Visa U.S. Snowboarding Cup returns to Whiteface / Lake Placid March 1-3
Top Olympic and X Games riders to compete in SBX and PGS; Saturday Night Downtown Party features Big Air and Live Music
Lake Placid, N.Y. – Fresh from World Cup competition and the Winter X Games, the world’s best snowboarders – including Olympic champion Seth Wescott (Carrabassett Valley, Maine) and four-time X Games champion Lindsey Jacobellis (Stratton Mountain, Vt.) – will converge on Whiteface Mountain and Lake Placid as the Nokia World Cup tour returns for a fourth consecutive year with the Visa U.S. Snowboarding Cup.
This lone American stop on the global circuit will offer snowboardcross (SBX) on the Boreen trail at Whiteface on Saturday, March 1. The competition will also crown U.S. SBX champions as the Visa SBX Championships Series concludes for the year. The next day will bring a new event on the World Cup circuit with the SBX Team event on Sunday, March 2, followed by the Parallel Giant Slalom (PGS) on Draper’s Drop, Monday, March 3.
SBX brings riders down a course with ever-changing features. Banked turns, step-downs, hips, rollers, jumps and gaps will get the athletes’ attention. Qualifications take place with one rider on the course. But in the finals, elimination heats are contested with four riders jockeying for the lead down the challenging terrain. The top two riders move on to the next round until a winner is determined.
New this year, and the first time on the World Cup tour, is the Team SBX event. It pairs two men and two women in separate events. When one teammate crosses the finish line, the start gate is triggered allowing the other teammate to enter the course.
The PGS presents side-by-side racing on parallel courses. After a qualification round in which the top 16 advance to finals, two-run, head-to-head eliminations are held until there is a victor.
In addition, the annual downtown Lake Placid Saturday night event will be a Big Air / Wall Ride on the infield of the Olympic Speed Skating Oval. Billed as the Paul Mitchell Progression Session, snowmobiles will tow-in the boarders, who will launch over a big roller before setting up to hit the 20-foot high wall. The bigger the better as a panel of judges will score the athletes and one lucky rider will win the Rip It Trick of the Day.
The night will begin at 6 p.m. with live hip-hop from The Press Project. There is no admission fee for the Main Street event.
Three-time X Games champion Nate Holland (Squaw Valley, Calif.), who recently was second at the Korean World Cup, site of the 2009 World Championships, together with snowboarding legend Shaun Palmer (Truckee, Calif.), recent Visa SBX champion Wescott and Graham Watanabe (Boise, Idaho) will take on Stian Sivertsen of Norway who leads the men’s SBX World Cup standings. He is well ahead of Mario Fuchs of Austria. Canada has four in the top 10, led by Drew Neilson in fourth place.
The World Cup SBX battle among the ladies will be hot. America's Jacobellis is the most accomplished athlete in the sport of SBX, male or female. Recently winning her fourth X Games gold medal, she'll challenge Melanie Francon of Switzerland, who was fifth at the X Games and has been trading the lead in the World Cup standings with Jacobellis.
Jacobellis, the silver medalist from the Torino Winter Olympics, won both SBX events at Whiteface a year ago.
The parallel giant slalom finds six of the top seven women in the World Cup rankings hailing from Austria, led by Heidi Neururer.
In the men’s division, World Cup performers Adam Smith (Bend, Ore.) and Tyler Jewell (Boston, Mass.) will compete on home turf against Mathieu Bozzetto of France, who is leading the World Cup, Benjamin Karl of Austria currently second in the standings, and Daniel Biveson of Sweden, who is third in the standings.
Spectators can easily access either course. The SBX races will conclude at the base lodge in front of the Cloudspin Lounge while the PGS can be reached with a short walk to the Bear Chair, which will deliver passengers to the finish line of Draper’s Drop.
A lift ticket or season pass will allow the holder to view the action alongside the courses.
The Visa U.S. Snowboarding Cup will be televised by NBC on Saturday, March 8, at 2 p.m. Eastern with coverage from Versus on March 9 at 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., followed by the Paul Mitchell Progression Session from the skating oval on Sunday, March 16 at 3 p.m.
Visa U.S. Snowboarding Cup schedule of events:
Friday, Feb. 29: SBX qualifications from 9:30 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Saturday, March 1: SBX finals heats begin at 1 p.m.
Sunday, March 2: SBX team event begins at 1 p.m.
Monday, March 3: PGS qualifications from 9-11 a.m and PGS finals from 1-3 p.m.
Thursday, February 21st 2008 @ 11:29 AM.
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