The Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium in downtown Beijing was the place to be on Saturday for the first 6 star TTR big air contest of the season. The second annual Oakley Shaun White Air + Style went down in front of a frenzied crowd of over 15,000 spectators.

Bright lights illuminated the massive man made jump as the world's best riders attempted to spin to win. With an overall prize purse of $100,000, a 1000 TTR points and the coveted Air and Style Ring all on the line, riders were throwing down heavy tricks in hopes of taking home the glory.

Throughout three intense rounds, Norweigans came out swinging and took all three of the of top spots.

Ulrik Badertscher made sure his name is one that won't soon be forgotten as he landed a super smooth backside 1260 rodeo indy grab that earned him first place. Hot on his heels was fellow Norwegian, Torstein Horgmo, who stomped a stylish cab 1080 double cork for second. Stale Sandbech is rapidly becoming a mighty force on the slopestyle scene and landed a backside 1260 mute grab that earned him 3rd place.

With this first big TTR contest under these riders belt, their focus will now turn to the Grand Prix at Copper Mountain which is going down this weekend and will be filled with heavy action both in the pipe and on the slope course.

Ulrik Badertscher's Winning Run



Beijing, China - December 2011: Ulrik Badertscher (NOR) won the Oakley Shaun White Air & Style Beijing competition in the Olympic Bird's Nest stadium tonight, followed by 2 Norwegian wingmen Torstein Horgmo and Ståle Sandbech. Ulrik received the coveted Air & Style Ring of Glory and 1,000 TTR World Ranking points.

Ulrik's winning run was a very clean backside rodeo 1260, which was also awarded Red Bull's Best Trick. Torstein Horgmo commented: 'Norway did OK today. There is no secret to it, we just all got juiced and we just follow some bad ass dudes, we just try to keep up.'

Favorites Sebastien Toutant (CAN) and Seppe Smits (BEL) both failed to reach the podium like last year. Seppe had the best results in the first round, but didn't manage to land his three attempts in the second round. Seb's cab 1260 double cork wasn't good enough to beat Ulrik's smooth double backside rodeo 12 Indy Grab, which gave him the highest score of the second round.

Stale Sandbech is the new leader of the TTR World Snowboard Tour Overall rankings and Roope Tonteri's 12th place was enough to keep him ranked no 1 on the Big Air Rankings. Ulrik Badertscher moved to the 5th position on both the TTR Big Air Tour Ranking and TTR Overall Ranking, a steady result.

The battle for the TTR Big Air Tour Title will have 3 more chapters, with the Relentless Big Air by Quiksilver in Stuttgart following on December 16-17. In 2012 it's on to Davos for the O'Neill Evolution from the 2nd to the 8th of January, and finally the TTR Big Air Tour crowning will take place at the Air& Style in Innsbruck, the final Big Air event of the year.

Torstein Horgmo's 2nd place run:



Stale Sandbech 3rd place run: