Benny Korthaus made the switch to big wheels this year with great success.
He was once a bmx star, and after a year like 2007, he is well on his way to
becoming a mountain bike star!
Benny has been riding
mountain bikes in his free time for the last few years, but 2007 was his first
full season on big wheels and he adapted very quickly to the new environment
and contest scene. He brought some new tricks to the mountain bike world and
worked really hard to push the level of riding in 2007.
As a bmxer, Benny was a top competitor throughout the world. He stood on the podium at events like the Simpel Session in Estonia, Austrian King of Dirt and the Rebel Jam. He brought that same level of competitiveness to the mountain bike world. At his first 2 dirt jump contests in March (Abflughalle, Grevenbroich) and April (Vienna Air King), he decimated the competition with a mix of 3-whips, flip tables and plenty of style. He followed that with a roadtrip to South France where he landed flip-whips and flairs on natural terrain.
Benny’s season continued with appearances at the Milan, Italy and Cologne, Germany stops of the Nissan Qashqai Challenge. He placed 5th in Italy and 6th in Cologne, landing tricks like flipwhips and flairs at the contests. The world’s best riders were impressed with not only his riding but also his friendly personality off of the bike. In the one and only freeride tour, Nissan Qashqai Challenge, with the world’s best riders he placed 10th overall.
He was then invited to 26 TRIX and the Nissan Outdoor Games to compete against the world’s best riders. In Interlaken for the Outdoor Games, he won the best trick contest and took the second place spot in the dirt jump contest behind his O’Neal team mate Andreu Lacondeguy. Benny donated a part of his contest winnings to the Stephen Murray fund, a fellow dirt jumper who had recently received career-ending injuries.
Crankworx was Benny’s next challenge, where he Specialized mounted him a SX slopestyle bike to perform on the world’s hardest freeride course—quite the upgrade from the dirt jumps and skateparks in Europe! Benny rode well in qualifying, landing flips and 360s, but unfortunately was edged out of the finals by one point.
At Eurobike’s Step it Up Jam in beginning of September the Oakley rider won another contest where names like Lance McDermott and Timo Pritzel were amongst the invited field of riders!
Korthaus started his riding career racing bikes at seven years of age, where he looked up to Tarek Rasouli—one of the top German racers at the time. Now Tarek, Anne, the whole rasoulution team and the rest of the freeride community will have to look up at Benny—he is 6’4”! Benny’s huge size helped him to easily adapt to the bigger wheels of his Specialized P3 mountain bike this year. Surprisingly, he is able to do more tricks on a 26” bike than his 20”, because the bike fits his size so much better.
2007 was a great year for Benny and now that he has a full year of international mountain bike competition behind him, we can expect even more amazing things from the German mountain bike rider.
Source.Rasoulution
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