For Australian’s to visit another country its most commonly achieved by plane. In Europe you can drive through three countries in less time than it takes you to drive from Sydney to Brisbane.
With German freestyle rider Busty Wolter and his VW transporter we’d clocked 2000 kilometers so far on the ultimate FMX road trip uncovering the parks of Europe, which started from his hometown of Berlin then headed south through Germany into Switzerland to Mat Rebeaud’s, before heading west into France where we met up with the talented Remi Bizouard, old school legend Manu Troux, and the sensational Page brothers Charles and Thomas.

Caption: Ryan Leyba filming the action at Manu Troux’s freestyle park in France for M80.

This Chapter Starts With Remi Bizouard

Driving off from Mat Rebeaud’s in Switzerland, with Italian FMX rider Alvaro Dal Fara and crew in tow, around midnight with a gut-full of Macdonalds wasn’t the perfect way to start an 850km drive through the night to Remi Bizouard’s park in the south western region of France, but when you’re on a tight schedule its go, go, go, or lose a day and miss a scheduled session at the next stop, which just wasn’t going to happen.

“This is retarded dude. Who do they think they are? Do they think they invented French Fries or something”, screamed a very tired and weary Ryan Leyba (M80 film crew) in reference to stopping at the eighth toll booth in 400km once into France.

Never in any country in the world had any of us seen so many toll booths. Driving through France costs you more in tolls than it does in fuel, and that stuff ain’t cheap either – $1.80Aus per litre for Diesel, and $2.05Aus per litre for fuel – bloody expensive man!

Busty, who rode hard during the day at each park visited, tried to catch a few hours sleep when he wasn’t driving, while either myself or Leyba drove. The long night-driving missions through strange towns and small villages in the dark were like a comedy up front, especially with Leyba behind the wheel losing the plot at the chick speaking from the GPS navigation unit. “What the f*#k you talking bout beyatch…there ain’t no road to the right in 20-metres. Faark you! … Busty, Busteeey!”

“What dis it now Leyba?” Busty would yell back from his bed in the rear of the van, half asleep, and at most times a little frustrated at our lack of GPS experience.

“This beyatch on the GPS is telling me to go right, but there ain’t no right hand turn. What should I do man?”

“Ahh, I told you before Leyba, just follow the signs to Bordeaux when you’re not sure as the GPS is two years old and roads could have changed during that time. I’m going back to sleep, just keep driving yeah.”

“Yeah, no worries, but she’s still a mutha f@#kin beyatch!”

Remi was well and truly expecting us by the time we arrived at one of his friend’s parks around 6pm the following afternoon. A motel stop to rest up and some photos at an old village along the way held us up a little, but as it turned out our timing was perfect as the big bull-dozer was making the final touch-ups to some of the natural-terrain hits in what was a freshly built freeride park.

Once finished it didn’t take long for Busty, Alvaro, Remi and a bunch of local riders to hit up the course, which consisted of a 90-foot step-up, two hip transfers ranging from 40 to 60-feet, and the odd hit yet to be discovered.

According to Remi, freeriding isn’t so popular around his region, but with many of the big FMX contests now incorporating dirt to dirt jumps he needs to keep his freeriding skills up for such occasions, and with the freeride park they plan to keep adding new hits over time until it gets to a stage where riders can flow from one hit to the next following each other around the course.

Still weary from all the driving Busty and Alvaro drained their remaining energy by jumping all the hits before we moved on to rest up at Remi’s in the small village of Bergerac.

On arrival Remi’s girl Zilly had laid out a feast for the whole crew, which included many bottles of red wine, the liquid most commonly consumed in large proportions by French people around the dinner table.

Take It While I Can

We were all pretty happy Zilly didn’t serve the traditional French cuisine of Frogs Legs or Snails, as they do in many places in France. We did however try many different types of cheese and some tasty sausages, and mixed with the red wine it made for the perfect opportunity to start a conversation with Remi about his life as a freestyle rider in France.

“Motocross is so big in this country and I raced it for a while but couldn’t really afford it so my career didn’t last long. I didn’t really like the spirit of racing anyway, and after watching Terrafirma and Crusty films for the first time I knew that freeriding/freestyle was the way forward for me.”

Remi’s father built him his first jump at the age of 16. It enabled him to start trying tricks and after only three months of trying he had down Double Grabs, Rock Solids and a pretty mean Whip to name a few.

A mix of being a quick learner and having a lot of natural talent saw Remi quickly establish himself as one of the countries most promising freestyle riders in a few short years.

Like Mat Rebeaud, Remi lives in a rural farming area and is isolated to some degree from other pro FMX riders so his training is done on most days without support or encouragement from mates, except that of his father who isn’t afraid to push Remi when exploring new tricks. “My father doesn’t show a fear for danger when it comes to me jumping. He is always pushing me to try new tricks into the pit, even if I am scared myself. Just try it, just try it, he always says.”

