Nendaz Freeride Live Tomorrow
Coming from the four corners of the globe, some of the world best riders will compete in the prestigious Nendaz Freeride, which start this Friday with the qualification run.
For the second year, the event will be streamed live with a budget and quality, which compares to the Freeride World Tour.
This year the Nendaz Freeride has become the most important event of the Freeride World Qualifier (FWQ), remaining a 4 star event. The competition is also the final of the Swiss Freeride Series, which regroups the principal Swiss events. After eight successful editions, ithe event affirms its position as a not-to-be-missed European competition for riders attempting to walk away from the final on Saturday with the prize of EUR 10'000.-.
Over 100 athletes set-off for the qualifying runs, which take place on Friday the 13th of March on the north-west face of the Dent de Nendaz (the Marètze), starting 9 o'clock. Spectators can watch the event from the qualification village, accessible on skis from Tracoeut. There will also be a DJ to animate the show.
Nendaz Freeride 2014
The final on Saturday, starts at 8h30 on the legendary Mont-Gond, easily accessible thanks to the new gondola on the Plan du Fou.
A marked and secure path allows the public to safely access the BFM Village, which gives a spectacular view over the slope and provides the 3'500 spectators expected with food and drinks throughout the day as well as allowing them to make the most of the live commentary of the competition.
The competition will as usual be extremely tight in the men's ski category where the best riders fight to obtain their place in next year's Freeride World Tour.
The France team, often well placed in Nendaz, should be watched closely. Among them, Julien Lopez (ex-freeride world champion and currently 22nd in the Freeride World Ranking), which will try to stand on the podium in Nendaz in order to come back on the Freeride World Tour and participate this year at Verbier Xtreme. Also watch out for Mickael Bimboes and Gorak Wadeck (pictures above), who has just won the French Freeride Series and was 3rd at Nendaz Freeride 2013 right after a certain... Loïc Collomb-Patton. They will have a hard job, however, to beat the Argentinian Nicolas Salencon (18th) and the Russian Ivan Malakhov, 20th of the Freeride World Ranking. On the Swiss side, several local athletes could reach the final, like Maxime Vaquin and Florent Leu and we can also count on the performance of Adrien Hildebrand, 2nd of the Chandolin freeride last week-end.
In the men's snowboard category, the French Ludo Guillot-Diaz, 10th on the ranking and already winner in Nendaz, is among the favourites. From the Swiss riders, we are hoping for good results from Joel Rouge and Florian Bouvet Fournier, 1st and 4th of the Chandolin freeride 2015.
In the women category, we expect a lot from Elisabeth Gerritzen and Maude Besse who won and finished 2nd at Chandolin freeride 2015.
In the women's snowboard category, the battle promises to be tough between the Finnish Mikaela Hollsten and the Australian Daniela Hochmuth.
The live stream will stream live on Saturday morning!
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Nendaz
Not as smart as Verbier, but you can ride the 4 Vallees for a lot less