Freeride World Tour Courmayeur Results.

[kootenayskier]

WTF. After watching all the runs, and reviewing the top three, I still can't fathom why Eder was victorious over Heitz and Barkered. Has the judging criteria changed so much (since I competed in and judged freeskiing comps) that a couple of tricks in relatively low consequence terrain scored higher than guys who charged through and over the gnar. Pandering to the park rats in search of relevance?

http://www.freerideworldtour.com/videos.html

[Slaag Master]

last year they built a kicker at the bottom of silver fox and tricks off it seemed to score big!!!

[senior researcher]

Barkered was smooth!

[t.odd]

Julien Lopez crash, whoa

[gaijin]

It seems every comp always has people upset with the judging. But from my guesses, I think maybe Eder's entrance scored higher than we video spectators assume. He flashed that upper section once he dropped in off the ridge.

I also think Heitz was hanging on through his line. IMHO, he looked out of control, but experienced enough to survive it, like he couldn't shut it down so he just zoomed passed lots of opportunity. I just wonder if that was his plan. For example- I would have aired into his final straight line through that gully but I doubt I would have been able to while carrying his speed. I wonder if he was also planning on airing into it but just couldn't. If I was judging, I'd be looking at things like that.

Barekered ? I don't know. Maybe that one hesitation on the mild hit mid-line cost him. It wasn't even a hesitation, it was just slow.

Hard to tell with these things and from this perspective. But 13 years ago subtle grabs tended to garner more points than I thought necessary. Maybe Eder's little 3 (albeit at full speed), his back flip, and the little switch turn garnered more points than you feel necessary?

Heitz should have chilled out a bit more, hit the middle air like Barkered (instead of skipping it), and then should have aired into his final gully. That would have won hands down.

But, I personally applaud knocking points down for simply appearing out of control. Fluidity should trump aggression, imo.

/armchair master.

[davieboot]

It judged of overall impression, right? Not the line score system. Eder must have looked the most impressive at the time, I guess. I still think Reine had it.

[m-ruta]

It seemed to me like he won just because Heitz was pretty clearly just hanging on for dear life and salvaging what he could of the features he was hurtling past. Had he put together the run it looked like he was after I'm sure he would have had it.

It's too bad Barkered couldn't put together a slightly harder charging run, I'd have liked to see him take it. I love that guy's style, just always composed and on top of his line.

[sqikunst]

TBH for me Stefan Hausl got the worst end of the judging. Go to FWT and comapre his run and Reine Backereds and look at the score difference.

[kootenayskier]

Agreed that Heitz came out of the top section a little hot, and missed the prominent cliff band, but his lower section was aggressive and original.

Hausl was underscored.

Studer barely held it together though the upper section, but was (like Eder but even less justified) overscored for his tricks.

Perhaps Eder's line at the top was more impressive than the video showed, but it looked to be a smeary smooth powder line (fun skiing) compared to stomping the (larger) skied-out landings in the (longer) main chute. I guess we also need to factor in the influence of the partisan and vocal Italian crowd on the judges overall impression.

[powdork]

^^this
I thought tabke's run was waaaay overscored, then I heard that his second stop was past the wind blade, and judging stopped there. Even so there was significant hesitation before backslapping the middle air. The yellow bib may also have had an influence on the judges overall impression.

[Kirby]

Julien Lopez crash, whoa

Indeed...

He flew over the 3rd (or maybe 2nd?) air.

[oftpiste]

A fellow dad on the junior circuit calls it 'ice dancing on skis' for the total unpredictability of judging. After more than 5 seasons with two kids competing and watching many hundreds of runs I still can't predict results with any accuracy unless the run is way over the top good. Some days they seem to like tricks, other days not.

My son was top three after qualifiers last weekend and I wasn't alone in being befuddled by his score in the finals which seriously pushed him down the list. He was pretty bummed.

Bottom line is that scores make sense about half the time. Sometimes it works for the competitor , sometimes not so much. It's a crazy game. Took me the first 2 years to learn not to get pissed about it.

As a competitor I guess you just have to know what a crapshoot each run is and accept that it's part of what you sign up for.

As for drew, I think he gets perceived as being over scored sometimes because of how easy he makes it look and how incredibly smooth he is.

[klauss]