By Maëlle Ricker
Despite the atrocious weather conditions, the event is still going off. Whistler is putting on a fantastic competition and is letting the world know we are ready for 2010.
Backing Whistler’s event is a bunch of Canadians who are kicking some serious butt and pulling in medals of all colours. Canada has a gold, a silver, a bronze, and a fourth after only two events.
The snowboardcross race was more than exciting on Sunday. Oodles of room to pass and the smooth flow of the course made the event incredible. I had the opportunity to be a part of it all.
Saturday was time trials. I woke up early and went to the gym to warm up. My nerves were already stirring me up quite nicely. Breakfast was tough – let’s just say the oatmeal was less than desirable. I had to eat quite a bit though because I knew there wouldn’t be much time to eat again until after the event, so I gulped it down and headed to the hill for training.
We got two timed runs in the course and only our fastest time counted for Sunday’s race, with only the top 16 girls and 32 boys qualifying for the finals.
My first run was great. Everything went well except for the air to the finish where I got off balance and fell. I rode a slightly faster second run and didn’t fall.
My teammate Dominique Maltais was great. She won the qualifying round with her first run time. Erin Simmons also qualified in the girls event. All four boys made it into the top 32 as well. Jasey-Jay Anderson was second, Francois Boivin qualified fifth, Rob Fagan came ninth, and Tom Velisek was 22 nd .
Sunday came quickly. I had been thinking about that day for a few months and it was finally here.
Another early warm up at the gym and another huge helping of questionable oatmeal got me started.
I went up to the course and watched the guys run the top section to see the fastest line. I also took a couple of warm-up runs myself and then had JP Trottier, our wax tech, put some finishing touches on my board.
Two heats later and one seriously bad start put me in the finals. In the semi-finals I got lucky and managed to pass two girls who were tangled up in a corner.
For the last run I was in the start gate with three amazing competitors, including my teammate Dom Maltais. The gate dropped and we were off. We all jockeyed into position by the first bank turn. I was sitting in third. Darn! But I had plenty of room to pass ahead so I kept calm and tried to focus on having a clean run. However, on one of the straight sections I was passed by Karine Ruby of France. I tried to reel her back in.
By the bottom of the course I was getting tired. My legs were numb but so were everyone else’s. Dom, who was in second, made a silly mistake and Karine and I passed her. She shot through a gate and disqualified herself.
Lindsay Jacobellis of the U.S. won, Karine Ruby from France was second, and I was third. What a day!
Francois Boivin also got on the podium. He rode amazingly and took home the silver medal. Tom Velisek, otherwise known as Tommy V by the end of the day, was sixth. Good work Canada!
Crazy alterations were made to Lower Cruiser Sunday night. The run was transformed from a snowboard cross course with berms, jumps, and other features into a flat parallel giant slalom course in a matter of hours.
The PGS was on Tuesday and yet another Canadian shined. Jasey-Jay Anderson led the team through the entire rainy day, round after round. The rest of the team was at the bottom of the course cheering him on the whole way.
The course looked brutally hard. The ruts in the corners were deep and riders were being bounced around in the course like ping-pong balls. A seriously soggy Jasey, with 10 solid runs under his belt, pulled out an amazing feat… world champion!
Tuesday night was mellow with a small dinner celebration at Sachi Sushi – Jasey would be back on his slalom board the next day for another event, the parallel slalom.
There are so many people in the valley that need to be thanked for the countless hours of work they are putting in the make the Worlds possible. I’d like to highlight a few people who are contributing little things to make this possible.
Lindsay O’Brian is in the conference centre all day every day working herself silly. Karen Allison is literally reporting for patch work duty – she has been kind enough to sew on all the Canadian Team patches on our jackets to make sure the team sponsors are well represented.
The Blackcomb crew has put in weeks of elbow grease to make the best facilities possible, including a brand new halfpipe and a super fun snowboardcross course. The events crew and Weasel Workers are volunteering up a storm. They are on the mountain every day with huge smiles plastered on their faces, despite the crazy weather conditions mother nature is throwing their way.
