Telluride, CO – Rollers and bank turns await the world’s best snowboardcross athletes as Telluride Resort in Colorado prepares to host the Visa U.S. Snowboardcross Cup this week for the second straight year. On tap for the slew of Olympic athletes, including two-time gold medalist Seth Wescott, of Carrabassett Valley, Maine, will be men’s and women’s snowboardcross, parallel giant slalom and team SBX.nThe SBX team arrived to Telluride in early December to get a head start on their training for the World Cup event while missing the season’s first two World Cup snowboardcross races last week in Lech, Austria. According to U.S. Snowboarding Head Coach Peter Foley, though, the team couldn’t be more excited to be back in Telluride.

“We love it here. We feel really at home and think it’s great,” Foley said. “The training course is built and it looks awesome. They’ve blown a ton of snow to make it great and we’re super stoked. This is the third year we’ve come here for a camp and the second for a race.”

The competition kicks off Wednesday with the Visa U.S. Snowboardcross Cup qualifications and the competition will be heated as a majority of the SBX Olympic field reunites on North American snow for the first time since the Vancouver Olympics.

Vermont’s Ross Powers is looking to up the ante on the course, which is once again designed by Olympic course builder Jeff Ihaksi.

“I’m really looking forward to getting back to Telluride. I’m excited to get together with the team and be on the podium again,” Powers said. “Last year the course was awesome. It’s technical, but fast with good jumps.”

Also heating up the men’s field will be Wescott, five-peat X Games gold medalist Nate Holland (Olympic Valley, Calif.), X Games silver medalist Graham Watanabe (Sun Valley, Idaho) and World Championship bronze medalist Nick Baumgartner (Iron River, Mich.). They’ll face an international field including riders from about 15 different nations featuring the likes of last year’s Telluride winner, Pierre Vaultier of France, as well as reigning World Champion Markus Schairer from Austria and Italy’s Luca Matteotti, each of whom claimed victory in the Lech races.

On the women’s course will be an all Olympic U.S. field with Lindsey Jacobellis (Stratton Mountain, Vt.), Callan Chythlook-Sifsof (Girdwood, Alaska) and Faye Gulini (Salt Lake City, Utah). They’ll have to brush with 2009 World Champion Helene Olafsen of Norway, 2010 Olympic Champion Maelle Ricker from Canada and fellow Canadian Dominique Maltais, who brought home back-to-back wins from Austria.

“I’m excited for the event. They did a really great job last year and it’s fun to do the team event, so that will be exciting, too,” Jacobellis said. “The course seems to be coming along really well and we’ve been getting snow, so it’s slowly happening”

Adding to the World Cup lineup will be parallel giant slalom, which hits the slope on Thursday with Tyler Jewell (Steamboat Springs, Colo.) and Vic Wild (White Salmon, Wash.) leading the way for U.S. riders. Austria’s Benjamin Karl (AUT), Canadians Michael Lambert and Matthew Morison, and Slovenia’s Rok Flander will be international riders to watch as all three reached the Telluride podium last winter, with Morison the defending Telluride PGS winner.

Wild will be looking to continue the hot streak in the start of his season when he gets on the hill in Telluride. Wild snapped up two domestic podium spots already this season on the Race to the Cup tour, and will step up the edge for the World Cup.

Switzerland’s Fraenzi Maegert-Kohli and Alena Zavarzina of Russia will enter the women’s PGS competition after each won one Telluride race last winter. In addition, Austria’s Marion Kreiner and Ina Meschik also have good memories of podium results in Telluride in 2009. German sensation Amelie Kober, now a young mother, decided to skip the flight to the U.S. after her race comeback in Limone Piemonte, Italy, last week.

Rounding things out for the weekend will be the excitement of team SBX which takes two athletes and teams them up for a heated race to the finish. Team member one starts the race, and once he or she crosses the finish line a sensor is triggered that opens the start gate for teammate two. First team at the bottom of the course wins the competition, which will be making its inaugural appearance at World Championships later this season.

2011 U.S. Snowboardcross Cup Schedule:
Telluride, CO

• Dec. 15, 2010 – Snowboardcross qualifications
• Dec. 16, 2010 – Parallel Giant Slalom
• Dec. 17, 2010 – Visa U.S. Snowboardcross Cup
• Dec. 18, 2010 – Team Snowboardcross