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Cheever Checks in from Telluride SBX WC
The first three weeks of December have flew by with two World Cups in Austria, one in Telluride along with a team race. Telluride always accommodates the world cup athletes; so the anticipation of going home for Christmas didn't seem to be there.
Jeff Iaxie, Johnny Balfour and their crew who built the SBX course seemed to have got some inspiration from riding super cross. The course was a tranny finder. I'm not talking Shaun Palmer in Zurich tranny finder either. Match transition or pay for it.
Qualifiers would prove how important it was to keep rhythm. Any mistake that would normally be a quarter or half second, seemed to multiply to one and two second mistakes. With 2.35 seconds separating the top 32, mistakes had to be kept to a minimum.
Eleven US men qualified for the final along with two American women.
One of my favorite parts of this Telluride World Cup was the day off in between qualifying day and race day. The riders had a chance to sleep in and rest the legs and lungs. 11,000 feet can take a toll on a rider who is riding at 110%. The servicemen also got an extra day to prep boards for the Southwestern, Colorado weather.
Speaking of servicemen, here is my wax tip for the race. Wax techs take a lot of pride in their work. If their rider wins the race, they win the race. If you need help waxing your stick, (sticks if you are lame and ski) then don't ask a serviceman what his wax call is. Approach him with your call on wax and why you would do that. It is a little easier to talk about why you would put that particular wax combo on your board than what the tech is waxing.
January 17th, race day:
The athletes got to enjoy a Hollywood start time of 1:00pm. No need to set an alarm or rush to scrape boards. There was plenty of time to get ready. The top of the course was the typical race atmosphere. The only difference was more Americans.
The 1/8 finals was as far as most American's would make it for the day. Mistakes, collisions and the overall talent of the rest of the field left eight men watching the rest of the race. Number one qualifier, Nick Baumgartner, finished 17th. The other American riders results were as follows, Shaun Palmer 22nd, Nate Holland 25th, Graham Watanabe 28h, Ross Powers 29th, J.J. Tomlinson 30th, Jayson Hale 31st and Alex Tuttle 32nd.
This left three Americans in quarter-finals. Alex Deibold was battling it out with Olympic Bronze medalist Tony Ramoin of France and two Swiss riders. Golden boy, Seth Wescott, had German rider Konsti Schad along with two Austrians including reigning World Champion, Markus Schairer to contend with. The third American rider, myself, had young a young Italian along with Chumpy Pullin of Australia and Tom Velisek of Canada, both hot of podiums at the Lech World Cup to contend with.
Despite the tough competition, all of us advanced and made it to semi-finals. Deibold and I would meet in semi-final number one. We exchanged a high five knowing that we both were locked for the last two of four American World Champ spots because Seth and Nate were already pre-qualified. We also wanted to advance to big finals and haven't raced together in a long time.
As fate would have it, we both tangled in the third turn and Alex went down. I was hanging with the rest of the pack, but missed a few transitions and ended up racing small finals with Deibold.
Seth was the last American hope for big final and didn't disappoint. He advanced in his heat along with the French Freak, two-time Crystal Globe winner, Pierre Vaultierre.
Small Finals in order of gate choice:
Alberto Schiavon of Italy, Markus Schairer of Austria and representing the US Alex Deibold and possibly the best looking rider out there, Jonathan Cheever.
This may have been one of the tightest heats of the day through the end of turn four. Not more than three board lengths separated Markus in front and Deibold in back. Turn four was an insane left handed bank with an abrupt L shape throwing riders into washboard ruts, inches from B netting. I was tailing Markus planning to make my move entering five, but I would never have the chance. Alberto thought he saw an opportunity to make an attempt to pass me on the outside as we exited the turn into the ruts. I thought I hit a rut and went chest first into the fence. Amazingly enough I bounced out and stayed on my feet, now miles behind Markus and just concentrated on matching transition to finish with a respectable sixth. I turned around at the finish to see Deibold not too far behind finishing seventh. Minuets later Alberto came down. He didn't need to explain to me what happened, as replays were being shown on the TV at the bottom. Alberto hit my board, blowing my sidewall up along with himself. He went into the fence and kart-wheeled through it and back onto the track. He was beat up, but okay.
Now it was time for Big Final.
Pierre Vaultierre, Seth Wescott, Chumpy and Fabio were in for a battle. Fabio was riding well all day, but made early mistakes in the final and was hoping for a crash in order to get top three. Chumpy had mistakes lower in the course and was an easy bronze. Seth and Pierre were drag racing to the finish. Seth missed the final transition on a triple and stood up before the finish because he knew Pierre was taking it. Pierre won by less than a board length and is now two for two at Telluride.
Racing was not over. The team race was on for the next day. The team race is set up with a team of two riders. The riders line up as they are racing a normal SBX heat, except they have transponders on their legs hooked up to the start gate. When a rider passes the finish, the gate would then open up top allowing their teammate to start racing. This was completely different element from normal SBX. Strategy was now shared and mental games had to change. If a rider was the first out of the gate and was going to win their part of the race, he still had to point it through the finish to give his partner waiting up top the biggest advantage possible. This was huge since it was nuking outside. Another element to this race was winner take all. So if you weren't first you were last.
Jumping ahead to finals.
A team of rookie Canadians snuck into the finals along with USA 3, Jayson Hale and Nick Baumgartner, Italy 1, Luca Matteoti and Alberto Schiavon and USA 2, Alex Deibold and myself. The Canadians wiped out early. Baumgartner and Alex Deibold crossed the finish line one and two. The Italian Luca was not too far behind. Jayson Hale and myself took the phrase "rubbing is racing" literally and swapped paint for the first 300 yards of the course; giving Alberto Schiavon ample opportunity to catch up. At one point Hale entering turn four, Hale and I tangled up and he butt checked his way into third place. I was in the lead and could hear Alberto behind me. Entering turn six, about 100 yards from the finish, I could tell Alberto was going to make a move. I knifed the turn inside trying to block him. However, riding defensive doesn't win races and Alberto this time succeeded in passing on the outside. We had a bit of a bump off a double out of the turn and I had a knuckle sandwich while Albert matched tranny perfect to win it for the Italians. Bummer...
Final Results
Italy
USA 2
USA 3
Next race, World Championships, La Molina Spain
Feliz Navidad y aņo nuevo
Cheever
www.teamcheever.net
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