Snowboard Cross

The FIS Snowboard World Cup was set to begin in Europe's far north in just one week, but a high pressure system over Poland has kept the first scheduled location, Tandadalen, Sweden, and all of Scandinavia, dry. As a result, the season will now kick off at French ski resort Tignes, November 27-28.

With 17 stops, the 1999-2000 World Cup tour will be more extensive than it has been since its inception five years ago. A total of 84 races are scheduled for both men and women from November 1999 through March 2000 (Tandadalen has been rescheduled for January 26-29). The greatest change is the number of snowboard boardercross events — almost triple that of last year and, according to FIS snowboard coordinator Hanno Treindl, will be "one of the main events in the coming winter."

"If Ross Powers and Tricia Byrnes repeat the outstanding performances they gave last season, the halfpipe will turn out to be purely US domain again. Between them, they took six out of 10 possible wins last season...."

Also expected to draw attention is a new halfpipe format. The intermediate round has been dropped, cutting the event down to two runs in both the qualifications and finals. This will mean more action and show in the finals, and include six women and 10 men — twice as many riders as last year. The better score out of the two runs will determine the rider's final ranking.

Ultimately, for both the overall standing and each nation's top rank, World Cup Crystal Globes will be awarded in four disciplines — parallel slalom/parallel giant slalom, giant slalom/super G, halfpipe and snowboard cross —

Who's going to take them home in March 2000? There are quite a few contenders.

	Women's super G

Above all, the French team, which took last year's Nations Cup title in both the men's and the women's categories, needs to be taken into consideration, especially in the parallel races. "Mr. Bombastic" Matthieu Bozzetto, Overall Champion and unquestionably the most successful rider last year, is ready to defend his slalom title. He'll be the rider to watch in the head-to-head duels in both slalom and giant slalom, which are combined in the same World Cup ranking this year. His teammates, Mathieu Chiquet and Nicolas Huet, who shared the final '98-'99 slalom podium with Bozzetto, will probably appear as the strongest rivals in this event.

Aside from the French team, there are quite a few contenders, like Sweden's Richard Richardsson, and Austrians Werner Ebenbauer and Stefan Kaltschuetz. Kaltschuetz is also a contender for the GS trophy, as are Richardsson, Olympic Champion Ross Rebagliati from Canada and US rider Jeff Archibald.

"The World Cup snowboard cross will be highly competitive, and is at an all-time high with 11 races scheduled this year...."

Even though she didn't manage to retain any of her World Cup titles last year, Olympic medalist Karine Ruby will again be one to watch in the women's alpine disciplines. It was Italy's Margerita Parini and Marion Posch who snatched the GS and slalom World Cup trophies from Ruby in the final race. Apart from Parini, Isabelle Blanc from France, US rider Sondra van Ert and Austria's Riegler sisters, Manuela and Claudia, will be strong rivals for the GS title. Expect Italy's Marion Posch and Germans Sandra Farmand and Heidi Renoth to stand out in the parallel events.

	Fredrik Sterner

If Ross Powers and Tricia Byrnes repeat the outstanding performances they gave last season, the halfpipe will turn out to be purely US domain again. Between them, they took six out of 10 possible wins last season and none of their rivals were able to close the gap. In the men's field, US riders Tommy Czeschin and Zach Horwitz, as well as Fredrik Sterner from Sweden, were strong contenders for second and third place, but none of them was able to get even close to Powers in the final standings.

As far as the women are concerned, Byrnes recently lost her strongest compettion in France's Doriane Vidal, whose sponsor asked that she compete only on the ISF tour this year.

The World Cup snowboard cross will be highly competitive, and is at an all-time high with 11 races scheduled this year. Austria's Ursula Fingerlos, who took home the Snowboard Cross Overall trophy for two years running, wants to make it a hat trick this season. Her teammate Manuela Riegler though, and Sweden's Sophia Bergdahl, will give her a run for her money.

The men's ranking is pretty open. Frenchman Sylvain Duclos, last year's surprise snowboard cross champion, will be one of the few riders to compete in every discipline. With his eyes on the 2002 Olympics, he's hoping snowboard cross will become a sanctioned event. "SBX is the best," he says, "but if it doesn't make it to the Olympics, I'd still like to have a chance of getting there."

The 1999-2000 winter season's races are a stepping stone to the 2002 Games, and there's still some time left for the athletes to get into good shape for qualification.

This year's schedule is highlighted by a very special festival: the athletes of all the FIS disciplines – Alpine, Cross Country, Nordic Combined, Snowboarding and Freestyle Skiing – will gather near Livigno, Italy, March 15-19 for the World Cup finals. Only during the Olympics have athletes from all these disciplines been brought together.

But we have a few months of racing to look forward to, first. Despite the cancellation at Tandadalen, everyone is ready to go off!

—Britta Semmler, MountainZone.com Correspondent