French riders take World Cup snowboardcross events at Whistler

French riders take World Cup snowboardcross events at Whistler{mosimage}USSA — Three-time world snowboardcross champ Karine Ruby of France showed her muscle Thursday winning the first snowboardcross World Cup of the season alongside teammate and men’s winner Florent Mather. Jennifer Frino of Italy was second followed by Marie Laissus of France, while Italian Simone Malussa and Dieter Krassnig went 2-3 for the men.

Nate Holland was the top American finisher in fifth, just ahead of world championship silver medalist Seth Wescott in seventh. Also for the U.S., Jayson Hale was 24th and Matt Shrive 28th. The lone American female rider, Marni Yamada, finished 30th.

“This was a good start for us,” said head coach Peter Foley. “The course was pretty slick and full of ice chunks and holes on the berms, but these guys worked through it pretty well. I would have liked to have a couple of riders in the big final, but fifth and seventh is pretty good for the first time out. Seth and Nate both encountered some crashes in their semis that weren’t their fault, but that’s the nature of the beast. The goal was to have all five riders in the top-30 in order to gain more World Cup spots and we snuck everyone in there.”

Holland earned his start by attending the first ever SBX camp to be hosted by the U.S. program in June at Mount Hood, Oregon. One of 12 invitees, he impressed U.S. coaches enough to earn one of four slots for Whistler.

“I’m pretty stoked,” said Holland. “I had really high expectations for myself and I was gunning for the big final, but I got edged out — it happens in this event. My goal was to make it into the top-five and it’s cool to be sitting fifth in the world after my first career World Cup event. Hopefully I can keep racing with the U.S. program and earn myself an Olympic spot in 2006.”

According to Holland, the key to his finish was a trip to alpine rider Adam Smith’s room for some wax advice. Smith, the winner of the first indoor World Cup, a slalom in Landgraaf, Netherlands, will race parallel giant slalom on Friday.

“I’ve been working with Dominant wax, the same company that Adam has been using,” said Holland, “so I went down to his room and did a little wax session and the stuff ran great all day — I missed maybe one hole shot all afternoon.”

The International Olympic Committee added snowboardcross to the 2006 Olympic program in February.

FIS SNOWBOARD WORLD CUP
Whistler, B.C., December 11
Men’s Snowboardcross
1. Florent Mather, France
2. Simone Malussa, Italy
3. Dieter Krassnig, Austria
Americans:
5. Nate Holland, Olympic Valley, Calif.
7. Seth Wescott, Farmington, Maine
24. Jayson Hale, Sierraville, Calif.
28. Matt Shrive, Reno, Nev.

Women’s Snowboardcross
1. Karine Ruby, France
2. Jennifer Frino, Italy
3. Marie Laissus, France
American:
30. Marni Yamada, Seattle, Wash.