Tignes, France, Saturday 8 March 2008 – On a perfect day, 43 of the world’s best freeriders delivered top class action on the north face of Pramecou for the Nissan Freeride de Tignes, the fourth contest of the Freeride World Tour. In fast compact, snow, the astounded spectators witnessed impressive speed and riders stomping some spectacular cliff drops. Now, only one contest remains to crown the first ever Freeride World Champions, at the Nissan O’Neill Xtreme de Verbier in Switzerland next weekend.
Photo: Serge Sozonoff
The male snowboarders were first to take on the 400 meter long face. With two pretty intimidating starting options, the riders had first to rappel into the face before starting their run at around 45 degrees steep. For the snowboarders, two runs were particularly standing out, first and second placed riders Xavier de le Rue (France) and Alex Coudray (Switzerland). Former boarder cross World Champion Xavier de le Rue is well known forripping down the mountain at great speed, which he proved today again, at a technical run with committed cliff drops, including a double drop at the second part of the run. “It was really cool today. A good face with very fast riding. I chose to execute a technical run and go for it and it worked out!” said the stoked Frenchman, who is now leading the ranking of the Freeride World Tour with only one contest to go.
While overalltitle contender Bibi Pekarek could not defend her title due to an injury which occured during a photoshoot in Canada, norwegian A.R.C. rider David Magnusson placed 3rd after pulling a perfect line into the difficult face of Bec de Rosse.
Photo: Jancsi Hadik
