Team Atomic Defends Their Ski Team Challenge Title | Dew Tour Copper 2020
The first day of competition kicked off at Copper Mountain on Thursday with a fresh blanket of snow. Due to weather, the schedule of the contest was shifted around and the Team Finals got things started with a stacked list of riders, turning into an incredibly entertaining spectacle. The falling snow was an added variable that wasn’t present during practices, so riders had to adjust their lines and trick choices accordingly to the change in speed and light.
The Team Challenge is a particularly unique event to Dew Tour, allowing athletes who share the same sponsor to compete together as a team in three sections of Slopestyle, Toyota Modified Superpipe, and Streetstyle. This year the teams include both male and female athletes, with the combined score of each section determining their overall ranking.
This year’s challenge pitted Volkl, Faction, and Atomic head-to-head to showcase their riders and overall versatility of their teams, while also allowing athletes who aren’t often seen on the contest circuit to participate.
Some tricks that went down in slopestyle that were particularly sick were a backslide backswap pretzel 270 and a butter pad transfer by Faction’s Alex Hall, earning him the highest score. Also worth noting was a pretzel 360 off the butter pad by Atomic’s Megan Oldham, a misty 630 out of the cannon by Fabian Bosch, bringing up the Atomic team score even more. Faction’s pair of Julia Tanno and Alex Hall grabbed the first place spot for the slope section.
Next, the teams moved down to the Toyota Modified Superpipe for the second section. Faction was represented in the stunt ditch by Finnish film skier Antii Olilla, whose style stood out amongst the crop of other athletes, despite not being able to put his run down 100% clean. Volkl brought out Grace Henderson and the current king of halfpipe, Alex Ferriera. A left double 1080 by Nico Porteous on the quarter pipe jump caught the attention of the judges and earned team Atomic some extra points, which in turn outscored Faction and secured the top spot.
For the first time, streetstyle is a section of the team challenge, adding variety to the typical disciplines. Megan Oldham stood out for the ladies due to her clean landings and creative approaches. Oystein Braaten brought out the technicality, helping out the overall score for the Volkl team. Lukas Mullauer put down a k-fed, almost ending the competition right there. Atomic maintained their first place position, taking home the title for the second year in a row.
Said Teal Harle from the Atomic team, “It’s super fun to have an event like this that is just about having fun with your friends and your team. It’s a great addition to the competition.”
Ski Team Challenge Results
Overall
Atomic – 285
Faction – 250
Volkl – 245
Slopestyle Men
Alex Hall – 90.66
Nick Goepper – 84.33
Fabian Bosch – 75.66
Slopestyle Women
Megan Oldham – 84
Giulia Tanno – 80
Grace Henderson – 74.66
Slopestyle Combined
Faction – 170.66
Atomic – 159.66
Volkl – 158.99
Toyota Modified Superpipe Men
Nico Porteous – 85
Alex Ferreira – 82.33
Antti Ollila – 58.66
Toyota Modified Superpipe Women
Kelly Sildaru – 77
Grace Henderson – 60.66
Sabrina Cakmakli – 59.33
Toyota Modified Superpipe Combined
Atomic – 144.33
Volkl – 60.66
Faction – 77
Streetstyle Men
Oystein Braaten – 82.33
Lukas Mullauer – 70
Will Berman – 75.33
Streetstyle Women
Megan Oldham – 69
Marin Hamil – 53.33
Sarah Hoefflin – 38.33
Streetstyle Combined
Atomic – 139
Volkl – 135.66
Faction – 113.66
To see the full competitions, head to YouTube.com/DewTour for all of the action.
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