Le Franco Phoney

As I predicted, Candide will indeed be holding an event in Tignes. It’s not actually called the Candide Invitational 2009, but it seems to be the closest thing so far. The Riderscup (yes, one word) will see two teams competing against each other: one led by Candide and the other by TJ Schiller, according to the Tignes.net website. The competition will involve an XXL half pipe and Big Air session. It’s being touted as the US against the Europeans, which seems a bit like a marketing ploy to me.

If you’re interested in going, you’d better get your skates on: it’s happening in early January.

No, that’s not a typo, there’s a new ski ‘posse’ called Coreupt (or coreUPT — they can’t seem to decide), and Candide Thovex is in with them. The news isn’t actually that recent, but I’ve only just discovered the (very short!) video (see below), which is kind of an odd one, and since Coreupt seem to be based in Tignes, perhaps the Candide Invitational 2009 will be held there instead! Coreupt seem to be collecting a pretty good team of riders. Anyway, I heard a rumour that Coreupt equipment will be available for testing on the last weekend of November. Don’t blame me if I’m wrong — I’ll be going to Tignes that weekend anyway for another snow fix before La Clusaz’s lifts open in December.

So…Candide Thovex. He’s a local hero here in La Clusaz, having won many freestyle skiing competitions and attaining the title of world champion a few years ago. He’s been holding the Candide Invitational freestyle competition — four days of bling, baggy-panted riders and wannabees taking over the otherwise sleepy French family-style resort of La Clusaz — for the past six years. But will he be holding it here this year? The Tourist Office’s calendar doesn’t mention a date, and when I asked them, they said that no date has been decided. So I asked them if it had been cancelled and their rather cagey response was: “No decision has been made yet. Sorry.” So, are the rumours that Candide fell out with the La Clusaz authorities during the last event true? And is that why I haven’t seen his face featured in any of the tourist brochures or on the La Clusaz winter website, even though he featured prominently in past winters?

Candide is a genuinely nice guy (he let me jump in front of him in the chairlift queue last year, not to mention the YouTube video showing him saving a girl from falling off a chairlift) and almost every kid in town loves him. Almost every female in town would like to love him. It would be a shame if the Candide Invitational did not happen this winter; and besides, it’s the only time in La Clusaz that I can check out the pro-riders to see what ridiculous patterns, colours and/or styles of clothing they think they can get away with.