Full Results and Photos from Kona's White Style in Leogang, Austria. Pilgrim the man again at Whitestyle
More than 2.500 visitors flocked to Leogang’s Schantei lift to get a first-hand impression of the Monster Energy White Style course, designed by Grant “Chopper” Fielder. After the snow had been too soft for complete runs during Thursday’s training session, perfect weather conditions awaited the riders for the finals on Friday. This year, Kona Clump rider Chopper once again outdid himself: the step-up step-down with humongous drop was so massive the riders referred to it as the “Monster”. The impressive course was so daunting that it inspired awe in the toughest pro.
Obviously, the obstacles’ gigantic dimensions could not scare the riders away and most of the athletes who had travelled to Leogang from twelve nations showed the best tricks in their repertoire. One such trick combination consisting of a backflip table, 360 into the satellite dish and flip off, tailwhip, flip tabletop off the monster drop, and backflip x-up onefoot catapulted British Sam Pilgrim to first place. The second-time winner was super stoked: “The course was really gnarly this year. It’s not easy riding on snow, also because your fingers tend to freeze. But Chopper built an awesome course and I am really stoked to take first place again. I’m starting to become a White Style veteran!”
The riders had good reason to be wary of the Monster’s huge proportions. Only after Sam Reynolds broke the spell with a backflip off the feared mega-drop, one rider after another tricked off the obstacle. Sam completed his winning run with a backflip no hands, tailwhip, flip off the Monster drop and a superman seatgrab.
Yannick Granieri who came in on third place, showed the awed audience a tailwhip off the Monster that boosted him up to third place. Plenty of backflips ant tailwhips completed the program that earned him third place.
18 year old Kona rider Antoine Bizet (FRA) had a few surprises in store for the judges. Not only did his tricks land him second place in the qualifiers, during his first run in the finals he impressed with a backflip no hander at the last sender and attempted the same trick at the Monster drop. Unfortunately he did not manage a clean landing and broke his collar bone. We wish him all the best and a quick recovery!
Thursday’s qualifying was clearly dominated by Swedish Martin Soderstrom. He showed clean and extremely stylish runs and secure first place in the qualifiers, as he did last year. In the finals, the new Specialized rider was the only one who did a 360 off the Monster and he left no obstacle untricked. After that, bad luck unfortunately caught up with him. He landed too short on the backflip at the last sender and crashed so hard that he coud not complete a second run and ended up on ninth place.
Canadian Graham Agassiz had already given up on riding the contest at all after a heavy crash during practice. Luckily, he changed his mind. With a battered ankle and despite the cold without gloves, he delivered an impressive second final run – including barrel roll at the monster and a backflip no-foot cancan at over the sender – that secured him a solid second place. Jamie Goldman (USA) came in fifth, probably also thanks to the backflip off the Monster.
These are the 12 best riders:
1. Sam Pilgrim 2. Sam Reynolds 3. Yannick Granieri 4. Graham Agassiz 5. Jamie Goldman 6. Szymon Godziek 7. Simon Kirchmann 8. Thomas Genon 9. Martin Soderstrom 10. Antoine Bizet 11. Andreu Lacondeguy 12. Jan Toth
I still prefer a crappy p3 frame that breaks after a week of riding in a competition. The Mayesty would never ever break. Martin could have won the white style on NS.
Your all retarded. He bent his fork and snapped his chain. His frame was perfectly fine, get over the fact he is with a different company, the P3 is solid!
They both had to adapt to new frame, should not be too hard for someone doing this for their living. I could say that it's the rider in 99% of the cases at this stage.
He won last year on a Diamond Back... everyone seems to have forgotten that already!! BIKES HELP BUT IT'S THE RIDER WHO WINS... give him a Raleigh Chopper and he'd still piss on me.
1. Sam Pilgrim 2. Sam Reynolds 3. Yannick Granieri 4. Graham Agassiz 5. Jamie Goldman 6. Szymon Godziek 7. Simon Kirchmann 8. Thomas Genon 9. Martin Söderström 10. Antoine Bizet
Soderstrom pulled a huge run but crashed on last jump and broke he's bike. Lacondeguy didn't feel like riding... so didn't.
Lacondeguy was riding. Thats BS info. He only had trickless runs. Dont really know why. It was really awkward. He was preping for a flip off the drop and there were rumors of a flatspin on the big double but nothing happened. Strange as he looked killer in practice.
Yes but Crankworx is on dirt you fool.... you ever tried riding on snow? You can tell watching the vid how slippery it is and if you're 10degrees over rotated on a spin you're going down.... I think it's crazy these guys were busting out anything like as big as they did... injuries sustained showed that this event was serious sh*t!!
Might have done, might not!! Sam is a bit brutal, wouldn't say he was that smooth... the boy is just a walking trixionary!! That what it takes to win these days so hats off to him.
The best decription I ever heard was "he's a diva". If a course isn't perfect enough for him, or the jumps aren't big enough, he just won't ride.
Taken from an interview with Andreu on NSMB.com: 5) You came to Crankworx in 2010 but didn't ride, why was that? You won best trick in 2009, why not hit that event for some cash? Crankworx was the best slopestyle comp 5 years ago... but man they need to step it up with the course... this year I show up the and the best trick jump was a 6ft gap... I think that mountain biking is the coolest shit in the world but courses like that just make us look stupid... the week before I was riding 70ft gaps and then I go there and the biggest jump in the course is a 20 footer with a the flattest landing ever.... then we had all this wooden bridges and all this weird shit that no one rides and its just sketchy… Cam McCaul, Berrencloth, Semenuk, Yannick, Paul Bas and all this dudes left Crankworx with an injury... and I think that that is because the jumps and the course wasn’t build right...
I don’t care about having some extra cash... I think that slopestyle comps need to go in a different way and I hope that after this year Crankworx they build a bigger and better course for us.... How good did Zink and Montgomery rode!?? Imagine in a good course with big jumps!!
lacondeguy is amazing when he actually rides his bike, but he is the biggest bitch in biking. he just complains about the course and trys to draw as much atention as he can to himself. he is a video rider not a comp rider.
thats what im saying sponsors will help him train and progress but at the end of the day its down to him. people saying hes shit cos hes on specialized thats why he crashed are dumb, everyone crashes just one of those things
with 6th place 
