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US Women Pushed to Top Sestriere, Italy November 30, 1999 St. Peter must be a snowboarder... That's probably the only reasonable explanation for the perfect conditions the NOKIA Snowboard FIS World Cup continues to see this year. This second stage, with the season's first Parallel Giant Slalom, turned out to be just the same: sunny blue skies made the head-to-head duels a real fun event with exciting races.
Fletcher was encouraged to go for it, not only because she turned 24 today but because the two of them have a little rivalry goin' on: For the second time after the World Championships they have faced each other in the finals and it was Blanc once again. However, Fletcher really enjoyed the race. "The race was terrific, the sun was out today, the course preparing people did an excellent job and there was a really great level of racing today, so I'm really excited to get second today." She was close to winning the race and so thought Blanc as she crossed the finish line. In the first final run she had lost almost half a second to Fletcher and crossing the finish line she did not even recognize that she had closed the gap.
Sondra van Ert finally finished third: "The Amercians haven't done very well in the dual. Our head coach, Peter Foley, is at home and I wanted to blow him away and have two Americans in the finals. He got a phone call with second and third and I think he's still psyched that we've done it." The men's race was a pure European thing with Nicolas Huet winning and the Swedes Stephen Copp and Richard Richardsson in second and third. Huet was really motivated for this race: "This is my third time in Sestriere and I've always made it to the podium. I was kind of convinced that I could make it and this pushed me a lot." The Sestriere event will be concluded with Rosey Fletcher's birthday dinner but there's not a lot of time to party since the next event is already on for next weekend at Kaprun (Austria). Britta Semmler, MountainZone.com Correspondent
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