After a shady start to the slopetyle contest here in Les Deux Alpes, the wind finally died down and things got wild. To see the top guys throwing down such enormous tricks with such casual swagger is quite phenomenal, and it is just amazing to think how far slopestyle contests have come.

Practice and warm up alone were ridiculous with a backflip basically counting as a straight air these days – everyone flipping or spinning on pretty much every jump. Finals brought flip whips, triple whips, cork 720s and all manner of stupidity to the table. Seriously impressive. Of course, with big courses and tricks come big consequences, but thankfully no one was seriously hurt even on L2A’s fast and slightly sketchy course. Yannick Granieri had a big stack right at the end of the course in his first run but dusted himself off to take eighth with his second run. Anthony Messere’s barspin on the very last grass bank flat out into the finish area was probably the move of the contest though – it was a wild one off the back of a great run and sent him sliding full speed into the barriers.

By the end of play third place had been decided as Thomas Genon, the Belgian throwing some serious steeze off the SRAM wave with a dumped 360 table that really shouldn’t have been possible. And then there’s the Semenuk-Rheeder show, the two Trek athletes leagues ahead of the rest with supreme bike handling and massive trick bags. Ever the perfectionist, Brandon Semenuk’s second run didn’t quite go to his game plan and the Canadian pulled off the course right before the very last jump before rolling across the finishline looking a little dejected. That left Brett Rheeder’s insane first run score to stand as the winner, and the fellow Canadian swiped the win, with only a lap of honour to ride home to a €10,000 cheque. Not bad.

1: Brett Rheeder
2: Brandon Semenuk
3: Thomas Genon
4: Logan Peat
5: Sam Pilgrim
6: Anthony Messere
7: Mehdi Gani
8: Yannick Granieri