Candide Thovex Wins Freeride World Tour

The master of freestyle skiing is now a freeride champion too!

At the age of 27, Candide Thovex has pulled off a truly impressive feat, by winning the Freeride World Tour 2010 at the first time of asking. He sealed the title by tying for third place in this morning's Final in Verbier, Switzerland.

The Team Quiksilver rider is now World Freeride Champion 2010, taking his place in the freeride hall of fame alongside Roxy Girl Aline Bock, who was crowned on Saturday in the Snowboarding category.

Having won just about every Freestyle accolade over the last ten years or so (including three golds at the Aspen Winter X Games in the Big Air, Super Pipe and Slopestyle!) Candide had missed the last two years of competition through injury. During his layoff, he concentrated mainly on film production and direction, with the "Candide Kamera". This season, the Team Quiksilver legend has made a stunning comeback on the competitive stage. But this time around, he's freeriding.

His warm-up outing at the RedBull Linecatcher in Vars was rewarded with an immediate victory. And so on to the Freeride World Tour…. The skier from La Clusaz began in imperious fashion with a win in the first stage in Chamonix in late January, and followed that up with a 2nd place finish in the second leg of the Tour in early February (which was actually the postponed inaugural stage, originally due to take place in Sotchi but ultimately held in Chamonix). After finishing further down the scoreboard at Squaw Valley (in 17th), Candide arrived in Verbier occupying second place in the provisional rankings, and with plenty of work to do. Poor weather saw the event delayed, and Candide and the rest of the field were forced to wait until Sunday when the conditions improved. And so, this morning, Candide launched himself, for the very first time, from the Bec des Rosses, a dizzyingly high slope chosen as the starting point for the world's top freeriders to display their skills. With a smooth and controlled run, Candide bagged a third podium finish in four events, and gained the ultimate reward as he was crowned as the very best freerider on the planet, alongside fellow Frenchman Xavier De Le Rue, winner of the snowboard category.