VIENNA AIR KING

Vienna, Austria, April 6th – The best dirt jumpers from all over Europe, the United States and Australia celebrated the beginning of the contest season during the Vienna Air King on April 4th and 5th. The 19 years old Swedish young gun Martin Söderström showed the most stunning tricks and became first. Paul Basagoitia from Minden, USA, secured himself the PANASONIC-Best-Trick-Competition with an excellent 360 tailwhip on the step down at Vienna Air King’s starting tower.The conditions were just perfect on the first weekend of April: it was not only sunny and warm, but the dirt track and its big sized doubles were also great shaped by the course designer and local Andi Brewi. No wonder that overall 100.000 visitors made their way to the ARGUS Bike Festival, which hosted the Vienna Air King the fourth year in a row. The riders showed the jelling crowds their newest tricks in three runs during the finals on Sunday, whereof the best one counted. It was Martin Söderström, who had a lot of pressure on his third run since he blew the first two runs. But he was rocking in his last run: a clean 360 at the step down, double tailwhip at the first jump, followed by a 360 on the second, and a bar spin on the third set, as well as a 540 at the quarter pipe. That’s what a winning run should look like – well-deserved, Martin took home 2.500 Euros of prize money and a Panasonic cam. The German Amir Kabbani also showed a stunning run: no foot can at the step down, no handed Backflip, 360 barspin to x-up, a tailwhip at the last double and a barspin at the quarter. The second place, a Panasonic cam and 1.800 Euros made his day. Third place was reserved for Paul Basagoitia from the US after showing a 360 at the step down, a backflip at the first set, a 360 one foot to x-up at the second set, and finishing with two tailwhips – one at the last double and one at the quarter. Congrats to the KONA rider, because winning the best trick comp and placing in the Top3 in one event is more than ordinary. The Brits, especially Sam Pilgrim and Lance McDermott, were in great shape, finishing 4th and 5th with tricks like flairs in the quarter (both), a backflip no hand (Sam), a backflip at the step down or a frontflip in the first set (Lance). It was also Lance, who already stoked the spectators with his huge flair look down at the quarter-pipe during the PANASONIC-Best-Trick-Competition on Saturday afternoon.The other finalists of the Vienna Air King did their best to impress the crowds. The spectators went nuts and were screaming until the final Top 15 riders of the Vienna Air King 2009 had finished their three runs:

1st Martin Söderström (SWE) NS Bikes 2nd Amir Kabbani (GER) Cannondale 3rd Paul Basagoitia (USA) Kona 4th Sam Pilgrim (GBR) Diamondback 5th Lance McDermott (GBR) Scott 6th Thomas Zejda (CZE) Horsefeathers 7th Sam Reynolds (GBR) DMR 8th Bartosz Obukowicz (POL) NS Bikes 9th Andi Wittmann (GER) Giant 10th Linus Sjöholm (SWE) Scott 11th Ferenc Horváth (HUN) Orbea 12th Daniel Madzia (AUT) 13th Ramon Hunziker (SUI) Specialized 14th Philipp Frühwirth (AUT) 15th Pascal Breitenstein (SUI) Kona