The second originality was to be found in the slalom lines:

There was a 80s for sure, and a 120s, and… a X-Style (i.e. two lines of 9 cones crossing each other in their middles). And no 50s.

The X-Style was a good idea, but this was without taking head of the slight – but present – slope. Thus it was quite complicated to handle the changes of direction taking heed of the slope and all… so that, sadly enough, the X-Style was not capitalized much during the Battle.

And the last originality was in the composition of the jury. One of the three judges was (pseudo-)coming from the public. The underlying idea was to submit the riders’ performances to a non-specialist’s view point which would embody the public’s opinion, to put forward the spectacular and artistic sides – too often denigrated in favour of pure technique.

To be honest, the judge in question was not a total novice in slalom-skating. Actually it was a slalom-skater of Lyon who got hooked on judging. But he had a much more stylistic apprehension of slalom-skating than the two other judges (Sébastien Laffargue and Yann Wong) who have a natural tendency to focus on technique.

A few words about two figures that cannot be ignored: the Speaker and the DJ… the catalysts of atmosphere!

The DJ carried out the mix providing electro-rock sounds on the battleground during the whole day. With 12 tracks per battle group (changing tracks every two runs…), I can hardly imagine the length of the play-list…!

As for the speaker, even with a broken voice no doubt he can talk… it was all the more pleasant to have a speaker not only who is used to the function but also who can skate: thus he could both make intelligent comments and retain the spectators’ attention – around 7.000 spectators came by on that Sunday, September 28^th.

The quarter finals

Now things become a little trickier with the quarter finals.

GROUP#1: In the first group, Chloé Seyrès qualifies without real difficulty: she lets go, compared to the qualifications of the morning, and she manages heel spins in safety catch, back-and-forth wheelings on the X-Style, style moves mainly based on kicks’n jumps…

The 2^nd place is coveted by Julien Messina and Kyan Sancez. The third run is going to be determining: Julien, just like his brother Mathieu, is a Korean spins enthusiastic and largely counts on that during his runs. He is slightly ahead of Kyan during the first two runs with a success rate a little higher than Kyan’s. But there is a reversal of situation in the third run: Kyan does an impressive performance, managing a 13-cone back heel wheeling, and many other tricks neatly done which I do not remember because it is the wheeling which stroke me! His third-run revelation enabled him to reach the semi-finals… and to knock Julien Messina out.

GROUP#2: It’s the same scenario for the second group: the first place goes beyond dispute to Aurélien Boudoux, the guy who puts himself into orbit faster than his shadow (and never stops ‘til time is up). He reminds me of Taz (Looney Toons, for the experts) slightly less nag – well, very slightly then… kicking and turning.

As for the second place, it’s an internal fight between the Team Gyro members, Julien Boucry and Antoine ‘TotoGT’ Colange. Despite Julien Boucry’s (soon) legendary charisma, with a smooth and neat style (maybe a little slow?), it’s TotoGT who goes through to the semi-finals thanks to a better managing of his technical tricks (back toe wheelings, spins) and to a larger panel of tricks (he is one of the rare skaters to show sitting tricks).

GROUP#3: …and still and always this same scenario is to be found in the third group: 12-year-old Mathieu Messina impresses with a technical level far above that of his adversaries (particularly in the spins panel – toe and heel-toe Koreans, uncrossed spins – which he links without pause).

As for the second place, the challenge takes place between Séverine Thomas (a downhill and speed-slalom skater above all) and Nicolas Reynolds from Lyon who started slaloming only eight months ago. It’s at the end of a casting last trick that the jury decides in favour of Nicolas Reynolds. Séverine Thomas managed the 14 cones of the 120s doing a toe reverse eagle while Nicolas Reynolds tries a combo doing crossed compasses alternating between heel-toe and toe on the 80s – not as neat as and with more hesitation than Séverine Thomas, but his trick was more technique and committed (cf. loss of landmarks generated by the rotation).

