Bad Gastein, Austria, was not initially on the schedule for the 2000/2001 Nokia Snowboard FIS World Cup but hosted a parallel slalom today as a make-up event for Tandadalen, Sweden, where the race had to be cancelled earlier in the season due to the snow situation. And it proved to be a first class event for various reasons: great hospitality, excellent course preparation and a good crowd.
The public bib draw the night prior to the race has been a special and new experience for the World Cup riders. They are invited to the casino where the start order is determined at a blackjack table. But not only that — everyone is given a handful of jetons to try their luck in roulette — and they are not gambling for money, but for promotional prizes, such as weekend stays in the region and others.
When it came to racing today, the riders faced great conditions and the continuous snowfall was not a problem for most. The finals were held under the lights in front of more than 5,000 cheering fans who lined the slope. And, as this was the first World Cup stop after the World Championships, the pressure seemed to be off and the riders obviously had fun racing.
French riders Nicolas Huet and Karine Ruby were top contenders for wins after they claimed the golds in parallel slalom at the World Championships, but neither one could repeat their performances of last week.
Germany�s Markus Ebner met Huet in the quarterfinals and won the first run by only seven hundredths of a second. And due to interference with a gate keeper in the second run they had to go back to the start for a rerun and the German finally won the duel by a total of 16 hundredths. In the semi-finals, Ebner triumphed over Sweden�s Richard Richardsson and then easily beat Felix Stadler from Austria in the final duel for his first World Cup victory this season.
"I still had something going with Nicolas so it was time to turn it around today," Ebner said. "The race was something special today — it was just a great athmosphere with the floodlights and all those people around. I wish we had more races like this, it was one of the best, if not the best, we've had so far on the tour."
Stadler took 2nd place and said, "I am glad that I made it to the podium finally, although I was definitely pushing for a win today. They really did a great job over here and it was so much fun riding. I hope we will come back here very soon and it would be good to have more races like this during the season."
Mathieu Bozzetto claimed 3rd place in the small final against Richardsson. "I did not like the hard snow although they did a great job with the course preparation," he said. "I am happy that I made it into third place today. I was so frustrated after the last couple of races and the World Championships so I really needed such a result to get my motivation back." Richardsson ended up 4th.
Huet is still leading the World Cup standings despite his 5th place finish today. Dejan Kosir from Slovenia did not make it to the finals today, but keeps 2nd place overall ahead of Bozzetto while Ebner moved up from 5th to 4th position.
In the women's event, Rosey Fletcher from the USA took the win ahead of Nina Schlegel from Austria and France�s Isabelle Blanc.
"A big hand to the organizers," Fletcher said, overwhelmed by the athmospere around the slope. "I do not recall any stop which can be compared to what we experienced today — it was just awesome. It was also kind of a consolation for the World Championships when I had to drop out in the first round, so it feels great."
Ruby lost the small final for 3rd place to Blanc, but still keeps the lead in the Parallel World Cup. Fletcher is still sitting in 2nd place overall ahead of Carmen Ranigler from Italy, who lost to Fletcher in the quarterfinals today.
The Munich Olympic Park is scheduled as the next stop with head-to-head duels in Parallel Slalom carried out right in the center of a big city.
