Grandvalira Total Fight | qualification rounds
Grandvalira was looking lucky yesterday. Blue bird weather, motivated riders and a great slopestyle. The 7th edition of the Grandvalira Total Fight, got kicked off yesterday with the pre-qualification round of the non-invited riders. The riders had two options to ride the “Tarter Park“ in the Pyrenean: One was the Big Air line, consisting of a 20m jump, followed by a technical 15m transfer and ending with a rail. Option two was the Central Line, which was a combo between several kickers and rails, including also the new Table-Tob/Spine combo obstacle.
On the pre-qualify, the non-invited riders had to fight it out, to get into the top-15 and make it into the official qualification round later. Matias Schmitt (ARG) was the most dominating rider in this round, putting down a perfect BS 720, followed by a BS 360 and finishing off with a 50/50 In, Backflip Out on the rail, what impressed the judges enough to advance to the next round.
The top-15, who could earn a spot in the open pre-qualification, had to face then the main qualification rounds with the other 25 invited riders. From the qualification round on, the lineup will get cut down from 40 to 32 riders, so things started getting more serious here. Janne Lipsanen (FIN), was the clearly the round shaker, sending it Sitch BS 720 Indy, followed by a Frontside Lien and a smooth Cab 540. Second spot in the qualis went to the Argentinean Facundo Vial, who did close in front of Burton rider Nuuti Niemela (FIN), who ranked 3rd.
Ville Uotila (FIN), who won dominated the event the past 3 years in a row and took it back home, got surprisingly on the 10th spot. Tomorrow will go down besides of themain final of the Masters of Freestyle, also the Night Jibbing Total Fight, as well as the Red Bull demo, by BMX flatland champion Vicky Gomez and we will be excited to see, who will be the 2011 Grandvalira Total Fight Champ and take home this TTR 4 Star title.
Grandvalira Total Fight | Lineup Saturday:
1- Janne Lipsanen
2- Facundo Vial
3- Nuuti Niemela
4- Jamie Phillip
5- Valtteri Paunonen
6- Julius Oedegaard
7- Mathias Weisenbacher
8- Juan Cruz
9- Matias Schmitt
10- Ville Uotila
11- Tommi Rokolampi
12- Cristian Ordoñez
13- Carles Torner
14- Matias Radaelli
15- Josep Castellet
16- Joachim Krosgstie
17- Marc Salas
18- Carles Manich
19- Asier Plazaola
20- Eskil Korneliussen
21- Hans Kestila
22- Chris Sorman
23- Tomas Orol
24- Alex Martin
25- David Hidalgo
26- Santiago Espada
27- Josep Carbonell
28- Roni Rintala
29- Manuel Dominguez
30- Gery Resguant
31- Laurent Duhalde
32- Lucian Fertonani
