Deer Valley: Barr, David take top spots in skicross

    There were two firsts today in skicross competition: Deer Valley held the first World Cup skicross in North America and Canada’s Davey Barr nabbed his first career win.
    Barr edged out America’s Casey Puckett and Switzerland’s Michael Schmid in a battle for the top of the podium on Saturday. America’s Daron Rahlves finished fourth.
    “When I was coming into today, I was thinking Michael Schmid and Tomas Kraus, how am I going to take these guys out?” said Puckett, the second place finisher today and bronze medal winner at the Winter X Games last week. “I didn’t even take into consideration what Davey was going to do. …I’d like to congratulate Davey for his first World Cup win.”

   
THERE WERE TWO firsts today in skicross competition: Deer Valley held the first World Cup skicross in North America and Canada’s Davey Barr nabbed his first career win.
    Barr edged out America’s Casey Puckett and Switzerland’s Michael Schmid in a battle for the top of the podium on Saturday. America’s Daron Rahlves finished fourth.
    “When I was coming into today, I was thinking Michael Schmid and Tomas Kraus, how am I going to take these guys out?” said Puckett, the second place finisher today and bronze medal winner at the Winter X Games last week. “I didn’t even take into consideration what Davey was going to do. …I’d like to congratulate Davey for his first World Cup win.”
    But Kraus was out of contention in the semi final after colliding with Canada’s Christopher Delbosco, who ended up in the fence. So after three rounds of skiing, it was Barr, Puckett, Schmid and Rahlves in the final. Rahlves struggled with starts all day, and skied in the fourth position the entire run. Puckett and Schmid fought for the lead, then made contact and Barr crept into first about three-quarters of the way down the course. “I had to be patient and see what was happening around me and make a move,” Barr said.
    That was all it took.
“He just snuck up in there and took off,” Puckett said.
    The competitors said they knew the start would make or break the skier’s ability to get ahead on the turny, technical course. Rahlves said there was one good place to pass on the entire course. “The start is so big,” he said. “I’m just stoked I made it to the finals. … If you get a bad start here you just get blocked the whole way.”
    On the women’s side, France’s Ophelie David took over the World Cup overall lead with the win, her third Cup win of the season. (She also won the X Games gold medal last week.) It was a tight race up top until France’s Meryl Boulangeat crashed going into a jump. After that, David took off beating second place Slovenia’s Sasa Faric with a commanding lead. Switzerland’s Emilie Serain came in third.
    “We had to really concentrate until the 'Spine Jump,'” David said about the breaking point in the race, “because it starts really flat so we had to pull hard with our arms and then we had to swivel this jump to catch the contact with the snow really quickly … technically it was hard to do so I had to focus on that.”
    The only American to qualify was rookie Langley McNeal, but she was done after finishing last in round one. “I’m just looking to learn from these girls,” she said. “It’s still early in the season.”

MEN'S SKICROSS RESULTS 

Did not start :

LEWEN Lars (SWE)

Did not finish :

CRIST Zachary (USA)

WOMEN'S SKICROSS RESULTS

Did not start :

LUSH Maris (CAN)