It was inevitable, really: after three days of sunshine, Britishness finally caught up with The Brits 2014. We woke up this morning to find Tignes plagued with the flattest of flat light, a chilly wind and scraped pistes. A bit of a shock after all the slush, but we’d seen worse. The riders didn’t let it bother them either – even as they found out that the top kicker would be closed for safety reasons – and lined up in the Val Claret park for the Trespass Slopestyle Chanpionships.
Cerys Allen was among the first to stand out; her run of frontside 180 on 180 off, nosegrab, frontside 360 and two 5050-to-boardslides looked like it’d be hard to beat. Things were held up when Amber Cordingley took a bad slam, but Ayla Thidling managed to stay in the zone and laid down a 5050, method, big frontside 1 and brace of board slides. Nathalie Silkstone had killed it at every event so far but had yet to top a podium. Could her run of nosepress, nosegrab, backside 360, noseslide and backside boardslide be the one to do it?
The men’s tournament looked like it’d be between the thick-as-thieves trio of Lewis Courtier-Jones, Henry Shackleton and Jamie Trinder. All three were throwing down like it was bluebird, with 7s aplenty and bags of style on the rails. They had the podium sewn up, although the order was still to be decided. Jamie’s first run (5050 back 360 off, backside 3, frontside 7, finishing with yet another demolition of the lower rails) was a crowd favourite – perhaps the judges would agree.
Once the last rider had dropped MC Scott Penman handed off the mic and went for a lap, chucking a crowd-pleasing laid-out backflip off the first jump and a corked backside 5 off the second. The assembled folk then sloped off to thaw out, before reconvening at the prizegiving where Nathalie and Jamie were crowned overall champions.
And that’s a wrap for The Brits 2014. There’ll be some videos dropping soon, so keep an eye out for those. In the meantime, congrats to all the competitors and here’s to more of the same in ’15…
TRESPASS BRITISH SLOPESTYLE CHAMPIONS IN FULL
Female Kids – Maisie Hill
Male Kids – Gabe Adams
Female Youth – Ayla Thidling
Male Youth – Billy Cockrell
Female Junior – Natalie Silkstone
Male Junior – Lewis Courtier-Jones
Female Masters – Chrissie Elesmore
Male Masters – Ben King
Female Overall – Nathalie Silkstone
Male Overall – Jamie Trinder