Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Snowscene World Cup a proving ground

A lot of passing, crashing and aggressive riding in last weekend to qualify for Torino

Although some Canadian riders left the Snowscene World Cup weekend disappointed, from a team perspective it went as well as possible.

In four World Cup events the Canadian Snowboard Team claimed a total of five medals, one gold and four bronze, as well as several results in the top-five and top-10 against a strong international field.

For some Canadian athletes this was the last weekend to earn results that would qualify them for the Torino Olympics in February. Erin Simmons, with two bronze medals in the snowboardcross, and Tom Velisek, who finished seventh on the second day of snowboardcross, have now met the CSF’s qualification criteria.

The Canadian Snowboard Federation will name a team around Dec. 20, following this weekend’s parallel giant slalom World Cup events at Le Relais, Quebec.

Snowboardcross World Cup #1

Athletes had nothing but good things to say about the course built by local Jeff Ihaksi, which was one of the most technically challenging many had ever ridden. You had to be good to have a chance at winning, the riders said, but it also paid to be lucky. With crashes in almost every heat in the final rounds, sometimes the winner was the rider that avoided the carnage or got up the fastest out of a pileup.

On day one, three Canadian women and five Canadian men qualified for the finals. After that it was a war of attrition, with a lot of passing, crashing and aggressive riding between the first air out of the gate and the final air into the finish circle.

In the men’s competition Ryan Hickey and Tom Velisek got dropped in the first round, while Jasey-Jay Anderson of Mont Tremblant, North Vancouver’s Drew Nielson and Francois Boivin of Jonquiere, Quebec moved on to the quarter finals.

There was a pileup in the next heat that took out all four riders. When the mess was sorted out, Anderson squeaked in behind Italy’s Alberto Schiavon, while Seth Wescott, the top American rider, and Boivin were eliminated.

Meanwhile Nielson continued to dominate, taking every hole shot and holding off his competitors to the bottom in every round.

Anderson crashed again in the semi final in the same spot as the previous round, and was relegated to the small final while Nielson took another win to advance to the finals.

Anderson finished second to David Speiser of Germany in the small final, to finish sixth overall.

Nielson led the whole way down in his run in the finals and had a solid lead almost to the bottom. Disaster struck coming out of the second-to-last turn in the final set of rollers. He caught air and landed flat, which caused his helmet to drop over his eyes. In the fraction of a second it took him to push it back up he was slightly off course in a rough section. His momentum carried him outside of one off the last gates.

Even though he was still first to the finish, he knew he was disqualified and would finish fourth.

"It was just a stupid mistake," he said. "It cost me money, it cost me World Cup points, I’m not happy at all.

"I had good starts all day, and I was riding well all day which is the positive out of all this. I really beat myself today, nobody else beat me. I’m definitely angry, but that only makes me want to do better tomorrow."

For Anderson, the frustration came from making the same mistake in the same spot on the course.

"The first time I thought that maybe someone bumped me, but the second time I just got caught off balance. My starts were really good and I was leading in both races. These things happen in racing, but to make the same mistake twice is unacceptable," he said.

"The course was tricky, but it was excellent. They did a phenomenal job of making it big and making it safe, and it was a privilege to ride it. I’d say it was one of the best yet."

The win went to Shiavon, who capitalized on two mistakes to take the gold for Italy. Nate Holland of the U.S. stayed out of the worst crashes and rode well to finish second, while Paul-Henri Delerue of France took the bronze.

In the women’s race, the three qualified Canadians were reduced to one after the first round in the finals. Both Dominique Maltais and Maëlle Ricker were eliminated as a result of crashes on the course.

"I had a bad, bad start," said Ricker. "I was in third at one point and had a chance to pass, but the girl in front of me went down and I had nowhere to go so I thought ‘uh oh, I’d better go down too."

That left Vancouver’s Erin Simmons to represent Canada through the semi-finals. In the quarter finals and semi finals she got lucky, moving up to first after the top riders went down in a collision. In the final run, which had to be rerun later in the day, she finished third behind French riders Julie Pomagalski and Karine Ruby.

"I definitely played the lucky card," she said. "I was being pushed out in places and my starts weren’t very good so I decided to hold back so I wouldn’t be taken out.

"I wanted the hole shot, but riding goofy I had my back to the rest of the field going into the first turn so I thought it was better to be patient than to land on top of someone.

"Of course you want to try and charge, be at the top of the podium in every race, but this was great. I’ve been frustrated by my results recently, so I needed this."

