iXS European Downhill Cup 4 – Wiriehorn

“That track looks shit” said a mate of mine after he had watched the helmet cam footage of the track in Wiriehorn. I had asked him to come with me to Switzerland and ride the IXS European cup round #4. He decided not to in the end which ended up being a bad choice on his behalf as it turned out that he was very, very wrong.

iXS EDC #4 2013 Wiriehorn GoPro Course Check from iXS Downhill Cup on Vimeo.

Only a 3 hour drive from Morzine, Wiriehorn turned out to be an idyllic Swiss-German speaking alpine resort like the ones you associate with yodelling and Toblerone. Upon arrival, we were met with a warm welcome and smiling faces in the registration tent. That coupled with a free umbrella, helmet bag and blazing sun made you realize that this was not a wet, cold UK race, but a European cup in big mountain Switzerland.

The track was flat-out, dusty and loose with quite a few large, well-shaped double and triples that made the track so much fun to ride. There was one huck near the top however, that had everyone stopping to scope it out as there was a fair old gap with a blind and tricky run in. To get enough speed to clear it, a number of corner-cutting, grass-riding lines had to be taken. The amount of bash guard crunching, rim-dinging cases that could be heard while watching from the side of the track was painful to listen to.

The rest of the track consisted of big berms and fast straights before dipping into the trees where there were tight awkward turns that had a couple of cheeky inside lines. Then came the first of two tarmacked straights, both of which were uphill. However, these uphills were not as bad as they sound as with the speed and momentum from the section before, it was possible to free-wheel these sections without having to pedal. In my race run however, I was puffing as I tried sprinting up these roads and carrying speed into the final section that seemed to go through a hotel’s back garden and into the final steep corners before the finish line jump.
It was an amazing atmosphere with times coming in tight due to the simplicity of the track. A number of fast world cup boys were racing which resulted in some strong competition and exciting racing.

Rounding out the top 3 was Marco Milivinti from Italy taking 3rd, Bryn Dickerson from taking 3rd ahead of Marco by 0.01 seconds (with an apparently messy run according to Bryn) and Manuel Gruber taking the win.