Qualification Round - FISE Slopestyle 2016
Welcome to the opening round of FISE World Tour in Montpellier, France. This beautiful, windy little town in the south of France, is a host to one of the biggest action sports festival in Europe, if not the whole world. Just look at those numbers; 1800 amateur and professional athletes from 55 different countries battle in 35 competitions in six disciplines. And all of it happens under the watchful eyes of around 500,000 spectators. Impressive stuff and a hell of a lot of hard work to pull it off! Obviously, our main interest here is MTB Slopestyle ranked as a Gold Event in FMB World Tour. The first thing we notice is the wide spectrum of opinions about the course. Some love it, others not so much... It's tight and technical. In other words, very unforgiving, no mistakes allowed and every landing has to be on point. Might be a bit harder to what riders got used to at other events, but looking at some riders, it's perfectly good to go through without a single crank whilst adding big tricks to their runs, of course. Here's what happened during the qualification.
![FISE Slopestyle Qualification Round 2016]()
![FISE Slopestyle Qualification Round 2016]()
![FISE Slopestyle Qualification Round 2016]()
![FISE Slopestyle Qualification Round 2016]()
![FISE Slopestyle Qualification Round 2016]()
![FISE Slopestyle Qualification Round 2016]()
![FISE Slopestyle Qualification Round 2016]()
![FISE Slopestyle Qualification Round 2016]()
![FISE Slopestyle Qualification Round 2016]()
![FISE Slopestyle Qualification Round 2016]()
![FISE Slopestyle Qualification Round 2016]()
![FISE Slopestyle Qualification Round 2016]()
Watch the finals LIVE on Pinkbike from 1.45 pm CET/ 12.45 pm BST / 4.45 am PDT here.
MENTIONS: @FMBA / @lunatyk / @fise
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 Practice started in early morning hours. Riders used all that time when the wind was very fairly light. Frank Paulin with a massive flip-whip. |
Tomas Zejda 360.
Mehdi Gani flipping the big air jump.
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| Jakub Vencl with a textbook unturndown. |
Diego was dialling his front flips all morning.
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| So many good tricks and so much style from Anthon Thelander. |
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| Matt Jones was going big in the qualies. Unfortunately, he did not get in this time. |
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| Sam Pilgrim was out of luck as well. A mechanical with his brake took him out of the competition. |
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| Max Mey going through the course. |
Szymon Godziek 360 tabletop.
Yannick Granieri 360 tailwhip
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| Daryl Brown practicing his tricks. |
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| Torquato Test with a huge flipwhip over the biggest jump on the FISE track. |
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| Nicholas Terrier gave 100%. Shame, he's just outside the final 12. He's such a stylish rider. |
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| Mitch Chubey from Canada really liked the last trick jump. |
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| Bienve was strongly motivated to pass the qualification round. This crash finished his dreams about the finals. |
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| Simon Pages with a perfect flipwhip in front of many french spectators. |
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| Mehdi Gani is 12th out of 12 riders who qualified for the final round. |
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| Daryl Brown is definitely stoked with his riding and happy to be in the finals. |
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| Louis fought hard for his place in the top 12. His effort has paid off. |
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| It's absolutely great to see young American, Reed Boggs, amongst those who qualified. He loves it over here and wants to ride more than anyone else. |
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| Dropping in watched by hundreds of fellow countryman. No pressure... |
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| Yannick Granieri is a very popular rider here, without a doubt. And he will always find time for his fans. |
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| Max Fredriksson using momentum he gained from last week's event. He sure did not want to miss the finals. |
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| Lukas Knopf showing that qualifying at Swatch Rocket Air was not a fluke. Saving himself the 6th place. |
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| There can't be finals without Nicholi Rogatkin. |
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| Ryan Nyquist, what a legend! Show some respect for this awesome human being! |
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| Tomas Lemoine is one of those riders who feel like fish in the water. His champion pumptrack skills come in handy here. All that in addition to big tricks put him in solid 3rd place. |
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| Szymon Godziek with another high scoring qualifying run. Hopefully, he'll be able to turn his luck for the best! Fingers crossed! |
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| With a super stylish and butter smooth run, Thomas Genon jumped straight on top of the list. We all can't wait to see what the finals will bring. |
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Watch the finals LIVE on Pinkbike from 1.45 pm CET/ 12.45 pm BST / 4.45 am PDT here.
MENTIONS: @FMBA / @lunatyk / @fise
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anyway, Go Szymon, Go!