I much prefer the proper ‘mountain’ element in this compared to the various other slopestyle events which all look (fair enough its probably rougher than it looks on video but) really smooth, like a big bmx track…This looks like a mountain bike course! More please!
Billy I stunt doubled for Brandon. He got all scared so I felt for him & stepped up. The hardest bit was tryin’to hide my beer belly under that Troy Lee race Jersey.
rode this track last year and from the looks of things its changed a little bit, but fuck me, not only are the jumps and drops huge, but the landings and linking sections are steep as fuck.. i was on my downhill bike, and i only hit one of the jumps, but i gotta tell you i was pretty nervous just riding down the line, let alone coming down with the speed from all the jumps, and that was on a full on DH bike, not an all mountain/freeride bike
wouldve been interesting to see a downhill rider like Gee Atherton or Wyn Masters on this track, dont get me wrong a back flips aren’t easy tricks (well i imagine theyre not!) but the free ride boys didnt seem too comfortable with high speed or gradient
Well you can see that the boys are out of their comfort zone here. It’s not your normal Boneyard sculpted play area. Yes it’s not perfectly smooth in the boneyard but this area looks like it wouldn’t be out of place as a UK DH track. The jumps they are hitting are completely different to the ones they’d normally throw down the flips, whips and spins off of. Glad to see the boys and girls pushing it and getting nerves back again.
Did anyone else think that Berrecloth’s run looked more exciting than Semenuk’s? Bearclaw did drop the 360 and the super man compared to an x-up and a suicide?
I see the freeride crew are getting into the MX kit look! Once you’ve snagged your shorts on something and almost gone over the bars, full length kecks start to look like a good idea, plus looking like a power ranger is the shit!
We rode through while they were building the area and I thought you’d need huge balls just to ride it. There’s no run off anywhere and you’d have to be accurate on landing to hit the next obstacle. There were no easy or smooth lines!
the Claw threw a stylish superman and 360, but did not do much else, so you can see why Brandon won the event = more tricks down the course
my buddy just came back from there, he saw the event and said “yes, the jumps were f*cking huge” so fair play to the riders…
perhaps a 8″ travel DH bike would have been a better choice for control and stability on such rough terrain, considering flippy-whippy tricks were not the order of the day?
If it’s so sketchy, why do none of these guys wear body armour? I know they’ve got the skills, but surely a slam on those rocks would hurt them as much as this mere mortal. Or is it a case of they’re going SO big that armour just won’t do the job anyway? I keep thinking the same thing about DH
this is what I imagined slopestyle to be about when I first heard about it. Instead it turns out its just big dirt jumps. This is much more interesting to watch. More please!
Just the fact some of the biggest names in Freeride can’t throw their bag of tricks just show how gnarly this was!! I went there two weeks before and the small first drop 8m looked scary as hell I can only imagine the 12m one! The thing with this event is that the landings are steep and rough as hell just riding down was a challenge.
That drop is f*%#ing huge. Hang time would go close to a second which is ridiculous. Happily rugged up on the couch in front of fire on a cold winters day here in Queenstown watching the big boys of Freeride send it. Hell of a warm up for Rampage. Pretty sure no one wants to injure themselves just over 2 months out from the biggest big mountain comp on the planet. Cant blame the boys for getting done what they “have” to get done to safely get through the course.
hey pantacourt if you do a bit of research you’ll find out that steve romaniuk is the one who design the course! Romaniuk and Sorge got hurt over there and the french guy Dubourgnon who was third in qualifying hurt himself as well. This is the equivalent of big mountain skiing not another BMX style event. Riders are judged on how big they go, style and speed to go down.
The “Claw” probably didn’t win cos it looks like he slipped a pedal on the 2nd to last drop, up to that i thought he blew Semenuk’s run outta the water…., still, fair play to ‘em all
The riders were judged on Fluidity, Tricks, Engagement (French word meaning something like Charge Factor) and Line Choice. Semenuk got lots of points for his line at the bottom before the road gap.
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33 Responses to “Chatel Mountainstyle:Brandon Semenuk Winning Run”
July 9th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
what bikes do riders like Sam Pilgrim and Sam Reynolds ride in these comps if there sponsors are hardtails (DMR)
July 9th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
back flip, no-footer, no-hander, x-up and a whip – to win a pro slopestyle event?
wonder what the other contestants runs looked like…
July 9th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
I much prefer the proper ‘mountain’ element in this compared to the various other slopestyle events which all look (fair enough its probably rougher than it looks on video but) really smooth, like a big bmx track…This looks like a mountain bike course! More please!
July 9th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
i guess that the thing is that these jumps are big AND rough…and not only tricks are judged,but the line choice and difficulty,too..
July 9th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
@Rob, I’m uploading the 2nd and 3rd place runs now so you’ll be able to check. I think the heavy rain played a role in what tricks went down.
July 9th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
I spotted that drop-in from the chairlift at Chatel last week and it looked stupidly mental from a distance.
July 9th, 2010 at 1:48 pm
I think it’s the old ‘if it looks big on video then it’s massive in real life’ scenario.
Of course once again it’s lucky for them I was busy and couldn’t make it….
July 9th, 2010 at 2:03 pm
Billy I stunt doubled for Brandon. He got all scared so I felt for him & stepped up. The hardest bit was tryin’to hide my beer belly under that Troy Lee race Jersey.
