Women's Podium

After continuous snowfall over the past couple of days "Choker Trail" had turned extremely soft right before Friday afternoon's Giant Slalom, the second of the 1999/2000 NOKIA Snowboard FIS World Cup. Despite the soft snow, the riders had great conditions for the first run but right before the second run a front came over Blackcomb Mountain and some riders really struggled with conditions.

The women's race was a surprising one with top favorite Margherita Parini from Italy not finishing the first run and therefore missing qualifying for the second, and the disqualification of France's Karine Ruby.

Aasa Windahl from Sweden saw her chance and got her first-ever World Cup win. "This was rough but we all had to withstand the same conditions," she said. "You just had to ride smooth, not too aggressively and that worked quite well for me."

Austrian riders Birgit Herbert and Manuela Riegler finished second and third. Windahl is now leading the World Cup standings ahead of Riegler and Parini. France's Matthieu Bozzetto, who had also finished the qualifiers with the fastest time, put everything into the second run and, after three years of racing, took his first GS win.

"It was really hard racing today and I'm happy with second..."— Stefan Kaltschüetz

France's Matthieu Bozzetto who had also finished the qualifying with the fastest time put everything into the second run and got his first GS win after three years under his belt.

"I really went for this," Bozzetto said. "I was fast in the first run and definitely wanted it today. For me, the first races this year were really bad but I moved back up again," he said. "I finished 10th in Tignes, 4th in Kaprun (PGS) and now, it's magic. I just had to stay cool, the snow was good for me, good carving." And with regard to the NOKIA team which he joined just a couple of weeks ago, last year's Slalom and overall World Cup champion added: "This was also good for my sponsors since they seemed a bit confused that I could not make it to any podium so far this season. They almost looked like they felt guilty for that. Now we've figured that out."

	Matthieu Bozzetto

Stefan Kaltschüetz from Austria again took second place and had to leave the win to a Frenchman. "That's all right," he said. "I'm happy I even got here. First I lost my wallet at the London airport and then I found out they had some problems with the computer on the flight. I'm really glad we made it here.

"It was really hard racing today and I'm happy with second. Maybe I should take the French out for a beer some time to see why they always get in front of me," Kaltschüetz said. Kaltschüetz is now leading the World Cup standings ahead of Markus Ebner (7th today) and Bozzetto.

US rider Christopher Klug held up the North American flag after finishing third. "We had a whole slew of North Americans in the second run. It's too bad about Jasey Jay (Anderson), because of his mistake I ended up on the podium. The course conditions have been really challenging. I've just held on and tried to minimize the mistakes. If you made one you just had to keep your head up and keep goin'. It's a great comeback for me after a serious knee injury last year so it's exciting for me just movin' up the ladder."

—Britta Semmler, MountainZone.com Correspondent