After a route description over the phone that took us past ‘Bakkerij van Weert’, a couple of wrong turns, huge cornfields and a bunch of Red Bull Backyard Digger signs, we all of a sudden were confronted with a Red Bull Hummer, a French Fries stand, loads of parents and an army of enthusiastic kids.
The Red Bull Backyard Digger series was brought to life to provide local riders with a quality dirtspot that is good for years to come. With the enthusiasm of local riders Jason, Jared, Pim, Maikel and loads of others, they came up with the idea to build trails in Leende. Together with their parents, they started gathering autographs to get support for their idea and presented this to the local council. Red Bull got air of it, got on the job and blew it up to a full-blown event. They brought in French pro dirt rider Patrick Guimez to take care of the course, who gave the local Leende kids a crash course in laying out lines and shaping lips. 
During the event, Maikel's dad Ron is proudly overlooking the set-up from the Red Bull tent. In front of him the finishing touches are laid on the three different dirt jump lines. The ‘kiddie park’, completely decked out with berms, was already put to good use. Dad Ron proudly explains: ‘Yesterday it was raining cats and dogs over here, but that didn’t stop my sons and their friends to keep building on the course. Normally, they’re impossible to get out of bed on Saturday morning, but now they were ready to hit the dirts before the sun rose. And that means a lot!’ 
In his opening speech the local council representative emphasizes how proud he is to host this positive youth project and to have Leende mentioned right alongside Amsterdam and Groningen, where both other events will take place. When he officially opens the course, the kids bounce off towards their bikes and proceed to attack the course. DJ Dirk Diggler blasts another Arctic Monkeys track over the jumps and the adjacent dirt jumps and the mothers alongside the course nod their heads for the very first time in their life to a Monkeys track. Highlight of the day is without a doubt the demo done by Patrick Guimez and Micheal van der Lee. Even though the course was still kind of wet Patrick manages to pull off a 360 whip and a frontflip, to great delight of the crowd. Michael shows his great trails skills and styles his way through the big double set. When all is said and done, Pim van den Bos shows up late to effortlessly speed check the big set with a front flip.
At the end of the day you can say that the goal of this event, to drag the kids away from their computer and get them active again, was easily obtained. The Leende Kids now possess a dirt course that will be right in their backyard and ready to use for years to come. When you think of it, this Red Bull event could be the start to a complete makeover of the once so peaceful village. In Leende, they can happily state that ‘The Kids are allright’!Hoite Polkamp
Pics: Red Bull
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