A generous sprinkling of snow gave unique images of Breuil-Cervinia, the famous Aosta Valley resort where the first of the two scheduled races of the snowboard cross World Cup took place today. Great job by the organizers, on the track from the early hours of the morning to clean the track and ensure the show. France and Austria dominated race-1, with one double in the women’s and one in the men’s.
In the women’s final, the transalpine Chloe Trespeuch and Manon Petit Lenoir took off right from the start, arriving in order. For the 28-year-old from Val Thorens it is the fourth success in her career, while for the 24-year-old it is the third podium in her career. Third position for the British Charlotte Bankes, who started as one of the favourites. The small final was ruled by Eva Adamczykova, who finished in front of a pair of Italians: Caterina Carpano and Sofia Belingheri, sixth and seventh.
In the men’s competition it is the Olympic champion Alessandro Haemmerle who raises his arms in front of the Matterhorn. He preceded his compatriot Jakob Dusek, winner on track 26 of Breuil-Cervinia last year. Another good race for the German Martin Noerl, third after the success of Les Deux Alpes. Tenth position for Lorenzo Sommariva, best of the Italians, fourteenth for Omar Visintin; then 24th Michele Godino, 30th Filippo Ferrari and 32nd Niccolò Colturi, just nineteen and with the best result in his career.
The show will continue tomorrow, when the Valle d’Aosta locality will recover a Montafon race, which should have been held in a few days, with an even more intense programme. In the early morning the heats with the first 64 males and the best 32 females of the Fis ranking, the first two of each heat will go through and compete in the World Cup race which will start at 11. The World Cup leaders are Chloe Trespeuch and Martin Noerl.
