Friday, January 5

Skiercross Worldtour - Val Thorens

freezeonline.com

The finals of the 2nd stop of the SKIERCROSS World Championship Tour were held in Val Thorens. The course was all that it was cracked up to be - there has never been a SKIERCROSS requiring that much air - the riders had to negotiate huge bumps, snake around the tight banked curves and then literally fly over the 20 meter long final kick.

The battle for the lead get pretty intense.

Pre-warned of stormy weather, the finals were moved forward one day and took place directly after the qualification time trials. It made for a day of non-stop on-site action.

The time trials allowed the original starting list of 52 to be reduced down. Each rider takes the course on his own - there are two chances - the fastest time counts. The top 32 take their place in the first heat. Isidor Gruener (AU- Salomon)), SKIERCROSS champion from the YOZ Winter Games in Vars, had the fastest time with his 2nd run of 42.98 seconds. The slowest qualifier, made a time of 45.69 seconds - a difference of 2.7 seconds; there really is no time for error. The 16 year old local 'Wild Card', Thomas Diet only missed qualification to the finals by one place. Considering that it is his first Skiercross, we expect to see him go through to the final stages in his next race.

Everyone was getting some really big air.

So onto the finals.. the riders leave in groups of four. The first two that past the line are on to the next round. The first round proceeded almost without surprises - only exception, Guerlin Chicherit (FRA - Dynastar), the Freeride World Champion, who took a tumble at the top. But he won the prize for the most stylish loser, taking the course freestyle and finishing with a front flip over the final table.

What a Final ! We saw incredible heats, broken skis, excited spectators, close finishes, happy winners and a kamikaze style crash in the final run. Small consolation for our big Swede Peter Lind (SWE - Atomic) owner of the biggest crash of the day over the final kick - He was leading the final run and heavily fell during the last big jump. Despite his crash he took third place and a part of the jackpot. After having been falsely eliminated in his semi finals (Photo Finish requiered), Xavier Kuhn (FRA-Salomon) took his second win of the year and now is the uncontested leader of the SKIERCROSS worldtour 2000/2001. Until the last jump nobody could predict the winner, Peter Lind (SWE - Atomic) was leading, Xavier following immediatly behind. These two riders came in simultaneously on the final 20 metres jump, Peter Lind (SWE - Atomic) speeding over victory, decided to try a spontaneous "540° mute without skis" and that's were Xavier made the difference, avoiding a major crash with Peter. Eric Andersson(SWE-Dynastar) took second. Peter Lind survived and is ranked third, since Thomas von Gunten (SUI-Nordica) was disqualified later because he missed a gate in the early stages of the race. The Swedish riders proved to be tough competition to the French on their home turf.

No surprises on the women's side. Francine Moreillon (SUI-Salomon) won it easily, leaving second place to Julia Lejoille (FRA-Salomon) and Canadians own Josee Charbonneau (CAN-Dynastar). There's no rider in Europe right now who can pretend to challenge Francine, but that leaves her more time for freeriding, right Francine?

The real winners of this competition in Val Thorens were the many spectators. Most of them had only heard of SKIERCROSS before, but after the show all you could see was total amazement and real admiration for the achievement of the riders.

None of this would have been possible without the support of Val Thorens, their great experience of organising events served the SKIERCROSS well. The change of timetable due the weather forecast was well advised and smoothly executed. The altitude of Val Thorens allows the resort to have snow starting November, which is put to great advantage with events such as the SKIERCROSS followed immediately by The Big Star Boarderweek and the Car Race Trophy Andros... Val Thorens is open to every kind of winter sports and Yves Bontoux, the Tourism Office Director confirms "The emergence of this new discipline in winter sport, the SKIERCROSS, spectacular as it is, is bound to be an attention captured for the highest ski resort in Europe...". So Thanks again to Val Thorens.