InLineDownHill

Adrian Gumanita and Romane Favia win in super wet Downhill Arena

The two young stars of inline downhill, 21y/o Romane Favia (SWI) and 23 y/o Adrian Gumanita (MOL) won both the Time Trial and the Mass Race on the highly technical 1.5km course in Northern Italian Pre-Alps.

The track was very curvy, with almost no straight lines, and a wide range of different turns, three of which required braking. After the difficult 2020 season, international riders have started to travel again and these are great news for the discipline.

Riders from Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, Belgium and even Canada took part either in the inline or longboard race.

After the whole day of Friday has been dedicated to practice runs (or “freerides” like skateboarders call them), time trials took place on Saturday, on a perfectly dry course.

Adrian Gumanita won the race, setting the best time in both runs, but with a not-too large margin on Italian National Team member Tiziano Ferrari though. German Veteran Theo Frommlet was able to grab the bronze with a solid second run, after a bad crash in the first one.

Among women, one of the new superstars of the sport, Romane Favia, won the race with an amazing 10 seconds gap on Anne Rebout who is a member of the German National Team, Elizabeth Salazar (ITA) finished third, with another step on her improvement track.

Both Favia, who, when she is not skating, is a well known professional violinist and Gumanita, bumped in the world class inline downhill scene this year and they’ll have a great chance to step on the most important podium of all, at the 2021 WorldSkate ™ Inline downhill world championships which will take place in Bettola, Italy, next September. The village is located about 20k from Piacenza, where Adrian lives. He cannot miss the opportunity to fight for the World Title on his home track!

On Sunday afternoon, mass races were scheduled, and right before warm up runs, a 50+Mph wind started to blow and destroyed gazebos, tents and put the whole area out of power for some minutes.

Around 3.00 pm it started to rain, and it will never stop until the end of the event, around 6.00.

Due to the presence of a great number of longboard riders (the event was actually organized by “Sbanda Brianza”, a very active skateboard team and inline downhillers were a minority), Mass races were the most important section of the competition. And they took place under the rain, all of them.

Especially the Downhill Skateboard quarter Finals have been run under one of the heaviest rains ever seen in a downhill competition.

Among men, Gumanita, Ferrari, Doardo and newcomer John Herrera qualified easily for the final, with the girls who skated for the win in one single final run. Romane Favia said hello to her opponents a few steps after the start and never looked back. As expected, Anna Rebout of Germany came out second and Elizabeth Salazar third in the rain.

In the men’s ultimate race, run in a very difficult half wet / half dry course, unlucky Tiziano Ferrari dislocated his right shoulder in the first corner and could not fight for the title, he finished the race 4^th, anyway. Life was easy for Adrian Gumanita without his strongest opponent, in fact he won with a big gap on Giorgio Doardo, excellent second and John Herrera, who could not believe he stepped on the podium!

Despite the rainy and cold weather in the last day, the whole event has been successful, with a friendly environment and good harmony among the different disciplines on wheels. Shared events may be so good!

After a highly limited 2020 season, in-line downhill action went back to where it started, more than 20 years ago, the mighty 1 km course in the heart of Lausanne, La Vallée de la Jeunesse (The Valley of Youth). Being a car-free public park, it has always been a heaven for inline (but also longboard, Streetluge, Quad skates etc) downhill riders and adrenaline addicted.

Even though for today’s standards the course is not extremely challenging, the enthusiasm of the riders and the city made a great event. 1990s superstar, Lausanne native, and now in charge of downhill in Switzerland Nicolas Gachoud perfectly chaired the organizing committee and run the event in smooth and effective way.

Despite the heavy rain that fell during the whole competition, the race has been top level and funny for the riders, who came from all over Europe.

2018 World Champion Renato Pennuti of Italy won the race, in front of one of the upcoming stars of the discipline, 22 years old Moldovan Adrian Gumanita, Spain’s Carlos Flores Arranz came third with a good number of solid runs.

Among women, we had the chance to see one of the fastest girls since the times of Gabi Leuenberger, Séverine Christ-Thomas and Marjorie Phlippoteau.

Swiss Flavia Romane, in fact, not only won the women’s race with a huge margin on Laura Vincent and Karine Pittier, but set the 4^th time overall! We’ll have to keep an eye on this girl, especially as far as the WorldSkate ™ world championship is concerned. We remind it will take place in Bettola, Italy next September 17-19.

It was also important to see French-Iranian Sébastien Rastegar back to racing after his injury, he even finished good 5^th overall and old-school top rider Romain Guignet, after many years.

Looking forward to the next race in Rogno, in Northern Italy, at the end of July.

