Brett Rheeder Nails The 2012 Red Bull Joyride Qualifiers and Top 8 Athletes Move to Finals

WHISTLER, BC – August 17, 2012 – For the second year in a row, Red Bull Joyride—a diamond stop of the Freeride Mountain Bike (FMB) World Tour—charges into Whistler, British Columbia, with the most progressive slopestyle mountain bike competition on a course designed by professional athletes, for the athletes. Today, fifteen athletes showed off their techniques and nailed their biggest tricks with two full-course runs to wow the judges and get one of the eight spots for tomorrow’s finals. Brett Rheeder from Mount Albert, Ontario, who had an amazing season this year in slopestyle, came first in today’s qualifiers with 88.60 points. “My run went pretty good today. A lot of braking was required but everything worked out. I’m looking forward to tomorrow,” said Rheeder after qualifying today.

The top eight athletes who qualified this afternoon will join the top 10 pre-qualified riders who ranked in the top six from Red Bull Joyride at Crankworx Whistler last year and the top four athletes in the 2012 FMB World Tour’s 52 week ranking. All fifteen riders had hopes of competing in the anchor event of Crankworx Whistler on Saturday, August 18, 2012, but only the top eight secured their spot into the gravity-fed, season-defining freeride mountain bike competition. Red Bull Joyride judges observed the two, full-course qualifying runs and ranked the riders based on the best score achieved of the qualifying runs.

Top eight athletes from today’s qualifiers:

- Brett Rheeder (Mount Albert, ON) 88.60 points
- Antoine Bizet (France) 81.20 points
- Casey Groves (New Zealand) 80.40 points
- Kelly McGarry (New Zealand) 75.80 points
- Sam Dueck (Chilliwack, BC) 70.40 points
- Jack Folgelquist (USA) 67.60 points
- Andreu Lacondeguy (Spain) 66.00 points
- Leo Delfour Barsacq (France) 63.80 points

Ten athletes pre-qualified:

- Brandon Semenuk (Whistler, BC)
- Cam Zink (USA)
- Anthony Messere (Surrey, BC)
- Greg Watts (USA)
- Geoff Gulevich (North Vancouver, BC)
- Cam McCaul (USA)
- Martin Söderström (Sweden)
- Sam Pilgrim (Great Britain)
- Thomas Genon (Belgium)
- Yannick Granieri (France)

All eyes on Semenuk
With only five riders who could stand in the way of the current FMB World Tour leader, all the pressure is on Brandon Semenuk who is capable of securing the title at Red Bull Joyride. If Semenuk places first tomorrow, he can be crowned FMB World Tour winner, taking home the golden Camelbak Better Bottle for the second year in a row. On Saturday, August 18, the best slopestyle athletes in the world will show everyone what next level riding looks like. With “Diamond” level FMB points and a $25,000 cash purse for first place alone, the best of the best will be on course. The level of difficulty of the Joyride course and the high level of talent that competed earned the event a ‘Diamond’ rating, one of only two worldwide, on the Freeride Mountain Bike circuit. Diamond stops are the highest rating on the tour and garner the heaviest weighting of overall points.

Be part of the action
On Saturday, August 18th, Whistler will be the place to be, but if you can’t make it, catch the live webcast on www.redbull.ca/joyride at 5:30 p.m. Pacific time/8:30 p.m. Eastern time.

Watch Red Bull Joyride on Saturday, October 6 at 1:30 pm ET/10:30 am PT on NBC. The event airs as part of the “Red Bull Signature Series," the most progressive and innovative wakeboarding, surfing, mountain biking, freestyle motocross and BMX events. For more information, visit www.redbullsignatureseries.com