37 ladies and 68 men coming from more than 20 countries had to fight hard today in order to post some good times in the qualifiers for the season's third snowboard cross finals taking place in Bad Gastein tomorrow. The man who handled the difficult weather conditions best was once again Pierre Vaultier. The young Frenchman who has won both races of the 2010 LG Snowboard FIS World Cup pulled everything together posting the best times in both qualifying runs (total best: 53.37 sec).
Therefore he was 61 hundredths faster than Nate Holland from the USA who is still aiming for the needed top result this winter putting him in a good position in the race for the Olympic team spots. And Holland found the right words for his performance on his facebook account: "It was super foggy but I dropped the hammer and survived."
No wonder that he was pretty stoked with his riding as there were several big names which didn't make it to the finals of the top 32 riders. Besides Olympic Champion Seth Wescott (USA) who finished on a disappointing 56th position also Stian Sivertzen (NOR, 42nd), Tom Velisek from Canada (53rd) and Matevz Ligocki (POL, 60th) failed to qualify.
Good news from Italy
In addition, one rider who has been on the tour for several years didn't even start but was happy to be in Bad Gastein. Simone Malusa enjoyed his time as forerunner for the ladies after coming back from a serious hand wrist injury aiming for his comeback World Cup in Veysonnaz, Switzerland, next weekend. "I want to get the feeling back. It's nice to be on the board again."
