SPY NETWORK
GKA FREESTYLE WORLD CUP LEUCATE
FRANCE: 20 - 25TH APRIL
Brazilian dynamo Carlos Mario and Francesca Bagnoli from Italy got their seasons off to a flyer in April at the opening GKA Freestyle World Cup fixture of 2019 - the Mondial du Vent in Leucate, France. Last year’s event was a false start for the GKA tour with no wind at all and similar conditions prevailed for the first few days in Leucate this year, with the event site becalmed.
The wind suddenly arrived on day four. To make better use of the southerly wind direction, the event was moved to nearby Port Leucate with nuking conditions for the final two days of competition. The Freestyle discipline on the GKA’s Kite World Tour is a mixed format over the year, featuring pure freestyle events as well as mixed format big air criteria at specialist high-wind locations. Leucate was scheduled as a pure freestyle format and it was up to the riders if and when they felt they would score more effectively by doing big kite loops. Amazingly, they all continued to throw technical handle-passes with the wind approaching 40 knots at times!
Carlos Mario had a slow start to the event but showed his true champion credentials by battling back to face upcoming charger, Maxime Chabloz, in the final, alongside Valentin Rodriguez and Gianmaria Coccoluto. Carlos had to work for his win over the Swiss rider Chabloz, only just taking the lead with his final trick. He needed a 4.07 to win on his very last trick, and managed 4.87 for a front blind mobe, so it was painfully close for Maxime. However, Chabloz wasn’t far off and at just 18-years-old had a very strong
