COMPETITION HIGHLIGHTS 😮‍💨 | 2026 Val Thorens Pro | Freeride World Tour

Val Thorens, France, is the proving ground for the riders on the 2026 Freeride World Tour by Peak Performance. Aspens, Kelly Hilleke, he had a banger run going in Spain. He knows how to play with that dial. I think he's going to show just his basic, incredible skiing, or a frontflip. And I guess for Kelly, basic means frontflip right out the gate. Big 360 on the next feature, so we're only two features into the top section. And Kelly under an imposing set of rocks and flying over all of it, bouncing. No, unfortunately, unable to hold on to that and through the next section of rocks. Moetien popping off that nose, picking up this feature with a big 360. No, he just caught his tip and the ski gone. Moetien tomahawking down, hand over end. He's okay, head tap there. As we move on from one exciting, stylish young rider to another, Toby Rafford blew our minds in Spain. Toby Rafford popping in there, and on the same line, Aspen landing, launching, and landing again. Toby Rafford making short work of that top section. Picking a new line at that top face, where is this gentleman going? Well, there's no easy way out of there. Max going absolutely huge and connecting perfectly with the landing Hadley. And we have a heavy, heavy hitter, a big contender in the start gate, none other than Ross Tester. Just raw send as Ross into this double with a turn. Popping off the nose, gapping the double with a 360, holding on. Just kicked a little bit of a foot out, but he was able to get out of it clean. Nice and clean, making use of that massive transfer, bigger than we've seen of the day. We grab onto our seats and hold on. Ross floating a backflip and perfect landing. That's where you land on that cliff. Exactly perfect 360 out of Ross Tester and into the terrain that he knows so well. Steep, rocky, technical, lofting where no one had gone before, clearing smooth across the rocks. Loving the run of Ross Tester, and he loves it. Look at the smile on his face, and a huge hug. All smiles in the finish, the score dropping now. Score, Joey Leonardo there as Ross's score coming in, 84-33. But we are ready for Joey Leonardo as he pushes out of the start gate. See how he enters into the top of the steep face. So popping in and now picking up speed, getting way up high over this little exposed rock band. Joey popping in, popping out, making it into a double with a left footer and turning it into a triple with a 360. Clean, Joey Leonardo with a great top section. Perfectly clean coming in, nice floaty backflip. Bit of a backstop, maybe not enough speed on there, but still holding it through. Perfect execution, I think that was really smart. Let's see what he shows us. Nice lofty three, holding on, putting it four points. Really big speed and air there. Yeah, Joey going huge there. And look, between him and Jack, the 360 may be the better option. As Joey Leonardo now through this technical lower section, popping off that upper nose, staying in the fall line and pinned out the bottom. For Joey Leonardo as he is through the finish with a run to be proud of. Just an inside look there into the headspace of Joey Leonardo as his score comes in at an 89. And the young American rookie taking over the hot seat. Everybody loves this guy, he is the last man on the face. He's wearing that world tour leader's bib and he was kind of psyched to go last. He was saying, I get to see everybody and then make a bit of a plan. He had about six different plans coming into the day. Now it's time to put it on the line. And also rarely makes more than six turns of venues. He pretty much only turns when he needs to change direction. Ben Richards spinning into this double, straight air out, perfectly executed. Ben Richards making clean work of that top section, turning, going fall line, bombing over. Yeah, it worked well for Joey Leonardo minus the little punch in the face. Absorbing the lip and perfect for Ben Richards. So no pop at all, he actually pulled his feet up there. Even got a bit of a hand drag in there. So the Aaron style points will be just docked up and up. But then again showing, I'm still a technical skier and I can make it through these cheese graters of a rock section. Moving through the rocks, through the double. And Ben Richards with a statement run there right at the end that it can be done. No mistakes from my memory, really clean, smooth, classic Ben Richards style. But an incredible run there from Ben Richards. They've already spoken. Is it going to be enough to be on top? It is a 92, Ben Richards wins again. Unbelievable. Well, Harry Rowden was right. Ben Richards is the GOAT. He puts himself into first with a 92 point run. Joey Leonardo, rookie on tour in second place and Ross Tester back on the podium. And here he is on the face. That's what's interesting about Remy taking that first hit. He only had one week before he got that wild card and had to be on tour. So he is fresh and oh, a little bit of a wash out there. So he's in the mix right now. But Cesar Beren is going to be looking to put on a show for his home crowd. Airing right in this really steep section. This is where we saw the forerunner go this morning. Huge air