So the DC team are out in the Czech Republic right now. Martyn Tambling, Lima, James Cox, Kye, Leo and Toby Forte all flew out late last week to travel through time, enter a crazy euro contest, show off in a few demos and generally lap up a bit of the culture in this unique ex-eastern bloc country.
The trip’s been running smoothly with plenty of riding going down. After a two hour white knuckle ride in the back of a van, Cheech and Chong (the Czech DC people) dropped us off at Trutnov – a weird little town in the backend of nowhere – where the contest was being held. Leo was crowd favorite during practice, but a nasty tumble just before qualifying saw him sidelined and forced to watch from the bleachers whilst drinking 50p beers. Lima had a couple of great runs with some massive combos over the box, tricks like: onefooted table to table and barspin to turndown had all the young girls in the crowd screaming his name and generally falling in love with him. A slac-nac 360, a slac-nac to invert, massive spine 360s and some creative lines saw Team Manager, Kye Forte take a very commendable 3rd place.
The team also got themselves invited to a sweet set of trails with sketchy Ewok style rollin’s and plent of jumps for everyone (except Coxie). The locals were a right mixed bag – from stylish trail riders to pedaling mountian bikers to Free Agents on Flying Fortresses to Bomer look-alikes – as always in Eastern Europe these guys have been reared on the “Anything Goes” philosophy and it makes for a good watch.
We’re back in-amongst the stag-do’s and strip bars of Prague right now. Up until thiis point we’ve only ridden contest courses, big concrete bowls and trails – this has left Coxie feeling like “a small disabled boy who has won a competition to go on a trip with the DC team”, but Kye has pointed out a few stair sets for him to jump down so as soon as the rain stops he might actually get to ride his bike… more soon and full story next issue.
– Steve Bancroft
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