For immediate release
FREERIDING ELITE LINE UP FOR
NISSAN QASHQAI CHALLENGE 2008
Urban freeriders hit the city streets this weekend for European championships
ROLLE, Switzerland (April 25th, 2008) – Urban mountain bike freeriders this weekend will take street riding to a new level in Milan as the world’s leading riders kick-off the fight for a €100,000 prize.
The Nissan Qashqai Challenge takes place on exciting bespoke courses in Milan, Madrid, and Munich during April and May where four spectacular weekend competitions will reach its climax at London’s Tate Modern art gallery on 24th May. The Tate Modern provides further inspiration for the Nissan Qashqai Challenge as Nissan will be sponsoring a Street Art exhibition in the weeks following the London event.
Furthermore, specially commissioned pieces from a leading urban artist, Bue, selected in conjunction with the curator of the Street Art exhibition will be displayed at all the venues on the Nissan Qashqai Challenge. The innovative exhibition together with the freeride action epitomises Nissan’s commitment to creating experiential activities that are in-tune with its ‘urban’ audience.
To ensure the Nissan Qashqai Challenge represents all aspects of urban free-riding, Nissan has teamed up with key partners to help deliver the ultimate event experience in the heart of some of the continent’s most beautiful cities and further demonstrates Nissan’s brand passion and commitment to adventure sports.
The four European city tours will bring Sram, Giro, Dakine and Bose® as Tour partners with Red Bull providing a riders’ lounge with extensive support offered by the municipal authorities in each host city.
Since its launch in the spring of 2007, the Qashqai compact cross-over vehicle car exceeded all sales expectations. The latest television commercial continues to illustrate the vehicle’s ‘urbanproof’ quality and complete suitability for the challenges of city life.
Nissan has taken this to another level with a concept of a special version of Qashqai which includes exclusive design features and a dramatic audio experience developed in conjunction with Bose. The advanced concept of this car will be displayed for the very first time within a specially designed Bose sound zone at all Nissan Qashqai Challenge events allowing spectators to check out the latest in Nissan design.
Jean-Pierre Diernaz, general manager of Nissan’ marketing communications in Europe said, “As we prepare for the second year of our urban freeriding series, we are pleased to be able to illustrate other elements of urban life and the Qashqai personality by our partnership with the Tate Modern.
“As part of our continued commitment to mountain biking and with the support of our partners, we hope that the new format of the series will help to uncover the next generation of international riders.”
Notes to Editors:
Nissan Qashqai Challenge Event dates 2008:
Sat 26th/Sun 27th April Open: Parco Sempione, Milan, Italy
Fri 2nd/Sat 3rd May Open: Estadio Bernabau, Madrid, Spain
Sun 11th May Olympia Park, Munich, Germany
Sat 24th May Grand Final: Tate Modern, South Bank, London, UK
The Nissan Qashqai Challenge is part of Nissan’s commitment to adventure sports using an integrated communications platform. With Nissan Sports Adventure, Nissan aims to support and promote adventure sports and an active outdoor lifestyle through world class events, media properties and integrated communications.
With the help & feedback of the Nissan Qashqai Challenge riders committee, Nissan has made several changes to the 2008 format including the addition of ‘Open’ events. Five winners from each Open event in Milan and Madrid will be able to compete against the 15 professional riders at the two Challenge events. By splitting the series into Open and Challenge events, Nissan has opened up the contest to a wider range of riders.
25 international Freeride riders will be take part in the two stops of the Nissan Qashqai Challenge to show off their best tricks in front of an estimated 100,000 spectators in total, with the overall winner of the tour taking home the lions share of the €100,000 tour prize pot, whilst at each event a further €20,000 is up for grabs.
The Paris venue has not been included in this year's Nissan Qashqai Challenge but Nissan hopes to have it back in the 2009 line-up.
The following riders have already gained automatic entry into the 2008 Qashqai Challenge through their rankings during the 2007 Challenge:
Darren Pokoj (AUS)
Ben Boyko (CAN)
Brandon Semenuk (CAN)
Christopher Hatton (FRA)
Benny Korthaus (GER)
Amir Kabbani (GER)
Andreu Lacondeguy (ESP)
Lance McDermott (UK)
Grant Fielder (UK)
Paul Basagoitia (USA)
Cameron McCaul (USA)
Greg Watts (USA)
Kyle Strait (USA)
Adam Hauck (USA)
Jamie Goldman (USA)
More information can be found by visiting the official NQC website www.nissan-qashqaichallenge.com
Other useful links
www.nissan-sportsadventure.com
www.nissaneurope-newsbureau.com
About Street Art exhibition
Taking place from 23 May – 17 August, Street Art displays work from an eclectic group of artists from New York, San Paulo, Barcelona, Bologna, Paris and London who have worked in both street and gallery environments. Sponsored by Nissan Qashqai, this unusual exhibition comprises of gigantic new art works, which will hang on the external walls of the Tate Modern building overlooking the Thames, by artists such as Sixeart, Os Gemeos, Faile, Nunca and Blue.
About Qashqai special version concept car
This concept car is an exercise in celebration of Nissan’s strong relationship with Bose who already supply premium audio systems on the Murano, Pathfinder, 350Z and GT-R models. Bose has designed a specific sound system tailor-made for this car. At the same time, it serves as a styling exercise that aims at magnifying Qashqai’s design, through exclusive exterior and interior elements such as a unique ‘Nightshade’ colour, roof rails, privacy glass and exclusive interior trim.
About Freeriding
Urban Freeriding allows mountain bikers to use the natural terrain the way that
they want to, with no boundaries. It is a relatively new sport that transports mountain-bike Freeriding in to the city. It is the most progressive discipline in mountain biking.
The sport’s foundations began in the late 1990’s in British Columbia, Canada, with mountain bikers who wanted to push their limits to ride ‘extreme’ and creatively.
Soon the broader public and several moviemakers picked up Freeride mountain biking, which lead to a wider recognition of the sport and to the first competitions. In these challenges riders demonstrated big jumps, technical steep lines and special tricks such as flips and 360’s with great style.