A do or die mindset took over most riders' thoughts at the World Cup Snowboardcross (SBX) event in Bad Gastein, Austria on 10 January. With most nations announcing their Olympic snowboard team at the end of January, riders are hungry to make sure they have enough World Cup points to qualify for the Winter Games. The better the result, the more likely a rider is to secure a spot on their nation's squad.

This mindset, and a course with limited passing opportunities and large amounts of 'push and shove', provided for spectacular racing. The men's winner, American Nate Holland, edged out World Cup points leader, Frenchman Pierre Vaultier. Vaultier suffered a mid race crash with Austrian Markus Schairer but managed to rejoin the race and finished second with Mario Fuchs of Austria in third. Vaultier was gaining on Holland in the final stages of the race and if the course had been 50m longer the result could have been reversed.

Australia's Damon Hayler and Alex 'Chumpy' Pullin have already qualified for the Olympics and the Australian team, so each World Cup event is preparation for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Going into the men's finals, Chumpy qualified 6th and Damon 22nd in the 32 rider field, unfortunately placing them both in the same heat.

Chumpy and Damon moved into the quarterfinals with a one, two finish in their heat, with Damon finishing 15th overall and Chumpy just cracking the top ten with a final result of 10th overall. Being true racers both riders would have liked better results, however both are glad to finish the event uninjured, as an injury now would heavily disrupt their Olympic preparation. With the Vancouver Games just over a month away Chumpy feels his riding "has come a long way in the last six months" and wants to keep this momentum into the next two World Cups and ultimately the Olympics.

Damon won this event last year, so while disappointed he didn't repeat the performance he is still confident in his riding and describes it as "going in the right direction, not the wrong direction". In regards to his Olympic preparation Damon says it is "on track to peak at the right time".

In the women's event Australia's lone competitor Stephanie Hickey unfortunately didn't make the finals and finished 29th overall. American Lindsey Jacobellis took out the event ahead of Norwegian Helene Olafsen and Swiss rider Sandra Frei . Jacobellis is looking to the Vancouver Games to make amends for her spectacular loss at the 2006 Winter Olympics, when she fell on the final jump of the finals handing the gold to Tanja Frieden of Switzerland.

The next Snowboardcross World Cup event is at Veysonnaz, Switzerland, on the 15th of January 2010.

Read the Damon and Chumpy's profiles here

Watch Damon and Chumpy racing in the last World Cup in Telluride here

Words - Paul Colby

2010 LG FIS SNOWBOARDING WORLD CUP
Bad Gastein, Austria - Jan. 10, 2010
Men's Snowboardcross

1. Nate Holland, USA
2. Pierre Vaultier, FRA
3. Mario Fuchs, AUT
4. Markus Schairer, AUT
5. Tony Ramoin, FRA

1. Lindsey Jacobellis, USA
2. Helene Olafsen, NOR
3. Sandra Frei, SUI
4. Nelly Moenne Loccoz, FRA
5. Mellie Francon, SUI
   

tags: olympic, feature, features, snowboard, cross, world, cup, bad, gastein, alex, pullin, damon, hayler, stephanie, hickey, photo, photos, featureone, mountainwatch

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