26TRIX Earns Sam Pilgrim Another Win

The eighth 26TRIX edition ended with an English-Canadian podium: the current FMB World Tour leader Sam Pilgrim from the UK, landed on the top of the podium.With his nearly perfect run he left the Canadian Brett Rheeder as well as fellow Brit and friend Sam Reynolds behind in second and third place. Szymon Godziek claimed the GoProBest Trick with a squeaky clean cashroll.

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This year, the riders were not only challenged by the 26TRIX course, but also the weather made it very exciting for all participants as well as the organizers. On Friday, the pre-qualification took place under pretty good conditions, but then strong winds kept the riders off the dirt. Although the sun was out, it was too windy on the massive Bikepark Leogang course in the afternoon and therefore too risky to run the planned qualification. The decision was made to postpone the qualification until Saturday morning. And it looked good in the morning: the sun was out and the wind had calmed down so the riders pulled out their best qualification runs. Unfortunately, the unpredictable weather in the heart of the Alps once again stopped the wheels from rolling: strong and persistent rain in the afternoon prevented the finalsfrom going ahead as planned. For safety reasons, organizers and FMB World Tour officials were forced to cancel the final runs which made the results of the qualification runs count as the official and ultimate results.

The 26TRIX judging panel, amongst others, included top FMBA judges Paul Rak and Tibor Simai: these were the guys the riders had to impress! Fully aware of the mixed weather conditions, the 30 finalists threw down their biggest tricks during their qualification runs and put on a great show: Sam ‘tooth-gap’ Pilgrim, probably the mostwell-known English rider, found the winning trick combination and made it stick. His winning run started with a huge superman backflip, followed by a 360 table and a flip no hander. After the third jump he did a 270 spin on the hip and finished with a tailwhip on the second hip followed by a backflip and a huge flip tuck no hander. Good amplitude, trick diversity and technicality as well as a smooth ride all contributed to his win and the top reward of 8,000 Euro in prize money.

Sam Pilgrim’s winning combination was finished off with a tidy flip tuck no-hander.

Winner of Red Bull Berg Line, Brett Rheeder from Canada, finished just 3 points behind Pilgrim. Rheeder’s run consisted of a frontflip, a tailwhip, a backflip-barspin, then a 270 on the hip, an opposite 270, tailwhip of the step down and a flipwhip to finish.The second Sam, with the last name Reynolds, could shake hands with his buddy Pilgrim from the podium. He earned his third place with a backflip superman, no foot can nothing, a flip tuck no hand, and tailwhip, a 360 and finally a massive backflip no hander. Just shy of a few points, ThomasGenon (BEL) and Martin Soderstrom (SWE) followed the podium trio also with clean and various tricks. Szymon Godziek’s spectacular cashroll won him the GoPro Best Trick and an extra bonus of 1,000 Euro.

Despite the cancelled final, the spectators could enjoy a high-class mountain bike event. Sometimes a bit more pressure can also lead to peak performances…

Here are the final results of the 26TRIX 2013:
1. Pilgrim, Sam, GBR
2. Rheeder, Brett CAN
3. Reynolds, Sam GBR
4. Genon, Thomas BEL
5. Söderström, Martin SWE
6. Godziek, Szymon POL
7. Granieri, Yannick FRA
8. Henke, Peter GER
9. Leitner, Patrick AUT
10. Vencl, Jakub CZE
11. Barett-Hay, Brayden CAN
12. Messere, Anthony CAN
13. Reboul, Louis FRA
14. Thelander, Anton SWE
15. Alekhin, Pavel RUS
16. Jones, Matt GBR
17. Bizet, Antoine FRA
18. Zejda, Tomas CZE
19. Chubey, Mitch CAN
20. Sjöholm, Linus SWE
21. Gustavsson, Teo SWE
22. Brown, Daryl GBR
23. Kovac, Teodor CZE
24. Baghe, Romain FRA
25. Genovese, Paul CAN
26. Hofstädter, Simon AUT
27. Haberl, Enzo AUT
28. Storch, Carson USA
29. Berrecloth, Darren CAN