Thursday, December 27

Men's halfpipe Finals in Breckenridge

EXPN.com

A winter storm rolled through Breckenridge CO, on Friday and threatened the finals with rumors of torrential snowfall. Instead it dropped only a few inches and hung around the area throughout the finals kicking up some gusty winds and intermittent sunshine. For the most part the sun stayed close at hand, enough to warm and light the venue for us wuss media-types. The hot chocolate and heat in the VIP tent was a bonus as well.

Vinzenz Lueps grabbing some tail with big German style.

Though the depth of the men's field was not as deep as the past couple years, there were very few Europeans (save Junior World's silver medalist Vinzenz Loups of Germany) the finals were intense. The lead changed many, many times, from Tommy "The Machine" Czeschin to Eric Leines back to The Machine to Shaun White and back to Czeschin again.

The riders who made the finals showed their stoke by blasting out of the 17 foot Superpipe consistently higher than during practice or qualifiers. Keir Dillon was sailing through the pipe and spinning inverted ten feet up. Eric Leines rode with ferocity in both the slopestyle and in the pipe with amplitude style and a progressive bag of tricks. Shaun Palmer's protégé, Andy Finch, was riding with technical brilliance and stomping his inverted 9's, McTwists, and 7's albeit too far down the transitions to make his efforts podium worthy. Finch has made the switch from boardercross to pipe look effortless. Mike Michalchuk is an innovator and a lot of fun to watch. He nailed the Michalchuk and the double back flip-both tricks that look like he is lost in a gyroscopic blur. Despite his efforts, MM missed the podium and took fourth.

Mammoth loc Chris Nelson was the surprise of the finals. He is a big rider (like Abe Teter, and also shares the same sponsor-Palmer) with a big bag of tricks including 7's, 9's, and inverted spins as well. Chris won the third place spot by floating all his tricks at least head high and brining in all the landings.

Yeah, Michalchuk can do straight airs too.

Shaun White was quiet through the practice sessions, perhaps because he was concentrating on his slopestyle event, and his first run, but he poured it on in round two of the finals with Alley-oop Haakonflips, McTwists, huge straight airs and the smoothness of a veteran rider. So what if he's 15, this kid has more of the big contests under his belt than any of his peers. Shaun landed in second.

It was Tommy Czeschin's day. He had been riding HUGE and smooth as buttah since the first practice. Each run he took the top position on the leaders board only to have another rider step it up and knock him off. Come round three Tommy was determined and knew it would take an all out attack for the top spot. His final run was money! Huge back to back to back spins (sevens and a nine), no sketching, and power through every air.

Tommy "The Machine" Czeschin (1st), Shaun White (2nd), and Christopher Nelson (3rd).

It was a great comp regardless of the weather or absence of riders. The top of the North American field was there and everyone was charging. Last years' winner Todd Richards stepped down from the comp because, he said "I popped my wing" during the Big Air. The final spots for the 2002 Winter X Games Superpipe were earned by Christopher Nelson, Andy Finch, Autumn Rose, and Alisa Mokler.

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