14th Nendaz World Cup PSL 2007

I qualified fourteenth and finished fourteenth yesterday at the FIS World Cup slalom in Nendaz, Switerland. It was the final Snowboard World Cup of 2007. I was happy to qualify for the finals, but disappointed I didn’t advance further. I had a fun second qualification run with my teammate Adam Smith. We both had some work to do after slower first runs. I was stoked we made it into the finals together. I had a fast first run in the finals with Canadian racer Matthew Morrison. I entered the second knock-out finals run with a eight tenths lead, but squandered it when I had problems half way down on the red course. The snow was sweet for racing yesterday, but the set was extremely tight and turny. There wasn’t much margin for error if your line slipped low and late. It was critical to maintain the early pressure and line on every gate to the finish. It was a solid qualification performance for our team. We advanced three men into the finals with Zac Kay just missing in eighteenth. Justin Reiter was our top finisher in ninth, me fourteenth and Adam Smith fifteenth. Bummer it was au revoir to the three of us in the first round, but good we’re all knocking on the door together. Personally I felt like I was riding fast in the finals and could have advanced to the round of eight or further, but had some consistency problems that I’ve got to solve in order to do so.

I’m relaxing today and preparing to race a Europa Cup Slalom tomorrow on the same hill. I love the snow and the hill here and felt it was a great training opportunity, so I decided to stick around. It’s freezing cold here now. I think the cold zapped me yesterday, so I’m enjoying a day off to recover and get ready to rip tomorrow. I return home to Colorado after the race to celebrate the holiday with my family. I’m looking forward to riding some pow at home in Aspen in the week ahead. Best wishes for a Merry Christmas.

CK

Nendaz, Switerland PSL World Cup 2007 – Photo Courtesy FIS Media