Sam Pilgrim pulled out all the stops to win (Pic: Lars Scharl)

Sam Pigrim won 2009 26TRIX which took place recently as part of the Out of Bounds Weekend in Leogang, Austria.

For 2009 the 26TRIX course featured a new line, the Suzuki Air Time Line. Greg Watts and Graham Aggasiz were the first two riders to hit the big Suzuki Airtime Line. They had to pedal hard in the concrete berm and right up to the take off of the first gap, a 40ft gap. A few more pros joined them but most of them had trouble to make it over the second jump. So the course builders decided to cut the lip and the landing by 3ft to make it easier to clear the gap. Even so, it was still an 8ft take-off with a 25ft gap. Gulp.

Darren Berrecloth is always a crowd pleaser (Pic: Ale Di Lullo)

Sam Pilgrim's run saw a spectacle of 360's, backflip no hands, frontflips and double whips that put him in the lead. But then it was Greg Watts who made his way into the Suzuki Air Time Line and showed a huge backflip and X-up one foot on the two big hitters along with a few barspins at the little jumps before. Greg finished big with a flipwhip at the final jump.

But again it was Sam Pilgrim who went the extra mile. After Greg's run, the young gun decided to hit the Suzuki Air Time Line too. After a tailwhip at the step-up and a X-up directly afterwards, he flipped the first huge doubles and tail-whipped the second one, before ending his run with a tuck no-hand at the hip and a clean front-flip at the last jump. He went on first position, placing Greg on the second.

Final results

1 Sam Pilgrim (GBR) DIAMONDBACK
2 Greg Watts (USA) GARY FISHER
3 Martin Söderström (SWE) NS BIKES
4 Darren Berrecloth (CAN) SPECIALIZED
5 Simon Kirchmann (GER) SCOTT BIKES
6 Pierre Edouard Ferry (FRA) SPECIALIZED
7 Amir Kabbani (GER) CANNONDALE
8 Graham Agassiz (CAN) KONA
9 Pascal Breitenstein (SUI) KONA
10 Niki Leitner (AUT) KONA

www.bikepark-leogang.com