GKA Freestyle World Cup Leucate comes to an end on Day Six of the event window. Carlos Mario and Francesca Bagnoli are the big winners in Leucate. Check the summary report bellow! GKA Report Report: Jim Gaunt / Photos: Svetlana Romantsova HEAVY WINDS, OCCASIONAL MEGA LOOPS AND STRONG COMMITMENT FOR PURE FREESTYLE PREVAILED AT PORT LEUCATE What a result from the first Freestyle event of the season! A big surprise having moved from La Franqui yesterday to the kickers and open beach at Port Leucate. Big winds, big performance and perhaps a big surprise with Francesca Bagnoli from Italy taking her first win, while champion Mikaili Sol only managed to rescue second place with her last trick in the women’s. And it WAS a rescue. The Brazilian is beatable – something we doubted and tees up the rest of the season beautifully! In the men’s, Carlos Mario showed the mark of a champion and also staged his own comeback, stopping Maxime Chabloz from claiming his first event win, but all bets are on the Swiss rider breaking his top-step duck this season. A valiant Valentin Rodriguez, just 16 from Colombia, took third. In many ways, he was the big news …
Port Leucate
GKA Freestyle World Cup Leucate | Day Five
GKA Freestyle World Cup Leucate got underway on Day Five! Find out all about the completed heats. GKA Report: Report: Jim Gaunt / All photos: Svetlana Romantsova UPDATE ROUND ONE & TWO: MEN The decision to move location 20 minutes south from La Franqui to Port Leucate to take advantage of an easterly facing beach for the southerly winds has already paid off. It’s now midday and here’s your update from Men’s round one and round two. Big news is this new one minute trick format really works! We flew through the heats, averaging a trick every 45 seconds, making for exciting viewing on the livestream. The riders rose to the pressure right out of the gate. It’s also great to seeing freestyle in such regular coastal ocean conditions. Not easy. Remember: the riders go one at a time and get six trick attempts, the best four scores count. Kite size: Generally men powered on 11s, some switching down to 9s. Conditions: Cross onshore from the right, veering more cross-shore and dropping a bit when it does. Challenging. Round One There was just one heat in round one, which acts as the only qualifier for two French riders for this …