July 9th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
rode this track last year and from the looks of things its changed a little bit, but fuck me, not only are the jumps and drops huge, but the landings and linking sections are steep as fuck.. i was on my downhill bike, and i only hit one of the jumps, but i gotta tell you i was pretty nervous just riding down the line, let alone coming down with the speed from all the jumps, and that was on a full on DH bike, not an all mountain/freeride bike
July 9th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
wonder what the riders thought of the course?
July 9th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
wouldve been interesting to see a downhill rider like Gee Atherton or Wyn Masters on this track, dont get me wrong a back flips aren’t easy tricks (well i imagine theyre not!) but the free ride boys didnt seem too comfortable with high speed or gradient
July 9th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
I was riding that place last year. We rung 112 twice while we were there! The place is disturbing, I love it!
July 9th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Well you can see that the boys are out of their comfort zone here. It’s not your normal Boneyard sculpted play area. Yes it’s not perfectly smooth in the boneyard but this area looks like it wouldn’t be out of place as a UK DH track. The jumps they are hitting are completely different to the ones they’d normally throw down the flips, whips and spins off of. Glad to see the boys and girls pushing it and getting nerves back again.
July 9th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
Did anyone else think that Berrecloth’s run looked more exciting than Semenuk’s? Bearclaw did drop the 360 and the super man compared to an x-up and a suicide?
July 9th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
I see the freeride crew are getting into the MX kit look! Once you’ve snagged your shorts on something and almost gone over the bars, full length kecks start to look like a good idea, plus looking like a power ranger is the shit!
July 9th, 2010 at 5:55 pm
apparently without the MX kit on that course they wold just ride like an old granny, just what i heard.
July 9th, 2010 at 6:45 pm
We rode through while they were building the area and I thought you’d need huge balls just to ride it. There’s no run off anywhere and you’d have to be accurate on landing to hit the next obstacle. There were no easy or smooth lines!
July 9th, 2010 at 8:38 pm
the Claw threw a stylish superman and 360, but did not do much else, so you can see why Brandon won the event = more tricks down the course
my buddy just came back from there, he saw the event and said “yes, the jumps were f*cking huge” so fair play to the riders…
perhaps a 8″ travel DH bike would have been a better choice for control and stability on such rough terrain, considering flippy-whippy tricks were not the order of the day?
July 9th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
If it’s so sketchy, why do none of these guys wear body armour? I know they’ve got the skills, but surely a slam on those rocks would hurt them as much as this mere mortal. Or is it a case of they’re going SO big that armour just won’t do the job anyway? I keep thinking the same thing about DH
July 9th, 2010 at 9:11 pm
@ Rob Cole,
Shut up weiner dogg.
July 9th, 2010 at 11:33 pm
this is what I imagined slopestyle to be about when I first heard about it. Instead it turns out its just big dirt jumps. This is much more interesting to watch. More please!
July 9th, 2010 at 11:47 pm
Just the fact some of the biggest names in Freeride can’t throw their bag of tricks just show how gnarly this was!! I went there two weeks before and the small first drop 8m looked scary as hell I can only imagine the 12m one! The thing with this event is that the landings are steep and rough as hell just riding down was a challenge.
July 9th, 2010 at 11:59 pm
cool vid from the event as well
http://video.mpora.com/watch/QJQG2ucFW/
July 10th, 2010 at 2:17 am
Darrens run was pinned. Way more exciting to watch than Brandons.That first drop is huge.
July 10th, 2010 at 5:34 am
That drop is f*%#ing huge. Hang time would go close to a second which is ridiculous. Happily rugged up on the couch in front of fire on a cold winters day here in Queenstown watching the big boys of Freeride send it. Hell of a warm up for Rampage. Pretty sure no one wants to injure themselves just over 2 months out from the biggest big mountain comp on the planet. Cant blame the boys for getting done what they “have” to get done to safely get through the course.
July 10th, 2010 at 9:01 am
Strange slopestyle competition, there is actually no style… French just don’t kown how to built mountain bike trails
July 10th, 2010 at 11:30 am
hey pantacourt if you do a bit of research you’ll find out that steve romaniuk is the one who design the course! Romaniuk and Sorge got hurt over there and the french guy Dubourgnon who was third in qualifying hurt himself as well. This is the equivalent of big mountain skiing not another BMX style event. Riders are judged on how big they go, style and speed to go down.
July 10th, 2010 at 7:46 pm
The “Claw” probably didn’t win cos it looks like he slipped a pedal on the 2nd to last drop, up to that i thought he blew Semenuk’s run outta the water…., still, fair play to ‘em all
July 10th, 2010 at 8:11 pm
“@ Rob Cole,
Shut up weiner dogg.”
P.C. Rob – if you have nothing interesting to say, or any comment on the event itself??
please be quiet and go bother the kiddies on Pinkbike instead!
July 12th, 2010 at 7:34 am
The riders were judged on Fluidity, Tricks, Engagement (French word meaning something like Charge Factor) and Line Choice. Semenuk got lots of points for his line at the bottom before the road gap.
July 12th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
[...] Dirt [...]
July 12th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
@Rob Cole,
Have you ever even tried to do any of that/any DH? Looks f**king impressive to me.
July 12th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
the rampage is going to be epic in october
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