Natural Selection Tour Duels
19
Feb
2
Mar
Mark McMorris, Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and more ride against each other in head-to-head matchups to advance on to British Columbia and Alaska for the Overall Tour title.
Natural Selection Tour Duels is a head-to-head backcountry contest to advance on to the final two stops of the Tour in Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada, and Valdez, Alaska. In the month of January, our eight defending men and four defending women from last year’s Tour are drawn against a challenger – a rider who wasn't on the Tour last winter.
The defending rider will select the terrain to be duelled upon and, when weather permits, will go head-to-head in a four-run format in the backcountry. The footage will then be sent to our panel of judges, who will declare a duel winner. The eight men and four women who win their duels will continue on to the final two stops of this year's Tour, the YETI Natural Selection Revelstoke in British Columbia, Canada, and Valdez, Alaska. Natural Selection Duels will set a compelling drumbeat of incredible content: new terrain, a deeper dive into rider personalities and lifestyle, and the tension when two riders face off for a session in the backcountry.
Five criteria will be used to evaluate the entire duels session: Creativity, Risk, Execution, Difficulty, and Overall. Judging is based on total overall performance from the day, so all runs and footage count and it’s overall impression. Think about it as a jam session, the sum of a rider’s work on that day.