Darren Berrecloth "The Claw" (Specialized) won the Qashqai overall ahead of Paul Basagoitia (Kona) who confidently scooped up second, just one point behind. The Canadian Berrecloth won the final round in Paris, a Big Air event, with Greg Watts (Gary Fisher) and Cameron McCaul (Trek) in second and third.
Rain kept the riders from putting on a show during the first day of the Big Air event, but day two was packed with action all day long for the Qashqai fans. The riders took advantage of the dry weather to impress the spectators with huge jumps and killer tricks, finalizing the five-event five discipline free ride series.
The riders began the day early with a lengthy practice session to get acclimated to the big jumps. The course began with a super-sized roll-in, then a 10 meter jump, followed by another booter with a 7 meter gap. The course ended with a big quarter pipe wall for the riders to blast at the end of their runs.
All eyes were on Basagoitia and the Claw as they climbed to the top of the roll-in tower. Basagoitia was the first out of the two to ride, and he started his run with a back flip over the 10m gap and continued with a table one foot to x-up on the second. Basagoitia blasted the quarter wall super high, over the heads of the cameramen on the deck of the ramp.
Bearclaw was next on the starting ramp and he knew that he would have to come up with something amazing if he was going to edge out Basagoitia for the overall win. He rolled into the Paris course to the sound of thousands of screaming fans and stretched out his trademark indian air on the first gap. He landed it perfect enough to hit the second booter with enough speed and control to spin a 360 one-footed table. Bearclaw wrapped his run by boosting out of the quarter wall with huge air.
The 50,000 Euros overall prize money motivated both riders to perform in Paris. However, although the final round of the last stop of the Qashqai tour attempted to push the level of riding even higher, most of the top riders crashed while trying to one-up their previous runs. Bearclaw attempted to 360 the first double and opposite 360 the next, but he over-rotated the opposite 360 and crashed in the dirt at the end of the course.
