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Mountain Biking

Nicholi Rogatkin on Landing the First Mountain Bike Cash Roll-Tailwhip at Crankworx Innsbruck

Watch the run from the record books and read a guide through it from the man himself...

Mountain biker Nicholi Rogatkin made history in Innsbruck on Saturday by throwing down the first ever cash roll-tailwhip to win his second Crankworx Slopestyle title of the year.

Nicholi went into his second and final run of the day in second place behind Brett Rheeder knowing that he had to go big and produce something really special if he was going to take the win.

The following five minutes saw Rogatkin stun the crowds and score a 96.00 from the judges, before Rheeder did the same with another stunning run to increase his score from 94 to 95.6, just short of Nicholi’s winner.

There’s a good chance it was the cash roll-tailwhip that made the difference on the final kicker. The most ridiculous bit? He had never even attempted the trick onto dirt before.

We caught up with the American 21-year-old after his winning run to get him to talk us through exactly what just happened. Here’s the lowdown from the man himself, including a video of the full run below:

In Nicholi’s Words

I honestly wasn’t even thinking about doing a cash roll-tailwhip until five minutes before my final run. I knew I had to do it to beat Brett’s score so that was that.

I was tired of doing a twister [an off-axis 1080] on the last jump of the course. I had crashed on it last weekend, so I wanted to change up that jump.

I did a twister on the first jump instead, and then a 360 to tailwhip on the log, which was also one I had never done before, and then a classic cash roll [a 360 to barrel roll / rodeo 720].

I hit a triple whip on the second jump which I actually didn’t do on the first run because of a lack of speed, but had to crank it around in the second run, and from then on I was just trying to keep it together for that last jump because I knew I was going to have to throw down a hammer.

 

Then it was flip-barspin in, double tailwhip out, and things that I’m quite used to. It was just about trying to land them smooth and then taking a deep breath before the last one and that cash roll-tailwhip.

I’ve done the trick a few times on soft landings and into foam pits before but it’s quite a rowdy trick.

If you don’t catch your bike things go drastically, drastically wrong, so… It was one that definitely at the top of the course I was like ‘I just really can’t think of this until I get there’, but I held it together and pulled it off!

You basically have to put everything on the line to win in slopestyle these days. I’m just stoked to be part of a sport that’s progressing so fast.

You do it for that nervous feeling at the top and that feeling that you’ve conquered it and that relief at the bottom of the course.

Today showcased that. A proper battle between me and Brett Rheeder and hopefully there will be some more contests like that in the future because today was a day that I’m really stoked to have been part of!

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