Another win for Bankes, but Ulbricht surprises Grondin in Erzurum
Mar 01, 2025·Snowboard Cross)
Great Britain’s Charlotte Bankes took her fourth FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup victory of the season in Erzurum, Türkiye on Saturday, extending her lead in the overall standings.
Bankes is now just one win away from her 25th individual World Cup victory in her ninth season on the tour.
Lea Casta (FRA) consolidated her position in second overall with her fourth podium finish of the season in her fourth big final.
While Eliot Grondin (CAN) also continues to lead the overall standings on the men’s side, it was Leon Ulbricht (GER) who claimed first place in Erzurum after a superb big final – almost exactly a year after the 20-year-old took his first World Cup victory, in Sierra Nevada.
Experience pays off for Bankes
Charlotte Bankes and Lea Casta are leading the race for the women's Crytal Globe, and in Erzurum it was Casta who was fastest in qualification.
The Frenchwoman also looked strong in her quarterfinal and semifinal, and was joined in the big final by compatriot Julia Pereira for the second time this season.
In the other half of the draw, Bankes was slow out of the gates in the quarterfinal and was chasing down the rest of the field when Tess Critchlow (CAN) and Zoe Colombier (FRA) crashed. Bankes was able to avoid the collision and she progressed behind Michela Moioli (ITA). The semifinal was more straightforward, with Bankes and Josie Baff (AUS) the two leaders throughout, ahead of Moioli and Sina Siegenthaler (SUI).
In the big final, Bankes got a safe start behind Casta but found a way to overtake the French athlete about halfway down the course.
Casta kept the pressure on, with Baff also close behind. Pereira fell out to leave her rivals racing for the podiums and in the end it was Bankes who came through the line first, just 0.07 seconds ahead of Casta with Baff close behind. It was Baff’s third podium of the season.
“Then I saw the opportunity in (bank number) 3 to dive inside and came out with really quite a lot of speed, and then it was a big battle to stay in front. I was pushing to the end. I thought it was going to come back, because bank 7 wasn’t great, I could feel them on the outside, but I was like ‘I’m not letting go of this one’," Bankes said.
Moioli, who finished third the last time the tour visited Erzurum in 2018, had a good finish to win the small final for fifth place overall. Siegenthaler claimed sixth, ahead of Pia Zerkhold (AUT) and Noemie Wiedmer (SUI).
Belle Brockhoff (AUS), making her first World Cup start this season after a wrist injury, qualified and raced the quarterfinals, finishing last in her heat.
Bankes, Casta and Baff remain in first, second and third places overall, Bankes now with an 85-point lead over Casta. Moioli is fourth, and Manon Petit Lenoir (FRA) is fifth, narrowly ahead of Siegenthaler who beat her to a place in the semifinal in Türkiye.
Women's highlights
Ulbricht puts together perfect final and Baumgartner is back
The first round of the men’s racing in Erzurum brought plenty of excitement. While World Cup leader Eliot Grondin progressed safely, other big names missed out.
Omar Visintin (ITA), the victor in Erzurum in 2018, lost in the first round to Jake Vedder (USA) and Cameron Bolton (AUS). Cody Winters (USA), who took third place in Cortina d’Ampezzo in February, missed out in a photofinish to Cortina winner Aidan Chollet (FRA) after veteran Nick Baumgartner (USA) sailed through to win on the line.
Baumgartner produced another superb closing sprint in the quarterfinal ahead of Leon Ulbricht, pushing out Cortina winner Chollet. Martin Noerl (GER) also made it to the semifinals with two incredible finishes, moving through from the back of the pack in the closing straight both times.
In the first semifinal Grondin again led comfortably, with Julien Tomas (FRA) taking second place. After Lukas Pachner (AUT) crashed early on in the second semifinal, Ulbricht and Baumgartner were able to ride to the big final with Noerl unable to catch them.
In the big final, Grondin led out but Ulbricht took the lead by the third intermediate mark and clung on to the win. Baumgartner took third place, the 43-year-old clearly delighted with his first big final and first podium finish since second in Montafon in December 2021.
Tomas’s fourth place matches his best World Cup finish.
“I’m super happy. I fought in every single heat, through the big final, and then I put it all together in the big final and got first,” Ulbricht said.
Last year's rookie of the season Nathan Pare (USA) won the small final and secured his best World Cup result with fifth overall after surviving a clash with Pachner on the first corner. Noerl produced another superb overtake to claim sixth, with Leo le Ble Jacques (FRA) seventh and Pachner eighth.
Grondin now leads the overall standings by 130 points ahead of Ulbricht, who has leapfrogged Chollet into second. World champion Dusek is fourth overall and Bolton fifth.
Racing in Erzurum continues on Sunday 2 March with the first team event of the season. Finals begin at 13:30 local time (11:30 CET).
Meanwhile the World Cup season still has five individual events to go, with opportunities for riders to increase their points tallies in Gudauri, Montafon and Mont Sainte-Anne.
)
)
)
