The best riders are cited in Tignes (Part I)

Names like Podladtchikov, Vito, Aono or the Catalan Queralt Castellet will be the next week in the SuperPipe of the Winter X Games

The spring will arrive in few days and that means that, slowly, the snow will be melting of our mountains. Before this happens, Winter X Games has its second and final meeting of the season with snow between 20 and 22 March in the French mountains of Tignes. There are going to mention some of the best riders to compete in both ski and snowboard. It is in the latter is where we will make our stop today. Within this discipline, snowboarders will struggle to gain the most precious metal in the modalities of SuperPipe and Slopestyle. In the first, athletes seek the limit of gravity with their aerial tricks within the larger Pipe Tignes. Furthermore, the SlopStyle tests the rider's ability to handle a variety of terrain by executing freestyle maneuvers on a journey full of obstacles.

One of the big absences will be the American Shaun White, which is centered in preparing the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi. But the low of 13 gold medals in X Games will be offset by the presence of other big names like Podladtchikov, Aono or Vito, among others. In girls, the absence in SuperPipe of the catalan Queralt Castellet for injury is bad news becasue the rider of Sabadell started as one of the favorites.

The favorite to claim victory in SuperPipe is the Russian rider Iouri Podladtchikov who, at only 22 years, he has won two silver medal -2010 and 2012 - and even in 2011 he got the gold. His abilities include the four double variations Cork Backside 1080 Double Cork or 1260. We do not should it be forgotten in this struggle for the gold, the Japanese Ryo Aono. And in 2012, against all odds, left everyone speechless with a great manga and he won the bronze medal. One of its main features is the range in his performances that have earned him, among other things, to iron a double cork 1080 and a frontside 1260.

The bronze medalist in X Games 2011, Louie Vito, is one of the riders is more upside. Since he decided two years ago to focus on snowboarding and was put under the command of the eight times Olympic champion Apolo Anton, the U.S. has taken a radical turn both physically and technically they are allowing to be always in the struggle for medals. Matt Ladley is also an athlete who, thanks to its versatility and smooth execution of tricks, is quickly making a name for his first podium at X Games. Complete list of favorites in SuperPipe, Christian Haller, a rider who already finished fourth in the World Cup Halfpipe and was bronze at Winter X Games Europe in 2011.

As far as women are concerned, we must follow closely the Olympic champion Kelly Clark, the first rider to get a 1080 in competition with nine medals at Winter X Games SuperPipe. In what refers to Queralt Castellet, the rider of Sabadell suffered a fall at the U.S. Open in Colorado while competing. This fall injured her shoulder and she will be two or three weeks ko, so her presence in Tignes is practically impossible.