One month to go: 2018 Audi FIS Cross Alps Tour

The 2018/19 Audi FIS Ski Cross World Cup season will open with the Cross Alps Tour. Featuring six competitions at four venues over the course of 16 days, the 2018 CAT follows the same route across the Alps as did the 2016 and 2017.

This means athletes, team staff, and fan clubs will be strapping in for another 1000km dash across the most famous mountain range on earth, as the Tour begins in Val Thorens (FRA) with a pair of races on 7 & 8 December, moves to Arosa (SUI) for a nighttime sprint event on 11 Dec, then to Montafon (AUT) for competition on 15 Dec, and finally finishes off with a back-to-back two-race finale in historic Innichen/San Candido (ITA) on Dec. 21 & 22.

Once again, the Cross Alps Tour will feature several Tour-specific rules and formats, a more in-depth explanation of which can be found HERE. In short, however, it should be noted that the Tour's “Wild card” berths will ensure a spot in the upcoming event's finals for the top 8 men and top 4 ladies according to the rankings ahead of each competition, regardless of qualifications result. Also, the top 8 men and top 4 ladies, according to qualifications results, will have the opportunity to select their first heat opponents in a a public heat selection before each competition (except for the last event of the Tour in Innichen/San Candido where only the top 32 men and 16 ladies in the rankings will be able to compete).

As seen in 2017, the public heat selection is a uniquely unpredictable affair, with the top athletes employing wildly different strategies, oftentimes choosing their competitors based as much on grudges and braggadocio as on perceived weakness.

The 2017 Cross Alps tour saw Sandra Naeslund (SWE) and Marc Bischofberger (SUI) take the respective ladies’ and men’s Tour titles, with both athletes building off those triumphs to eventually claim the 2017/18 Audi FIS Ski Cross World Cup crystal globes as the top athletes on the season. On top of this, 22-year-old Naeslund would also claim the FIS Freestyle Skiing overall crystal globe as the top athlete across all of the six Freestyle events.

The ladies’ 2018 Cross Alps tour will see the return to competition of Canada’s Marielle Thompson, the 2016 CAT winner who sat out the entire World Cup season in 2017/18 due to injury. A two-time crystal globe winner and the Sochi 2014 Olympic gold medalist, a healthy Thompson could stand as Naeslund’s biggest challenge for a repeat CAT performance. While PyeongChang 2018 gold medalist Kelsey Serwa whill sit out the first three stops on the tour while pursuing her studies, the respective Olympic silver and bronze medalists Brittany Phelan (CAN) and Fanny Smith (SUI), 2017 CAT second-overall Heidi Zacher (GER), and Kreischberg 2015 world champion Andrea Limbacher (AUT) - healthy again after two injury-plagued seasons - should all be expected to contend for the 2018 CAT title.

On the men's side of things, Bischofberger will of course be hard-pressed to repeat his CAT-winning performance again this season, as the parity through the top half of the men’s SX World Cup start list is the stuff of legends.

The list of athletes able and hungry to step up and steal the Swiss speedster’s crown in 2018 is long and intimidating. PyeongChang 2018 champion Brady Leman (CAN) seems to be entering the peak of his career and is riding high after his gold medal win, Sochi 2014 Olympic gold medalist and three-time crystal globe winner Jean Frederic Chapuis (FRA) will be looking to make a statement after a somewhat disappointing 2017/18, veterans like Alex Fiva (SUI) and Chris Delbosco (CAN) have a multitude of podiums between them across the CAT venues, relative newcomers like Kevin Drury (CAN) and Francois Place (FRA) seem ready to become the stars of the tour, and at least a half dozen others have shown their ability to be the best on the right day.

Of course, the only predictable thing about ski cross is its unpredictability, and all bets are off until the we finally get underway in Val Thorens this December.

Full FIS Audi FIS Ski Cross World Cup calendar can be viewed HERE.