Dode and Adelisse take European Cup big air wins at Les Arcs Launch Pad

After the unfortunate cancellation due to weather of the freeski slopestyle portion of the Crans Montana (SUI) European Cup two Sundays ago, some good news came for the slopestyle and big air athletes late last week when Les Arcs stepped up at the last minute with an offer to hold a European Cup big air competition.

Originally slated to take place in January, the organisers in Les Arcs were able to quickly arrange all the necessary pieces to hold what turned out to be a hugely successful competition on Saturday, the 6th of February, despite the fact that ski resorts in France remain closed. With one, lone lift lift running strictly to facilitate the event, the competition dubbed the Les Arcs Launchpad went down in style.

However, as with Crans Montana, there was some interesting weather to deal with in Les Arcs this weekend as well, although in Les Arcs it wasn’t a massive snowstorm that threatened to derail proceedings, but rather an eerie orange sky as winds sweeping up from Africa carried Saharan sand particles into Southern Europe. Still, despite the surreal atmosphere created by the dust, a strong collection of skiers on hand put on an excellent show at the first European Cup big air competition of the season.

The women’s victory was taken by Berenice Dode (FRA), as the 15 year-old eanred her first career European Cup win in just her third attempt. Dude has yet to miss the podium in European Cup competition thus far, with two slopestyle runner-up results from last season, and appears to be setting herself up nicely to transition to the World Cup in the near future.

Behind Dode in second was another 15 year-old in Kim Dumont Zanella, also of France. Dumont Zanella competed in her first career World Cup earlier this season at the Kreischberg big air, and now has her first career European Cup big air podium.

Rounding out the podium in third was Italy’s Elisa Maria Nakab, who also has seven World Cup starts to her credit. Saturday’s result was the 14th European Cup podium of her career.

Over on the men’s side of competition we saw a heavy group of World Cup regulars squaring off with those hungry to graduate from the European Cup to the top tour, with a few of those up-and-comers making statement performances.

The win, however, went to the current king of French freeskiing, with Antoine Adelisse showing the rest of the field how the big boys do it. The start was Adelisse’s first on the European Cup since 2016/17 and only the third of his career, as the 24 year-old has been a major player on the World Cup circuit for the last nine years, and on Saturday he stepped up to show everyone how it’s done.

Second place, however, went to Adelisse’s French countryman Timothe Sivignon, who scored his first career European Cup big air podium. Sivignon has been entering basically every competition he has come across for the past couple of seasons, and it looks like all those reps are starting to pay off for the 18 year-old.

Claiming third place on the men’s side was another 18 year-old in Nicola Bolinger of Switzerland. The result was Bolinger’s first-ever European Cup podium and it came in his 16th event entered.

Next up on the calendar for the FIS Freeski European Cup is another big air competition, slated to take place in Davos on 20th February.

Full results

FIS Freeski European Cup calendar