Mike Kinrade took home the Gold for Canada this year. With his impressive line choice and really putting that road bike fork to the test, Mike left the rest of the croud speechless or rolling on the floor laughing. Yes that is a road bike with an MTB handle bar. Look closely, there are no brakes and the front tire ripped of in a previous competition.

Living up to his name Mike went for a pure freeride line. Get way to much speed on a brakeless road bike, send a turn bar off a concrete ledge then carve for life back up hill so as to avoid running into the neighbors house below.

Photo: Will Walker

Ben is always working on bikes. One of his creations was the front tire missing, brakeless road/MTB fusion you see above. The front yard of Ben and Corinne's house is very steep. At the bottom of the yard there is a 5 meter drop off to the neighbors terrace.

The Bianchi has surprisingly good traction in the grass. The problem is, she accelerates uncomfortably fast and the only place to slow down is at the bottom of the hill. By the time you get down to where you "can slow down" it's a WC style off camber carve for life back up hill. Not much margin for error and nobody really knows what is possible on the legendary hybrid. If you're in the region and don't have anything important coming up in the next 2-3 months, give it a try. The only way to get a true appreciation for the challenge is to hike up the hill, put your leg over the Bianchi and try to imagine your line. For being such a high performance beast, the cockpit of this all terrain vehicle doesn't really inspire confidence. Brakeless means you can forget about a mellow test runs...

For the past 3 years, Steve Romaniuk filmed for some of his upcoming segments in France and Switzerland. This year Romo spent 2 weeks getting amazing footage in Morgins, Châtel and Champéry with filmer Bjorn Aunet. These 2 came over primarily to film the Moutainstyle course in Châtel for Bjorn’s upcoming release, Barred for life 2. After showing them around the local spots, there might be a bit of added footage on the local trails… Having seen a bit of the action and footage live, I will be very impatiently waiting to get my hands on a copy.

This year Mike Kinrade, Kurt Sorge and Garett Buhler also came over to check out the local trails. Mike and Steve took hours of follow cam footage riding with all their buddies so keep an eye out for the Euro section in the next episode of Stund. With this many old and new friends, bikes, beers and cameras constantly rolling; there was always something interesting going on during these 2 weeks.  

The following is a documentation of what Steve called “The bro down throw down.”  

Photos by Will Walker all rights reserve 2010

The first stop on the “Bro Down” was the infamous Champéry World Cup. With the head shaper Claudio Caluori, Ben and Will Walker spent 6 weeks preparing one of the steepest and most technical WC courses ever. A full crew of World Cup riders can make a mess out of any trail, so we took advantage of our prime location and had a few laps. It really is a fun trail to ride, and being in our backyard it was only normal to start the trip off here.

Ben Walker, Mike Kinrade & Steve Romaniuk (F=>B) Pinning down the first straight of the Champéry World Cup

Photo: Will Walker

Romo going for a nice offside table on the 9 meter hip/step down. Champéry WC

Photo: Will Walker

Ben cracking a whip over to the sniper hip landing. To stay on the trail Ben had to land and immediatly start carving.

Photo: Will Walker

Next, the crew headed over to one of our other favorite spots to see what the Morgins Trailbuilding Crew had been up to this spring. Joel Leroux, Ben and Will Walker spent 5 weeks, in an unusually wet springtime, giving Morgins a full makeover. Working more often times in the wet than in the dry, can make trailbuilding a very difficult task. The Morgins Trailbuilding Crew are very motivated and Ben is an excellent shaper, so they kept their heads down and digging like it was sunny. When it came high season all the hard work had paid off.  It was time to shred and showcase the MTC handywork with their Canadian counterparts.  

Having a quick look before dropping into the trails.

At the top of Morgins. A few clouds on Les Dents du Midi, but still plenty of light to work with.

Photo: Will Walker

Steve diving into the second corner of the Tobogan

Photo: Will Walker

Ben built this corner to get light. Look at the angle of his bike and how the back wheel is barely touching the ground...

Photo: Will Walker

The Tobogan really does slingshot you from one corner to the next. With the exception of a road gap or a root section, the Tobogan is filled with an array of varying types of corners to always keep you on your feet.

Photo: Will Walker

Last corner before the road gap on the Tobogan. Jump out of the corner, into the compression, get light over the hip, give a quick pedal and send it...

Photo: Will Walker

Ben carrying speed over the technical root section on the Tobogan. The second section of the red trail goes into the forest for some high speed roots.

Photo: Will Walker

After the road gap, the Tobogan goes right back into sick berms. I think Steve hit this corner pretty well...

Photo: Will Walker

Now over on the DH trail. Setting up for the next corner... As usual Steve jumping from one corner to the next.

Photo: Will Walker

Once again, Ben's back tire is spitting rocks and barely on the ground. Ben using a drainage to get light and change directions.

Will Walker

After the upper high speed corners the Tobogan goes into a series of fun flowing corners. The DH trail is our "blue" trail, making it our easiest. At higher speeds this trail quickly becomes more challenging.

Photo: Will Walker