An awesome line-up of riders has been announced for the fifth annual Vienna Air King mountain bike dirt jump contest on 10-11 April.
The centre of the historic city will see the likes of Jamie Goldman, Amir Kabbani (GER) and Darren Berrecloth taking to the air on three large double jumps, the biggest about 8m (25ft) in distance.
Last year’s winner Martin Söderström from Sweden and this year’s White Style winner Sam Pilgrim of the UK will also be there, alongside more than 50 riders chosen from around the world.
Check the website for info or click ‘more’ to see more pics, as well as the full line-up and  more course details from the press release.
Vienna, Austria, March 23rd, 2010 – The fifth anniversary of the annual VIENNA AIR KING mountain bike dirt jump contest brings the who is who of the international dirt jump scene to Austria’s capital. Overall 50 riders from 15 nations will hit the redesigned dirt line at the ARGUS Bike Festival on April 10th and 11th.
The finals of the VIENNA AIR KING , which is the first stop of the Freeride Mountain Bike (FMB) World Tour 2010, can be watched live online on www.watch26.tv/live on Sunday April 11th from about 2:30 pm CET.
The VIENNA AIR KING dirt jump line will be bigger than ever before: the start is dominated by a massive starting tower with a small roll in, which ends in a wooden kicker to drop from 6 meters (about 20ft) into a dirt landing. This first step down jump guarantees the speed for the following three big sized doubles which all have wooden take off ramps and dirt landings. The first double is the biggest one featuring a jump distance of about 8 meters (25ft). The second and third set will be built a bit smaller to make sure that all riders get through the line that ends with a 3 meters (10ft) high quarter pipe.
Like last year, not only 15 well known riders are invited, but also 35 riders with the best and most convincing applications made it into the pre-qualifying round. The VIENNA AIR KING marks the annual contest season’s kick off and it’s always great to see the newest tricks of the big names and upcoming rookies in front of Vienna’s picturesque city hall. Beside last year’s winner Martin Söderström from Sweden and this year’s White Style winner Sam Pilgrim from the United Kingdom, also other big names like Jamie Goldman (USA), Amir Kabbani (GER) or Darren Berrecloth (CAN) confirmed to come to Vienna:
Niki Leitner AUT
Darren Berrecloth CAN
Tomas Zjeida CZE
Amir Kabbani GER
Andi Wittmann GER
Benny Korthaus GER
Marius Hoppensack GER
Simon Kirchmann GER
Bartek Obukovicz POL
Linus Sjöholm SWE
Martin Söderström SWE
Grant Fielder GBR
Sam Pilgrim GBR
Jamie Goldman USA
The list of additional riders that made it into the VIENNA AIR KING  comp amongst about 100 applications, promises some serious action on the dirt line: Pavel Alyokhin Vishneviy (RUS), David Acedo (ESP), Kelly McGarry (NZL), Mischa Breitenstein (SUI), Loris Vincent (FRA), Hendrik Tafel (GER), John Alm Högmann (SWE), the Samson brothers (GBR), Pawel Turno (POL), Mattias Gattringer (AUT), Fernec Horvarth (HUN) and many more.
