French freestyle mountain biker Yannick Granieri is working on the one trick thats guaranteed to impress, a 360 backflip. But rather than committing his time to the foam pit, Granieri has another training method thats proving to give him the results he needs.
Granieri started out as a gymnast but at the age of 14 he suffered a pre-comp accident on the trampoline which abruptly ended his career. By the age of 20 he’s now competing on the mountain bike and pulling some impressive moves, a 15m plunge of a drop off at the 2010 Red Bull Rampage event in Utah followed by a backflip (which he landed). Now Yannick is returning to the gym and his trampoline but with a different focus in mind.
“There’s a lot to be said for using a trampoline. If I was jumping into the foam-pit on the bike, then I’d need five minutes per attempt, and that’s if all goes well. Pushing the bike into position, getting ready, jumping, getting the bike out of the foam-pit, clambering out myself, taking a breather, starting over… On the trampoline I can do 20 backflip 360s a minute if I feel like it, whatever the weather, all year round. And there’s less chance of getting injured at the gymnasium. Also, the trampoline is less forgiving of mistakes. No, that’s wrong. Franck is less forgiving of mistakes than the dirt.”
Franck Rousson, a former French trampoline champion, trains the up-and-coming talent and is also helping Yannick achieve his goal of landing the 360 backflip perfectly.
To find out more about Yannick’s training, check out the full article at www.redbulletin.com
