Contest winner Peeru Piiroinen

Finnish Big Air World Cup title defender Peetu Piiroinen has celebrated victory in the first competition of the new Nokia Snowboard FIS World Cup season in Rotterdam.

In the final, the 20-years-old rider scored 26.6 points (Cab 1080) relegating Stefan Gimpl to the second spot.

In front of 25,000 spectators, the Austrian was in the lead after the first jump but couldn’t beat Piiroinen’s score despite landing a Frontside 1080 for the first time in a contest earning 26.2 points. In the battle for third place, deputy World Champion Antti Autti (FIN, 24.6) successfully competed against Stephan Maurer (24.4) knocking the Swiss pro off the podium by only 0.2 points.
Although Piiroinen was the competition favourite before the event, he was still surprised by his win: “I took a long break in the summer and just trained a bit indoor. So, I didn’t ride that much.”

Second ranked Stefan Gimpl, who had bet on Piiroinen as winner prior the competition, said: “That was the best start in the season we ever had. It was a dream come true for me because it was the first time ever I landed a 1080 in a contest.”

Asked for his thoughts on the rest of the season he added: “Today, Peetu (Piiroinen) and I were the best. But this winter we have a lot of young and very strong riders in the World Cup. It will be very interesting. There are a few who are able to beat Peetu.”