SX and SBX competitions in Montafon (AUT) postponed to January

On Thursday, the organizing committee of the Ski and Snowboard Cross World Cup events in Montafon (AUT), together with the OESV, FIS and all stakeholders involved, had to announce the decision to postpone the World Cup competitions scheduled for 09-12 December 2020 to new dates next year, that being January 13-16, 2021.

Unfortunately, additionally to those challenging times, the weather gods were not really playing along with the Cross disciplines this time of the year.

“We were ready, prepared and fully motivated to give the ski and snowboard cross athletes the World Cup opening that they deserved. Especially in these weird times, we wanted them to have something “normal”, but unfortunately, the current weather situation is too difficult and changes our schedule. Now it’s time to look forward to have a pair of good competitions at the beginning of 2021,” Christian Speckle, Head of the Organizing Committee, comments.

These are very unfortunate news for the FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup, as earlier this month, the second competition scheduled for later in December at the resort of Cervinia, on the Italian side of the Matterhorn, had to be postponed due to the Pandemic impact and the uncertainty whether the resort would be reopened in December.

The organizers of Cervinia, however, are looking into opportunities for a replacement date between January and March 2021.

These circumstances push the official SBX World Cup kick-off to mid-January, when Montafon will host their postponed double-cross event.

“We all knew that this season was going to be challenging, but of course the reasons for the postponements result from circumstances that we have no power over. Nevertheless, I want to thank the highly motivated organizing committee of Montafon and the OESV to put that much energy into the preparations and furthermore for their willingness to postpone the competitions to the already confirmed date in mid-January. I know that we will see a great show with snowboard cross athletes who will be beyond motivated to compete again on World Cup level,” Uwe Beier, FIS Snowboard Cross Race Director, says.

For the Audi FIS Ski Cross World Cup that means that the official kick-off for the 2020/21 season will now be the double short-course night events in Arosa, Switzerland, slated to go down on December 15 and 16 under the floodlights of the Swiss resort. The circuit will then pack up and move on to Val Thorens in the French Alps to have another set of back-to-back races on December 19 and 20, before heading home for the Christmas celebrations.

For the full FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup calendar click HERE.

For the full Audi FIS Ski Cross World Cup calendar click HERE.