November 1, 2005 – The Red Bull District Ride marked the end of the competitive season for the Rocky Mountain Business Objects Free riders. It was also an experience that we will not soon forget. At the end of September, 27, some of the best riders in our sport gathered in the town of Nuremburg to compete in the high end Red Bull District Ride contest. The riders varied from the best downhillers in the world, to urban oriented, to all around free riders. The course was set right through the heart of the old town and featured a big jump off of a castle wall. The rest of the course was mostly urban oriented with a street park, dirt jumps, and a north shore section that was a little taste of home for Wade Simmons and I. With an original course, and the talent there to ride it, everyone was excited.

It was amazing what they did to pull off this contest. The police shut down almost all of the streets in the center of town so that we could ride the course. Spectators started to line the course to watch practice making it hard to get from one district to another, it seemed that Nuremberg was ready for the show. At the end of the first day of practice the first of two qualifying runs took place. As we all soon learned this run was very important because all of us made big mistakes. It was mostly attributed to the length of the course and the fact that you had to sprint to hard for the last set of dirt jumps. We all knew that we had to bring of best set of lungs for the finals. When the run was over I was in 18th place and Wade sat in 14th, it was obvious that qualifying was going to be difficult.

When we arrived at the course on Saturday for the finals, 40,000 people eagerly awaited our arrival. I have rarely seen anything like it at a freeride contest or any other mountain bike event for that matter. Every district of the course was packed with screaming fans and when we finished our run, 500 kids were waiting, pen in hand, for us to sign their shirt, backpack, or hat. It was an experience all in itself and it got the riders stoked to ride in the finals. After the second round of qualifying the top 10 riders went on for two more runs in the finals. I had a good run and managed to move up into the top 10, Wade just missed the finals by a few spots. In the finals everyone stepped up their game but it was still hard to put a whole run together. In the end Aaron Chase had a sick run with no mistakes and took the victory. He was followed closely by Paul Bas and Kyle Straight. I ended up in 7th place.

I would like to thank Organizers Tarek Rasouli and Red Bull for putting on an awesome event. Looking forward to seeing it happen again next year.
Enjoy the Photos and you can also see video of the top 10 runs on www.freecaster.com