Organised in Italy in the little town of Varese, every year this rail contest brings together the very best European jibbers.

One often thinks that the US snowboarders openly dominate the Europeans in jib riding but this autumn's contest organised in Northern Italy proved the exact opposite to be true.

Varese is a small Italian town located 50 km from Milan, just before the Swiss border.

Varese' autumns don't usually see much snow, except, it seems, on the second weekend of October during which, for the past three years, an amazing jib contest has taken place: the Spy Rail Battle.

This unique Italian battle once again brought together some of the best European jibbers on modules of a rare quality: a wall rail, a down rail, a gap box and a d-f-d kink box. The 26 chosen riders jammed non-stop for six hours bang in the centre of town.

The riders were chosen and invited by Apocalypse[s]now freestyle event organisers (no connection with Régis Rolland) and came from the four corners of the globe.

As always, it was a magnificent contest and huge fun for the riders and the several thousand locals who came to watch the jam session in downtown Varese.

In Italy, this contest is the official opening of the season, a bit like the Mondial in France.

More than a mere sporting contest, the Spy Rail Battle is always real festival combining riding, music, partying and much more.

Throughout the entire day the DJs created a warm atmosphere to help people forget about the icy wind.

The riders really threw themselves into it from the start to try and get a ticket into the final.

The first jam session began with 13 riders. Only 8 riders would reach the final.

Russian, Iouri Podlatchikov, winner in 2006, was not able to defend his title because of a violent fall while skateboarding a few days earlier.

Overall, all the participants were at a comparable level. They all knew how to perfectly keep the crowd amused and impress the judges.

Minute by minute, the level rose - together with temperature in the audience.

The four judges, Manuel Pietropoli, Julien l'Arrog Haricot, Marc de Vylder and Xavier Mora had a difficult task in picking out the eight finalists but Risto Ruokola, Fredrik Sirvio, Juha Kinnunen, Johannes Muensch, Robin Remond, Joey Van Essen, Miki Zirngibl and Pascal Valli all got the call.

Valli was perhaps the surprise of the battle. The Swiss rider won the amateur battle last year but this year he competed against the pros and easily gained himself a place in the final.

He fought like a lion without any inferiority complex against his more experience opponents, and we will no doubt be hearing more about him again soon.

It was a KO-system final - simple to understand and excellent entertainment for the spectator.

The two speakers, Zoran and Gigi Gas had two balls containing the names of each rider.

One person was chosen in the crowd to dig into each ball and decide the composition of the four groups of finalists.

After this KO-system, the four names remaining on the judges' table were: Pascal Valli, Risto Ruokola, Fredrik Sirvio and Juha Kinnunen.

Next came another 15 minute jam session where we could see every kind of trick possible and imaginable on the modules.

There was an impressive variety of 270's in and 270's out on display, and once the final was over and the judges finished their deliberations the results were announced:

1st Risto Ruokola

2nd Fredrik Sirvio

3rd Juha Kinnunen

4th Pascal Valli

The four winners then enjoyed their medal ceremony, and in the evening, they got together with all of the other riders and organising staff for the traditional end of contest booze-up.

Once again, it was a massively successful event.

Jib riding is often considered as something that belongs to the US riders, but this Spy Rail Battle demonstrated that the Europeans have absolutely nothing to be scared of when facing snowboarders from across the pond.

Eurosport