iXS German Downhill Cup 3 – Bad Wildbad
The IXS race series has always been a prestigious number of events that have become more and more popular over the years. With good reason too as for the 50 euros entry fee (cheaper than your average UK race) you not only get to ride an awesome track both Saturday and Sunday, you get 6 hours extra practice on the Friday afternoon. Additionally, the long-weekend is most often lift assisted so you can get as many runs in as you can muster before collapsing from euphoric fatigue.
Having heard only good things about the IXS races, I decided to base myself in Morzine and get to as many races as I could in my newly acquired Rupert the Rover. So this first race was the furthest away and after a 7 hour drive Friday afternoon, I arrived in Bad Wildbad in Germany. As my German is very limited, I spent a good while trying to find out where the track and pit area was. Once having navigated through the town’s awkward one way systems and realizing that the pit area was at the top of the mountain I set up camp and got myself to bed.
The track was one of the rockiest tracks I have ever ridden and proved to be a real bike destroyer over the course of the weekend. The track was not the longest but very technical which meant run times were about 3 and a half minutes.
The start ramp was over 2 stories high to help gain some speed for the first flat section before dropping down into a steeper section littered with big compressions and tricky rock gardens. Arm pump was an issue especially with the obligatory elbow pads and gloves that the IXS regulations made you wear. Towards the bottom of the track after a high speed drop and some awesome berms was a high speed traverse with a number of steep wooden ramps that were large drops to flat unless you slowed down for them. A puncture and broken cranks later I found out the hard way that you probably couldn’t get away with no-braking them.
The track ended next to the river on the valley floor in the middle of town and meant that when Sunday race day came around, there were plenty of spectators to create an exciting racing atmosphere.
There was an impressive turnout as this was the German National Champs and the racing was tight. Marcus Klausmann who qualified in 3rd put in a stormer of a run with a time of 3.15.585. With only 2 remaining riders the last man down, Johannes Fischbach was the only one who could challenge Klausmann’s time but failed to dislodge him from the hot seat by only 0.310 seconds placing him in 2nd. 3rd place went to Christian Textor 5 seconds back from the winning time.
Overall it was an awesome race weekend with a challenging track, great uplift service and good vibe. Get yourself to an IXS as soon as you can!
For the full results, more info or to enter an iXS Downhill Cup yourself, visit www.ixsdownhillcup.com
Words – Guy Gibbs (Ride.io)
Images – Thomas Dietze