It was more good news for British freeriding at the weekend, as Ayla Thidling won the Junior Freeride European Tour.
She took the top spot thanks to a strong showing at Verbier, the final stop on the tour. Despite being the youngest rider and the first to drop, she held her nerve in the challenging conditions and took 2nd place.
With only the two best results on the tour counting, there was nothing separating the top three girls – all of whom had bagged a 1st and 2nd. However, once the overall tour performance was taken into account, Ayla nosed ahead of the rest of the field and was declared the winner.
She’s no stranger to success, having bagged multiple British Championship podiums over the years – across the disciplines no less – but this is her biggest win to date and she’s understandably stoked, saying:
I’m really happy with a 2nd place, and so stoked on winning the tour overall! I never thought that would happen when I signed up for the tour earlier this year! It’s definitely the highpoint of my season so far! I would have loved to go to Montana for the Junior World Tour Finals now in April, but I’m only 14 and you have to be 15 to go. Hopefully I’ll do well enough to go next year!
While she won’t be going to the States, we just got confirmation today that Jake Terry has got the cash together to make the trip – and we’ve got every confidence that Ayla will be there at the next go-round.
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