21-year-old American Nicholi Rogatkin landed a tailwhip-cashroll on the final jump of the Crankworx Innsbruck slopestyle course to take the gold medal and make mountain biking history in the process.
The win was Rogatkin’s second of the year on the Crankworx World Tour – which now spans four stops – and sets him up for the chance to win the ‘Triple Crown’ in Whistler later this year and the $50,000 that goes with it.
The tailwhip-cashroll was the climax of a ridiculous run from Nicholi that earned a massive 96.00 ranking from the judges, just higher than the 95.66 of Canadian Brett Rheeder – who was equally impressive. It was a hard day to be a judge.
Rheeder, who won at Crankworx in Les Gets just a few weeks ago, had lead after the first round with a 94, and did everything he could to improve in the second after being pipped by Rheeder, adding a switch tailwhip, bar back and another barspin from the 360 to the drop.
