Swatch Rocket Air: Sam Pilgrim Wins - Results and Video Replay

Apr 13, 2013
by Mike Kazimer  
The Swatch Rocket Air has wrapped up, with riders digging deep into their bags of tricks to make it to the podium. It was a technical course, with a missed pedal stroke or over rotated landing often causing riders to not finish their runs. Martin Soderstrom threw down on his first run, even including a triple tailwhip, but slid out on his final air out of the quarter pipe and wasn't rewarded for his run up to that point. Pilgrim's runs were smooth, with his 720 over the hip standing out, as well as a 540 on the step-up. The only North American rider in the finals, Brett Rheeder, had trouble on his first run, but was able to pull it together for his second run, finishing the day in third place.

Results:
1.Sam Pilgrim 91.0
2.Martin Soderstrom 81.3
3.Brett Rheeder 79.0
4.Anton Thelander 78.7
5.Sam Reynolds 77.3
6.Szymon Godziek 76.0
7.Amir Kabbini 73.7
8.Linus Sjoholm 72.7
9.Patrick Leitner 65.7
10.Tomas Zejda 65.3


Stay tuned for photos from the finals. Until then, check out the replay of the event:




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152 Comments
  • 66 5
 Sam Pilgrim was made for Dirt jumps! Well done Sam! Big Grin
  • 17 2
 ha says highly contested he won by 10 points!
  • 11 1
 hes started this season so well, I'm proper pleased for him
  • 27 180
flag drewfis (Apr 13, 2013 at 12:42) (Below Threshold)
 Sam pilgroms cool and all but hes not a mountain biker. if hes not riding straight dirt jumps he can barely make it through the set.

I know its inevitable........ BRING ON THE NEG PROPS Fu*Kers!!!
  • 7 7
 awesome
  • 36 5
 these aren't "dirt jumps" lol, these are trick jumps with wood lips.
  • 30 3
 He can only ride straight jumps eh? What about the 720 on a hip?
  • 5 8
 @drew he had a killer line at rampage and probally would have qualified had his wheel broken when jumping....
  • 14 3
 There's a fly out to flat for Christ sake please don't claim this as a dirt jump course
  • 2 0
 he's an ANIMAL!
  • 5 56
flag drewfis (Apr 13, 2013 at 13:20) (Below Threshold)
 Wooo YOUR RIGHT BIG DOG!!!! it MUST have been his wheels fault at rampage not a lack of skill on a "mountain bike".
  • 20 1
 @drewfis: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MB3Szl23xI
  • 4 30
flag scott-townes (Apr 13, 2013 at 13:37) (Below Threshold)
 Nah his wheel broke because he wasn't riding a mountain bike, he was on one of those flimsy and tiny DJ bikes with slightly nobbed tires and suspension, DUH. lolzz that was a tight comp. loved the front flip over-rotate to front wheel bounce.
  • 10 1
 He was riding a 7 inch travel FR bike at Rampage
  • 27 0
 Someone that wants to attack Sam pilgrims ability to ride must be so good at riding, shame they aren't up on the podium with sponsors offering them money just to wear something with their name on it... Shame we haven't seen this person...
  • 10 63
flag michaelmarsh (Apr 13, 2013 at 14:51) (Below Threshold)
 Sam Pilgrim can NOT mountain bike, yes he may have showed up at rampage but he didn't even ride the course.
Right after he showed up he was all like "f*ck this, rampage sucks" and peaced out.
Any rider who willing skips rampage does not have the right to call themselves a mountain biker.
All he is is a BMXer riding the wrong rig
  • 3 0
 ''it MUST have been his wheels fault at rampage'' Aye man, taking the wind into consideration, sound you're totally right eh.
  • 25 2
 @sask250, you live in saskatchewan. Please elaborate as to how many mountains are in saskatchewan if you want to bring the "mountain" biking argument into play.
  • 2 11
flag scott-townes (Apr 13, 2013 at 15:14) (Below Threshold)
 mhopper- good to see you know what a joke is... lolz serious business, right?
  • 22 1
 @SASK Are you serious???? I reckon the majority of us normal folk here on PB are most definitely mountain bikers and yet no matter what we like to think we'd ride given the opportunity, the majority of us wouldn't dare ride rampage... it's an invite competition for a reason.

