The awarding of a 5th TTR star to the Italian ‘Riverjump’ competition in Livigno, Italy was proved to be well deserved last week. The competition went off smoothly with contenders and spectators alike enjoying the event to its fullest. With 2 format’s taking place over the 3 day competition and with upto 850 TTR ranking points available for each it was a perfect opportunity for many rider’s to make their presence felt on the world circuit. American Yale Cousino won the River Jump Straight Jump event for the third year in a row closely followed by Gjermund Braaten in second and Mark McMorris in third whilst the Slopestyle was claimed by Eric Willet (another Yank) with Gjermund taking the second spot and Roope Tonteri filling out the podium. Our lad Jamie Nicholls did us all proud by qualifying in first place in his heat and coming 12th overall in the Slopestyle event and 6th in the River Jump competition.

The finals of the River Jump Straight Jump event were held on friday evening and consisted of a 19m table top to gap over the River Spoel and final a jib section. Yale’s Run consisted of a massive Back 12 to cab 5 over the river with 270 onto the Burn jib barrel at the bottom. Gjermund Braaten’s success in both comp formats means that he flew up into 3rd in the overall TTR world Rankings. Also jumping into the top 10 was Eric Willet who now sits in 9th after his success in the slopestyle. Eric commented that the slopestyle was “one of the best slopestyle courses i’ve ever ridden.” Jamie’s success means that he now sits at number 20 in the TTR rankings, nice one fella!

Next stop on the tour is the 6star Artic Challenge in Norway taking the form of a slopestyle this year and at the same time the 4star Nescafe Champs which is a superpipe comp being held in Switzerland. Both Comps go down between the 5th and 7th of March.