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
