Bankes and Vaultier snatch double win for France
Aug 31, 2018·Snowboard Cross
Charlotte Bankes (FRA) and Pierre Vaultier (FRA) have secured a double victory for France coming out successfully of the sprint snowboard cross race staged in Bansko, Bulgaria today.
Like last year, the sole Bulgarian stop on the tour did provide a 300 metres long straight which was only spiced up with a bunch of rollers.
But as the track in the Pirin Mountains is wide enough to feature heats of six those 20 seconds of pure you break, you loose racing action once again had all the stellar crowd in the stances had come out for.
All of this might sound easy but riders had to compete savvy in those head-to-head battles as course designers had also integrated three monster kickers which gave a first glimpse on the huge jump sizes which can be expected at the upcoming Olympic Winter Games with the last of the three jumps being the crucial one right before the line.
On a course which was running really smooth athletes therefore not only had to fight for it from top to bottom but also had to be extremely powerful to fly really low on the jumps.
A technique which was executed best by the French team.
In the women's final, Charlotte Bankes had the full body control over the booters, avoided too much of eagle winging through the air, stayed compact, got down the board on the snow as soon as possible and capitalised on her superb gliding skills to bring home her career's third.
“It was a great race, I mean only 20 seconds. You had to be in it right from the start. I did pretty good starts for me, starting a bit behind but coming back at the end. It's amazing to be back on top again. I'm very happy”, she said.
The 22-year-old edged off Italy's Michela Moioli (ITA) as well as her teammate Nelly Moenne Loccoz (FRA), who had won the start in the women's final but lost the lead soaring through the air too long at the final kicker, to a tied second rank.
As Chloe Trespeuch (FRA) had to settle for fourth the 2014 Olympic Bronze medallist lost her World Cup lead to Moioli who is now leading the pack with 4,630 points while Trespeuch is right behind with 4,600 points accumulated in seven races held so far.
The men's event provided an equally close show down, in fact, things got even more tight as Pierre Vaultier earned his season's first with a wire-to-wire-victory which actually ended up with a photo finish against runner up Christopher Robanske (CAN) with last year's Bansko winner Alessandro Haemmerle (AUT) rounding out the podium as third.
After two consecutive second rank finishes over the last couple of weeks, the reigning Olympic Champion got finally on winning ways.
“It was very long but good day. Well, I had a couple of runs where I wasn't confident enough but I was able to deliver my best run in the finals, and that was luckily enough to end up first,” explained Vaultier who also took over the World Cup lead with 4,320 points from today's fifth ranked Australian Alex Pullin (3,796).
Being a goofy rider, Vaultier had noticed his rival Robanske on his left side who did charge from behind closing more and more of the gap to the Frenchman. And the Canadian who is looking back on two disappointing years kept fighting to the very end not knowing if it all would be worth it.
“I couldn't see Pierre on my side, and as soon as I landed that jump I decided to throw my board as far forward as I could. I had no idea where anyone was,” he recalled the photo finish situation.
“For me, that was the hardest World Cup podium that I ever got. I have been in a hole for about two years. It feels good to be back on the podium and riding well. It's the perfect timing for Korea.”
But before it's time for going all in in PyeongChang, South Korea the Snowboard Cross World Cup tour will travel to Germany now where Feldberg is set to host a double World Cup event from 2nd to 4th of February and therefore the final tests prior to the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.
Results
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