Snowboardcross World Cup #2

There were a lot of motivated riders on the second day of World Cup snowboardcross competition. Canada again qualified three women and five men, the same eight athletes as the previous day.

For the women it was a similar story. Ricker went out in the first round after winning the hole shot. She was passed in one of the corners, and went down when she clipped her binding on a gate. Maltais also went out in the first round.

Erin Simmons was strong and lucky once again, advancing to the finals again to earn a second bronze medal while others girls bumped and crashed into each other.

Still, she was happier with her overall performance.

"Today was a lot more fun," she said. "In the first heat I really went after the hole shot and was first into that first corner, even if my back was to everybody. All the heats were a lot closer, and I really felt like I was a contender in every race."

Simmons acknowledged that she squeaked into the finals on both days with double-digit rankings in the qualifiers, but says she’s never done well in the qualifiers.

She’s also still sore after crashing at the previous World Cup at Saas-Fee Switzerland. More than a dozen riders were injured in that race, eight seriously enough to be evacuated by helicopter.

While the Whistler course was even harder in terms of the size and placing of course features, the consensus among the riders was that it was also safer.

"I wasn’t feeing good (after Saas-Fee) and I’m still seeing a physio, but I knew I didn’t have to worry on this course. I knew I could let my snowboard go because I trusted the builder."

Two bronze medals all but clinched Simmons a spot on the Canadian Olympic team in Torino, where Whistler’s Jeff Ihaksi will again be designing and building the course.

Ihaksi was concerned by the number of crashes on his course over the weekend, but was also encouraged by the feedback of the riders and the fact that nobody was seriously injured after three days of qualifiers and World Cup races.

"It’s always hard to build for safety because you’re dealing with so many different speeds in terms of riders, and different conditions as well – a course might be slow one day, then freeze overnight to be lightning fast," he said.

"I wanted a course that flowed well, that was fast but not so fast that you had to check your speed the whole way down."

For Simmons, the course made the day interesting. "You had to pay attention every second, it really kept your mind busy the whole way down. It was so much fun," she said.

Fun is what Simmons is all about. She blames her poor showings last season on the fact that she was taking the races too seriously, and forgot to enjoy herself.

"I just needed to ride the way I used to. I need to remember that I race because I do really enjoy it… not because I have to," she said.

Doresia Krings of Austria won the second women’s gold, while silver went to Olivia Nobs of Switzerland. Karine Ruby of France was fourth.

In the men’s race all five Canadians advanced to the quarterfinals, and three men made it to the semi-finals.

Jasey-Jay Anderson and Drew Nielson were dominant, winning every heat, while Tom Velisek stayed as close as he could to Nielson.

It looked like Anderson and Nielson would be facing each other into the finals, when American Seth Wescott took a huge risk in the semi-finals. He doubled the last set of rollers, landing in front of Nielson and forcing him to the ground. Wescott was safely in second and would most likely have advanced to the finals without attempting to pass Nielson in the last heat.

A disappointed Nielson was relegated to the small final, where he finished first to rank fifth overall. Velisek was third in that race to finish seventh overall, edging out teammate Rob Fagan for the fourth and final spot on the Olympic snowboardcross team.

Nielson was avenged by Anderson, who took the hole shot in the last heat and shut the door on Wescott and the other riders early in the race. Anderson took the win, his first gold in snowboardcross this year, while Pierre Vaultier of France was second overall. Wescott and Hale were third and fourth respectively.

"Today things just came together," said Anderson. "It helped that there was a crash behind me (in the infals). The stuff I usually double over I went through and sucked it up because I didn’t want to take any chances. It’s nice when you can afford to play it a little safe."

Anderson credited his board maker, Ontario-based Coiler, for getting his boards up to par. "It was a bit of a process but I can finally see the light. It’s been a tough year for them, but I think we’ve finally got it."

The field for snowboardcross is getting tighter every week, says Anderson, and riders will take any advantage they can get. "We had five different winners so far this year in World Cup, so it’s always a bit of a crap shoot. Everything has to come together perfectly to win these days, and I’m just happy I was able to pull this one out."

Halfpipe World Cup #1

The first World Cup halfpipe of the weekend felt more like a product launch than an actual competition.

While other national teams were circling the globe this fall looking for snow to train on, the Japanese team secretly spent two months training on an indoor slope. From their first runs in the qualifier, all eyes were on the Japanese riders.

"We’re all still a bit rusty and they’re riding like they’ve had a full season under their belts," said Canadian Snowboard Federation high performance director Martin Jensen.

