Sylvie Paillard
[email protected]
Local snowboarder Tom Velisek was back on the World Cup racing circuit with Team Canada in Northern Italy Saturday, Jan. 14. After two races in Austria, which garnered Velisek a bronze, it was off to face the steep and short course in Kronplatz, Italy.
"The course was very short and simple, so it made the qualifying times very tight," said Velisek. "So close in fact that all 32 riders that qualified were within one second. I ended up tying for 10th with a Swedish rider."
The course was treacherous for all the boardercross racers, and Velisek said he was less confident after watching American Shawn Palmer tear his Achilles tendon and Xavier Delarue of France break his ankle.
"I decided to ease off going into the first corner and play it safe," said Velisek. "Unfortunately you don't win when you play it safe so I was out in the first round and finished 19th."
Team Canada's Jasey-Jay And-erson of Mont-Tremblant, Que., and Dominique Maltais of Montreal had better races, winning their respective B finals to finish in fifth place.
Team Canada's next stop is Aspen, Colorado beginning Saturday (Jan. 28) for the Winter X Games.
The games will be broadcast on ABC with boardercross quaterfinals on Saturday, semifinals on Sunday and finals on Tuesday (Jan. 31) from 9 to 11 p.m. central time.
