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After a week of marginal to good
weather, everyone in egg-smelling Rotorua woke to a dark, drizzly
morning. The much anticipated rain storm had not disappeared like it
did for the enduro the day before, but rather roared on with a vengeance.
Things were looking grim, and athletes were left to wait and think about their runs as
the weather gods unleashed their wrath.
After refreshing the radar for hours,
it seemed that it would break around two o'clock. And sure enough,
around one-thirty, the clouds started to part ways. Spirits lifted, and the crowd followed the riders as they convened at the slopestyle course.
A very quiet drop in. Photo by Ricoh Riott.
Kelly and Tom, the masterminds behind
the course, were working viciously with their builder minions to
clear water, tarps, hay, and wet patches from the main ride line. Within a half hour, the
course was ready to ride with a few slick spots. Riders started dropping in for their first
laps of the day. The course was riding slower than the past week but
at least it was running…
Worker ants come out to play. Photo by Ricoh Riott.
Practice started off very tame as
riders warmed up. Nicoli Rogatkin, on the other hand, wasted no time at all. He
started stitching together his run with cash-rolls, double whips
both ways, and a cork-seven. His finals run was about to be insane.
Tomas Zjeda getting a big three table off the boner log. Photo by Jonathan Herre.
The first runs went fairly well for
riders. Each rider was fairly conservative, waiting to see if they
really needed to pull the big tricks out of the bag. Brett Rheeder, a Trek C3 project rider, threw down a smooth, huge first run, bumping him up through the field into first place. He was sitting high after the first runs.
After a quick hiatus, second runs were under way. This is where sh*t really hit the fan. It seemed that every other rider could not stick their run! One after another, riders went down or jumps at the top of the course.
One of these riders was Anthony Messere. Messere could not catch a break. After stomping a cork-seven on the third jump in practice, he could not seem to stick it in finals. Two crashed runs for the Morpheus rider, and he was visibly upset.
Messere cruising down after his crash. Photo by Ricoh Riott.
The large third jump continued to claim riders. A similar fate to Messere, Cam Zink could not seem to stomp a cork-seven on the jump on both runs, and Carson Storch cased the jump which led him to ghost ride upon landing.
The biggest upset of the day was with Brandon Semenuk, slopestyle god and 2014 FMB world champ. He could not hold on to his cork-seven on the last jump on run one, and when he went up for run number two, he was met with even worse luck
Something was off with Semenuk . . .Photo by Jonathan Herre.
Just as Semenuk dropped in, clouds quickly moved over and the wind started blowing out of no where. Combined with getting off line, not getting his three-double bar-spin off the drop in, hitting a muddy patch, and a rung bell from his first crash, Semenuk ended up casing the next two jumps and pulling out. A devastating end to his day.
Regardless of the crashes, there still was some phenomenal riding. Louis Reboul had an awesome day out, stomping a super-seater to tuck no-hander . . . a huge trick! An under rotated backflip took him out on run two.
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Dumping out a three over the hip. Photo by Ricoh Riott.
Logan Peat also had a great performance with lots of spin/barspin/tuck--hander combos, sneaking him into the top five.
He held this for a few seconds over the 40-footer . . . Photo by Jonathan Herre.
Martin Soderstrom proved that he was back and ready to play with the big boys after a long spout of injuries. His fourth place run had a triple whip, and a three double whip which he broke his leg on two years ago.
Nicoli Rogatkin also put down a massive run, stomping a cash-roll, a double whip, a triple whip the opposite direction, and a cork-seven on the last booter. While he looked tense and was charging, he stomped everything on his run. A great finish for the nineteen-year old bmxer.
The big man of the day was Brett Rheeder. Not so much an underdog, but a dude who never seemed to have enough to claim first place in events. Today, he earned it. Easily one of the smoothest and most well composed riders, he had combos that left the crowd in awe. His first run stuck, and he cruised down with Logan Peat to claim his gold medal for the last run of the day.
Photo by Jonathan Herre.
A well-deserved win. Congrats Brett. Photo by Ricoh Riott.
Full results below:
1. Brett Rheeder
2. Nicoli Rogatkin
3. Thomas Genon
4. Martin Soderstrom
5. Logan Peat
6. Sam Reynolds
7. Tomas Zejda
8. Tomas Lemoine
9. Sam Pilgrim
10. Louis Reboul
11. Paul Genovese
12. Antoine Bizet
13. Greg Watts
14. Brandon Semenuk
15. Kelly McGarry
16. Simon Pages
17. Carson Storch
18. Tyler McCaul
19. Cam Zink
20. Anthony Messere
Also, if you missed finals, click here to see the replay.
