Quantcast
Channel: EpicTV » Dan Milner
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 10

Summer is Almost Here – One For The Ladies

0
0

News is that summer is almost here. Well, in Marseille at least. There can be no other excuse for the kind of semi-naked behavior exhibited at the end of this film of the indoor jump event in southern France last week.

All that body sculpting is wasted on an over-appreciative fan that is a little too keen to show their admiration in a different way.

After a long winter of discontent, wielding fidgety legs and almost endless creative incarnations of mountain biking – from shopping centre spring sale gravity races to foggy snow slopestyle shenanigans – finally we’re delivered one of the most crowd-appeasing events of the season: the massive FISE Marseille Big Air.

It doesn’t get much safer than this, at least for the crowd of spectators. Sitting in a roofed stadium watching some of the most ridiculously insane jump skills (yes, that was a double front flip) of a select few riders is great way of delivering the wow factor. But think about it for a moment – it would be hard to be more distanced from mountain biking if we tried. Even at XC races the crowd has to walk about on real, grubby earth and breathe fresh air.

Overshooting the landing, Philipe was miraculously saved from harm by landing in the popcorn stand.

Inner city events of course have their place in maintaining our sport’s momentum, but nothing connects you to mountain biking more than to be smacked in the face by the draft of a rider railing past, to taste the dust between your teeth and be so close you can actually stroke a pro like a strangely long-armed stalker. Or even better to be out riding a bike yourself.

Yes people have to live in cities and pro riders have to rip their shirts off like cage-fighter wannabe’s (“hey this guy has been working out!”) but here’s to hoping this ‘us and them’ approach isn’t the way forward for mountain biking. This is seriously good riding and deserves to be seen, but how far are we going to follow the moto-supercross example? Or am I taking it too seriously?


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 10

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images