Tuesday, March 12

Vans Triple Crown Sierra at Tahoe

By George Crosland
EXPN.com

Famous for big dumps, the Tahoe area had received 2-3 feet of snow prior to the event, which wreaked havoc on the contest schedule. The Slopestyle comp was delayed until Saturday. Another storm was forecasted for Sunday, so pipe was run on Saturday as well. The competitors were going from 9:00am, almost until darkness fell, and the awards went down after sunset. A rock star field skipped the powder to compete. Current and former Olympic medallists, world champs and legends were all looking to win the $10,000 1st place prize money.

Halfpipe

Pipe finals did not go down until after 3:30pm but the tired riders still ripped. Minna Hesso traveled from Finland to take 3rd. Gretchen Bleiler won rounds one and two and looked very strong today. 1st place, however, went to Tricia Byrnes, fresh from the Olympics. Tricia's combination of amplitude and back-to-back hard tricks, including a cab 540, squeaked her past Bleiler. When asked about the condition of the pipe, Tricia said "It was icy, but it held its shape, which was important, because everyone was tired." Shaun Palmer said he was "going for a twenty foot air" close, but not quite.

Nagano Olympic Champ, Gian Simmen nailing a frontside stale 360.

Due to the lack of semis, the men's finals had 24 riders. Nearing nightfall, vision and conditions were getting sketchy, but according to Tommy Czeschin "The pipe was really good. It was icy, but that didn't really matter because it was cut well." The top three were very close. Wyatt Caldwell looked very solid, consistently spinning huge tricks to 3rd. Nagano Olympic champ Gian Simmen blasted his way to 2nd. As in the women's comp' another US Olympian took 1st, Tommy Czeschin. Tommy's amplitude and a three trick combo of a cork 7 to cab 7 into a cab 9 helped secure a victory.

Slopestyle

The course had a mix of rails and hits, making a 90-degree turn at the second to last hip jump. The last jump was the same one used in the big air comp. The ladies stomped the rails like the guys, and hit the big kickers with authority. Without a sponsor, Dresden Howell took 3rd and will probably find some companies calling her very soon. Jonnel Janewicz got 2nd. Veteran, Jana Meyen, took 1st with a Cross-Rocket on the last hit helping to take the big money.

Shaun White, 8th in slopestyle but overall Triple Crown Champ.

Chris Patterson earned 3rd, while South Shore local, Jimi Tomer, now has 2nd place money. Josh Feliciano won the round two big air comp at Summit. He also got the $10,000 first place money today. He felt his jumps helped him win, including a switch underflip 5, backside 5, cab 7, and a backside rodeo 7 off the last big hit. "It was pretty fun, better than qualifying because they added three new jumps" Josh said of the course.

Big Air

Another snowy, powder day meant the finals were postponed until a break in the weather at the end of the day. A Cab 9 stale put Nate Sheehan into 3rd. Ben Hinckley stuck a Rippey flip for 2nd. Sixteen year old Ryan Paris nailed a cab 1080 nose grab to get a 1st place trophy and a lot of cash. This was only Ryan's second comp, with his first being The Triple Crown at Summit. With the sketchy weather, he actually wanted to leave the previous day but his Mom encouraged him to stay, good call.

Big Air Podium (from left to right) - Nate Sheehan, Ryan Paris, Ben Hinckley.

Triple Crown Champs

Shaun White and Todd Richards were only 5 points apart going into this event. Todd didn't show up and Shaun took 8th in Slopestyle, enough to take the overall title and win the Ford Ranger 4 x 4. Shaun took his second run and headed straight to Reno to get on a plane to France for the Quicksilver Cup. Rahm Klampert had a chance but his 4th in big air was not enough for the overall. With two firsts in pipe, Gretchen had a good shot at the title. 2nd place today sealed her fate as women's overall champ. That meant $5,000 to take home. "It's an awesome feeling to be able to win the whole thing," a very stoked Gretchen said. See you next year.

Results

Men's Pipe:
1st Tommy Czeschin
2nd Gian Simmen
3rd Wyatt Caldwell
4th Therry Bruner
5th Vinzenz Lueps
6th Ross Powers
7th Andy Finch
8th Aleski Vanninen
9th Nik Batko
10th Luke Wynen
Noteables
13th Kim Christiansen
14th Xaver Hoffman
16th Abe Teter
17th Daniel Franck

Women's Pipe:
1st Tricia Byrnes
2nd Gretchen Bleiler
3rd Minna Hesso
4th Michele Taggart
5th Autumn Rose

Men's Slopestyle:
1st Josh Feliciano
2nd Jimi Tomer
3rd Chris Patterson
4th Eric Shaw
5th Ryan Paris
6th Nate Sheehan
7th Chauncey Sorenson
8th Shaun White
9th Colin Laglois
10th Borden Pansea

Women's Slopestyle:
1st Jana Meyen
2nd Jonnel Janewicz
3rd Dresden Howell
4th Priscilla Levac
5th Katrina Voutilainen

Big Air:
1st Ryan Paris
2nd Ben Hinckley
3rd Nate Sheehan
4th Rahm Klampert
5th Andrew Hardingham
6th Josh Feliciano

Related Photos:
Vans Triple Crown Tahoe Photos