Remi also points out he is always looking for different ways to do tricks. “Variations of variations, like throwing in a Heelclicker during a 360, or thinking ways to add something else into a Flip combo. There are so many riders pushing the limits and coming up with something special isn’t so easy, and being the first rider to push the boundaries and try a new trick is always harder then seeing someone else do it first before you try one. Once a trick has been executed you know in your mind it can be done, and that’s half the battle.”

Remi has his own park set-up at his father’s property. It has one big dirt lander with two kickers, a small mini ramp to dirt and one big foam pit, only a five minute drive away from his rented home he shares with Zilly and his two-year-old daughter Naomi. At 21 he is a young father, but it hasn’t slowed his passion for competing and riding a sport considered crazy by most. “I love my daughter so much”, he says. “She likes being taken for rides on my moto, but I don’t get to see her as much as I like because I am always traveling to events every week or training a lot. Having Naomi didn’t change my attitude to riding much, which might sound a little selfish, but I figure freestyle is something I can really only do while I’m young for maybe 10 years successfully so I have to give it a shot while I can. I feel lucky to have Zilly and my parents close by, who totally support my career and help me out whenever I need it. It would be very hard without them.”

Watching Remi ride the following morning was quite impressive. Every trick he executed was done with incredible extension. He’s only a small guy, but very strong and he throw’s his bike around with ease.

Every rider has his own style and Remi’s stands out on such tricks like Ruler Scorpions, and Off The Side style Seat Grab Hart Attacks where he tweaks the bike out and arches his body while letting his legs fly way back over his head.

He rides first for himself, for the pleasure of riding, while the big events like X Games and X-Fighters are one’s he wants to ride when he feels really good in himself and his level of riding before doing so.

In saying that he did have one attempt at X Games in 2006, but it ended with a crash so he plans to be fully dialed in before he returns to show he can compete against the best in the world.

At events Remi says he rides well when the atmosphere is good, like when the crowd is applauding and pumped from the riding, and also when the camaraderie between riders is good.

Remi keeps a close eye to what tricks riders are doing around the world thanks to the internet, and he works very hard to make sure he learns the new tricks as they evolve, and Cliff Hanger Flips over 75 and 360 variations into the pit is where we left Remi when the convoy hit the road again for the 250km drive to our next destination of Manu Troux’s park, which is located very close to the famous surf town named Hossegor in the far south west corner of France.

One Of The OG’s

Our usual pattern of arriving at our next destination late in the afternoons worked well because as mid-summer approached in Europe the sun didn’t go down until around 9pm, which meant our first session at each new park visited would happen under the best conditions – less wind, soft light and cooler temperatures.

The down side was for our hosts who always expected us a lot earlier. By the time we arrived, Manu and the Page Brothers were really fired up to get out on the course, which was to this point of the tour one of the most impressive set-ups yet.

Like Busty’s Upforce park in Berlin, Manu’s park is also situated next to his local motocross circuit. It has three large dirt landers with metal kickers set between 65 and 75 feet, plus one Super Kicker set at 45-feet, one large foam pit and two Fun Boxes – large and small.

One of the most impressive things about the park is the way it’s kept. Every run-up to each kicker is manicured by shovel, broom, water and run over several times by vehicle to pack down the dirt before riding by Manu and his crew of riders and friends. “In the early days of the parks existence I let any rider use the park, but many of them had no respect for it or for the work put in to make it happen, which created a bad vibe, especially while riding. As time went on I decided to be more careful in choosing who I’d like to ride the park with. I learnt how important it was to have riders around that have a similar spirit for riding as I do – riders with the same attitude. It’s so important to be surrounded by good people so you can all move forward together in the same direction. Everyone from riders to their girlfriends and our friends all help with park preparation and whatever needs to be done to keep it going strong”, explained Manu after his first session out on the course.

Meeting Manu for the first time is similar to meeting any one of the oldschool freestyler’s like Deegan, Faisst, Metzger – not because they carry the same attitude, but more so because they carry the same air of confidence in themselves from doing what they’ve loved for so many years.

Manu is one of the original riders to join the freestyle movement when it exploded in Europe around 1996. Edgar Torronteras from Spain is the name most people remember from those early years, even though both Manu and Edgar appeared in the early Crusty films around the same time.

Manu says he was a motocross racer with a freestyle attitude. He always wore the baggy shorts, caps, skate shoes etc, and as soon as he saw the likes of the Crusty crew for the first time in the first movie released he knew his true calling had arrived. “I remember the first FMX contest I won. It was a memorable moment for me because it confirmed my status as a professional FMX rider. At the time I worked at the local airport refueling planes and taking care of baggage, and the money I won from one night’s pleasurable work on my moto was more than half my annual salary, which was amazing. I was flown to the event, had my motel room booked, bike taken care of, got to party with my friends at the local nightclub afterwards and then flown home the following day. I quit my job refueling planes pretty quick after that and have never looked back!”

