Our French Ed Youri fired in this short report of what’s been going down on a crazy set-up in Tourmalet.

Christoph Weber. Back 180.

The Ho5 crew have constructed a pretty creative set up here in the Tourmalet area: no less than 9 lines to get rad off for the crew of riders, including these dudes: Jakob Wilhelmson, Chris Sörman, Markus Keller, Marco Smolla, Victor De Le Rue, Knut Eliassen, Kalle Ohlson, Marc Swoboda, and Christoph Weber. Plus a back on form Gerome ‘Coin Coin’ Mathieu, who opened up the big jump today (Thursday) leaving all the others a little unsure as to what was doable or not on the ‘horseshoe’ like main kicker.

Victor De Le Rue. Front 3.

Marc Swoboda.

And then the action went down. I have to say, the image of the Frenchies taking it easy compared to the Scandis is long gone. At this session it seemed pretty much the other way round, with an over-motivated Victor De Le Rrue and Coin Coin ripping on main kicker (respectively countless sick rodeos from Victor, and swBS 7 and 10s from Coin Coin), Franck Moissonnier – Nike 6.0 host and team manager! – and local new comer Geoffrey Marcou.

Kalle Ohlson. Frontside 3.

Front 5 from Coin Coin.

Everyone had a pop under watchful lenses of the Pirates filming crew, except for Keller who took a pretty hard slam on the first day decided to save his strength for that Friday that is supposed to be the best day of the week. Another local, Dimitri Biau, stayed late at the spot to kill the hip and bag up some extra shots.

Jacob Wilhelmson.

Frontside air from Francky Moissonnier.

Special props also to Chris Weber, who dominated the shark tail with some old school backside air flavour… It was then time to bag up and take the ride back up behind the snowmobiles, to La Mongie. Tomorow (Friday) is announced as the best day of the week, and some of those riders are definately decided to kill the spot once and for all…

Swoboda, Keller and Smolla.

The crew.

The battle is still on.