May 7, 2004 – The much anticipated Garda Bike Festival is the main European Season Opening event each year. Set in spectacular Riva del Garda , a quaint town nestled up to the Italian Alps on one side and the Lago (lake) de Garda on another.
The festival welcomes 60,000 visitors from all over Europe and many key players in the bike industry. The weekend is filled with racing, trials demonstrations, freeride shows, clinics and public rides. Visitors pay an entrance fee to mill around, take in the sites and mingle with the stars. Rocky Mountain had a great presence with our German distributor setting up a huge expo bike display and bike test zone as well as entertainment and hosting area. Riders sign up to take one of the 30 bikes for a test ride during the weekend. With the exception of a rainy Friday, most of the bikes were gone the entire weekend.
The Rocky Mountain Business Objects Team had a great showing as three-time World Champion Alison Sydor came for the Piccolo Marathon, along with teammates Lesley T and Sarah Noble. Karl Platt attended for the week chatting to fans and signing on request.
Our superstar Freeride Team also joined us for the weekend. Wade Simmons, Richie Schley and Thomas Vanderham were busy all weekend taking fans on a free Shuttle with the Fros, a ride of their dreams for these die hard mountain bikers.
Saturdays Garda Marathon was as well attended as ever, with over 3,000 starters crowding the line. The front line looked pretty amazing with Alison and Thomas Frishkenecht side by side sporting their World Champion stripes. On a trivia note, these two riders have 26 World Championship medals between them (Alison 12 and Thomas 14) which is an amazing statistic. 2003 Garda Fest Extrema Marathon winner, Rocky Mountain Business Objects rider Karl Platt was there for the start to cheer his teammates, but was off to an important Olympic qualifier in Germany shortly after. In his absence, 2000 Olympic bronze medalist Christophe Sauser of Switzerland took a convincing victory.
Alison did not disappoint with not only an 11 minute win, but a 17th place overall in the 45K Piccolo race. Sarah Noble took a slight wrong turn on the way to the finish and came across the line in fourth place. Lesley was not able to defend a podium spot from 2003 for the Extrema 110K Marathon after becoming ill in the week and having to pull out of the race at 75K.
As every year, the festival had a great atmosphere and the town welcomed all comers. Our distributor, Bike Action of Germany, put on an awesome show with staff Juergen, Lorna, Mike and Phil going non-stop meeting, greeting and educating. Dirk and his family made all their Rocky Mountain Business Objects athletes feel like part of the family. One of our European sponsors Kleinwalsertal had a display with a finely detailed Rocky Mountain Element bike carved in wood as the main feature.
As the Festival wound down on Sunday at noon, Wade, Richie and Thomas would head off to shoot a film segment for this years New World Disorder Mountain Bike Video. Alison, and Sarah headed to Switzerland to race a Swiss Power Cup in Granichen. Alison currently leads the Swiss Power Cup Series.