Photo Booth: DC Team in the Czech Republic
Leo, kick-out.
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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- Upon arrival to the hotel in Trtnov each team member was proudly presented with their very own TV remote! I love countries where the ability to change channels of the tele without getting up is bragged about and considered the cutting edge of modern technology.
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- Being part of mainland Europe it was a little surprise to discover that all three daily meals in the Czech Republic consist of ham, cheese and stale bread.
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- Liam inspects the local currency. As well as having a picture of a great beard, in Czech this note could be legally traded for anything from 1 barrel of beer to sexual intercourse with a prostitute to the chance to kick a midget.
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- They had some truly terriblle bands playing at the contest. The fingerless mtb gloves and neckscarf combo is the height of teenage fashion round these parts.
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- They had some truly terriblle bands playing at the contest. The fingerless mtb gloves and neckscarf combo is the height of teenage fashion round these parts.
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- After the bland food and dire music the team raise group moral with a Magnum from the garage.
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- Well they didn’t actually sell real Magnums, but the local version going by the name of ‘Nobbler’ proved to be just as rewarding.
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- Beer is cheaper than water in Trutnov: hence the blurry vision
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- This is actually the last jump in the dirt set up: hence why none of the team entered that discipline.
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- Kye table; Even thought the last set was such an anti-climax the hip proved to be good fun. Kye, Table.
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- Leo, Kick-out
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- Despite the butt-ugly carpets these trails were sweet and this jump in particular saw a heavy trick session go down: Lima, no-hander
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- Leo, kick-out.
