Euro Bike

Howzit,

Well last week Sam, Ollie and I had a little road trip, Well I say little we went down to Friedrichshafen in Germany for Euro Bike. Ollie and Sam picked me up from Portsmouth at about 10pm on Tuesday and after a little chat with a few girls that were passing we hit the road, next stop the channel tunnel. We caught the 1:30am boat had a little nap then drove for about an hour and decided to pull in for the night. sleeping arrangements were slim so Ollie got the front seat Sam had the back seats and had the coffin which was under the board across the wheel arches so I had about a foot and a half head room luckily I am not claustrophobic. Next morning we headed for Euro Bike had a few little detours but made it in the end.
Arrived at around 7pm and just in time for dinner with the Lezyne guys which turned out to be a fun night. That night we had nowhere to sleep so we decided to camp at the lake, which was sweet looking over the lake at the Alps on the other side. after having a cold wash in the lake we turned in for the night and back to my coffin.
Thursday and our first day at the show. Couldn't believe how big it was and so many brands that I have never heard of. Checked out the DMR stand and it looked sweet. clean and not to in your face. Went outside to check out the Dirt jump course and pump track it looked sick the landings were made with a base of big rocks with grass on the side and little trees, met up with Vanessa who I'd met at Big in Baveria a few weeks before. Had a walk round with Sam and Ollie playing the helmet game, basicly you walk around and find the wierdist looking full face helmets and without laughing which was not possible, take a photo of Ollie wearing it. We used Ollie because his head was perfect for it.
Only managed to see half the stands that day. Had a little practise ride on the jumps and the first straight was sick but after the berm it was hard to get speed for the last two. got used to them after a while though.
That night and another sweet dinner with Vanessa, all the DMR guys and the people from Taiwan who make everything DMR that's metal. That night we decided to back to the lake because it was sweet and also because we had not organised camping. We swapped vans and took the Upgrade van because it was bigger and had beds in it. again had a wash in the lake, chilled out for a bit then caught some ZZZZ's.
Friday and day of Qualifying never did much that day had a look at the rest of the show then went for a bit of practise before Quali's put a sweet run together. 12 out of 50 riders went through to the finals. It was one run and my turn came and did my run perfectly Flip table the first, three one foot X the second round the berm to tailwhip on the third and three table on the last was stoked with my run. Now just had to wait to see if it was enough but i felt confident. Blake had his run and was a good one with a superman one hander on the last but slipped a pedal. We left to go get cleaned up for the Euro Bike party that night. came back found the guys and found out that i had just missed out on Qualifying and was seriously bummed about it. Anyway that night they had a live band playing and they were not that great but we made the most of it by dancing around in the front like crazy people pretending to love them but in such a sarcastic way was super funny.
Saturday and day of the finals. Found out who made it into the finals and i was shocked the judging was crazy, the people that bet me i was a bit shocked. Anyway finals went well with some sick stunts getting shut down in the end Martin Sodestrom took the win with Amir Kabani in second and Sam Pilgrim in third.
We swapped vans again packed up said our goodbyes and started our drive back to the UK.
Drive back should have taken us 8 hours to Calais but we got a little lost ended up driving through these amazing mountains and sweet roads which made me wish I had my supermoto. It ended up taking us 11 hours we arrived in Calais at 3 in the morning slept in the van and caught the 10:30 train in the morning. Drove back to Ollie's dropped off Sam then Ollie gave me a lift back to Portsmouth.

Was an awesome trip and thanks Matt and Damian for everything.
Looking forward to next year.

Peace!