If any of you guys don't like pilgrim, because you don't like his style or for any other reason that's cool with me but please don't be a dick and say that he isn't a mountain biker cos that's just bullshit...
  • 6 5
 720 step up! Who even tried anything like that? Not to mention the triple tailwhip on first run. This is the contest and he was above and beyond everyone else. Nuf said...
  • 2 0
 hey idiot wat is exactly your point with your ''mountain bike''...... if he would do that on road bike or bmx i'd still be pleased sooo explain or shut up
  • 1 1
 Its not using your supr kona but any way he won! You dont....
  • 2 6
flag Rideslots (Apr 13, 2013 at 16:46) (Below Threshold)
 @ol751 He was highly contested... If Soderstrom made his first run clean Pilgram would be the one losing by 10 points
  • 1 0
 Douche!
  • 1 0
 Dude mark morris came from saskatoon and he's a total ripper n a slope style snowboard contest
  • 3 0
 I searched mark morris on youtube and I just got a bunch of dance videos. Seems legit.
  • 4 0
 Can't wait for the World Cup DH season to start...
  • 9 0
 One more thing, its hilarious how pointless that slightly hipped jump is, people are doing straight jump tricks on it haha.
  • 6 1
 @ drewfis: your a f*ckin idiot and same goes for sask250
  • 3 0
 @rideslots:
Ifs and buts aren't worth a great deal.
They mark out of 100 and Pilgs got 91, so how could he be beaten by 10 points?
  • 2 0
 I love all these pinkbike arguments ! At the end of the day Pilgrim won and if you think he isn't a mountain biker then fair enough as it's your own opinion, but it still doesn't change anything so please go bitch about it somewhere else.
  • 6 0
 Pilgrim is f*cking rad Wink


I'd be more than happy to go "mountain biking" with Sam, and I've ridden with the best in the biz...freeriders like simmons, gully, cowan, bourdon, bender... plus many of the top DH racers and XC riders since I started riding MTB in 1986!

we are all 'bike riders' at the end of the day, and enjoy riding our bike Wink
  • 2 0
 so much guys saying, that sam can't ride a mountainbike!? umad?
both of his runs were absolutely amazing and i'm happy that he won this event even though i wanted martin to win! Big Grin
  • 3 1
 Sam is amazing. Not sure how anyone can say he isn't a mountainbiker. Only a very small percentage of us mountain bikers can take on the rampage. Rediculous comments.
  • 3 0
 to be fair he is still better that all of us and can probably ride mtb better than all of us
  • 42 13
 Brett Rheeder gets points for being just Rheeder lol There was other better runs than his one.
  • 67 6
 yeah! Norbs got robbed!
  • 10 29
flag bigboybmxlover95 (Apr 13, 2013 at 12:30) (Below Threshold)
 are you sutpid in the head brett rheeder is a beast!1111!!!
  • 26 9
 Rheeder run was good, but not a top 3 imo. There were better runs
  • 2 0
 1:07:24 Its a full moon! haha
  • 4 5
 Way to be proud of yer fellow Canuck you dumb f@ck!
Be stoked he was the one and only Canadian there and that he got on the podium.
Just say, cuz support goes a long way!
  • 2 0
 amir kabbinis run was better!
(i know you think that i just say this, because i'm german, but damn that run was f*cking rad..)
  • 20 1
 I'm glad Martin Söderström ended up second. I was kind of worried when I saw Martins 1st runs result just for that little mistake! I think the judges aren't very fair..
  • 19 4
 Pilgrims Run was a total level up from the competition. Any of the top 5-7 could have been the other 2 podium spots, but pilgrim is such a clear winner its awesome. We all complain about the judging so its nice when the winner is obvious.
  • 13 2
 so just because Rheeder doing his flip oppo whip again.. now he's got 3rd place his other moves was plain i think.. Reynolds was under rated Thelander way too over rated Soderstrom's triple whip gone for nothing the only one thing correct was the score all of Pilgrim runs just my opinion
  • 4 0
 Did you see the size of Reynolds case on the step up and how sketch his 7 was?
  • 5 2
 yeah i saw it, that's why i say he was under rated,

