Before the competitors of the 2000/2001 Nokia Snowboard FIS World get home for the Christmas holidays, they'll ride in last event of the year 2000 at Mont-Sainte-Anne this coming weekend. It is the fourth time the FIS World Cup has been held in Mont-Sainte-Anne, situated at about 25 minutes east of Quebec, Canada.
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Let the Games begin....
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Because the Giant Slalom will be replaced by Parallel Giant Slalom at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, there are only four regular GS races scheduled for this season and Mont-Sainte-Anne marks the third.
Walter Feichter, who won the first race this season, is hot this year, but the Italian did not manage to repeat his success last weekend in Whistler, Canada, finishing eighth there. However, he has kept the lead in the Giant Slalom standings and will try to further increase it Saturday. Another contender for a top spot is Whistler champion Dieter Krassnig from Austria who seemed to have untied his knot and has consistently had good results since the end of last season.
There are quite a few others also in contention: Krassnig's teammate Stefan Kaltschütz, defending Giant Slalom World Cup champion, who sits in 3rd in the current standings; Jasey Jay Anderson from Quebec, who is riding well this year and currently sits in 4th position in the World Cup standings; and, Swedish rider Richard Rikardsson, just to mention a few.
Defending overall World Cup champion Mathieu Bozzetto from France, who won the GS at Mont-Sainte-Anne last year is still recovering from his knee operation, but plans to try to catch up.
For the ladies, back in the top with major results in all alpine disciplines is France's Karine Ruby, the number one contender for a win in Mont-Sainte-Anne. Ruby intends to close the gap on Carmen Ranigler from Italy who is still leading the Giant Slalom standings. Her teammate Marion Posch, a slalom specialist, proved her GS skills with a 2nd and a 10th place so far this season and is currently ranked 3rd overall.
Defending GS World Cup champion Margherita Parini is still feeling a bit tired from her training in autumn and is looking forward to using the holidays to recover. She did though take 2nd place in Whistler and definitely needs to be considered in Saturday's race.
Last year's Mont-Sainte-Anne winner Rosey Fletcher is in 5th place overall right now and will also try to move up.
Halfpipe
Halfpipe action will get to "Antre du Dragon" on Sunday, with the qualifications at 9:30 am and the finals at 1:30 pm.
In the men's competition, the Swedish and Japanese riders will be the top contenders for the podium, as they currently occupy seven of the top-eight spots in the standings right now. Leading Swede Magnus Sterner won last weekend's contest but his teammates Stefan Karlsson, Daniel Nordin and his cousin Fredrik also need to be considered. Last year's Mont-Sainte-Anne winner, and defending World Cup champion, Tomas Johansson is still recovering from a concussion. The Japanes power includes Kentaro Miywaki, as well as the youngsters Daisuke Murakami and Takaharu Nakai.
On the women's side, Norwegian rider Stine Brun Kjeldaas is leading the women's standings with two wins in a row. Reigning Vice Junior World Champion Anna Olofsson from Sweden sits in 2nd so far, ahead of Japanese rider Mishiyo Hashimoto. Last season's top-3 finishers, Sabine Wehr-Hasler from Germany, US rider Tricia Byrnes and Anna Hellman from Sweden, winner of the Mont-Sainte-Anne contest last year, have not been seen the two podiums so far this season, but are definitely also top contenders.
Nice conditions are expected, with forecasts for sunshine, but terrible cold again, which the riders seem used to after the Whistler events. The parties go down Friday and Saturday nights and whoever has been at Mont-Sainte-Anne before knows what these are all about.
— Britta Semmler, MountainZone.com Correspondent
