The Oakley Arctic Challenge, which is usually one of the biggest baddest events in the badass TTR tour calender, has been postponed. “Boo!” I hear you cry, but wait, it’s not all bad. The event will; still take place, between March 7th and 10th next year. And anyway, the Arctic Challenge was originally going to take place on December 31st 2009 – that’s right, on New Year’s Eve, which might have made it inconvenient for riders and others wanting to get to the north of Norway.

In the end, it was the weather, rather than this which did for the original plan, rather than the difficult date. The organisers of the contest told us that unusually warm weather conditions in Norway mean it has been impossible to generate enough snow to build the monstrous, laser-shaped quarterpipe that forms the centrepiece of the contest. The new date sits nicely between the Olympics and the European X-Games, which couldbe quite a clever move, as riders who were going for gold in Vancouver will no feel no qualms about going all out at the epic QP comp as well.