin' into second

The waiting and freezing riders were granted a warm-up run and after that each had two runs to flex their skills and impress the judges. It was quite difficult to lay down a clean run, as the slow snow caused a lot of speed problems. Nonetheless 8 riders managed to find enough juice to land some bangers and advance to the finals. The finalists were allowed a practice run to get their nearly frozen hearts pumping. The dropping temperatures did, however, harden up the snow and with the additional speed, the level of riding was raised a notch. When all was said and done, Mitja Kodric landed in third place, I got second and my homie Dominik Brunner got first. All in all it was a fun jam with friends and I hope more comps like this will go down this winter. Who says the early bird gets the worm? Ha!