Everyone in the Nokia Snowboard FIS World Cup recalls the strong performances of the tall blonde who seemed almost unbeatable last winter when he claimed one win after another throughout the season: Mathieu "Mr. Bombastic" Bozzetto from France, who finally got the Parallel World Cup under his belt, claimed the Overall title and also won the Nations Cup with the French team.
Two wins in parallel races were far less than what most expected him to take but he turned the card again today in the season's sixth Parallel Slalom at Berchtesgaden. Rain never stopped during the night finals at the "Goetschen" but the riders judged the slope to be in good shape - thanks to the continuous efforts of the Berchtesgaden organizing committee.
Bozzetto had been 10th in the morning's qualification. In the finals he first eliminated Harald Walder and Werner Ebenbauer from Austria and then made it to the final heat by beating Italy's Roland Fischnaller. In the final heat, the French won the first run over Dieter Krassnig from Austria but 94 hundredths of a second and although Krassnig was the first to cross the finish line in the second run, Bozzetto was still ahead by 59 hundredths of a second to finally claim the gold.
"This is amazing and I am so glad that I worked it out again," he said. "I have missed my aggression in riding and had no explanation why it turned out to be so difficult this season. I was looking for any kind of reason and first made my knee responsible but that has not been the major problem really. I had less power in my legs and I could not do what I wanted anymore. Also I had some problems with my bindings and finally figured that out. The training was fine so there was nothing left as excuses and I kind of made it a test run when I was racing Walder since he did not appear too strong. I think I got the feeling back in slalom - I still have to work it out in GS and I am scared for the PGS on Sunday but this was the first step for the yellow bib and I'd definitely like to keep it..."
Dieter Krassnig again showed a lot of respect for Bozzetto and finally took 2nd place. "This has happened to me before when we were fighting against each other for the win," the Austrian said. "I just put too much in the first run and just wanted to prove my capacity in the second. Second place is all right since I did not feel well over the last days and was coughing all night."
Roland Fischnaller surprisingly beat France's World Champion Nicolas Huet in the round of 16 and only Bozzetto could stop him from making it to the final duel for 1st place so the Italian faced Dejan Kosir from Slovenia in the small final and pulled 3rd. "This is unbelievable," he said, "Huet was the hurdle and I felt very confident when I won against him."
Winning today's race, Bozzetto also took the lead in the Parallel standings and sent Huet to 2nd overall. Kosir is sitting in 3rd now.
US rider Rosey Fletcher won the women's final duel against Doris Guenther from Austria, who had knocked out World Champion Karine Ruby from France in the round of 16 and then looked as if she could not be stopped anymore.
"Racing was a lot of fun today," Fletcher said, "but everyone was riding very well also so it was not easy. I just focused on my riding today and did not underestimate anybody - I've learned that lesson the hard way..."
"I really needed to get the runs down and I knew I could do it," Guenther said. "When I won against Karine I was not nervous anymore and felt pretty confident."
Italy's Marion Posch claimed 3rd place ahead of Melina Meisser from Switzerland. Karine Ruby pulled 9th place but still keeps the World Cup lead ahead of Fletcher and Carmen Ranigler from Italy.
Another Halfpipe competition will be held under the floodlights tomorrow.
— Britta Semmler, MountainZone.com Correspondent
