Ruby

It's been a long time coming for French rider Karine Ruby. After dominating the tour over the past couple of years and winning almost every title, Ruby had not managed a single win all season — until today.

After some initial frustration, she had started dealing with her losses in both giant slalom and slalom. Then, just two weeks ago, she entered the Ischgl, Austria, snowboard cross — the type of race she had dropped from her competition schedule completely last season. That race put her in shape to win today's snowboard cross and she obviously felt relieved.

"I did not expect this at all but it is very nice. It's a shame that I could not work it out in GS and slalom this year and I am kind of losing the fun racing those, but I really like snowboard cross racing...."— Karine Ruby (FRA)

"I did not expect this at all but it is very nice," she said. "It's a shame that I could not work it out in GS and slalom this year and I am kind of losing the fun racing those, but I really like snowboard cross racing. I needed to make some changes to still have fun and retain my motivation, so I decided to pick up SBX again and I think this was the right decision. This course here scared me a bit because of all those huge jumps and I am not good on those. I did a lot of training and it went well. I am so happy."

Carmen Ranigler from Italy finished 2nd, ahead of the Frenchwomen Marie Laissus and Aurelie Tible. Laissus still keeps the lead in the World Cup ranking, ahead of Ranigler and Sandra Farmand from Germany, who did not make it any further than the quarter finals today and finished 10th.

The Swedish team claimed its third gold this weekend with Pontus Stahlkloo winning the mens' race. "I was second twice this season and had a third place, also," he said, "so it was time for this to happen. I really liked the course because it had so many technical sections."

NOKIA World Team rider Guillaume Nantermod (SUI) took 2nd.

"My goal is to make it to the finals in every race," Nantermod said, "this course was a perfect boardercross and required a lot of technical skills. You can see that also from the results, since all top-ranked riders are SBX specialists. Just the weather was a pain. But, otherwise it was really good."

Joni Vastamäki, from Finland, has almost recovered from a crash in Schönried, Switzerland, four weeks ago, and took 3rd place place today.

	Stahlkloo

"I'm so glad to be back on top," he said, "but it will be hard to catch up with Pontus, Guillaume and Zeke. It's a shame that I missed Madonna, that would have been a perfect course for me. It was really difficult for me today with those high and fast jumps, since I rode an alpine board and used hard boots but, therefore, I could go much faster on the banks and had more balance."

Sebastien Frank from France finished 4th.

With today's result, Stahlkloo claimed the lead in the World Cup standings. Zeke Steggall from Australia dropped back to 2nd after he and Jasey Jay Anderson from Canada had a clash in the semi-finals and could not get back to the top in that heat. Nantermod is still in 3rd in the snowboard cross ranking.

The next World Cup stage is scheduled for Nagano next weekend, where boarders celebrated the sport's premiere at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games.

—Britta Semmler, MountainZone.com Correspondent