Those who complained about the weather at previous stages of the Snowboard FIS World Cup, got a consolation in Avoriaz, France, this weekend. Blue skies, beautiful sunshine, almost spring-like temperatures and nice course conditions were all there for two days of Snowboard Cross racing. The snow today was even harder than the day before, but it was still all about attack today.
The riders obviously had fun racing today and the competition also turned out to be even more exciting than yesterday. Still, in a repeat of yesterday's results, Jasey Jay Anderson from Canada and French rider Karine Ruby, got the wins under their belts again today.
Anderson, whom the riders called "the Rocket" after his performance yesterday, left no doubt that he was going for another rocket race today. With first place in the qualifications again, he seemed to fly out of the start gate in every heat and none of his rivals could catch up with him. Many competitors seemed over-anxious, as there were several disqualifications from barged starts, but Anderson stayed cool.
"I'm really happy and it is good money, I guess, which made it worth it to stay," he said, having earned 20,000 Swiss francs within just two days. "There were some tricky sections and I just tried not to slow down so that someone could pass me. The start was definitely the scariest moment all day, but I think it worked to my advantage that they changed the cadence today.
"It was great to face different riders in the finals yesterday and today, but I would have really liked to race against Stahlkloo — he is the top rider in this discipline and a battle between me and him would have been hot. Maybe next time. Hopefully I can live up to be called 'rocket' - I do not know if I am worthy of it but I will take it."
Austrian rider Lukas Gruener surprised himself with finishing second today and he was not far from even catching up with Anderson. "This is crazy," the 19-year-old from Soelden said, "and I was far from even thinking about such a result. I was happy when I advanced to the top 16 but cannot believe that I really made it up that far."
Jonas Aspman from Sweden claimed the bronze and really liked the fact that he made it to the podium again after a long interval — Tandadalen in 1998 was his last time. "It is great that I did not get stuck with the small finals like I did quite a couple of times," he said. "The course was pretty good, I just prefer those which require more technical skills and they could have added some obstacles in the first section where we just had those turns. But why should I complain?"
Pontus Stahlkloo still keeps the yellow World Cup leader bib. In the semi-finals, the Swede was disqualified when he crossed a stubby and missed the turn to make it to the final heat. In the consolation round he crashed and ended up in eighth place today. Anderson moved up to second place. Markus Ebner from Germany sits in third with two fifth-place finishes this weekend.
Yesterday's winner Karine Ruby was lucky to make it to the finals today, as she only placed 16th in the qualifications. Overcoming that rough start, she made her way through to the finals and won every heat to finally meet Italy's Carmen Ranigler, Maria Tikhvinskaja from Russia and Julie Pomagalski from France for the final fight.
Right after the start, Ruby was in third behind Ranigler and Tikhvinskaja, but was lucky when those two crossed each other's respective lines and she just made her way down for another win.
"My binding got loose in the qualification and that is why I crashed, so I was glad to make it to the finals," Ruby explained, "but it was always tough racing there. Being in third in the final heat, I needed to await the right time to attack, but then just took the advantage when the two had those problems."
Reigning Snowboard Cross World Champion Pomagalski, who claimed second place, got back to racing again only this weekend after hurting her foot at the season opener in Tignes. "I took it kind of a bit relaxed over the past weeks," she said.
"I went freeriding a bit, which is good training for Snowboard Cross. There was nothing to lose and I just did not want to play with it so I came here to try and it worked all right so I am really happy."
Tikhvinskaja was the fastest in the qualification and was excited to do well in the finals, finishing third. "I only made it to the podium in the World Cup once three years ago," she said. "Today's result is motivating a lot so I am planning for a win now."
Ranigler, the 2000 Snowboard Cross rookie who still has not followed up on her results of last season, spent some time last night getting the race off her mind. "That might have been the right thing to get back to it," she said, "I was feeling less pressure today and now I know that I can pull it together again."
In the standings Ruby is leading Sandra Farmand from Germany, who placed fifth today and Austria's Ursula Fingerlos, who was injured yesterday.
The next tour stop is scheduled for Olang, Italy, January 17-19, featuring Parallel Slalom, Halfpipe and Snowboard Cross.
— Britta Semmler, MountainZone.com Correspondent
