Leogang Sees Biggest 26TRIX Final in 12-Year History
History was made at the 26TRIX final. For the first time in the 12-year history of the event, 31 riders battled for the title in the 26TRIX final in Saalfelden Leogang. But that’s not all, for the first time, a rider managed to defend his title, as after an exciting and close final Diego Caverzasi (ITA) managed to edge out Nicholi Rogatkin (USA) and Simon Pagès (FRA) to take the win. Rogatkin took home the GoPro Best Trick award whilst Pagès and Jakub Vencl (CZE) secured themselves an FMB Wildcard for Crankworx Innsbruck.
![26TRIX 2017 winners]()
As Friday’s qualifications had to be cancelled due to high wind, 31 riders dropped in for the finals in front of the epic backdrop of Leogang’s spectacular mountains. The biggest final in the event’s 12-year history promised to be more than exciting as the pre-qualification already saw Tom Isted (GBR) throwing down double-backflips. The riders did not disappoint as they showed the crowd and judges a host of spectacular trick combinations and the slowly setting sun only added to the atmosphere. The start of the event gave the Austrian crowd plenty to cheer for as their fellow countryman, Bernd Winkler took the hot-seat early on. It didn’t last very long though as the finals saw riders put down spectacular runs right out of the gate.
![26TRIX 2017]()
Simon Pages
At halftime, Jakub Vencl (CZE) found himself in first place after he edged out pre-qualifying winner Adrian Tell (NOR) and German Erik Fedko for the halftime lead. One of the more astonishing moments in recent FMB history saw Nicholi Rogatkin casing a jump and snapping his seat clean off during his first run. He did not notice the missing seat and went on to throw down his signature ‘Twister’ for the crowd. Luckily, he landed it clean.
![26TRIX 2017]()
Jakub Vencl
Early on in the second runs, it didn’t seem like anyone would be able to challenge the top 3 until Alex Alanko (SWE) put down a sensational run that saw him move up from 18th to second place. Alanko’s performance seemed to motivate the riders still at the top and soon after Simon Pagès took the hot-seat with a run that included - amongst others – an opposite backflip-tailwhip that saw the crowd go wild. 2016-winner Caverzasi did not give him much time to enjoy the top spot though.
![26TRIX 2017]()
Nicholi Rogatkin
![26TRIX 2017]()
Diego Caverzasi
The Italian opened his run with a frontflip-barspin-x-up and followed it up with an opposite 360, frontflip-no-hander, cash roll, no-hander and a backflip-barspin-to-tailwhip. The only one left at the top able to threaten Caverzasi was Nicholi Rogatkin but after a clean run - including his second twister of the day – the judges saw the Italian in first by the tiniest of margins.
The top 3 runs:
Diego Caverzasi:
Nicholi Rogatkin:
Simon Pagès:
Asking Caverzasi how defending his title at 26TRIX felt he said: “I feel amazing. I was thinking about the fact that no one has ever won 26TRIX twice in a row when I left home. I crashed hard last Saturday and hurt my shoulder quite badly, so I was not sure I’d be up for it. I did have a bit of luck as quite a few riders struggled with their runs today. On the other hand, I showed quite a few tricks that were new for me like a cashroll and frontflip-combos, to try and get as my points as possible.”
The top 10 are as follows:
![26TRIX 2017]()
The complete results can be found here.
Photos by Chris Laue/Richkphotography
MENTIONS: @rasoulution / @FMBA / @SaalfeldenLeogang
As Friday’s qualifications had to be cancelled due to high wind, 31 riders dropped in for the finals in front of the epic backdrop of Leogang’s spectacular mountains. The biggest final in the event’s 12-year history promised to be more than exciting as the pre-qualification already saw Tom Isted (GBR) throwing down double-backflips. The riders did not disappoint as they showed the crowd and judges a host of spectacular trick combinations and the slowly setting sun only added to the atmosphere. The start of the event gave the Austrian crowd plenty to cheer for as their fellow countryman, Bernd Winkler took the hot-seat early on. It didn’t last very long though as the finals saw riders put down spectacular runs right out of the gate.
Simon Pages
At halftime, Jakub Vencl (CZE) found himself in first place after he edged out pre-qualifying winner Adrian Tell (NOR) and German Erik Fedko for the halftime lead. One of the more astonishing moments in recent FMB history saw Nicholi Rogatkin casing a jump and snapping his seat clean off during his first run. He did not notice the missing seat and went on to throw down his signature ‘Twister’ for the crowd. Luckily, he landed it clean.
Jakub Vencl
Early on in the second runs, it didn’t seem like anyone would be able to challenge the top 3 until Alex Alanko (SWE) put down a sensational run that saw him move up from 18th to second place. Alanko’s performance seemed to motivate the riders still at the top and soon after Simon Pagès took the hot-seat with a run that included - amongst others – an opposite backflip-tailwhip that saw the crowd go wild. 2016-winner Caverzasi did not give him much time to enjoy the top spot though.
