THE ROCKET BLOG #2: IXS DIRT MASTERS, WINTERBERG - GERMANY

Winning the crowd is never easy. Photo: Hanna Retz



THE ROCKET BLOG #2: IXS DIRT MASTERS, WINTERBERG - GERMANY


IXS Dirtmasters in Winterberg, the biggest MTB gravity event in Europe, has become a classic venue for many different Mountainbike athletes. Is it the crazy cheering crowd? The after parties? The community? I’m not sure but, if you live in central Europe and you don’t show up at this festival, you get this feeling of missing out.

I was invited to take part at this year’s women’s Whip-off Contest and I was thrilled, because at this particular event, only invited riders may take part and the invited-riders-list is usually filled with big names and A-pros from the European MTB scene.


      First rows of fans filled with kids, reaching their hands to touch their favourite heroes. Photo: Hanna Retz


The Whip-off contest was scheduled for Friday and there was supposed to be an hour of practice 2 hours before the big show and 30 minutes warm-up before the actual contest. The problem was wind. Not just a mere breeze but actual wind blowing constantly with at least 20km/h. The conditions for jumping were far from ideal, actually dangerous, so many riders decided not to practice and were hoping that the wind would calm down until the big show. Sadly, it didn’t … not even a bit. Many riders were asking themselves, whether they should even ride because of safety reasons, but the organisers were determined to go through with the contest according to the planned schedule. Some riders decided not to ride, others decided to do it anyways. I was determined to at least try but not risking it too much. I believe this was my worst Whip-off experience yet; I had troubles with building up speed to clear the jump, therefore I came short  on the jump many times and I wasn’t really able to jump high enough to perform proper whips that I know I’m capable off. 



The crowd was fierce and loud. Photo: Hanna Retz



From the competitive point of view, my performance was not the best but I gave my best and I did the maximum I could in the windy conditions. On the other side it was cool to meet and see all of the riders, friends and fans again. There’s not a lot of festivals where so many different riders gather in one place. I also hosted a signing session together with Maxxis on Saturday, where I had the opportunity to have a chat with different festival visitors. 









The festival ground grew a lot since I first visited the site in 2018. Roughly 20.000 visitors and spectators visited the festival this year and we were definitely feeling the pressure of the overcrowded festival site. For competing riders it was even hard to get into competition sites, because of the site being so overcrowded. Better crowd management would make the festival a much more pleasant place for the competing riders, who are nevertheless the heart of such festivals.




With love,

Špela Horvat a.k.a Pocket Rocket



UPCOMING EVENTS

MAY: KALNICA BIKE FEST

JUNE: CRANKWORX INNSBRUCK




SOCIAL MEDIA

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