maybe because he mooning the camera but nice ass though *LOL
  • 5 0
 Rheeder also trucked the drop in
  • 5 1
 and he slipped a pedal and lost a lot of speed on the next jumps...
  • 3 0
 Ya ok now I see what u mean .. He slipped a pedal on the second drop in after the oppo truck - I meant the starting drop in truck .. He's getting oppo bonus points basically, like semenuk did last year and not all the other guys are doing oppo tricks .. I'm saying they are fair extra points since that's how it's being judged
  • 2 0
 Fajardb, my words exactly! Reynolds under rated, Soderstrom's triple went to waste on a flair he should've nailed because he wasn't focusing on his throwaway trick at the end of the run, and Pilgrim killed it. That and Rheeder had four barspins in run that got him third...not to say he isn't awesome, but third...
  • 1 0
 Soderstrom's run was really nice, wish he could have held it together
  • 1 0
 if genon didnt crash with his flair on his 2nd run, he would've done really well
  • 13 4
 To everyone wondering where Semenuk is www.troyleedesigns.com/news/brandon-semenuk-to-compete-in-fewer-fmb-events
It sucks we wont get to see him kill it at as many contests but on the bright side this will open the door to other riders to get some more wins and also we will get to see some more sick video segments from him!(life behind bars 2)tup
  • 26 16
 ''The North American kids have such a hard time compared to the Euro kids.'' Oh I'm sorry Semenuk, not all of us have BC on our doorsteps.
  • 22 3
 @parker455, he's talking about kids starting up and not being able to enter as many bronze level FMB events because they're mostly in Europe.
  • 14 4
 Not all North Americans have BC on there doorstep either, there are some pretty flat places in this continent, but we still ride. He was talking about contests since most 18 year old kids from N. America with sponsors who wont send then to Europe cant really compete in the overall rankings as there are more than double the bronze events in Europe, The FMB is even harder for Kiwis and Aussies to compete without a lot of sponsorship support. Also travel in Europe is a hell of a lot cheaper than in Canada and a fair bit cheaper than in the US.
  • 13 4
 I bet Brandons also not riding because half the events are in parking lots
  • 16 4
 Europe has many countries, many big cities, lots of different culture, and every country/city with a bit of a mtb movement wants to host its own event. A contest like the Rocket Air or the Air King etc. could be everywhere, also in the US. And it's not fair to accuse Europeans just because they invested money in the sport and host events. The difference is that they do it and the NA not, and we can't change the fact that Europe is smaller than the US.
  • 7 13
flag parker455 (Apr 13, 2013 at 13:20) (Below Threshold)
 @Maarrk - He's also not a nice guy, most un-stoked person I've ever witnessed. Good on a bike, but no personality in the slightest.
  • 6 2
 But this isn't a mistake of the fmb-organisation i think. Not the fmb says where the contest are but the contestorganizer have to register their contest at the fmb homepage. If the smaller Contest in USA / Canada don't get signed, it is a mistake of themself. Or did i misunderstand the procedure?
  • 11 1
 I'm stoked for Semenuk to change things up and do something that truly excites him. It's the ultimate luxury when you're that good at something you can do it on your terms without being tied to tours and dates. I still maintain he's a little dull- but maybe he wasn't cut out for the media hype and attention that winning Crankworx gets you. Thing is, people like Cam McCaul, Lacondeguy, Pilgrim, Soderstrom would make anyone look dull!! Brandon is a ridiculously talented and focussed rider that we should be glad to have in our sport. Who cares if he's a little quiet? I bet every penny I own (and that's 71p) that when his video comes out next year it will go down in MTB history.
