ROYAL HILLS
£ The M.O.D team doing
what they do best
a deep passion for riding, and
at the same time wanting to do
something cool for the sport.”
For the riders who like to push
it, the sheer quality of the tracks
and the flow of the jumps are
definitely the standout features
of Royal Hills. All the tracks and
jumps have definitely been built
with their own ‘Royal Hills style’. It
is this consistent style maintained
throughout the whole facility that
simply feeds riding progression.
I asked Pieter, the craftsman
who operates the machinery and
creates the dream lines, a few
quick questions about building
the facility:
What was the hardest part of
the track to build?
“The hardest part of the MX track
to build was the big step-up’s. It
is pretty steep in those places, so
it’s not the easiest environment to
work in.”
Which jump are you most proud
of building?
“The last step-up on the MX track.
It’s a big jump but it’s also really
safe and easy, so it’s super fun
and loads of people enjoy that
one. I also like the waves section
a lot…”
How often do you get to ride
yourself?
week to check everything out
properly. We are always trying to
find that perfect mix of having
something for everyone, but then
at the same time we want to offer
something extra that you don’t
get with other places, and for
us that’s ‘big air’. We are always
building things that we think
would be fun to ride, and we’re
not afraid to try new ideas. A
good example of this is the berm
gap on the supercross track –
that’s so much fun.
For the FMX area we wanted
to make the set-up fun and
safe, so the ramps are all set at
progressive distances allowing
you to work your way up to the
21m gap. FMX4Ever actually
hooked us up with all the ramps
here but one. This particular
ramp, me and Peter bought in an
emergency. I hadn’t ridden ramps
in about 5 months and I suddenly
had to ride a show in Taiwan. I
kinda needed a ramp to practice
on before flying out there, so we
just bought one haha.
The name itself actually came
from the local town Réalmont,
which translated into English
simply means ‘The Royal Hills’.
So with that name we had given
ourselves something to live up
to. The whole thing started from
“I get to ride whenever I want
man. I tend to go through phases
of riding more MX, BMX, DH or
enduro. It varies a fair bit but it’s
always good!”
Although Royal Hills is designed
to accommodate everyone, and
has excellent riding for beginners,
amateurs, racers, kids, rad dads
etc., right now the place seems to
be attracting pro FMX riders like
flies to s**t. Europe is not known
for its freeriding like California
is, so finding a place to session
big lines of well-built dirt jumps
with hits up to 140ft can be tricky
to say the least. In fact, I would
imagine Royal Hills has the only
commercial freeride u
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