Successful premiere for the HEAD Freeride Team in Andorra

Two golds and a bronze for the HEAD athletes when Freeride World Tour kicked off its 2021 season in Andorra.

Two of the originally planned stops, Japan and Canada, had to be cut out due to COVID but when everything finally started, it went off with a bang. Two separate “stops” on the same face in Ordino Arcalis, Andorra, ended with both highs and lows for the HEAD riders.

Hedvig Wessel started off hot on Friday with a massive backflip early in her run and skied the rest of the venue like a Valkyrie to wrap up the women’s ski Freeride World Tour event title. In her second run on Wednesday, she got caught up and took a scary tumble down one of the steepest parts but luckily manage to hit the brakes before reaching the rocks below. Hedvig is now tied with Elisabeth Gerritzen as runner up in the total standings.

The second gold of the first stop went to Cody Bramwell who was going all-in with a high paced, creative run and was rewarded the top spot on the men’s snowboard podium. Unfortunately, Cody wasn’t able to keep on his feet during the second stop, finishing 8^th.

In the men’s ski category Blake Marshall had a rough start, arriving to Ordino Arcalis without skis or clothes, but manage to claim the last podium spot on Friday with borrowed gear. In his second outing, still without his own equipment, the kiwi made a solid run that awarded him an 10^th place, resulting in a 6^th place in the overall standings.

In the super tight men’s field, just 1.67 point behind Blake, Carl Regner snatched a fifth place with a trick-packed run in his first tour appearance of the year. His second run on Wednesday was equally stacked with freestyle moves, including a crowd-pleasing front flip, but judges were not as impressed, sending him back to 9^th place. Carl now holds the 7^th in the total before the next stop in Fieberbrunn, Austria.

American rookie Ray McDermott made a solid debut on the tour. A strong and creative run on Friday earned him a 14^th place, which he followed up with a 16^th place on Wednesday and some points in the bag for the coming stops.

Tao Kreibich was struggling with the tricky snow conditions and wasn’t able to land a clean run, ending up at 16^th place on Friday. But the young Austrian made a strong comeback directly on Wednesday, landing a close to perfect run that earned him the 5^th best score of the day and an 11^th place in the total.

In the snowboard women category, Andorra local and HEAD rider Núria Castan also put down strong runs in both event landing a 5^th on Friday and a 6^th on Wednesday resulting in an overall 5^th place.