Destination: ÅRE, Sweden
MOUNTAIN MAYHEM 2004
21st - 27th July 2004
Words: JC
Images: www.mtbfreerider.com

You may have seen something about this event on www.pinkbike.com. Are you a bit worried about it being organised by a bunch of porn making, ABBA listening, Volvo driving, fishermen styled knitwear wearing Swedes who resemble the chef off the Muppets?*

Well you don’t have to be as the organisers are originally from our ‘neck of the woods’, so you won’t have to use the international language of mime. John Roche & Dave Rimmel are the masterminds behind the Åre Mountain Mayhem Festival (Dublin & Manchester respectively).

Åre, for those who don’t know or spend most of their time waking up in a hospital bed not knowing who they are, Åre hosted the 1999 World Championships but since then it has dropped of the DH radar.

Åre is Sweden's largest ski resort, with approx. 300,000 people visiting per winter season. Although Åre is low in terms of altitude at 380m to 1420m (1247 ft-4659 ft in old money) compared to many of the resorts in the Alps but makes up for that in that it has a total of 42 lifts, 1 cable cars, 1 gondola lift, 7 chair lifts,1 funicular & 32 drag lifts!

1000 metres up above Are

Time to get John & Dave to spill the beans on Mountain Mayhem 2004:

Descent World: So what attracted you to a country that has a relaxed attitude toward pornography and that blondes make up approximately 50% of the population?

John Roche: …and what’s more, they are really up for it and good at it too. Yeah…. that pretty much sums me up.

Dave Rimmel: I have seen more porn shops on one street in Manchester than I have ever seen here; it’s an urban myth that they have loads of porn. I was sales director for Aloha boards and clothes in Newquay, I also set up Newquay’s surf radio station, I used to come over to Stockholm on holiday, Julia (Girlfriend) has a log cabin on an island on the east coast and I loved it so much that we moved here, the trails are some of the best in Europe.

DW: How did this ‘Mountain Mayhem’ get started?

J R & DR: A few years back, we asked everybody here, where is the best place for mountain biking….Åre came back time and time again. After visiting a few places, we finally loaded Dave’s VW Van with the bikes and headed north. We were keen to see what this mountain held. It was early June (the first day the lifts were open) and really sh***y wet conditions, and still snow on parts of the trail, but by Jesus did we hammer down it, covered in mud and what a laugh we had.

We met up with some of the local lads who were really into it, and talked about the world cup in ’99. We couldn’t get over a mountain like this, with all these facilities in place, and nobody utilising it?? Being foreigner's has helped in a way - a person from the outside sees and notices things differently. If you grow up in a locality, it is very easy to take those everyday things for granted. Being Swedish, you grow up with ski resorts all over the place. Coming from Dublin & Manchester, you have to learn how to hop over shopping trolleys. I just didn’t grow up with ski resorts let alone cabinbana’s and world cup chair lifts. To us, we were in mountain bike heaven. We just couldn’t understand how they didn’t see the potential. Both of us thought it was mad they didn’t keep the motion going after the world cup round in ‘99. Something needed to be done. Right, we’ll do it. We both worked together setting up events for the telecoms industry at the time, so arranging an event was second nature to us.

DW: Last year looked like it went off, with a lot of riders turning up?

J R: Absolutely, hundreds of riders from Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. Scandinavia is where most of the riders come from, as it is so accessible for them. However, we want to see as many people from all corners of the earth turn up. Everybody is welcome, there is no fee to join or take part. It is truly a rider’s event. Actually, I would like to give a shout out to Mark Pendelton from Azonic Europe (www.azonicusa.com) and Ulf Mord of Red Bull Sweden (www.redbull.se) for having faith, backing the festival and backing the sport. Hats Off to you. Without their support we wouldn’t have been able to put on such a good event.

DR: I think that because we got the funding from sponsor companies and made it a riders event, this too help a great deal in getting the right people up there. I would also like to say a big thanks to Royal racing (www.royalracing.com) for coming on board too; Dan will be attending with the Royal range at the event. www.huckfest.org will also be setting up a stall with loads of spare shiny bits too, and I am sure they will build up their legendary 5 meter drop next to their stand!

NWDIV shooting in progress

DW: Did I see a man in a kilt in some of last year’s party photos on your site?

A little taste of Scotland

J R: Ha-ha….that would be Phil McNaughty (McNaughton) notably Sweden’s best bike mechanic. The man in question is in fact from Scotland. Phil is the supremo wrench of Stockholm’s Dr. Spoke, and will be present at the event all week long with his mobile workshop and ready to service, rebuild or whatever it is you need to get yourself and your bike back on the mountain.

DR: Phil uses his kilt as a marketing tool, because people remember who he is, and the ladies luv it….or was it marketing for his tool…

DW: What was the deal with the guys from New World Disorder turning up in Åre?

