Snowboard Cross World Cup
Today I had the chance to watch the Snowboard Cross World Cup live. I've seen snowboard competitions before but not snowboard cross. I knew nothing about the rules or the difficulties the riders have to face but till the end of thee competition I came to know a lot.
It's an interesting sport, I don't think it can be compared to any winter sports though. There are four rider taking the start at once and they have to slide down facing those artificially created hills and turns as well. The start is very important as you can loose important seconds there. Jumps are allowed and sometimes necessary but you need to control them as it can slow you down.
Today the weather conditions were not the best. Austria, the hosting country is perfect as a location as the Alps give the participants the chance to have the required venue but still, the weather in Montafon is unpredictable. Today for example it was snowing pretty seriously and fog was expected. Snowing was ok, it wasn't too much but fog would have made it more harder for everyone, good thing it didn't happen during the competition.
The participant countries were all countries with winter sport tradition and with snow as well. I'm not sure about Australia as there were participants but the commentator said they are training in Europe, he named two countries but unfortunately I forgot both of them as the volume of new information was too high.
The men's competition was won by the Austrian Alessandro Haemmerle who had an exceptional performance today. I saw all the participants and he was the only one crossing the finish line with a meter or do in front of the others. I didn't envy him today at all the pressure on him was huge. He was competing at home, which can be an advantage as he may have known the slope but on the other hand everyone was expecting him to win. This is a double edge sward, some are motivated by this, while others are intimidated. He admitted that he has felt the pressure but he did good.
The women's competition was won by the Czech Eva Samkova, who has the habit of competing with a mustache. It looks awful if you ask me but she says it's for luck and today that ugly mustache brought her the victory.
It's a fun spot even though it's not knee friendly one. I was wondering how much damage the sport does to their knees.
Tomorrow is another day and I hope to see some cool sport events again.