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Cheever Checks in from the Boardercross WC
I am typing this on my Droid from Delta flight 67 Zurich to Atlanta. I am returning home after some moderate success at my first two world cups in Lech Arlberg.
Lech Arlberg, Austria hosted the first two SBX world cups of the 2010-2011 season. And their first snowboard world cup since 1988. These two events were some of the best ones in memory as far as atmosphere goes. Shaun Palmer said the same thing... and he competed at that Worldcup an 88'.
For those of you unfamilar with Lech, it is pretty much the Aspen of Europe. Except more fur coats, more Schnapps, and higher prices.
The athletes enjoyed a 1:20 long, leg burning, heart pumping, world class course. Surprisingly enough the track did not favor any particular style of riders except all around good racers.
The US athletes in attendance were Shaun Palmer, Nate Holland, Jayson Hale, Mick Dierdorff, Callan Chythlook-Sifsof and myself.
Race number one was as close to cold turkey as any of the US athletes could get. Time trial day was my 9th day on snow since an injury in February and the rest of US Team had about two weeks. Meanwhile most other athletes had been on snow for six weeks.
Qualifiers: Nate Holland and myself qualified 5 and 6 on brand new Kesslers. Literally this was the second day on the snowboards for Nate and I. Toko took care of grinding and prepping my new Kesslers before our race. They were fast. Hale qualied in the middle of the pack and Palmer at 42 years young was bubble boy with the 32 bib.
The race took place six hours after qualifiers ended, under the lights infront of a crowd of about 5000. We were lucky to have warmer weather to keep the course soft. If it was bullet proof then ski patrol would have been busy.
All US riders easily made it through the first round fairly easy. The second proved to a little challenging for Hale and myself as we both ended up crashing.
Palmer finished 6th and Nate decided to win the first race of the year. Hale finished 11 and I was 13.
The second World Cup was nearly a continuation of the first. Awards for race one were over at 9pm, dinner was then inhaled and bed couldn't come soon enough as inspection started at 745am for the second race.
Rain was in the forecast for race two. Christian Schmidl, the US serviceman who grew up two hours away, knew better and waxed for sunshine. Nate and myself qualied 4 and 7 so we got red bibs and gate choice. Hale was number 12 and Palmer qualified 24 so he could race me in the first round of finals.
All Americans advanced through their first heats. There was some tight passes and a photo finish between Palm Daddy and Michael Novotny of Czech to advance.
Second round was a little uglier. All of the Americans decided to choke on the start. Holland thought he was in a big air and decided to do an air to failure off a hip in front of a 1000 people drinking Schnaps and smoking cigarettes at a restaurant a third the way down the slope. Hale used his ignorance and finesse to advance to semis. Palmer and I battled with Mario Fuchs of Austria and Frank Boivan of Canada.
In turn number one Fuchs was in first, Boivan in 2, Palm 3 and me scrapping from 4. I passed Palmer with a near decapitation. I made a few moves on Frank for second but that was short lived.
The last right hander of the course looked opportunistic so I tried to dive inside as Frank was to my immediate left. Putting on a clinic of how not to toe side turn, I broke at the waist, slid the turn. upwards to the b netting and tight roped the top of the bank dragging my heel edge along the catch fence the whole way. Escaping from a near ragdoll into the fence, I desperately tried to catch up.
No chance for Palm or myself to advance we did backside airs off the finish kicker.
Results were Hale 7, me 9, Nate 13 and Palm 16.
A solid start to the season for the American athletes. My only legitimate complaint is that my 9th place prize money was less than the overweight. charges to get my bags home.
Cheever
www.teamcheever.net
Next stop:
Telluride Worldcup December 17th.
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