Nicholi Rogatkin
Diego Caverzasi
The Italian opened his run with a frontflip-barspin-x-up and followed it up with an opposite 360, frontflip-no-hander, cash roll, no-hander and a backflip-barspin-to-tailwhip. The only one left at the top able to threaten Caverzasi was Nicholi Rogatkin but after a clean run - including his second twister of the day – the judges saw the Italian in first by the tiniest of margins.
The top 3 runs:
Diego Caverzasi:
Nicholi Rogatkin:
Simon Pagès:
Asking Caverzasi how defending his title at 26TRIX felt he said: “I feel amazing. I was thinking about the fact that no one has ever won 26TRIX twice in a row when I left home. I crashed hard last Saturday and hurt my shoulder quite badly, so I was not sure I’d be up for it. I did have a bit of luck as quite a few riders struggled with their runs today. On the other hand, I showed quite a few tricks that were new for me like a cashroll and frontflip-combos, to try and get as my points as possible.”
The top 10 are as follows:
The complete results can be found here.
Photos by Chris Laue/Richkphotography
MENTIONS: @rasoulution / @FMBA / @SaalfeldenLeogang
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
Sign Up for the Pinkbike Newsletter - All the Biggest, Most Interesting Stories in your Inbox
PB Newsletter Signup
Then i watched Rogatkins run...
-Double whip repeat. (its just an ugly trick, even if you throw it in a 360)
-Some sketchy landings... cased 2 jumps.
-Repetition, the judges have seen this run (or very similar) from Rogatkin before.
I think both 1st and 2nd runs had the same relative difficulty, but Diego had better execution on most of the features.
Font bar / 3 dub whip / Diego
Oppo 3 / Front tuck / Rogakin
Front tuck/ Dub whip / Diego
Cash roll / Front bar / Rogakin
Tuck / Whip / tie since Rogakin cased
Flip bar to whip / Cork 1080 / Diego flip bar to whip is way more technical then a twister
Both great runs, I have no problem with Deigo winning by 0.66
Then again, he did a 360 on one jump.
I mean, if that´s what it takes to make things less repetitive i don´t know if repetition should be a thing that should be getting judged really :-/
And with "easy" tricks of course he´s gonna get more points for execution. However i did not find Diegos run to be particularly clean. Those frontflips looked not really that clean, so there´s that.
But whatever, i´m in no way qualified to judge those things anyway. That´s why i stick to racing. The only unfair advantage there is the one people claim to have with 29" wheels
Edit:
Watched it again. Forget what i said about the frontflips.
Flip whip bar is actually one of the most insane moves you can do... so many things to get perfect.
Double whips should count as negative points after the first time executed... they are so ugly!
And about the flip bar bring more technical than the twister I completely disagree, there is a reason why there is only one guy doing the second and it's not just spinning very fast
This time I think should have been for Rogatkin
Yeah that must be why Rogatkin is the only one doing a Twister on a MTB, and one of the only in the world that has done it period but many have done a flip barspin to tailwhip.......
I think Rogatkin was robbed again but one wild thing is Deigo didn't just do a front flip bar spin but he also added in an x-up after that. It was so fast. At least this wasn't as horrible judging as the last event.
Note:
-I am critiquing the runs rather than trolling the comment section.
-I have honestly seen rogatkin do that run + 6 more things at rotorua. (he needs to change his trick arsenal a little, so that it doesn't just look like whips and flips.)
-Diego got 1st this time... (Im sorry you're not able to get over it.)
I am saying this as a person who enjoys watching both riders.
At first glance I thought so too. But then I broke it down. This is a bit of a long post but only because it's listing all of their tricks.
Take a look at the trick list:
Diego:
Frontflip Barspin
Opposite 360
Frontflip tuck no hander
Cashroll
Tuck no hander on the hip
Backflip barspin to tailwhip
Nicholi:
360 double tailwhip
Frontflip tuck no hander
Double tailwhip
Frontflip barspin
Tailwhip on the hip (CASED)
Twister
They both did a frontflip barspin & frontflip tuck no hander, so eliminate those and you've got:
Diego:
Oppo 3
Cashy
Tuck
Flip bar to whip
Rogatkin:
360 dub whip
Dub whip
Whip (Cased on the hip)
Twister
When you break it down, it's easy to see that Rogatkin lost due to lack of variation. That said, he didn't 'lose' the entire contest - he still got second place, which isn't bad at all. One of the criteria riders are judged on is their arsenal of tricks. 3 tailwhip tricks rotating the same way is not variation at all.