Finch flies to first

Truckee snowboarder Andy Finch combined stylish tricks with sheer amplitude to earn first place in the O’Neill Evolution superpipe competition in Davos, Switzerland, on Friday.

Finch followed up with a sixth-place finish in the quarterpipe Saturday to move into the Swatch Ticket to Ride (TTR) World No. 1 position — 20 points ahead of World No. 2 Torstein Horgmo of Norway.

Chas Guldemond, also of Truckee, moved into fourth overall in the TTR standings after placing 26th in the halfpipe and 21st in quarterpipe.

Now in its sixth year, the 10-month Swatch Ticket to Ride (TTR) Snowboard Tour is a culmination of independent freestyle events acting under one common tour flag.

The events are rated on an accreditation level ranging from TTR One-Star to Six-Star, with the O’Neill Evolution serving as one of the six most competitive TTR Six-Star events — which also includes the Burton U.S. Open Snowboarding Championship.

Finch blew away the competition Friday, winning by almost 30 points. And he did it in familiar fashion, soaring higher than any rider with a Frontside Air, to a Backside Rodeo 5, to a Frontside 10, to a McTwist, to Aley-oop.

Although Guldemond did not make it through to the halfpipe finals, he still stomped a solid run to the cheers of an enormous, energetic crowd.

Risto Mattila of Finland had a clean run in the final to earn second, while Janne Korpi, also of Finland, took the third spot. Another Fin, Antii Autti — last year’s O’Neill Evolution winner, as well as the winner of the Vans Cup superpipe finals at Northstar-at-Tahoe last March — came in seventh.

Fresh off his superpipe win the night before, Finch pulled off the sixth-place finish in quarterpipe despite pulling out of the competition after hitting the coping on a Backside Rodeo attempt. Norwegian Kim Rune Hansen won, followed by Fin Peetu Piiroinen in third.

<i>— Compiled from www.ttrworldtour.com<;/i>

Quarterpipe Top-10

1. Kim Rune Hansen, NOR

2. Risto Mattila, FIN

3. Peetu Piiroinen, FIN

4. Nicolas Mueller, SUI

5. Colin Frei, SUI

6. Andy Finch, USA

7. Tore Holvik, NOR

8. Arthur Longo, FRA

9. Benoit Thomas-Javid, FRA

10. Olivier Gittler, FRA

Superpipe Top-10

1. Andy Finch, USA

2. Risto Mattila, FIN

3. Janne Korpi, FIN

4. Gary Zebrowski, FRA

5. Peetu Piiroinen, FIN

6. Markku Koski, FIN

7. Antii Autti, FIN

8. Markus Malin,

9. Glan Simmen, SUI

10. Iouri Podladtchikov, SUI

26. Chas Guldemond, USA