Yesterday, the adidas Slopestyle 2007 and the Sponsoree Ticket2Style Contest in Saalbach Hinterglemm, Austria had to be cancelled due to adverse weather conditions which have made course building impossible.
The amount of rain that came down in the past week (50 mm in just 2 days) has completely soaked the ground – to an extent that water is no longer flowing off and that the soil has turned into knee deep mud. Even four meters deep, the terrain is soft and muddy due to the water coming down from the mountain.
Unfortunately the weather is announced to be unfavourable for the next two weeks. Yesterday the organisers received a customised weather forecast for Saalbach from ZAMG, the regional meteorology station, which certifies a high possibility of rain every afternoon this week and unsettled wet weather for next week. To date there is no stable, dry weather in sight.
A commission consisting of our course builders Jim Deas and Tony Brey, riders like Joscha Forstreuter, agency staff, local developers, as well as cable car and tourism representatives scrutinised the slope yesterday afternoon. Taking into account the two week weather forecast, the organisers came to the conclusion that the terrain will not dry off in time to build the course and to run the event.
The adidas Slopestyle crew was hit rock bottom as they never had to cancel an event before, but one cannot defy the odds and there is no chance to battle against nature. “If we know already now that we cannot provide a perfect course and safe conditions to run a contest the only rational move is to cancel the event”, says Axel Burkhardt, head of Global Sports Marketing adidas Olympic Sports, Cycling and Outdoor. “However, this cancellation will not affect adidas’ engagement in the MTB freeride sport. On the contrary: because we take the sport and the athletes so seriously we do not want to do things by halves or run an event that does not represent freeriding at its best.”
Yesterday, the adidas Slopestyle 2007 and the Sponsoree Ticket2Style Contest in Saalbach Hinterglemm, Austria had to be cancelled due to adverse weather conditions which have made course building impossible.
