Hi from the last stop on this season’s World Cup circuit.

The La Molina event wrapped up and the Canadian team joined the World Cup migration and flew to Milan, picked up a rental car and headed to Valmalenco in the Italian Alps for the World Cup Finals.  We took the scenic route and drove along Lake Como and stopped for lunch in Como, hoping to catch a glimpse of George Clooney who supposedly has a home there.  We had no success on the celeb-sighting mission, but we did enjoy the best pasta lunch ever!

The town of Valmalenco is nestled in the mountains and welcomed us with open arms and a parade through the main square.  

I received word from Kessler, my board builder, that the replacement board had been made for me to replace the board broken by Swiss Air on the way over to Europe was ready.  It was being shipped to a post office in Brusio, Switzerland, an hour drive from Valmalenco.  The Italian-speaking region of Switzerland observes Catholic holidays – such as the feast of San Giuseppe.  I found this out the hard way after I drove the hour to the Post Office in Switzerland, only to find that it was closed that Thursday in honor of San Giuseppe (Saint Joseph).  The ironic thing is: is that Kessler had sent me the closing dates of the Swiss post offices, but for 2008 and I got it wrong!  

So, the next morning, I got up early and retraced my steps back to Switzerland and finally got my new board.  That day, I managed to pick up my new board, convince Luka to tune it for me, get up the mountain, train and still have time to catch the finals of the Snowboardcross event and watch my teammates: Maelle and Dominique take 1st and 2nd in the women’s race.

Sarah Conrad rounded out the medal haul by bringing home 3rd in the Halfpipe event.

The last event of the Finals was the PGS race.  The slope was perfect, the snow was perfect and the sun was shining.  I had a solid first run and placed fourth in my course.  On my second qualifying run, I chattered out on a toeside turn, but still managed to qualify in 13th position.  

In the finals we had: Caro, Jasey, Matt, Michael and me racing for Canada.  I went up against Doris Guenther, the World Cup Champion in the first round of the finals.  First run: I charged out of the gate and raced her all the way to the finish, but was .17 seconds behind her.  For our second run against each other, I caught Doris by having a great start going for broke.  I kept pace with her until I slid out on a heelside turn.  I recovered quickly and raced after her, but I could not catch her before the finish line.  Finishing .38 seconds behind her, I had to concede defeat, settle for 13th place and cheer on my teammates.

Caro carved up a storm and rode like a runaway freight train!  She managed to beat everyone, except for Germany’s Amelie Kober.  We were thrilled for Caro as she stood on her first World Cup podium in Second place!  Our whole women’s team managed to get on the podium this year!  

Jasey had some impressive runs against some extremely driven competitors.  In the semi-final round, Jasey raced Austria’s Sigi Grabner and World Cup points leader.  At the World Cup Finals, the person who had the best season (measured by their cumulative points won in the season) wins the crystal globe and is crowned the World Cup Champion.  Sigi needed to finish in the top 4 to be assured of winning the globe.  In their first run against each other, Sigi beat Jasey by .03 seconds.  In the second run, they tied!  Because Jasey had made up the time difference, he was awarded the win!  Because of the great course and the great snow conditions, the riders could really push their limits.  It is really impressive to see the best riders in the world pulling out all of the stops in a head-to-head race!  Jasey went on to win the finals and take his 3rd victory of the season and improve his World Cup ranking to earn him 3rd place on the overall ranking!

Lots of podium pictures and cheering and finally our World Cup season was at an end!  Now we have a week off before the team reconvenes in Temblant, Quebec for the North American and Canadian Championships, where I will be defending my titles.

Check out the shots:
Opening ceremonies at World Cup Finals
Me with my lucky charm: made by a Tomekichi Homma student.

Regards,

Alexa

After a much needed week break from the rigors of the World Cup Circuit, we reconvened the team in Barcelona, Spain.  Spain is one of the rare stops on the tour where we actually get to spend a little time in a big city.  We took the opportunity to check out some of the Gaudi art and architecture, such as the Sagrada Familia cathedral that Barcelona is known for.  We also did a little shopping and Kimi managed to sniff out some amazing bargains in the Gothic old town.  

As a treat for us, and a great way to help overcome the jetlag, the coaches took us sailing on a catamaran!  The sunshine and the salt air was the sure cure for the time change – although, poor Jasey did not fare so well with the seasickness that the open water swells induced in him.