  • 3 5
 ''The Euro kids have it easier'' Yeah, considering it's just as expensive to get a flight/drive to the event as it is for North Americans/Canadians you're totally right.
  • 3 0
 Maybe Semenuk could make his own competition in his backyard !?, i don't think it would be a problem for him to get that on the FMB tour...
  • 3 0
 Nobodys saying all the events should be in north america. Just that the bronze and silver events evenly distributed between the here and europe so *everyone has equal oppurtunity to do well in the tour regardless of where they live or how big they're travel budget.
  • 2 2
 @parker455 Who the hell cares if he's a nice guy? All he's saying is that for the people who are starting up, they can't get into the FMB world tour as easily because the bronze events are mostly in Europe, and their sponsors, or sometimes parents, aren't willing or able to pay tonnes of money to send them out to the events. He's also right about one main thing: The way they have things set up is f*cked.
  • 2 0
 Isn't something like 2/3 of the contests on the FMB calendar in Europe? Also, what kind of Freeride Mountain Bike World "Tour" has overlapping events?
  • 1 2
 does anybody really take the fmb world tour rankings seriously? Obviously its skewn by travel, inconsistent judging and injuries etc etc. the way I look at it it's just a good forum to promote our sport to a wider audience - with events such as VAK, and to publicise up and coming riders to help them with sponsorship etc etc to help them make a living out of riding and thus push the level of riding up another level. Am I missing something here?
  • 10 2
 Martin's run was great, but Pilgrim's was not human! =D Still love Soderstrom Wink
  • 7 0
 I love this Red Bull player, Said no one ever.
  • 8 2
 The 540 on the step up and the 720 on the hip were freakin awesome!!
  • 6 0
 super sick run from SAM!! incredible live!! the hole event was super sick!
  • 4 0
 Well Reynolds was very under-scored... Pilgrim without a doubt should have won but I think Reynolds should have been on or a lot closer to the podium than he was
  • 5 0
 who else cant stand this announcer the fmb always uses
  • 9 4
 Atta boy rheeder, keep on that podium.
  • 8 7
 no idea how he got on with a run like that.
  • 7 4
 @henry turner this is the 4th time you commented now we all know your opinion so if you could just keep to yours self form now on that would be great.
  • 4 2
 @henry-turner, I agree, it was definitely a good run, but not good enough to make podium IMO
  • 3 2
 HenryTurner, what do you have against Rheeder, he's a fucking dialed rider
  • 5 2
 Nothing, his run was just not worth 3rd place, he slipped a pedal too.
  • 4 0
 And then at Vienna you said he didn't deserve first. He slipped a pedal on an oppo truck... he still tricked the next jump. His foot didn't even hit the ground
  • 3 2
 Vienna is a whole different story, people who put down better runs than him didnt even make the podium. but in this, it takes a pretty Huge mess up on a corse like this to miss the next jump, and compared to the people's runs in 4-6th I would say his was pretty poor.
  • 5 1
 @ henry thats your 7th time commenting on this article dissing Rheeder we have all herd your opinion and what you say or how many times you say it changes nothing and means nothing so please stop!
  • 6 4
 Am I the only one who thinks that little kids crying about bad judging is the most annoying thing on this website ?
You have never judged a competition nore have you seen ore riden this course so please be quit. thanks.
  • 2 1
 I'm not crying about the judges I'm just sayin after he did a triple tailwhip and had a quiet good run he ended up on 10th place just because of that little slip at the end ( 1st run )
ok I'm taking back that the judges are unfair but they are very ,,strict"
  • 5 1
 Definitely, absolutely without doubt, 100% agree... but Norbs was robbed.
