Less than 20 hours after rocking the stage at Garfinkel’s on Wednesday night, French rider Tomas Lemoine was rocking the track at Base 2, coming away with a Speed and Style victory at Crankworx Whistler on Aug. 11.
Tired from his rap show the night before, heading up for the preliminary rounds, Lemoine was unsure if he’d be able to pull out the win. But once he got on course his instincts took over and he was able to narrowly edge the competition in the quarter- and semi-finals before taking a commanding win against Austria’s Bernd Winkler in the finals.
“I'm feeling so happy man. I couldn't believe in the morning that I would do good because I was really tired from yesterday. I was feeling a bit struggling, but still good. I think maybe I couldn't be so stressed because I didn't feel like I was too ready for it, so maybe the instincts worked,” he said.
“I think the hardest one was the semi-finals and that was the one where I thought I had to send my biggest tricks and that’s what I did. Against [fellow French rider Adrien] Loron, I did my best run of the day, maybe that’s what made me go to finals and then I was just trying to hold on and make some clean tricks.”
In the semis, Lemoine faced off against friend Loron, who was coming off a pump track win the day before.
But even though Loron would just miss the Speed and Style podium, having two French riders in the top four was a cool sight to see for Lemoine.
“That was sick,” said Lemoine. “So I think we can say France is ready for it.”
Despite losing a tough race to Lemoine in the finals, Winkler was all smiles after the race, stoked to take second against one of the top Speed and Style riders in the world.
“Ya that's crazy, it stresses you a little bit [going up against Lemoine], but not that much. You try to go all in and sometimes it goes wrong,” he said. “But it was a good day. I'm so stoked for second place, got a little bit rough on the gold medal race but I'm all good and I'm so happy.”
On the women’s side, American Jordy Scott battled the elements to come away with her third medal at Crankworx Whistler in the form of a Speed and Style gold.
Qualifying No. 2 behind Aussie Caroline Buchanan—who after taking a hard fall in the early rounds had to bow out of the competition in the round of eight—Scott took a relatively easy win over fellow American Shealen Reno in the quarter-finals before facing off with New Zealand’s Robin Goomes in the semis.
Scott, who won Speed and Style last time Crankworx came to Whistler in 2019, would then go on to face her toughest competition of the day in the finals against Sweden’s Alma Wiggberg, taking the win by just 1.423 points.
“It went pretty good, there was a couple external factors going on; We had the wind, we had the sun, it was definitely not the perfect night, but it’s not always going to be perfect so I was really happy I was able to make it happen when things weren't quite going the way I wanted them to,” she said.
“I'm super stoked, my goal going into this was to win three medals and so we reached that goal, so now I'm looking to pick something new so I'm looking to get top-10 in downhill on Sunday and just have a lot of fun.
Lemoine, on the other hand, will be back in action on Saturday when he goes up against the world’s other top Slopestyle riders in the 10th Anniversary of Red Bull Joyride.