At 33-years-of-age Manu has felt the good and bad that comes with the sport. He’s broken 10 bones including three Femurs on the same leg, and has questioned himself about his future each time, but he says his passion for riding freestyle is so strong he always finds himself coming back to learn the new tricks and try his hardest to evolve with the sport, even though he’s not getting any younger. “This is my life”, he says. “It’s not possible for me to stop so easy, although I do see 2007 being my last year riding professional competitions as I do understand you can’t stay at the top level forever, plus I have my wife and a family to think about in the future.”

A strong force in Manu’s freestyle career has been his long time friend and manager Sebastien Billault, who has been by his side from the very start through thick and thin. “Seb is like my lucky charm. He makes everything happen for me, takes care of the business deals, events, and has been at every practice session, comp and demo I’ve ridden. My career wouldn’t have been as successful without his help as I don’t really give a shit about the business side of FMX. It’s impossible for me as I ride for myself and not for business so I’m lucky to have him. He protects me like a big brother and I have complete trust in him.”

New Kids In The Park

Charlie and Thomas Page, aged 26 and 22, are two of the most talented up-and-coming freestyle riders I’ve seen for some time, even though they don’t rate themselves very high, unlike Manu, who speaks of them highly, saying, “I’ve been waiting for a long while to find riders like these two kids. When I watch Thomas ride I see myself as a beginner with that no fear attitude, and willingness to try anything. Both these kids are always trying new tricks, which helps motivate me to also try harder when riding in the park.”

Towards the end of the first session of riding Thomas decided he wanted to try a Cliffhanger Flip over 75 to dirt that he’d previously only done in the pit. He Flipped around 20 times with some clean Superman and Indy’s thrown in before attempting the Cliffhanger. Another 20-30 Flips later he’d managed to reach half extension, but nothing compared to Bilko’s X Games straight body extension.

It didn’t matter though as pulling off the trick over 75 is much harder, and it was really cool to see Thomas’s approach to taking the trick to dirt. He didn’t try too hard for the camera’s, which would have been to his benefit, instead he just chipped away at it with each jump without looking sketchy once until he couldn’t ride any longer. With that attitude you know he’ll get it right before too long.

Charlie, who watched Thomas closely, came out again all fired up once his little brother had parked it. He didn’t fail to impress either pulling one of the biggest Flip Indy’s I’d ever seen – his Superman Flips looked pretty special too!

Charlie believes Thomas is the more naturally talented rider of the two saying where he takes 10 times to learn a new trick his brother will only take four, and they both usually end up arguing about who’s the best – Charlie saying Thomas is and vice versa.

Both brothers have only been riding FMX for a few years after a mediocre motocross career. Charlie’s first shot at fame came from testing the Bar Spin FMX bike that was built in the south of France (featured in FRMX a while back), and then being the first to Flip it with a Bar Spin at the Bercy Supercross in 2006.

Charlie also recently was invited to X-Fighters in Ireland where he finished seventh in his first big competition against the likes of Pastrana, Rebeaud, Torres and a swag of the worlds best.

Both brothers talk down wanting to appear on the world stage so early in their career’s, and place themselves so far behind the top level of riders currently ruling the stage. But with Charlie already proving competitive at his first major comp, and Thomas landing a well executed Cliffhanger Flip a day or two after we left France for Spain, and then winning the FMX International event a few weeks later at Nimes with the same trick over 75, it looks like they won’t have much chance of hiding away from the spot light for too long.

With Manu slowing down in the near future he’ll be looking to support more of the younger riders coming through, as will Seb, so it looks like the future of the Page’ brothers, and FMX in France is in very good hands.

Next Issue

Three countries visited so far on the ultimate FMX roadtrip through Europe. From the very start Busty said all we have to do is make it to Spain where the sun always shines to experience the greatest FMX park Europe has to offer. The word was Andre Villa had just spent 60,00 Euro (100,000Aus) on pimping up his freestyle park that sees riders from all over the globe dropping in to ride it. “If we score some good riding sessions there”, Busty spoke with an excited grin, “This will be the best damn road trip I’ve ever been on in my life!”

Did we score? You’ll have to wait until next issue to find that out…Catch you then, Goba.

Manu on Maddo: “He’s my friend; he’s very funny and a very good guy. Maddo has the big spirit! Every time we go party after an event in Europe it’s a new experience for me because he is so completely crazy. He tries to sing French songs, which makes us all laugh.”

Check out www.manutroux.com and www.remibizouard.com for their latest news, photos and results. For the Page brothers you can also check Manu’s site for photos and info as they don’t currently have a site.