Le Franco Phoney

I really should have written about this days ago: Xavier Bertoni from La Clusaz won this year’s X Games Men’s Ski Superpipe last weekend, doing some very cool things while riding switch. He’s the first French man to win this competition since Candide Thovex, also from La Clusaz. Snow sports really are taken seriously here, with five year-olds training to get into the local ski team via their own ski team called ‘Pre-club’. At five years of age, I was still stumbling around in a leotard and trying to figure out how to get from first position to fifth position in ballet. But here in La Clusaz, I’ve seen five year olds chucking themselves of kickers with their parents applauding them for landing 360s on their skis. No wonder the La Clusaz kids are winning stuff.

Here’s Xavier’s incredible run:

Coreupt’s TJ Schiller won the Men’s Slopestyle, with teammate Colby West coming third. Colby also finished fifth in the Superpipe. A good result for Coreupt.