Telluride, CO – Two-time Olympic champion Seth Wescott charged every heat Friday, giving the crowd at Telluride Resort an edge of their seats performance with his second-place finish at the Visa U.S. Snowboardcross Cup. Though it was the third SBX World Cup of the year, it was Wescott’s first since the Olympics, marking only the eighth podium of his tenured snowboarding career. In the women’s race, Canadian snowboarder Dominique Maltais did it again, winning her third consecutive snowboard cross World Cup race of the 2011 LG Snowboard FIS World Cup season.n”I kinda remembered what I was supposed to do,” joked Wescott, of Carrabassett Valley, Maine. “For me it was a good confidence builder to know that I was right there. It has been 10 months and two days since the Olympics, since I did a race.”
While the champ appeared to be totally in control and on top of his game, according to him, his legs were telling a different story.
“I’m dead. I didn’t do a lot of physical training this summer, so it was all just riding. I had to rely completely on my skills and nothing physical. I could feel every run,” Wescott said.
His skills were evident as in he narrowly passed quarterfinals, finishing behind reigning World Champion Markus Schairer and inches ahead of his Austrian Michael Haemmerle. He finished in the lead for semifinals and was in the lead for a majority of the final run before some challenging rollers enabled France’s Pierre Vaultier to edge him out by a hair.
“Inside turn six I opened the corner a little bit and Vaultier snuck inside, but I had more momentum so I got back out of turn seven,” Wescott said. “All week I had been seeing him pump the triple set in the bottom and I hadn’t tried pumping it. It was one of those things where I knew if I popped the triple he would get by me. So I tried to do the double suck but I did a double and knuckled it.”
But, regardless of the close call, Wescott was excited to start his season out successfully and in a place he considers to be his second home.
“Telluride has just rolled out the red carpet for us the past three years and I just love it here. To be able to be here and enjoy the week ad cap it off with something like this is great for me to kick off the season like this,” Wescott said.
Wescott led the way for two other U.S. athletes into the top 10 with Jonathan Cheever, of Saugus, Mass., finishing sixth and Manchester Center, Vt.’s Alex Deibold in seventh.
On the women’s side Canadian rider Dominique Maltais won her third straight World Cup snowboardcross this season. Maltais continues to dominate the tour, having won every contest presented thus far. She was once again joined on the podium by teammate Maelle Ricker, of Squamish, British Columbia, who finished third behind Bulgarian rider Alexandra Jekova.
“I was pinching myself on the way down,” Maltais, of Petite-Rivière-St-François, Quebec, said in a phone interview. “I didn’t think that three wins in three starts could be possible. I won each race by a large margin. I was really fast on the course, and really happy that everything went well.”
U.S. teammates Lindsey Jacobellis, of Stratton Mountain, Vt., and Girdwood, Alaska’s Callan Chythlook-Sifsof took the lead in the day’s small final finishing fifth and sixth respectively.
The day was an important milestone for Chythlook-Sifsof, marking her best finish since the 2007 season, after which she encountered an injury and challenges. Now, she says, she feels amazing about where she is headed.
“I’ve struggled a bit in the last year with some pressure, but I’ve just had a great summer and I feel on top of my game 100 percent,” Chythlook-Sifsof said. “I’m also having fun, which is the biggest thing, and I can’t wait till the next World Cup.”
Another thing that helped, according to the Alaskan, was the course, which was designed by famed Olympic designer Jeff Ihaksi.
“The whole setup is really fun and I enjoy it a lot. It was smooth and you didn’t have to think about trajectory a lot. You could just let it run and I had a lot of fun with it,” Chythlook-Sifsof said.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
Visa U.S. Snowboardcross Cup
Telluride, CO – Dec. 17, 2010
Snowboardcross
Men
1. Pierre Vaultier, France
2. Seth Wescott, Carrabassett Valley, ME
3. Alex Pullin, Austria
4. Fabio Caduff, Switzerland
5. Markus Schairer, Austria
Women
1. Dominique Maltais, Canada
2. Alexandra Jekova, Bulgaria
3. Maelle Ricker, Canada
4. Helene Olafsen, Norway
5. Lindsey Jacobellis, Stratton Mountain, VT