Argus Bike Festival Photo Report 2023

For a fraction of a second, the crowd collectively holds its breath. It's as if the whole world stands still, and only those two up in the air keep spinning. Once, and again - that much is clear. But will they land it?

With a solid smack, their tires hit the Landing Bag, first those of Lennox, delicate 15, and just minimally delayed, those of Samy Louis, incredible 12 years young. No wobble, no slip. Straight as a candle, the juvenile duo zips down from the Airbag onto the asphalted runoff. And now all hell breaks loose.

"Yeeaaahhh, Double-Backflip, there it is!" shouts host Andi Brewi into his microphone. Lennox Zimmermann throws his arms up, Samy Louis Fernbach clenches his fists, screaming out the tension accumulated over the last few hours.

"Freeride MTB Athlete" is what his elementary school student Instagram profile reads, and he also has a YouTube channel. When he feels like training, he persuades his father for road trips, long weekends, even flights. Right outside his front door, he has the Dirtgarden in the 23rd district of Vienna, whose leaseholder is now Papa Fernbach.

"A bit embarrassing" found the jumping talent, who grew up in BMX Vösendorf, whose love for dirt jumping only ignited a few months ago on the monster drops in the Spanish La Poma Bikepark, that on the wet-cold Saturday it was always just the same trick. But now, he has delivered. Helmets fly, basses boom. The crowd goes wild.

She has seen more difficult tricks and more prominent pairings on this day. Higher air-time and more creative combinations. But what the Lower Saxon and the Viennese just demonstrated is even bigger cinema. Because as already mentioned: One is 15, the other just twelve. And together, they have just repeated what Samy Louis, as the only twelve-year-old worldwide, managed for the first time in his life exactly three weeks ago at the Masters of Dirt in Innsbruck: a double backflip on a mountain bike.
In a bonus round, to which the Viennese audience exceptionally sent them after a successful backflip no-hander. Before a backdrop that is second to none. After a draw that, of all the 16 freeriders present, brought the two young guns together. And with the mental handicap of an unsightly training fall in front of all the people in Samy Louis's baggage.

The two judges will later honor this prime example of teamwork, talent, and timing - deservedly, but according to the two protagonists still "completely unexpected" - with a victory in the new Syncro competition for Vienna. However, for now, Lennox and Samy Louis reward themselves: The teenagers run up the Landing Bag, jump, laugh, embrace each other, stagger, tumble down again, slide, crawl, hop, cheer, and let themselves be celebrated by their fans and onlookers as if they had always done it this way, Sundays at four.

And occasionally, they have. Samy Louis was just on an Austria tour with the Masters of Dirt anniversary series: Linz, Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Graz; four weeks, twelve events. Just last year, at the same time as now the "big" Vienna Dirt Battle, the young man performed his final show at the "small" School2Rock. Did he learn there, in the photography class, the typical, cool gestures and moves with which he now celebrates?
Lennox also went through the legendary talent forge of BMX pro Senad Grosic, which has been hosted annually since 2016 as part of the Argus Bike Festival at Vienna's Rathausplatz. In 2018, Germany's rising freeride star debuted here as a ten-year-old. At eleven, he completed the entire M.O.D and achieved his first double backflip on the BMX, and at 14 "he got the Red Bull helmet," Samy Louis reverently tells about the accolade of his companion.

Almost "the craziest braces of the entire event", as the contest announcer jokingly dubbed the young YT professional, almost added more: Late, very late, he grazed the bar lying at an incredible ten meters height during the high jump competition; under the helmet, there was still room during the obligatory backflip, but it was the rear wheel that finally brought down the bar.
Nota bene: Only four riders were still in the competition at this mark, which, by the way, set a new high jump record for Vienna, and only Nicolas Kroffig from France succeeded in the end.

Da ist weiters das spektakuläre, neue Setup des Vienna Dirt Battle. Zehn Meter Höhe, und damit drei mehr als bisher, maß diesmal der monströse Startturm. Und mehr Höhe bedeutet mehr Wumms, folglich noch beeindruckendere Action.
Zehn Meter breit, 20 Meter lang und vier Meter hoch war der nicht minder respekteinflößende Landing Bag. Dass aus Gründen der Sicherheit bei der Landung vom früheren Dirthügel auf den luftgefüllten Airbag gewechselt wurde, machte sich beim Best Trick Contest nicht nur in Sachen Risikobereitschaft der Rider bezahlt; den bisherigen Erdhaufen hätte der Regen im Vorfeld einfach weggespült.

Andi Brewi made an effort to explain what he had just seen as vividly as possible: "That's a Frontflip 720, where he moves the bike once to the left under him and once to the right over him."
The voice of the Dirt Battle even asked DJ Mosaken for a moment of silence, so that the decent family father in the audience rows interrupted his shy swaying to the driving beats, his estimated four-year-old daughter no longer had to duck so deeply into her cat-shaped plush earmuffs, and her accompanying Chihuahua briefly ventured out of the Louis Vuitton dog bag of his stylish mistress.
But how can ordinary people, who typically and charmingly make up a large part of the Vienna audience, really understand such things, when even the seasoned Slopestyler adds, "I'm not at a loss for words, I'm at a loss for sentences!"?

In any case, the Pole reclaimed his Best Trick victory from last year with this Cash Roll Windshield Wiper and increased his total to four Vienna triumphs, followed by his compatriot Przemek Abramovicz (Double BackFlip 360), last year's winner Alejandro Bonafe (ESP, Cash Roll Tailwhip to Barspin) and Dorian Macher (Backflip Superman Seatgrap Indy to Tailwhip) as the best of the total seven (!) Austrians.