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Saas-Fee, Switzerland – Oct. 22, 2005 Snowboard Cross HOLLAND WINS, JACOBELLIS THIRD IN SAAS-FEE SBX SAAS-FEE Switzerland (Oct.22) – U.S. Snowboarding’s Nate Holland (Olympic Valley, CA) got creative this summer, practicing start after start out of a custom-built, spring-loaded start gate he set up just out his front door, pointed down the driveway. On his skateboard, he would mentally “trick” himself into believing he was in a World Cup snowboardcross final, just like he was Saturday in Saas-Fee. But Saturday’s victory was no mental mirage: Holland took top honors for the second World Cup win of his career, while teammate Lindsey Jacobellis (Stratton Mtn., VT) was third in the women’s event.
Holland, who qualified ninth, practically got a bye in the first heat when two of the riders in his heat withdrew because of injury. “I still ran the course full-speed, settling into things,” he said. Once he advanced to the final eight, Holland said he “went for it all the way.” In his semi-final heat, Holland was third going into part of the course that cuts through a tunnel. “I took a gutsy inside line, laid my guts out, and was able to make the move.” In the final, it was France’s Xavier Delarue who got the hole shot, taking an outside line. Like his previous heat, Holland chose an inside line and took the lead when he saw Delarue “fly over the handlebars” coming off the first hip jump. Holland was alone in the lead for a short period of time before feeling body contact from behind from Italian Francesco Sandrini. Holland managed to get out ahead of Sandrini and cross the finish line first. “He definitely trained hard this summer and is super-motivated,” said U.S. Snowboarding Head Coach and Head SBX Coach Peter Foley. “Like all our riders here, he made such a huge improvement on this course over the four days. He just kept working it out, getting faster and faster.” In the women’s contest, reigning world SBX champion Jacobellis was on the podium for the second consecutive day after placing third in the halfpipe contest Friday. Jacobellis qualified eighth, then proceeded to win her first two heats of the finals. Foley said she got “tangled up” twice in the big final, including a crash with Dominique Maltais (CAN) that practically knocked the pair off-course and forced them to hike the face of a jump to get back into the race. “I’m most excited about the progress everyone made this week,”
said Foley, who takes his squad to Whistler, B.C., Dec. 8-11 for the next
World Cup SBX.
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