Mike Kildevaeld

If Chris Klug was a movie star and Breckenridge was his leading lady, the story would go something like this: Boy meets girl, girl breaks boy's heart, boy returns to slap girl silly. That's the Tarantino version anyway. In reality, Klug, 27, is an Olympic snowboard racer and Breckenridge is the place where he shredded nearly every ligament in his right knee a year ago last November, on his birthday no less.

It's also the place where he marked his return to the competitive ranks while picking up $10,000 for a first place giant slalom finish in the second event of the U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix Friday. Klug, from the nearby Hollywood hangout of Aspen, returned to the Cimarron Race Course where his World Cup career began 12 years ago to win his first race of the season in 2 minutes, 42.62 seconds. The result bested 92 other competitors, including Mike Kildevaeld of Denmark, who was second in 2:44.63, and Canadian Jasey Jay Anderson, third in 2:45.30.

"The injury was absolutely brutal. My foot didn't work for two weeks and they didn't know if it was ever going to come back..."— Chris Klug

Oddly, the abrupt near end to Klug's career occurred not on the steep, icy race course, but at the local recreation center, where he caught his foot between mats during a gymnastics cross-training exercise. In addition to muscle and ligament damage, the accident severely bruised a nerve in his right foot, leaving it temporarily paralyzed and sidelining him indefinitely a year after the best season of his career.

"The injury was absolutely brutal. My foot didn't work for two weeks and they didn't know if it was ever going to come back," Klug said. "But if you have a good surgeon and a good physical therapist and you put your time in, you can come back from anything."

	Chris Klug

Klug proved that point on a long, bumpy Cimarron course, ultimately using the fitness he developed in a year of training and rehab to win when others were simply happy to finish. First-run leader and U.S. Snowboard Team teammate Jeff Archibald could not hang on to a half-second advantage in the final run and wound up kissing the fence after taking too much speed into a turn mid-way down the course.

"All in all it was the most challenging course of the year for sure," Archibald said. "I could have taken it easy because I had a little pillow to play with, but I just don't have that in my head. I charged too hard. It was stupid."

In the women's race, Alaskan Rosie Fletcher did just the opposite, building on her first-run lead for a convincing 2.55 second win over Idaho native Lisa Kosglow, 2:50.26 to 2:52.81. Stacia Hookom from Edwards, Colorado, was third in 2:55.25.

Kosglow, who was second in the Grand Prix super-G at Mammoth last month, set the fastest second-run time Friday, bumping up from fourth to second in the final round. Yet Fletcher was unaffected by pressure or the deteriorating course, instead relying on her pre-race relaxation ritual of eating beef jerky in the bathtub as she dug in her edge and cruised to victory.

"You've got to have the right frame of mind. I know the girls behind me wanted the first place more than ever, so I definitely had to push it," Fletcher said. "Two things I'm really working on right now are staying super positive and staying relaxed and not trying to force everything. It's working pretty well."

Conspicuous in her absence from the podium was Olympian Sondra Van Ert of Idaho, winner of the Grand Prix super-G in Mammoth last month. After racing to second place in the first-run standings, Van Ert fell twice and missed a gate in the final round, likely spoiling any hopes of an overall title in the three-event Grand Prix series.

The U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix continues at Breckenridge with halfpipe qualifying competition throughout the day Saturday, followed by the Doritos Loud Air and Style demonstration under the lights later that night. Halfpipe finals take place Sunday at 11 a.m.

— Scott Willoughby, MountainZone.com Correspondent