FISE Montpellier, Qualification Round
Welcome to FISE Montpellier. The south of France hosts what's probably the biggest action sports festival and fortunately, the mountain biking slopestyle is a huge part of it. This is why the cream of the modern dirt jumping scene has come over and decided to see who deserves the highest step. Some big mix-ups happened already in the qualification round, so it's going to be very interesting to see how finals will unfold in front of our eyes.
With plenty of training time, the riders had enough opportunity to practice their biggest and best moves.
As per usual during the FISE, the number of spectators goes into thousands.
Antoine Bizet, Rampage veteran was unable to pass the qualification round, which definitely is a bummer.
When Pavel is riding, it's always a good show. However, we'd prefer when he landed this "nothing" with the bike attached to him.
Real bad luck struck Paul Genovese. Sloppy landing caused a loud bang of his rear tyre - twice in a row on the same trick, the same jump.
Another dirt jumping veteran didn't make it to the finals here. Daryl Brown will be enjoying sunbathing during the main event.
Tomas Lemoine doing a tuck-no-hander to barspin combo.
Yet, unlucky to be outside to the top 12.
Yannick had very high hopes to do well here. Unfortunately, he wasn't meant to repeat last year's success here in Montpellier.
Another amazing French dirt jumper falls outside the finalists. Nicholas Terrier gave all he had.
Alex Alanko going big surrounded by a huge crowd.
Lukas did really well at FISE 2016. But couldn't find the flow to get into the finals.
Yet another disappointment. Ryan Nyquist won't be riding in finals.
Reed Boggs with switch 3 in, truck driver out. Glad to see this young American riding in the finals.
We welcome a new mtb rider who's coming from the bmx scene. Tom Isted straight into the finals during his first international slopestyle event!
Could watch this guy riding all day long... Szymon Godziek has got style for miles.
Paul Couderc will be able to shine in front of the home crowd with a well-deserved spot amongst the finalists.
Diego simply loves doing technical tricks and he's really good at it.
Sam Pilgrim or as the French commentator likes to call him "Pili Pili," goes big for all his fans. Wherever he goes, he is always the crowd favourite.
Josh Hault is riding in a "Beast Mode". We need this guy on all the slopestyle events!
Not only the blazing sun, but also the rivals making Nicholi sweat. He's sitting in 3rd after the quali, but knowing his super solid head game, he's ready to pick up the fight for the number one spot.
Mehdi Gani is in well deserved second. Top level of executing tricks, not missing a single obstacle and tricking with perfect style.
Emil has stormed the slopestyle scene, last year.
And he's not even thinking of slowing down.
The Swedish prodigy, Emil Johansson is on another level. Seems like this big and technical course was built just for him.
Nicholi always finds time for his fans.
Mehdi and Emil has put some pressure on this guy. So far, Nicholi has got a 100% efficiency, winning all contests he's attended this year. Is it going to stay this way? We're about to find out.
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