We loaded a bus and took the two-hour trip into the Pyrenees Mountains that divide France and Spain and arrived at La Molina.  The resort of La Molina boasts a variety of great terrain and tonnes of sunshine.  It is an interesting blend of old and new, with old stone buildings and modern new hotels. From our hotel window, I could see an old stone farmhouse and a few grazing animals – a nice, pastoral foil to the hustle of the ski resort.

Race day was sunny and warm with no need for jackets, but lots of concern over sun exposure and dehydration.  Our coaches had so much water and sports drink in their packs that they seemed to slosh as they made their way to the top of the course.

La Molina is our steepest race – or at least the first 7 gates are the steepest on the tour.  The trick was to ride the steep pitch with a bit of care and then charge across the flat bottom section.  Unfortunately, a lot of riders thought that their work was over after the pitch and ended up making race-ending mistakes in the flats.

My first run, I made a mistake on the pitch, which cost me a lot of time.  I still managed to qualify for a second run.  Unfortunately, I was not able to make up my deficit from the first run and I had to settle for a disappointing 21st place finish.  I would like to blame it on my board: which was a loaner from Kimi, as mine had all been severely damaged by Swiss Air on the flight to Europe, but I have to admit that the loaner board was fine and the mistakes were all mine.

We were excited for Caro who qualified for the finals for the first time since her ACL reconstruction last year and finished 7th!

Matt and Jasey were once again representing the Canadian men in the finals.  Jasey showed us how fast his new haircut was by winning the men’s event in an impressive display of speed and power.  As Matt described Jasey’s runs, “Jasey is showing no respect to this course with the way he is carving it up!”  Matt finished in a respectable 8th place.

Following La Molina, we are off to Italy for the World Cup finals.

Check out the photos:

Jasey with his prizes.  Give that old dog: Jasey a bone!  (A ham bone – cured pork leg is a local Catalan specialty.)

International Girls’ Night Out: Joanna (AUS), Ilona (FIN), Kimi and Alexa (CAN)

Me in La Molina – sporting my signed Tomekichi Homma Elementary sweatshirt.

Regards,
Alexa

Hi!

We World Cup racers were lucky that the weather for the Stoneham World Cup held out, because the following day another snowstorm rolled in.  We packed up the rental vans; juggling equipment among the different teams to ensure that everyone’s stuff mad it to the next World Cup stop:  Sunday River.  An extra board bag here and a physio table lashed down to the roof of a van there and we were off!

The drive to Sunday River takes about 6 hours in a snowstorm.  Sometimes this takes a little longer if you happen to have a European in the car with you.  It seems that the Americans are worried sick that an Austrian carrying more than $10,000 (like Benjamin Karl who had just won the World Cup in Stoneham) might be coming to the US to spend those dollars.  (Pretty high-risk situation if you ask me.)

We got to Sunday River, which is just outside of Bethel, Maine, which is known for having the biggest snowman in the world.  Unfortunately, because of the recent warm weather, the snowman was only a fond memory.  

Sunday River hosted a PGS race and a Snowboardcross race.  We trained on the race hill two days before our event, and I knew that this was the hill for me.  The slope was wide and not very steep with hard, grippy snow.  The US coach was going to set and I had a feeling that his style of course was going to favour my style of riding: strong, powerful carving.

The morning of the race, I was super focused.  I tore out of the start gate and carved down the course, loving every turn.  As my teammate Kimi said, “You looked like you were on a mission”.  The snow and the course were so perfect that the sensation of carving through the course bordered on the magical.  Almost all of the Canadians qualified for a second run, including Arianne who is another of our up-and-coming girls.

I qualified 8th and my teammate, Kimi, qualified 10th.  We were so happy, because we would not have to race each other in the first round of the finals!  Nothing is worse than taking your own teammate out in the finals – except of course, being taken out in the first round of the finals.

Instead, I faced Selina from Germany in the first round.  I was ahead of her in the first run, when I made a mistake and slid on my butt!  Luckily for me, she made the same mistake at the same time and I beat her to move on to the next round.  In the round of 8, I got suckered into making a mistake against the Dutch racer, Nicolien on our first run against each other.  Just after our first run, the start gates broke and we had nearly an hour delay while the organizers scrambled to fix them with duct tape and pieces of bamboo.  In my second run against Nicolien, I kept my focus and beat her by 3/1000s of a second and moved onto the semifinal!

Blasting out of the gate in the semifinal against Amelie Kober, the Olympic silver medalist, I rode hard.  Amelie fell and I had the full penalty, 1.5 second advantage.  In our second run against each other, Amelie put on the afterburners and managed to beat me to the finish line.  I had to be content to go to the small final and compete for the bronze.

