France’s Kevin Rolland became the first athlete to win two Winter X Golds in the same year, with seemingly half of the people from his home resort of La Plagne descending upon Tignes to watch their hero….and he didn’t let them down!

His first hit was a huge double that took him more than 20 feet out of the pipe, followed by a huge flatspin 3, a switch 7, a massive flare, rounded off by a dub 1260. Even though It was one double short of his winning run in Aspen six weeks ago, it seemed to be way ahead in the style and amplitude stakes, with every trick having the hell grabbed out of it as he soared above the pipe walls.

It seemed that only fellow Frenchman, Xavier Bertoni and Canadian Justin Dorey were the only ones who had a hope of stopping him. Dorey’s best best effort was his first run, where his back to back doubles earned him an 86.66. As top qualifier, and therefore last to drop, Dorey watched Rolland’s next two runs, the second of which upped his score to a 95.66. Dorey crashed on his next run, and Bertoni put in a great final run with a double, 9, 9, flat 3, switch 7, to 1080 for a 92.00….it was now down to Dorey to crash the French party, but he went down on the first hit of his third and final run…the pressure just seemed to much.

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