Andreu Lacondeguy wins White Style 2009 in Leogang

Twenty years old Spaniard Andreu Lacondeguy won the White Style presented by Kona on January 30th. Lance McDermott got the "Sickest Trick Award" for his tuck no hand frontflip, which was showed for the first time ever at a mountain bike competition. The riders of the White Style presented by Kona had to cope with a super-sized slopestyle course in combination with a soft and snowy surface. Not an easy job for the 23 athletes from 12 nations that made their way to Leogang, Austria. Kona Clump Team rider Grant "Chopper" Fielder designed and built the whole track with just one aim: to enable the riders to go big! Indeed, the guys just went crazy: Thomas Zejda from the Czech Republic throwing down tailwhips at the starting drop, Amir Kabbani showing off with a backflip x-up one foot the step-up or the Swede Martin Soederstroem pulling clean double tailwhips at the final booter. But Lance McDermott performed the sickest trick. The well-known guy from Manchester threw himself into a tuck nohand-frontflip at the last jump. Unfortunately he didn't stick it 100% clean, because he slipped both pedals. It was the first tuck nohand-frontflip shown at an international mountain bike competition ever. The whole situation might have remembered Lance of the Whistler Crankworx Slopestyle. It was the same game: Andreu Lacondeguy again put Lance into second place - this time by sending huge flatspin 360’s, real extended superman seat-grabs and backflips up and down the "inabler" (step-up-step-down box). Andreu could obviously make good use of his FMX experience: "Man, I love those doubles. Chopper made a great job! That's the way they should be: BIG! I hope most of this year's comps will go even bigger than last season. The progression has to go on. We ride mountain bikes, not BMX bikes. We need huge jumps at least 10 meters + in distance!" Amir Kabbani (3rd place), Martin Soederstroem (4th) and last year's White Style winner Trond Hansen from Norway (5th) also showed great tricks like opposite 360's, frontflips, 360-tailwhips, superman seat-grabs or 360 drops. The results: 1st Andreu Lacondeguy (ESP / Kona) 2nd Lance Mc Dermott (GBR / Scott) 3rd Amir Kabbani (GER / Cannondale) 4th Martin Soederstroem (SWE / NS Bikes) 5th Trond Hansen (NOR / Specialized) 6th Grant Fielder (GBR / Kona) 7th Yannick Granieri (FRA / Giant) 8th Sam Pilgrim (GBR / Diamondback) 9th Damian Siriski (CZE / Author) 10th Niki Leitner (AUT / Kona) All the riders rode hard, showing their skills on the tricky surface, and partied even harder. The official White Style presented by Kona after party ended at five o'clock in the morning and some of the athletes even still had the energy to party on in their hotel. The Bikepark Leogang, KONA, CamelBak and ONE BIG PARK are proud to have presented Europe’s best riders, a lot of airtime, the newest tricks, as well as a rocking party. Watch out for the official White Style presented by Kona video clip that is being edited by Boston Joy Productions right now and will be available mid of next week.