Things fall into place for Bansko

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With the Solitude World Cup debut in the books, riders have packed their stuff to travel over the pond in order to make it to the south east of Europe to compete in Bulgaria.

Although Europe's 16th biggest country is not the first one riders have in mind when thinking of a World Cup calendar, Bansko has quite some experience with hosting some major events.

From 2009 until 2015, a total of five stops of the alpine World Cup tour took place in the Pirin Mountains.

And now, things are finally getting in shape for the first ever stop of the snowboard World Cup tour in Bansko where this season's sole sprint races will take place from February 2 to 4 making the ski resort the second ever venue to host a snowboard World Cup event since Sofia 2007 (big air).

The preparations for the race are in full swing right now.

And in order to please the world's best athletes on a relatively short course, the designers and shapers of the latest addition to the sbx calendar opted for a technical start section which is placed on a steep face.

From there, riders will head into the main features which consist of a step down, triple, table top and final jumps varying in size from 16 to 22 metres.

It's a design, which looks promising as FIS Technical Advisor Alberto Schiavon, a former World Cup rider himself, states: “It should be a very good short show.”