The BIU international season began on Saturday 24th April in Italy with the opening round of the European Cup, which took place this year in Castiglioncello, un Tuscany. Tribal Zine were on hand to ride and to cover the event! You’ve already seen the results and a few photos, now here’s a full report and a larger collection of photos!

Report:

The Tribal staff and our two riders, Tom Francisco and Louis Grillon arrived at the venue on Friday in order to familiarise themselves with the sections, which had been set by the sea in Castiglioncello. Despite the rain, the rocks were still extremely grippy and even in the wet were still rideable. Even if they hadn’t been, K-124 Days a few weeks ago had prepared the riders well for riding in unfavourable conditions! After that, we went off to see if the Tower of Pisa, 20km away, was still standing...

The following day the sun came out and we saw that the setting for the trial was an idyllic little spot! The organisers had everything under control and everything went perfectly. There were a lot of people all over the rocks watching the exploits of the riders!

The comp was brought forward to 13:00 and there were queues on the first few sections, but the rules meant that you could skip sections and come back to them, so the queues didn’t last long. BIU Vice-World Champion Javi Alonso got his season off to a strong start… He is ahead in the European Cup with a three point lead over young Czech rider David Herka (Current Junior World Champion). Italian Champion Paolo Patrizi finished third with 42 points.

Javi in the sections. You’ll notice him using his pedal on an enormous sidehop, which was one of the more difficult moves in the Elite competition and so tight that only the 20” riders managed to get up it without a dab!

David Herka impressed us in Castiglioncello. This strapping young rider rode strongly all day and was only three points behind the winner!

Italian Champion Paolo Patrizi finished in third place.

Tribal rider Thomas Francisco, who finished fourth, just two points behind Paolo, told us about the Elite competition... “There were some great sections in Elite with some very big moves! You needed to be fit and the competition was pretty stiff, with hardly anything separating the riders from third to sixth place! I finished fourth, just two points off the podium… It’s encouraging, hopefully I can improve on that throughout the rest of the season. All that winter training is starting to pay off, I’m going to continue with my programme so that I’m at the top of my game for the World Championship in July”. Here are a few photos of Tom from Castiglioncello…

Ambrogio Chessa (seventh) making sure of the big sidehop… not a single 26” rider managed this move without a dab.

In Senior, it was Czech rider Prochazka who took the win, ahead of the Super Trial Show Germans Sebastian Hopfe (15) and Thomas Helbig (29), who we discovered recently in an impressive video and who both rode very well in Italy.

In Junior, there was hardly anything between the top three riders, with Slovak Ladislav Janoska standing on the top step, just a single point ahead of Tribal/Ozonys rider Pierre-Charles Thomas, who is rightly satisfied with his performance. The Junior winner has a lot of potential: he’s just 16 years old and last year was competing in Minime (Current Vice-European Champion and third in the China World Championship!). Third place went to Martin Kakac (Czech Republic), one point behind Pierre-Charles, shown below in action.

In Minime, Czech rider Vojtech Kriva (2009 European Champion) took the lead in the European Cup, seven points ahead of Vice-Champion Benjamin Andrea Riva (10) and Alesio Pavolo (16). In Benjamin, Louis Grillon put in a strong performance and left his rivals trailing as he sailed through without putting a single foot down. This is even more impressive when you realise that second and third placed Maxime Sintzen and Michal Pavlik finished on 20 and 21 respectively! Respect!

Louis Grillon by the seaside…

Belgian youngster Maxime Sintzen, second in Benjamin...

In Poussin, the battle for the top spot was fierce and the top three riders, who all finished on zero, had to be separated on time… They all rode extremely well and it was how each of them managed their competition that made the difference. British rider Charlie Rolls, who won K-124 Days not long ago, stood atop the podium and young Adam Morewood, who also rode extremely well, finished in second… English trials has a bright future! Romain Léonard (Belgium) finished off the podium in third.

A photo of the young prodigies all together… From left to right: Charlie Rolls, Adam Morewood, Maxime Sintzen, Louis Grillon and Romain Léonard.

The competition will have been difficult for young Minime rider Rémy Sailly, but he stepped up to the challenge in his first international competition in the category and showed himself to be very determined.

In the Femina category, young Czech rider Marie Krivova rode very well and opened an impressive gap between herself and her closest rivals.

Her fellow Czech Andrea Kabicka took second ahead of Belgian Maurine Sintzen.

They came from Buthiers... From left to right: Rémy Sailly, Ludwig and Loic Giller.

A couple of seaside shots…