Austrian Roland Harrer wins High Jump and Best Trick category at Züri Fäscht

For the seventh time, the Siemens mobile X Lake Jump was a spectacular event highlight. This time, visitors of Switzerland’s largest public festival, the famous Züri Fäscht, could watch some of the world’s best mountain bike and BMX stunt riders speed down the six meters tall ramp, shoot off a two meters steep kicker, climbing up to six meters high in the air, then pull off a range of unique and original tricks before plunging into Lake Zürich.

On Friday, the twelve riders from around the world were battling to beat the current world record of 5.50 m set up by German Igor Obu at the last Siemens mobile X Lake Jump in Lugano. Despite unfavourable weather conditions with heavy rainfalls and strong winds, the competitors quickly approached the record mark and equalled it. Next the slat was moved up to 5.80 metres, a new world record mark which was jumped by two thirds of the field. And there was still plenty of space above the lath. So the hunt for a new world record continued. Finally, at 6.10 metres, two riders were left: Roland Harrer, a several time X Lake Jump winner from Austria and Frenchman Christopher Hatton, who participated at the Siemens mobile X Lake Jump for the first time. Pumped up by the audience, the speeded down the ramp pedalling as hard as they could, catapulted themselves over the kicker high into the air and flew over the slat not nearly touching it. The crowds screamed of excitement. Not only had they witnessed a new world record, but the winners had just beaten the old one by 60 centimetres.

In the competition Best Trick on Saturday the competitors had to perform different stunts like rotations, inverted tricks (head down) or freestyle stunts (e.g. Superman Seat Grab) in three consecutive runs. The riders from France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, England and the USA were marked by a panel of expert judges including Frorider Tarek Rasouli (GER), the several time X Lake Jump participant and currently injured Cyril Cabiak (FRA) as well a street style and trial rider Mario Preining (AUT) on criteria such as difficulty, execution, and amplitude. They had a tough job as one highlight chased the other. Slow motions on a giant screen slowly repeated what was hard for the eye to believe: two and a half Back Flips, Back Flips 360, No Hand Front Flip, 720 rotations. Igor "The Fireball" Obu from Germany ignited stunning pyrotechnical effects on his bike and on his back before he dived as a “glowing fireball” into the water.

With a Back Flip Tale Whip, a Back Flip 360 and a Double Back Flip 180, Austrian Roland Harrer received the highest scores from the jury (75.5) and won the Best Trick discipline followed by American Double Back Flip specialist John Jesme (69.2) and French Dirt Jumper Nicolas Duye (65.2), who also performed a stylish inverted tricks and a 360 flip.

In addition to prize money and funky urban designer bags, all winners were awarded with the brand new Siemens M65 outdoor mobile phone with Bike-o-meter - the perfect phone for the daredevil world of the Siemens mobile X Lake Jump community.