Breckenridge, USA (10 December 2015) - Thursday (US time) at Dew Tour Breckenridge kicked off with the semifinal of the Men's Toyota Freeski Slopestyle competition. The field started with 30 riders, who were each given two runs. The top 10 riders guaranteed themselves a spot in the finals, 11-20 set themselves up for a date with the last chance qualifier immediately after, and 21-30 would be eliminated. NZ's Jossi Wells put his mark on the competition from the get-go, landing a high scoring run on his first attempt and qualifying through to finals in second place behind the UK's James Woods in first place.
With the weather a little overcast and landings hard to spot, speed control would prove to be a crucial part of the game plan.
"I spent practice working on my speed so that I'd be able to land my tricks cleanly and that paid off," explains Jossi.
The first set of runs produced some surprising results, with a lot of the favorites failing to land a full run. As a result, in the latter stages of the semifinal, the bottom third of the results sheet read like a who's who of freesking over the last few years. At the time of their second runs, the smooth-skiing Henrik Harlaut, former Dew Tour winner Russ Henshaw, defending champion Gus Kenworthy, tech rider Alex Bellemare and Olympic gold medalist Joss Christensen all found themselves outside the top 20, while Breckenridge local Bobby Brown sat right on the LCQ bubble in 20th with all of those heavy hitters still left to go.
Two riders who did not have much to worry about after their first runs were James Woods and Jossi Wells. Woodsy grabbed the top spot on the leaderboard with a 90.40 on his first attempt, landing a right dub 1260 and a switch right dub 1080 on the bottom jumps and turning in strong rail sections. Jossi slotted in just behind him in second with a score of 89.80 on his first run. Both scores would hold up as the top two.
"The training I put in at Spring Camp at the end of the New Zealand season really paid off and today was the first time I've landed four different way doubles in my runs. It was good to get a high score with the first run and give myself a buffer and really nice to crack finals at the first competition of the season," says Jossi.
Semifinal Results
1. James Woods, 90.40
2. Jossi Wells, 89.80
3. Bobby Brown, 86.60
4. Alex Beaulieu-Marchand, 84.40
5. McRae Williams, 82.40
6. Gus Kenworthy, 81.00
7. Antoine Adelisse, 80.20
8. Robby Franco, 77.80
9. Jesper Tjader, 76.20
10. Joss Christensen, 75.00
**Top 10 advance to the final
11. Evan McEachran, 74.80
12. Antti Ollila, 73.00
13. Oystein Braaten, 71.80
14. Oscar Wester, 71.40
15. Teal Harle, 67.40
16. Fabian Bosch, 65.20
17. Elias Ambuhl, 62.60
18. Jonas Hunziker, 60.60
19. Noah Wallace, 60.20
20. Matt Walker, 57.00
**10-20 advance to the LCQ
21. Felix Usterud, 55.60
22. Riley Culver, 53.20
23. Colby Stevenson, 47.80
24. Henrik Harlaut, 42.80
25. Chris Laker, 33.60
26. Alex Bellemare, 32.60
27. Russ Henshaw, 32.30
28. Andri Ragettli, 31.40
29. Noah Morrison, 27.80
30. Vincent Gagnier, 23.40
LCQ Results
1. Fabian Bosch, 88.00
2. Oystein Braaten, 86.20
**Top 2 advance to the final
3. Noah Wallace, 85.60
4. Elias Ambuhl, 73.80
5. Oscar Wester, 43.00
6. Evan McEachran, 20.40
7. Teal Harle, 18.20
8. Antti Ollila, 15.40
9. Jonas Hunziker, 13.80
10. Matt Walker, 10.60
The Men's Toyota Freeski Slopestyle Final gets underway at 1:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, December 13 on NBC and DewTour.com. You can also tune in to DewTour.com 30 minutes early for the Dew Tour Live pre-show with Georgia Lindsay and Doug Bishop.
Advancing to the final
1. James Woods
2. Jossi Wells
3. Bobby Brown
4. Alex Beaulieu-Marchand
5. McRae Williams
6. Gus Kenworthy
7. Antoine Adelisse
8. Robby Franco
9. Jesper Tjader
10. Joss Christensen
11. Fabian Bosch
12. Oystein Braaten
9 years ago
Jossi Wells,
Dew Tour