Video: Anthony Messere & Torquato Testa at Red Bull Joyride

The ROSE Rad Squad was well-represented during Red Bull Joyride at Crankworx Whistler; home soil ripper Anthony Messere, FMB Wildcard winner Torquato Testa, German slopestyle expert Lukas Knopf and Czech aerial maestro Jakub Vencl all made their way down to compete at the grand finale of the Crankworx FMBA Slopestyle World Championship.

Coming into Red Bull Joyride, the ROSE Rad Squad had been represented by at least two riders at each stop of the SWC, but Red Bull Joyride 2018 was the first stop where four riders competed at the same time.


First to drop in was Torquato Testa, coming off of back to back podiums at FMB Gold Events, with a 2nd place at the Big White Invitational Slopestyle, where he won the FMB Wildcard, and a win at GlemmRide Slopestyle. Ahead of the contest, he said that his goal for Red Bull Joyride was to put down a top to bottom run as he had it planned.

While his first run didn’t go according to plan, he redeemed himself less than an hour later in run number two, where he stomped a perfect cork 720, a cash roll, a backflip no-footed can and a huge double backflip on the biggest kicker of the course, which would be good enough for a 7th place finish.

“After four years of participating in Red Bull Joyride, but making mistakes due to pressure, my goal this year was getting a full run, tricking every single feature, bringing some bangers along for the ride as well. I’m super happy to have done that in front of that huge crowd.”


Czech rider Jakub Vencl, one of the most experienced riders on the SWC circuit, travelled to Whistler as an alternate and only got the call that he would be riding in the big show a few hours ahead of the scheduled start. Living true to his go big or go home approach, Vencl came out of the gate on fire, linking together a very stylish 720 and a cash roll, putting in a double tailwhip and his signature 360 unturndown, which would see him score 72.00 and finish in 6th just ahead of teammate Torquato Testa.

“Just getting the chance to ride and finally pull off a run like that is amazing. A 6th place at the biggest slopestyle event of the year is just icing on the cake for me,” says Vencl, summing up his week in Whistler.


As a true Red Bull Joyride rookie, Lukas Knopf finally got to compete in the big show, making it his third SWC appearance of the season, and he was determined to make the most of it, and it showed. Stringing together multiple combos, including a frontflip tuck no hander, a double truckdriver and a double tailwhip, which would eventually see him finish the day in 10th place, sneaking ahead of Szymon Godziek and Ryan Nyquist.

“It’s pretty sweet to finally make it to Red Bull Joyride and then get a top to bottom run like that. It’s such a huge course, but it’s still fun! I can’t wait to hopefully be there again next year.”


Red Bull Joyride veteran and one of the crowd favorites Anthony Messere went all in during his first run and he stomped all of his tricks on the first half of the course, including a huge backflip tailwhip out of the start gate, a frontflip no-hander and a cash roll, and could have challenged the top 3 positions, before trying to stick an off-axis 360 tailwhip on the whale tail and crashing.

In his second run, things were once again going according to plan on the first features, but this time he crashed after under-rotating a Cash Roll and landing sketchy. Visibly disappointed after his crash, he continued his run to plenty of applause from the crowd gathered on the slopes and in the finish corral, even sneaking in a one-hander off the final drop.

Following Red Bull Joyride, Jakub Vencl is currently ranked highest of the Rose Rad Squad in the FMB world ranking at a 9th spot, followed by Lukas Knopf in 11th, Torquato Testa in 13th and Anthony Messere in 14th, and with one FMB Gold Event still to go this year, there are still some valuable points up for grabs.