Lausanne, SWI, July 3-4, 2021 International Downhill Race La Vallée de La Jeunesse Time Trial men

Rank	Cognome	Nome	Naz	Best
1	Pennuti	Renato	Ita	54”35
2	Gumanita	Adrian	Mol	55”54
3	Flores Arranz	Carlos	Spa	55”62
4	Bataille	Valentin	Fra	56”62
5	Rastegar	Sebastien	Fra	57”00
6	Bonet	Jordi	Spa	57”24
7	D’Orlando	Valerio	Ita	58”17
8	Guignet	Romain	Swi	59”80
9	Ubaldi	Ubaldo	Ita	1’01”47
10	Varin	Nicolas	Fra	1’02”39
11	Baali Pena	Angel	Spa	1’03”03
12	Tacchini	Davide	Ita	1’04”35
13	Maillard	Adel	Swi	1’06”68

Lausanne, SWI, July 3-4, 2021 International Downhill Race La Vallée de La Jeunesse Time Trial Women

Rank	Cognome	Nome	Naz	Best
1	Favia	Romane	Swi	56”55
2	Vincent	Laura	Fra	1’00”06
3	Pittier	Karine	Swi	1’02”44
4	Carli	Michela	Ita	1’02”53

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Congratulations to the commissioner and rider Jaime Sanchez.Another great achievement for inline downhill in South America. On April 18 our discipline has been officially accepted in the Skating federation of Peru, together with Speed Skating, Figure Skating, Skateboarding, hockey(s) and freestyle.

The Race in Lausanne has been postponed to July 3-4. More international riders will have the chance to travel in July. Save the date, it is going to be an epic event! The calendar has been updated.

17-20 June 2021, San Marino (Republic of San Marino) Italian Roller Games.

3-4 July 2021, Lausanne (SWI), La Vallée de la Jeunesse, INTERNATIONAL RACE

23-25 July 2021, Rogno (BG, Italy) Downhill Arena Race. Italian National Cup OPEN RACE

30-31 July 2021 (TBC), Montreux (SWI), The Ultimate Bukolik, INTERNATIONAL RACE

03-05 September 2021 (TBC), Monticiano (SI, Italy), INTERNATIONAL RACE

18-19 September, 2021, Inline DH World Championships, Bettola (PC), Italy. 

28-30 May 2021, Lausanne (SWI), La Vallée de la Jeunesse, INTERNATIONAL RACE

17-20 June 2021, San Marino (Republic of San Marino) Italian Roller Games.

23-25 July 2021, Rogno (BG, Italy) Downhill Arena Race. Italian National Cup OPEN RACE

30-31 July 2021 (TBC), Montreux (SWI) The Ultimate Bukolik, INTERNATIONAL RACE

03-05 September 2021 (TBC), Monticiano (SI, Italy), INTERNATIONAL RACE

18-19 September, 2021, Inline DH World Championships, Bettola (PC), Italy. 

After an almost non-existent 2020 season, even though COVID-19 is still, sadly, present in our lives, inline downhill racing is back! Italy will be, once more, the motherland of the discipline, waiting for brighter times, when travels will be as easy as they used to be.  The vivid Inline downhill activity in South America is still in full swing, but, unfortunately, participation to races is limited to locals, because of COVID-19 travel restrictions. We can’t wait to host 2019 WRG World Champion Diego Posada and the other South American riders in a competition in the Alps. In the meantime, we are glad to publish the 2021 provisional calendar!

June 2021 (day TBA), Italian Roller Games, Republic of San Marino.

23-25 July 2021, Downhill Arena Race Rogno (BG), Italy.

09-11 July 2021, IVO Race, Volpaia (Tuscany), Italy.

18-19 September, 2021, IIDA Inline DH World Championships, Bettola (PC), Italy.

More races will be added as soon as they will be confirmed by the organizers (one in Romania, One in the Czech Republic and one in Turkey)

We are also glad to announce that the Inline Downhill World Championships will be back on the 2003, 2004 IIDA World Cup and 2011 World Skate (FIRS at that time) World Championships course in Northern Italy, with long sections of brand new, smooth tarmac.

Stay Tuned! Inline Downhill is back!

The IIDA Team

After a long break due to COVID-19, in-line downhill action restarted from the challenging Swiss course in Vaude. The track, well known for a 15+ years freeride tradition, has hosted, for the first time, an IIDA sanctioned race.

Instead of the usual cars/trucks or buses, a scenic cable car took the riders back to the top.

The narrow road, the good number of hard braking turns, together with the tarmac, that was not smooth at all, made the race challenging for all the riders, on inlines, longboards, street luges and trikes. The organizing committee, chaired by 1990s inline downhill star Nicolas Gachoud (welcome back champ!) made everything it could to have the event running as smooth as possible, despite the significant number of participants, the crazy weather, etc.

2018 World Champion Renato Pennuti of Italy won the race, with a good margin on French Victor Veduta and 2017 World Champion Nicolas Varin.

A big surprise came from the young Italian Valerio d’Orlando, who, with few to no experience at the international level, finished 4th, behind some of the best in the world. None of the top 6 used a heelbrake, including the winner, and former slalom world champion and online downhill rising star Tiziano Ferrari (5th).

It has been particularly important to have an international race this year, as well as to have Switzerland back and to see again in the top spots one of the most talented skaters of his generation, Lyon’s native Etienne Herreros, one year (and a serious injury) after his contested 4th in WRG the mass race in Barcelona.

Waiting for 2021, which is going to be the re-launch of our discipline, IIDA is happy to have the famous Bukolik Freeride turned in a TT race, hoping to keep it on the circuit for many years.