J R: Freeride Entertainment (www.freeride-entertainment.com) were shooting NW Disorder IV together with Oakley (www.oakley.com) photographer Mattias Fredricksson - one of the worlds top ranked action sports photographers. They were in Norway, but didn’t get the shots they were expecting. So Mattias, who lives in Åre suggested they come and visit the mountain as it would be perfect to get the kind of footage they were looking for. And it was. It was great that they were able to take advantage of the drops and kickers we had built for the festival which looked great on the movie.

When the idea came to do the road gap, Kyle Strait could not believe how relaxed the situation was when we blocked the E14 (main road connecting Sweden to Norway) to dump tons of gravel either side with a JCB. It took half a day to build and we stopped a lot of traffic on and off. Nobody disturbed us. No police. Nobody came and said we couldn’t do it. Kyle was shaking his head in disbelief, “if this was the States, within 5 minutes there would be police here, stopping everything, looking for permits” It was really great to see such talent in Åre, instead of watching these guys on the telly. One of the things I really liked was after they finishing shooting for the day, they were still so keen to get up on the mountain and hit the trails and just have a blast riding. I broke my saddle just trying to keep up with Cedric and Wade, and you could see they were just mucking about. These guys ride so smooth I was in awe. We know we have a sweet mountain here, but for them to give it the thumbs up was a real compliment.

DR: I missed that because I had stuff to do back in Stockholm after the event, I WAS GUTTED...

Further North than the actual North Shore!

DW: On the subject of Film making, how’s the editing of ‘Nordic Ride’ coming along?

J R: Very good. It is very much a grass roots movie. Talented local riders in there own surroundings doing what they do best. We have got some really nice soundtracks to go with it as well – kept the theme Scandinavian there too.

DR: we just wanted to get out a European movie, I was getting a bit board of seeing Hollywood style American and Canadian movies, we got inspiration from the Sprung and superheroes series, its nicer in a way to see real riders that don’t have any financial backing, in a way you can relate to it more…

DW: Are you going to have the premier in Åre?

J R: Ha-ha…probably!! We have been aiming to have it on DVD by Spring….maybe the 21st of July could be counted as ‘late Spring’ then…possibly May 2004.

DR: We showed a lot of movies at the parties we had last year and everybody loved it, we even showed footage of riders we had filmed during the day as well so every body could see themselves riding on a big screen, everyone loved it, but maybe we will do a special of all the footage that did not make it the movie, like a bonus thing!

DW: You’re hosting the 'Extreme Bike Series' (XBS) at Mountain Mayhem this year, how did that come about?

J R: Tommy Johansson who runs the downhill school came up with the idea, the thought it would be perfect to hold one of the rounds during the festival.

DR: The race in Åre is called the MEGA DOWNHILL, and its one of the rounds in the overall Extreme Bike Series, on the 25th July. They actually got hold of us, it’s a big step for them as they have never really looked at “Freeriding”, so we had everything in place for this to happen. The race will be from the top of the mountain to the bottom with a mass start, and only 2 markers to pass, like a mega avalanche… should be exciting and dangerous.

DW: How did you get the Swedish Cycling Federation involved?

J R: They have seen the growth of freeriding, and thought it was about time to get involved. Again, it is mostly down to Tommy Johansson. He is driving this new series ‘freeride cup’ for the cycling federation. We have done the festival completely independently from any other organisation, so it is nice to receive a bit of backing as it all goes towards building this side of mountain biking, rather than XC which gets most of the attention.

DR: they are waking up to the fact that DH and Freeride is big now!

Drink up boys!

DW: Do you think that with the Swedish Cycling Federation getting more involved in things, it could lead to something bigger like say, a world cup round being held in Åre?

J R: Ah, you know how to make me smile. Just at the minute we are going to focus on developing the festival as best we can, and keep the idea of a world cup round in there so when the time is right, we can then act on it. Its something we have talked about right enough. We will keep Descent World posted as soon as we go for it, that’s for sure.

DR: We would like to also get the Swedish and Nordic downhill nationals here first, as well as continuing with the XBS series, that will bring more recognition, we do have a potential world class course, we have done some research in past to look at a 4x & dual course on the mountain, we will build a temporary one this year to see what the riders and Åre AB think…bit of a test run….See you all on the 21st July. We hope to be over to Fort William some time in Spring with the Royal crew!

Hello Mum

Many thanks to John & Dave for taking the time out from organising the Mountain Mayhem festival & running their busy bike shop (Dr. Spoke: www.drspoke.se) in Stockholm.

*NOTE: This is a typical stereotype of a Swedish male; we at www.descent-world.co.uk know full well that it is not an entirely true representation of the Swedish people as a whole.

Webcams:
http://www.arewebcam.com/
http://www.arelivecam.com/
Åre tourist info:
http://www.are.se/
http://www.skistar.com/

http://www.visit-sweden.com/gb/frontpage.asp
http://www.sweden.se/
Airlines:
&internal flights to Östersund)
www.scandinavian.net

www.aua.com

www.airfrance.com

www.finnair.com

www.klm.com

www.britishairways.com

www.lufthansa.com

www.swiss.com
ästerås & Stockholm Nykoping)
www.ryanair.com
Bag Hire:
James at Bag Your Bike:
jp@gravity-slaves.co.uk