Tha London Ride just keeps getting bigger and better! With a crowd of thousands, the riders at this years comp were amped with enthusiam. The air was buzzing as the much anticipated competition kicked into action. The UK audience in London crowded round the quarter pipe to get prime viewing position of the UK and International riders battling it out on the indoor snowflex quarterpipe at the Metro Ski and Snowboard Show.
The cameradrie and enthusiasm within the riders was awe inspiring. Some of the international riders had never riden snowflex before but were quick to pick up the technique showing just how talented they are at their sport.
MC's Pat Sharples and Phil Hopper of the British Freeski Camps and Ride Freesport bounced off the energy coming from the crowd and gave the riders even more enthusiasm for going big in the event.
Quarter Pipe Qualifier
Volkl Internatioinal Team Rider, Flo Weiser from Austria started off the comp stomping a massive flair in the qualying round. He set the standard for the competition in which flairs, 7's and 9's seemed popular on the snowflex quarter pipe. Henrik Harlaut from Sweden was off snow and on the snowflex surface for the first time ever, and only took a few runs to get the hang of it before his was achieving big air and thowing down some big tricks.
The UK Ridere were right at home on the man made surface. James Woods was hitting the biggest air getting higher out of the pipe than anyone else. Rob Taylor threw a huge back flip throwing his hat off his head to the delight of the audience. James Machon was throwing out clean 7's and 9's and as ever, Andy Bennett was as ¨solid and dependable as a 'Ford Mondeo¨ said event judge Nick Southwell. Andy has gained himself the reputation as the Schmacher of the skiing world, according to MC Pat Sharples.
Murray Buchan from Scotland was the only rider to attempt the pipe switch, doing a Switch 720. This was in addition to his Truck Driver 720. Unfortunatlely his landings were not so clean knocking him down the leaderboard.
Young Josh Fawcett (UK) tried a crazy inverted 540 and made it into 8th place in the qualifying round.
Podium Battle
In 4th place in the final came James Woods who's clean riding on the snowflex surface seems as smooth as his riding on snow. James did a tweaked out flair but was unlucky in the end to crash on a D-Spin 9.
Volkl team rider Paddy Graham is currenlty one of the UK's styliest riders. He pulled a Mute 7 out of the pipe and was awarded with 3rd place in the final putting him through to the Superfinal.
However, Mike Wakefield (UK) who has just come back from having a year out due to injury (fractured neck) was riding in his 1st competition since the accident and had only been back on skis a week. He did his signature Wake 'n' Bake and took 2nd place in the final, also putting him through to the Super Final.
However, it was henrik Harlaut that pulled through to 1st place in the final proving that he is just as good as his reputation proves. Henrik had never ridden an artificial surface before and on the practice run before the comp he attempted it for the first time. He was shaky to start but within a short amount of time he was cranking it up to being the best on the quarter pipe. With a clean and effortless Mute 7, he was no doubt in favour of the winner position.
Super Finals
In the Super finals, Paddy Graham (UK) took 3rd Place with a Mute 7.
Henrik Harlaut (Sweden) took 2nd Place also with a Mute 7)
However, Mikey Wakefield rightfully claimed the 1st place winning title of the London Ride 07 with his signature Wake n’ Bake. He timed the launch perfectly and without any effort carried out the forward spin and landed perfectly. It was peotic that the winner of last years title and one of the original posse of British dry-slope freeskiers should take the London Ride title, with a signature trick that is recognized across the International freeski world. Considering the last competition he won was the London Ride 06 and then he was out of action for a year until the 2007 competition! he proved that he is in a class of his own on the dry slope!
London Ride brings urban freeski style to the masses.
Ride Freesport again proved it is possible to bring international-class freestyle events to indoor venues. With the support of event sponsors Snow and Rock, the UK snowsports public can now get to watch genuinely world-class skiing in their own urban backyard.
London Ride organiser, Warren Smith, was especially appreciative of the display the riders put on. “This is necessarily a tight and seriously challenging quarter-pipe. The commitment the guys showed out there to perform for the crowd testified to the pride they take in their skiing. We look forward to bringing the London Ride back to the Metro Snow Show in 2008.”
See you at the London ride next year!
2007 RIDERS RESULTS
Super Finals RESULTS - LONDON RIDE 2007:
1
Mike Wakefield
(UK)
37
2
Henrik Harlaut
(SWE)
35
3
Paddy Graham
(UK)
32.5
To view the complete table of results from the Super final, Final and Qualifier of the London Ride 2007, click here