In the small final, I went up against Claudia Riegler from Austria.  Our first run against each other left us nearly tied with only 6/100s separating us.  When I went back to the top and got into the start gate, I told myself that it was $1000 to win the second run against Claudia.  The difference in the prize money between 3rd and 4th is $1000.  I got focused and I dropped the hammer on my run.  We stayed neck and neck most of the way down until Claudia crashed and I ripped through the finish to take 3rd place and celebrate my first World Cup podium in over three years.  My teammate Jasey tied my result and we celebrated our 3rd place finishes together while sitting in doping control that afternoon.

We now have a week off to prepare for the next event in La Molina, Spain.

Check out the shots of: the podium, everyone lying around in the start area waiting for the start gates to be repaired, and me carving a heelside.

Cheers,
Alexa Loo

Hi!

After the disappointment of the canceled event in Cypress, we packed our bags and flew east.  Just our luck!  To be leaving sunny Vancouver only to head into the fury of a Quebec snowstorm to prepare for the next World Cup on the schedule:  Stoneham.  Due to the storm, my flight was delayed and my bags followed behind me by a full day, but eventually I got a chance to relax with my own clothes and gear!

Stoneham is the ski area half an hour north of Quebec City.  It has a variety of terrain and a team of people who have been hosting big snowboard events for many years.  Stoneham is always a sure bet for a race!  This year, Stoneham hosted a PGS race, a snowboardcross event and a halfpipe event as well as a fun kids’ event during the World Cup week.

We love competing in Stoneham because we always stay in nice hotels in Quebec City close to the old town.  There are great shops and restaurants to explore in the afternoons after our morning training sessions.  This year a World Cup Big Air event was held in downtown Quebec City boasting 10,000 spectators!

The race event was the final event, after our halfpipe men: Jeff Batchelor and Brad Martin had pulled in gold and silver respectively and Maelle Ricker had won bronze in the snowboardcross, we had our work cut out for us. 

At the Canadian World Cup events, we get additional quota spots.  This means that four more Canadians get to start each event and our up and coming development team riders got a chance to compete in a World Cup.

On the PGS race day, development team racer, Marianne Leeson laid down the fastest first run for the Canadian women.  We were so excited for her, as she had ridden really well especially after recently coming back from a severely broken leg.

I didn’t perform as well as I had hoped in my first run and set out to make up some time in my second run.  Unfortunately, my good second run did not make up enough time over my shoddy first run, so I missed the finals by a whopping half second to finish my day in 20th place, followed closely behind by Kimi who took 21st. 

Marianne continued her great riding, but she had barged on her second run and she had to settle with 24th place – still her best World Cup finish ever!  Barging is when you try to blast out of the start gate before it opens.  The start gates open on a fixed cadence.  The gates are big, heavy metal doors that do not open until the cadence has run through and the final beep has sounded.  Pretty much everyone has barged once or twice in their World Cup career and felt the pain of smashing into the heavy doors and then limped out of the start gate once the doors finally opened. 

Jasey and Matt did a much better job of negotiating the icy course, bringing home a 5th and 10th respectively.  Although they were a bit frustrated at having the Austrian men sweep the podium on home turf!

After the race we had a relaxing evening playing games with Jasey’s two cute daughters and packing up to prepare for the next race in Sunday River, Maine.

Check out the shot of Marianne Leeson, aka: Rookie of the Day!

Regards,
Alexa

After a great World Championships event in Korea, the Canadian Snowboard team packed up and took the 11hour flight from Seoul to Munich.  Jasey took his World Champion medal and title and went back to Canada to rest and celebrate while the rest of us prepared for the next World Cup in Sudelfeld, Germany.

Once in Germany, we took the scenic route from Munich to Sudelfeld – the drive, which is normally an hour and a half, took us four hours!  (For our next trip, I will be sure that I stop by the BCAA office and pick up some local driving maps.) Our pension in Sudelfeld was a quaint little Bavarian inn, complete with the big German host and all the schnitzel and fries that we could eat.  Our host did not speak very much English, so, with my limited German, I had to preside over the twice daily decision of what time we wanted to have our next dinner or breakfast.  We might be quick on the hill, but driving and decision-making are much slower processes with the Canadian team.