GROUP#4: At last, in the 4^th group Xuan Le and his protégé Boris Rozbroj get hold of, respectively, the 1^st and the 2^nd places. The stylistic influence of the tutor on his padawan can be deeply felt (cf. super-large voltes, sweeping style, and fast knitting).

The semi finals

From the semi finals on, the format “three runs and one last trick” is adopted.

SEMI-FINAL#1: The first semi final is quite predictable: it gathers Chloé Seyrès, Aurélien Boudoux, Nicolas Reynolds, and Boris Rozbroj. Chloé and Aurélien, whose skating is more mature, give no chance to Nicolas and Boris. Nevertheless, with youngsters like these two… no worries as for the future of the discipline!

Aurélien Boudoux makes the most of break-moves and spinning combos… but with a tendency to repeat himself. Chloé Seyrès tries to vary her runs (sitting tricks, wheeling games, personal tricks, falls irrevocably saving herself with American splits – which are not out of place among Aurélien Boudoux’s break moves).

As for the last tricks, Chloé Seyrès manages a kasatchoks combo (frontward-turning-backward) on the X-Style; Aurélien Boudoux manages spins (Taz mode on) on the whole 80s line – he is a bit out of the line from time to time… but respect!; Nicolas Reynolds tries again his crossed compasses combo which enabled him to get qualified for these semi finals but does not manage very well; and Boris Rozbroj manages the 20 cones of the 80s doing heel wheeling.

SEMI-FINAL#2: The second group of semi final is close: it is made up of Kyan Sanchez (mister back heel wheeling), Antoine ‘TotoGT’ Colange, Mathieu Messina (the last of the two brothers), and Xuan Le (the King of Style).

The first place goes to… TotoGT, who cleverly played on a very large panel of tricks. Xuan did a mediocre performance (that’s what he said) which would explain why he is second – facing rather technical adversaries. Kyan Sanchez managed quite well, and was very close to knocking Xuan Le out. As for Mathieu Messina, he still lacks style, with too many hesitations performing his tricks, and his technique alone is not enough for him to qualify.

The final gathers Chloé Seyrès and Xuan Le of the SebaTeam, and the two skaters from Lyon Antoine ‘TotoGT’ Colange of Team Gyro and Aurélien Boudoux.

The finalists choose one by one their order to go, according to their world ranking: the better ranked, Chloé Seyrès, starts and chooses to go 1^st. Xuan Le arbitrarily chooses the 3^rd place to go. TotoGT takes the 2^nd place, and Aurélien Boudoux gets the 4^th place.

What can I say, apart from the fact it was wheezy and disastrous? We all skated too much the whole day, and everybody’s legs were too tired to freestyle for the final. So that everybody made many mistakes, losing balance, falling (more or less stylish falls), having lapses of memory, and so on…

It took a very long while to the jury to decide between the four of us, because we had caused too much interference on our performances with all our mistakes…

After a super-long debate, the judges agreed to award the 1^st place to Antoine ‘TotoGT’ Colange who had the genius idea to do sitting tricks while the others forgot – or did not have time to do some… sure, when you realize you have only 5 seconds left on your last run… (talking about my case)…

Chloé Seyrès is hot on the heels of Antoine Colange (fatal forgetting of the sitting tricks).

Xuan Le gets the 3^rd place, and Aurélien Boudoux whose voluntary and committed style is extremely spectacular ends up 4^th – his limited repertory did a disservice to him.

As for the last tricks, Chloé Seyrès managed a combo of spinning wipers on the 80s – one cone turning to the left, the other to the right, alternating the rotation (this is the moment when  I would have been glad to have a 50s not to sacrifice my right thigh… because it died after 13-14 cones). Aurélien Boudoux did the same Taz spin he did as for the semi final last trick – but he ended up down on the ground at the end of the line (tired?). Xuan Le did a weird spin combo as usual. And TotoGT tried a back footgun on the 80s but without success.