On the first day Japanese riders captured five out of six spots in the women’s final, with the remaining spot going to Manuela Laura Pesko of Switzerland.

Shiho Nakashima finished with the gold, followed by teammates Naho Mizuki and Yayoi Tamura.

Whistler’s Mercedes Nicoll was the top Canadian in 11 th , followed by Nova Scotia’s Sarah Conrad in 12 th . Maëlle Ricker and Dominique Vallée were 19 th and 21 st respectively.

In the men’s competition, the Japanese riders took four out of the 12 spots in the final, and Kazuhiro Kokubo took the win by more than four points. Kokubo was followed by Vinzenz Lueps of Germany, while third place went to Canada’s Brad Martin, who blew everyone away with an inverted 1080 on his last hit. Martin was the only Canadian to qualify for the finals.

"I didn’t start doing that run until yesterday," said Martin. "We’ve only had a few days to train the pipe, and I think it went pretty well. It’s always tough to do well in a World Cup, there are so many great riders out there."

For Martin, who has already met qualifying standards for the Olympic team, the Whistler World Cup "was just another contest for me. You always want to do well, but I didn’t have the extra stress of trying to qualify on top of everything."

Halfpipe World Cup#2

Things went better for Mercedes Nicoll in the next qualifier, as the 22-year-old advanced to the finals with a solid qualifier run. She finished fifth out of six riders, with Kjersti Buaas of Norway being skied out on a toboggan after hitting her face on the wall of the pipe in the training run.

"I’m happy," said Nicoll. "I’m trying some new stuff, some new tricks. I’m using this contest to try a few different things because I’m getting sick of my usual run. It went okay, I didn’t land a few tricks cleanly, but we’ve only had a few days of training on snow.

"We need to practice a lot more. We’re coming back to Whistler to train for a few weeks before the Olympics, which should be good. I’m hoping to have a new run ready with some bigger tricks."

Soko Yamaoka of Poland took the gold with a run that included three inverted tricks and a 720. Paulina Ligocka of Poland was a close second and Chikako Fushimi of Japan was third.

In the men’s contest four Canadian men qualified for the final. Veterans Dan Raymond and Crispin Lipscomb stumbled in their runs, which were among the toughest in terms of difficulty. Jeff Batchelor went huge, but otherwise had problems on both of his runs. Kory Wright of Calgary, who won a bronze in the World Junior Championships last season, finished third in what was his first World Cup appearance.

Wright’s run did not have the same level of difficult as other riders, but he did get the most air of the day and landed a series of flat spin tricks cleanly.

Wright trains at Calgary Olympic Park, and is used to riding icy halfpipes.

"I’ve been riding strong all weekend," he said. "On the first day (qualifier) my goggles got in my face, and I couldn’t see where the landing was. It didn’t happen today, and I did a lot better," he said.

"I’ve only had about two days of riding pipe since last year, so I was really nervous and unsure, and I wasn’t riding too aggressively. That might have been a good thing because a lot of guys were crashing, while I was just trying to be smooth."

Wright is part of the Canadian Snowboard Federation’s Project 2010 group, which includes close to two dozen young athletes that the national team has identified as prospects for 2010. The national team brought the riders to Whistler to use quota spots and give them experience for the future.

Crispin Lipscomb, who finished seventh after crashing on his last trick, said it was great to see all the younger riders coming up.

"I’m so stoked on these guys. Jeff Batchelor was amazing out there and Kory is like my kid brother," he said. "I guess the negative is that there’s another two kids to worry about, biting my ankles. The old guys are going to have to work even harder."

The top two spots went to Japanese riders, with Domu Narita of Japan laying down a complex run with four huge inverted spins and a massive air-to-fakie at the finish. Teammate Fumiyuki Murakami was a close second after posting the best run of the first round.

Race Notes:

• Despite being one of the fastest qualifiers, 37-year-old snowboard legend Shaun Palmer did not advance past the first round on either day of competition.

• While Canada will name its Olympic team next week, the Canadian Olympic Committee will not submit a list to the Olympics until late January in case of injury. Only 16 athletes, men and women, will represent Canada in three snowboard disciplines.

• Jasey-Jay Anderson earned the overall leader’s jersey. He won the overall World Cup title four years in a row, but decided to pass it up last season to train on a new style of racing board.

• Most of the halfpipe athletes are heading to the U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix in Breckenridge Colorado this weekend to test themselves against the top American riders.