The ski area in Sudelfeld was quite gentle with t-bars and chair lifts proliferating over the rolling hills.  Because the land in many European countries has been owned and inhabited for centuries, it is difficult to build a ski resort from scratch.  Instead, individual farmers will install lift systems in a somewhat higgledy-piggldy manner and then skiers just buy a card that is scanned on each lift before loading.  Each farmer then receives his allocation of the lift ticket sales based on the usage of his lift and the skiers need only to buy one pass for the whole area.

We spent the majority of our time training on the race slope.  Each day, the coaches took turns setting the course and judging each other’s course-setting skills while we negotiated their crazy courses.

The night before the race, the tiny, conservative town of Bayrischzell was transformed into party central with live television, a public bib draw and a concert!  In order to determine the start order of the top 16 ranked athletes, there is a “bib draw”.  The names of the top 16 athletes are put into a hat and drawn at random and then their start number is drawn.  In this case, the racer chose a child on the stage who would reveal the bib and the start number for the athlete.  This ensures a truly randomized start order for the top 16 athletes.  At some events, there is a public bib draw to engage the public and the athletes and to build excitement for the next day’s big event.

Our big event was a lot of fun.  Sudelfeld is a short drive from a lot of places in Europe and many of the World Cup athletes had friends and family and fan clubs cheering for them in the audience.

My first run was smooth and solid, putting me 6th in my course.  My second run advanced me a little more and qualified me 8th overall for the finals.  Matt and Mike also qualified for the finals, while Kimi took the award for “crash of the day” in her second run of the qualifications and went back to the hotel to recuperate.  

In the finals, I won my first run against Holland’s Nicolien Sauerbreij.  Unfortunately, I blew out in my second run and had to take 12th place.  Mike also got knocked out in the first round and we headed down to the bottom to watch Matt’s spectacular runs and cheer him on to his 2nd place finish.

Now we are back to Canada for some training before the World Cup in Vancouver on February 15.

Check out the photo of Kimi and Matt in the public bib draw!

Alexa

After a week of training in the Canadian Rockies, (rather than competing at the World Cup in Kreischberg, Austria) the Canadian Team regrouped in Seoul Korea for the World Championships.

Hyundai Sungwoo Resort in Korea cannot boast the largest mountain in the world, but it just might have the largest hotel in the world.  The hotel has over 1000 apartments and rooms as well as shops and conference halls, a pool and gymnasium; it is truly a colossal building!  The way that it was built in sections, means that some of the floors do not line up with each other.   Getting to the 4th and 6th floors when the elevators only go to the 5th and 7th floors is sometimes a challenge as some of my teammates discovered when they got lost trying to go the team physiotherapist in room 407!

Eventually, everyone got where they needed to go and we celebrated the opening ceremonies of the World Championships.  We had a parade of nations and I was honored to carry the Canadian flag for my team!  After a few speeches, we were treated to a great fireworks presentation to kick off the start of the 2009 World Championships with style.

The day we had been waiting for finally arrived: competition day for the PGS event!  After getting up early and warming up and making our way to the top of the course, we were met with our first delay of the day!  Although the weather was perfect, there were some long delays throughout the race.  After the confusion wore off, things got going and I laid down a decent first run; coming in 8th in my course.  More confusion ensued, with an Austrian girl, Heidi Neureurer, being disqualified and finally we got to do our second qualification run.  I qualified for the finals in 10th place, just behind my teammate Caro.  Three of the Canadian men also qualified for the finals: Jasey, Matt and Mike.

We were excited to be competing in the finals and to have the chance to challenge for the title of World Champion.  Caro and I battled the rough conditions, but got knocked out in the first round finishing 11th and 12th respectively.  Mike made it past the first round, taking 8th place.  Matt ended his day in 3rd place while Jasey took home the title of World Champion!  We all ran into the finish area to hug and congratulate our Champ.

After the euphoria of the PGS event, we had to refocus and prepare ourselves for the next day’s PSL event.  The race hill in Korea is quite steep and challenging with tricky snow conditions.  I had a smooth (but slow) first run.  My smooth riding tactics paid off in the second run, as the conditions worsened, and I qualified 11th for the finals.  Jasey and Matt also made it into the finals, but the rest of the team was not so lucky.  We all made it past the first round, but suffered mistakes and got knocked out.  Jasey took 6th while Matt and I both placed 8th.

We celebrated a successful World Championships and packed our things for the long flight to Germany for the next World Cup event.

Check out the pictures from the opening ceremonies of the World Championships:  Me carrying the big Canadian flag with my teammates.  The halfpipe and big air.  The girls in the marching band who were woefully underdressed for the -15 degree evening.

Kindest regards,
Alexa