Trond Hansen wins 26 Trix
On Thursday evening the bottom part of the Bikepark Leogang was packed with riding, chilling and chatting young guns from all over the world. The guys from Austria, Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Sweden, Norway, Australia and the US had to get used to the revised 26TRIX track: nine jumps consisting of big sized doubles, hips, step ups and downs. It started with two qualifying runs on Friday afternoon, then the top 15 riders went straight to two final runs followed by two more final runs on Saturday in the early afternoon. The best two runs of all four were summed up to determine the winners. The riders were fighting heavily against the wind in the main part of the dirt track on both days. It was hard to go really big, but most of the riders managed it and stepped up the level of last year’s event:
Trond Hansen shot his tricks like out of a machine gun: superman seatgrabs, 360 one foot tabletops, backflips, tailwhips, 360-opposites and frontflips. His runs were super clean and smooth. It was no question that the judges had him in first place. Trond was pretty happy winning the 26TRIX: ”I’m just super stoked. I already had a great season, but winning the 26TRIX is some kind of special for me. Furthermore, the big air time here in Leogang is a good preparation for the upcoming Rampage!”
Amir Kabbani backflipped x-uped not only the first step up, but also showed tailwhips or superman backflips and got second place which was well-deserved.
Sam Pilgrim made his way on the podium doing tuck no hands, tailwhips, 360-table tops, backflip x-up one footers, but crashed twice during the finals on two double tailwhip attempts.
The other competitors also showed a great performance, which lead to following final ranking:
1st Trond Hansen, Specialized, NOR
2nd Amir Kabbani, Cannondale, GER
3rd Sam Pilgrim, Diamondback, UK
4th Linus Sjöholm, Scott, SWE
5th Andi Wittmann, Giant, GER
6th Mischa Breitestein, Kona, CH
7th Andrew Taylor, Versus, USA
8th Pascal Breitenstein, Kona, CH
9th John Alm Högman, Scott, SWE
10th Sam Reynolds, DMR, UK
11th Yannick Granieri, Giant, FRA
12th David Acedo, Mondraker, ESP
13th Grant Fielder, Kona, UK
14th Martin Söderström, NS Bikes, SWE
15th Lluis Lacondeguy, Kona, ESP
Besides, the rider with the best skills and most props had to be crowned with the Oakley Sick-O-Award. It was a tight battle between Andrew Taylor’s backflip on a step down jump that didn’t give him much time to rotate and Andi Wittmann’s jump in the finals at the first step-up: Andi pulled a nice and clean 360 x-up one foot at the first step up, followed by a backflip x-up one foot at the big double after the hip jump. The judges were totally stoked about this trick combination. Sebastian Grobholz, Alex Dropsy and Bibi, who are all former or active BMX pros, had no other chance to dedicate the Oakley Sick-O-Award to him. The 500 Euros cash was for sure a nice add on for Andi.
Photos Courtesy of Rasoulution