for him to start. And it'll put him higher and right in front of this. So Cesar wrapping around with a big backside 360. Landing perfectly. Taking a different approach into this section. He goes straight out of the start gate. Right speed. And what he showed us is he's really good at landing clean. And I think we'll see that today. From the Moonlight Basin rider. Really strong on his board. Four points all the time. Getting way high into this rock cluster. Holden setting up. Using that toeside edge to his advantage as he goes backside three. Perfect landing. Building straight in. Here we go. Right off of the top of the first air. You know, in Spain we saw him spinning quite a lot. And we'll see him spinning here as well. Well, Enzo making his way through the upper section of this steep face. Going for a fall line double. Turning it into a triple. Enzo at maximum warp speed there. As he crosses. Trying to get onto the traverse. Enzo making short work of this section. We see him lining up one more air. Taking it pretty massive. And finishing the meat of his run. He's just got to make it down. You can see by the body language. And the crowd getting behind their local hero Enzo Nilo. Putting one down top to bottom. Forever over there. Really the whole venue. Well, the score coming in at 84.67. Enzo giving a shout out to his good buddy Virgil Didier. I talked to him a few breakfasts ago. And he recognizes the injury. But he says at this point there's no choice but to send. So I think we'll see him as we do right here. Really putting the throttle down. Nice double air. Right out of the core. And onto Cesar's track. Yeah, so getting up nice and high. The first man we've seen approaching this feature. Popping off the corner. 360. Lands clean. And Shane Blue now making his way in. Lofty backflip. Connecting. Connecting and stomping. Really holding it together. And again, no commitment. And it's so blind going into that cliff area. Yeah, your scoping has to be on point, Hadley. One more set of features below. Shane just running his speed off. Airing into the chute. And edge control to the letter. Shane Blue Sandblom. This is what we bought the tickets for. This show. The crowd loving this man. They came for a show and Shane delivered. So you can just tell by his body language. High fives for the French crowd. The fans. All right, Shane is stoked. The judges have already spoken. And it goes to an 87. Shane Blue into second. And look at the reaction. He is absolutely electrified. I love you all. Let's see what he does right out of the start gate here. Keep your eyes peeled to the television. Victor De La Rue. Massive drop right out the front. Lining himself up for just a second air here. In this really steep technical section. 360. Perfectly stomped. Backside three for Victor as he is following a similar course. Going 180. Reverting back around to regular. In the triple. Unbelievable from Victor there. Riding switch off the first feature of that triple. Hadley, how hard is that? Victor making his way. Following his former French colleagues. A little bit of a delay. But he has got to be real precise going for that double. And having to pick himself up over that pepper. So big toe side turn as Victor lining up this final feature. Into the same couloir. It's so precise, Hadley. The difficulty of scoping that. Keep in mind these riders don't get to stand on this venue. How hard. Victor making a beautiful, beautiful work of that terrain as he enters into the finish line. We saw all those judging bars absolutely max. Now we're going to see what the judges had to say. And he goes into the 90s. Victor De La Rue with a 90.67 run. Here are the results. Victor De La Rue 90.67 on top. Shane Blue out of the blue. Coming back from injury. Claiming that he deserves to be here. Then you have the two Frenchmen following him. Into this run, Natalie. Keeping the board control as she makes her way down. Popping off the corner. Getting forward. A little speed check. And then flying off that one. But unable to hold it. Mia coming in with purpose and speed. Again, no hesitation into that lower section. Showing that she's got great control. And knows where she's going. Yeah, and that little pause I think was actually strategic. To give herself an opportunity for some vision. As she does it again. And off the cliff. In the powder cloud. Anna Martinez just stacking features here. As she has made the shortest possible work of this upper section. Yeah, Hadley. You can see that she's actually making the turn shape work with the terrain. How much of that comes down to her scoping? It comes down to her scoping. And then it comes down to her experience of how to use the board. How she's moving down the hill. The next rider in the gate. Noemi Aki. She is the current reigning freeride world tour champion. She feels comfortable being here. And you can see that already in this top section of the face. Making her way over to her first air. With full commitment. And looks like lining up a pretty big section of it. Noemi taking off. Landing beautifully. Getting control back. That trademark edge-to-edge board control. That Noemi Aki has as she navigates the upper section. And another big piece below her. Picture perfect