Local Tarantaise boys took one two in the Winter X Games men's skiing superpipe final last night in front of a crowd of 17,500 in Val Claret. The superpipe was positively glowing under the huge floodlights and the crowd of French, Brits and North Americans created a massive buzz, waving flags and cheering wildly.

Going into the third and final run, Kevin Rolland from La Plagne, France was in first place, Xavier Bertoni from Tignes in second and Justin Dorey from British Columbia, Canada in third.

Stepping up to try and upset the status quo, Mike Riddle (Canada) laid down a strong run until he fell on landing his final jump. The crowd threw up big cheers anyway, he smiled ruefully, and ran back up the pipe to collect his errant ski.

Next down, Tucker Perkins, also failed to land a jump and was out, and was followed by Byron Wells, who also fell after his second jump. What is it with these guys? Anyone would think it was tough out there or something...

Encouragingly, Wells regained momentum and threw in a couple of old school hot dogging moves, and the crowd went wild for him, blowing their air horns and ringing their cow bells in delight. He then did his good dead for the day by running back up the pipe to pick up an empty Coke bottle - surely people weren't throwing rubbish into the pipe?

Byron's brother Jossi fell after only his third jump, and took a bow while skiing down the pipe to cheers from the crowd.

Then there were just three to go - and it was La Plagne boy Kevin Rolland in the starting gate, looking hungry for glory and seriously pumped with adrenaline. He laid down a beautiful run, including a double McTwist  and the ballsy double cork 12, which he styled out by grabbing all the way through. But would it be enough to stave off Tignes homeboy Xavier Bertoni?

Bertoni was up next and while his run might have looked more stylish it wasn't enough to take the lead. He and Rolland embraced and rolled around with each other at the bottom of the pipe, and unless Dorey could do something spectacular, the gold was Rolland's.

Dorey didn't, and the crowd swarmed the pipe, mobbing Rolland and hoisting Bertoni up on their shoulders. It was gold for Rolland, and gold for Tignes.