  • 1 0
 Who do you agree with ?
  • 4 0
 Yeah that tripped me out- I was making a joke reply to Airik but you must have posted your comment in the time it took for my tired old fat fingers to type mine.
  • 5 0
 "We've seen him killing at the farm jam in Australia" *facepalm*
  • 3 0
 Nice one. Fucktard commentator, obviously a roadie.
  • 9 4
 MR. BRETT RHEEDER.
  • 5 2
 Pilgrim's run was insane! Such a high level of riding, stoked to be a part of the sport!
  • 6 4
 brett is a notable guy, run with all the pressure, and make a podium result is awesome, congrats man, you go direct to your winning year!!!
  • 4 0
 Godziek's over flip was epic- I was waiting for that wheel to burst...
  • 2 0
 Pilgrim is just punkbitch, but Martin had to have won in the first run, judges were rub their nuts. HELVETE!
  • 3 0
 Swedes represent! 3 Swedes in top 10!
  • 1 0
 Genon should have played it safe on his 2nd run with that flair. His run would have been a real good score had he not stacked it.
  • 1 0
 I think he tried a flair whip. Props to him for this run !
  • 2 0
 Right on Rheeder!!!! Way to do the flag proud brother! Sweet being the one and only Canuck overseas. Hats off to you man
  • 3 0
 SAM PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD!!!
  • 1 0
 Yea. Rheeder probably would've gotten 2nd or at least a higher score than what he got, had he not dabbed on the switch truck.
  • 2 1
 So, what was most f*cked up, the judging or Sam Pilgrims eyebrow piercing? Debate!
  • 1 0
 Eyebrow piercing, I hope his face doesn't hit the ground this season.
  • 2 0
 Congrats Sam now go buy a tooth you hillbilly!
  • 1 0
 if martin just snaped that trippel tailwhip on the last this would be a big different result!!
  • 4 6
 That announcer obviously hasn't been around long. I think I've heard scooter goons more educated on bmx tricks. I know this is a little mean but i had to laugh. come on tabes for the babes Smile
  • 1 1
 There were bmx bikes there?
  • 5 1
 Ryan Meyer is a professional rider
  • 4 1
 But needs to work on his commentating...
  • 1 1
 Anyone have the time mark for Sam's winning run so I don't have to watch the 1.5hr video?
  • 1 0
 To answer my own question: skip to 1:13:40 or so to see Sam's run...
  • 2 0
 man why would you want to skip the rest?!
  • 1 0
 Anyone else spot that cheeky mooner at 1:07?
  • 2 0
 lol Big Grin amir kabbini
  • 2 0
 Go Pilgrim!!
  • 1 0
 Flip whip over the hip Big Grin
  • 2 1
 Pilgrim rides like a pro.
  • 8 0
 HE IS A PRO Facepalm
  • 1 0
 Cheers to Sam Pilgrim and to Pinkbike for showing this event. O ya!
  • 1 0
 why are some of their jeans so tight? gay....
  • 1 0
 well lets compare.. double whip or flipwhip? please talk sense
  • 3 3
 The 540 up the step up was great!
  • 3 2
 THANKS PINKBIKE
  • 4 5
 SMASHED IT SAM !!! Thank you so much pinkbike for the coverage !!! Salute
  • 7 2
 Maybe you should thank Redbull!
  • 3 0
 Thank you redbull for streaming it on pinkbike . Thank you pinkbike for putting redbulls stream on your website . Is that any better ? Salute
  • 1 0
 That is perfect ;-) ...just like Pilgrims 2. run...
  • 1 2
 did anyone else see sam reynolds' moon the camera at 51:44?
  • 2 0
 No i completely missed a massive arse filling up my screen!
  • 2 2
 get in!
  • 2 2
 Man, Sam was FANTASTIC!
  • 6 8
 1st and 2nd are fair, 3rd is a joke. he slipped a pedal and didn't get marked down. Tomas Zejda should have taken his place.
  • 7 6
 i really dont think Brett deserved the 3rd place, Thelander was better....
  • 6 4
 zejda or reynolds is better for the 3rd zejda moves was so creative and has many combo
  • 7 4
 agreed. rheeders run was so bad compared.
  • 3 0
 Rheeder himself looked surprised, then relieved when he saw his score at first. Could just be me though.
  • 1 3
 best of the best - love it
  • 2 5
 Norbs got robbed!
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