so far for Noemi Aki. As she comes into this blind rollover. This is where things start to get serious again. As a massive chunk of terrain lurking below Noemi. She pops in there with no hesitation. Into a double. And flashing that section. Well, really, really stellar run so far from Noemi Aki. As she gets into this technical section. Pointing the board into the fall line. You know, Anna Martinez gave her quite the goal. And yeah, Marion Arity won last year. But I think Noemi is here to say, I can win here too. So catching up with Anna Martinez who's sitting in the hot seat. The score up, up, up. 84 points. Noemi Aki into the hot seat. Listen to the crowd. You see Noemi Aki with 84. Anna Martinez right behind her. And Mia Jones again in that third place spot. Oh, so Lena going smart here. Not going for that big. Oh no, she's launching into it. Oh, but landing perfectly in the transition. Getting onto that foot. Controlling speed. And you can see the powder cloud just glowing in the sun. So excellent execution there. A lot of tracks. A lot of exposed rocks. And making it down. Taking this bottom air huge. Not holding on and losing for sure at least one ski. Yeah, she's up and moving around. Such good technique with those strong committed turns. Making her way down fast and fluid. Yeah, and on a brand new line. We haven't seen any of the women take that approach. As she pops around the corner. And this big piece. Susanna lining up. The longest part of it. Flying over the rocks. Backslap but bounces up. Justine is the speed that she takes things on. And I think. And a huge. Oh no. There wasn't enough lip there for Justine. Taking a couple steps. Getting the skis facing the other way. And getting really tangled up in those rocks. Yeah, sometimes. Flat deck cliff takeoff. So Luberin proving the freestyle skills. Freeride skills. And getting a birthday cake. In front of the Freeride World Tour backdrop. Luberin. 27th birthday. Riding at home. What a huge day for the local French rider. Oh, and she's going over into this cross court. Huge air. This is what we know from Molly. She lines it up. Holds on. No. A big front punch. Going all the way through the snowpack. And her skis are racing each other now. Down the couloir. Looks like the left ski taking the win there. Winter McBride. Pushing out of the gate. For her campaign here in Val Thorens. The only thing she needs to do is turn up the volume. And turned up she has. Taking that first air. Full confidence. Nice and big. Making her way through this peppery section. Oh yeah. Had to clear some rocks there. So a little bit of a slowdown. Judges don't dock fluidity if the slowdown is necessary. And Winter with a perfect landing on that section. Yeah, a few of the snowboard men opted for this cross court option. And Winter launching right off the nose. Getting the grab. So adding those air and style points. Into this couloir. Look how solid her turns are. The rocky section proving a little challenging. But she is through and clean. Getting another powder turn on that lower apron. Far skier's left section of the venue. Yeah, we saw a bunch of the ski men in here. And Sibyl Blanjon taking it on as well. A few tracks. A big air above exposure. Popping off with a turn. Sibyl Blanjon now navigating her way to this mandatory exit air. Landing clean. Going out way on the rider's left side. And getting into a really rocky area. Airing into the couloir. Pointing at fall line. And a nice right footed turn to transition into the flats. Very strong campaign to get herself onto the podium. With that run from Sibyl Blanjon. She's going to be looking to back that up here. In this strong rookie class of 2026. Known for her powerful skiing. Big turns. Confidence in the air. And in tight couloirs. Really excited to see what she does with this venue. Agustina growing up ski racing in Argentina. So the technique on point. Going right off the nose of that first drop. And a perfect reception into the landing. Agustina charging right now on this steep upper section. Going full gas. One. Two. And she's out into the skier's left part of the section. Looms beneath her. Redirection. This is a really wise line choice for Agustina. She takes it cross court like we saw Winter McBride. Going big and landing perfectly for the Argentinian rider. Nice transfer. Getting a little bonus afterwards. And showing how good of a skier she is with these turns. Really confident in the steep terrain. So Agustina short turns now. Pointing it from the top of the couloir. And going full throttle out the bottom. So in terms of line score Hadley. No error but a really strong commitment to the fall line. Exactly. Talking to the judges what they want to see the most out of the women is speed. They want them going fast and full committing. So Agustina big smile in the finish. The judges now they have had their say. Sebille with the 74. She goes 77.33. And Agustina is into the hot seat. That she has just taken the win. But here is what happened in the ski women. First place Agustina. First Argentinian women on the tour. And first podium for her. Followed by the Swiss. Sebille Blanjon and Winter McBride. Another rookie. A bit of a rookie sandwich. Taking that third place finish.