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
