In the lead-up to the Crankworx festival in their homeland, French riders got hot in Innsbruck.
French competitors won three of the eight events in Austria, with Chaney Guennet, Louis Reboul and Tomas Lemoine all earning victories.
Guennet bested countryman and rival Adrien Loron in the RockShox Innsbruck Pump Track Challenge while American Austin Warren placed third. On the women's side, American Jill Kintner knocked off fellow Yankee Kialani Hines, while Austrian Valentina Holl won the small final.
Reboul, meanwhile, captured the Oakley Official Alpine Whip-Off Championships while American Ryan Howard and Briton Kaos Seagrave placed second and third, respectively. Canadians Casey Brown and Vaea Verbeeck were the only two riders to make an impression on the women's side.
As for Lemoine, he topped Great Britain's Sam Reynolds in the Mons Royale Dual Speed and Style while American Greg Watts ended up in third.
In the iXS Innsbruck Downhill, Great Britain's Danny Hart topped New Zealand's Sam Blenkinsop and American Charles Harrison in the elite men's event while Australian Tracey Hannah blew past Kintner and Switzerland's Emilie Siegenthaler to capture the elite women's race.
Lastly, in the Crankworx Innsbruck Slopestyle, American Nicholi Rogatkin stayed in contention for Triple Crown of Slopestyle by besting Canadian Brett Rheeder, who won the first event in Rotorua, New Zealand and Italy's Diego Caverzasi. Either Rogatkin or Rheeder must win this weekend in Les Gets to remain eligible for the $25,000 bonus at Red Bull Joyride here in Whistler.
After crashing near the end of his first run, Rogatkin sat well off the pace in ninth heading into the second run, but managed to put everything down perfectly as he scored a 93 to knock off Rheeder.
"I had a run in mind I was preparing all week, and it went pretty perfect, pretty much all the way down to the last jump in the first run," Rogatkin said in a release. "So, legs shaking in the start gate before the second run just because it's so much pressure to do the whole run just to get back to the feature you crashed on. And now I'm sitting here taking the win."
The Crankworx Les Gets Slopestyle will be webcast at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, June 24. Before that, the RockShox Les Gets Pump Track Challenge will be live at 11 a.m. on June 21, the Muc-Off Dual Speed & Style Les Gets will run at 8:30 a.m. on June 22 and the Crankworx Les Gets Downhill will be live at 6 a.m. on June 23.
To tune in, for more information, or to see complete results, check out www.crankworx.com.
Allison fourth at IPF Worlds
Whistler's Jake Allison entered the International Powerlifting Federation Classic Worlds with high hopes, especially with the event taking place in his current home city of Calgary.
But injury troubles hampered Allison, who was unable to match the lifts he completed en route to winning the national championships earlier this year.
Still, Allison performed well, taking third in the junior men's 66-kilogram deadlift and earning fourth overall in the division.
Allison injured his knee on his second squat, going too deep with his movement, but went on to complete his remaining lifts and even unsuccessfully challenging a world record in the deadlift.
Allison is now recovering from a torn meniscus and hopes to avoid surgery.
Snowboard Canada announces speed teams
Whistler will be well represented when Snowboard Canada suits up for the 2018-19 season.
The organization announced its speed teams on June 15, and local boarder Zoe Bergermann is back on the snowboard-cross squad while John Leslie will be back on the para-snowboard national team.
The style team was announced last month.
Snowboard Canada also released the list of athletes to be nominated to Sport Canada's Athlete Assistance Program. Bergermann and Leslie both made the list, as did Darcy Sharpe.
According to the Government of Canada's Department of Canadian Heritage: "The Athlete Assistance Program (AAP) is a sport funding program that contributes to the pursuit of excellence. AAP support seeks to relieve some of the financial pressures associated with preparing for and participating in international sport and assists high-performance Canadian athletes to combine their sport and academic or working careers while training intensively in pursuit of world-class performances."
