It was a tough sell for Dew Tour this year with World Championships happening simultaneously in Georgia. That meant lots of the athletes were already out in Bakuriani, but with Brendan Mackay, David Wise, Aaron Blunck and Alex Ferreira dropping, it's not like too many of the podium threats were absent. Conditions were absolutely perfect in Copper, sunny skies, and low winds and the riders were sending in what made for a stellar finals day. 7 riders took to the pipe for 4 runs each and it was cool to see an almost jam session-style pipe event. Gus Kenworthy was in the commentary booth and it was great to hear that level of knowledge dropped on the mic.
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Run 1:
The show started with a massive dub flat to the deck on the final hit for Matt Labaugh, no idea how he skied away just fine but mega props for taking that hit. Hunter Hess stomped a 16. Aaron Blunck put down his crazy switch to switch dub, but nobody really managed a clean run until David Wise, the penultimate rider. Fresh off the back of a 5th X Games gold, he nailed his run, which featured both ways dub 12s grabbed super proper (blunt was capped) and a smooth switch dub 10 too.
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Run 2:
Ben Harrington had a really cool on-axis 12 in his run but let go of some grabs a bit early. Hunter Hess' 1080 true nose is still one of the best-looking pipe tricks, but he was done score-wise after a second hit bobble. Brendan Mackay cleaned up his run, switch dub 10 was a thing of beauty, spun like a switch dub 9 on a jump. Aaron Blunck cleaned it up a bit too, and his down pipe dub 9 was much better, but he tickled the grab on his last hit dub 12. Enough for provisional second though. Alex Ferreira put down probably the most technical run of the day so far, the right dub 12 mute to left dub 14 was sick, but a slight (tiny) shuffle on the landing of the 14 hurt the amplitude of his next hit, and his score as a result.
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Run 3:
Ben Harrington tidied things up considerably, improving his grabs and stomping a beauty of an alley-oop dub 7 but he was missing a switch rightside hit in his run, which kept his score in the 70s. Brendan Mackay went to the moon, improving his grabs and moving above David Wise with the first 90s score. The switch alleyoop dub up top, and the amplitude were the factors that moved him ahead for sure. Aaron Blunck threw some steeze for the crowd after bailing out on the switch dub, and the switch butter/press at the bottom of the pipe was sick. David Wise mariginally put it down again but ran out of pipe to go for a right dub 14 to step up his run, keeping it at 12.
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Run 4:
Ben Harrington sent it but didn't keep it clean. Crowd was hyped on the amplitude and the Jiberish shoutout at the bottom was a lesson in being sponsored. Hunter Hess landed too deep on his first hit so it was a scratch. He has that 16 ridiculously locked though. Brendan Mackay went even bigger, stomping clean and bumping his score to 93. Dub 12 tail was enormous at 19 feat and the switch alleyoop dub, grabbed critical, was nuts. Aaron Blunck went for it, going switch dub 9 to switch dub 10 but clipped the lip. David Wise sent the 16 but didn't quite have the amplitude. Alex Ferreira was a couple of shuffles away from a huge score. Very tech but both the dub 14 and dub 16 were slightly underrotated. It wasn't enough for the podium, leaving Brendan Mackay with the W.
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Results:
1) Brendan Mackay
2) David Wise
3) Aaron Blunck
4) Alex Ferreira
5) Ben Harrington
6) Hunter Hess
7) Matt Labaugh
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Full replay:
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