ASPEN — It may seem a bit unorthodox to hold the Super Bowl before the regular season, but in the budding world of skiercross racing, that’s the way it’s playing out.
By all accounts, today’s skier X competition at Winter X Games 12 will qualify as the paramount competition on the 2008 skiercross calendar. From Aspen, the majority of the invited field will move over to Park City, Utah, on Saturday for the first World Cup skiercross competition ever held in North America, then to Squaw Valley, Calif., a week later for the second stop on the Jeep King of the Mountain Series, the only multiple-race series in America.
The cart-before-horse mentality has become something of a trend as the head-to-head discipline described as a fusion of downhill skiing and motocross racing continues to rev up the revolution and roll toward Olympic medal status in 2010. Many of the sport’s top competitors already haven taken their crack at Olympic glory, dusting off a skill set developed through years of regimented training and returning to the starting gate to apply the advantage of experience to a sport with hardly any history.
Thus far, the strategy has worked better for some than others.
“I don’t think you can tell exactly why someone might be better at skiercross than traditional alpine,” said Denver resident Tyler Shepherd, named the inaugural skiercross coach for the U.S. Ski Team. “You can tell a person exactly what to anticipate coming into the sport. Then it’s in their best interest to do what you say, or they can learn the hard way.”
Among those to earn their degree through the school of hard knocks is former U.S. Olympic Ski Team member Daron Rahlves, the most accomplished alpine speed skier in American history with 28 podium finishes in World Cup downhill, super G and giant slalom races before retiring in 2006.
Jumping into the skier X — which is what skiercross is referred to in the X Games — last year, Rahlves set the pace with the fastest time in the qualifying time trial, won his quarterfinal and semifinal heats, then crashed in the final — just as he did in every other skiercross he entered last year.
“The head-to-head format is way more intense. You can really ski your own race. You’re always behind somebody so you’re always adjusting,” Rahlves said. “Like in qualifying, I know the fast line to take, but in the heats you can’t really take that. If you give anyone room, someone’s going to sneak inside and you’ll get passed.”
On the other side of the fence is four-time Olympian Casey Puckett of Aspen, who transitioned into a skiercross star despite a lack of tangible success over 12 years on the World Cup racing circuit. Since entering his first skiercross race at the X Games in 2003, Puckett has reached the finals at Winter X every year but one (2003), won the gold medal twice and won five of the eight skiercross races he entered last season.
To hear him tell it, skiercross has as much to do with personality profile as it does with racing skill.
“If I were to put finger on it, No. 1, it has to do with being a competitive guy,” Puckett said. “In alpine racing, it’s man against mountain. In skiercross, it’s man against man against mountain. When I go out in a skiercross race, I look at the person next to me and I want to be in front.”
Shepherd, who has Puckett pegged to anchor the first U.S. Skiercross Team, which will be announced this spring, agrees.
“Whenever you are head-to-head with someone, it brings out a different kind of competitiveness,” Shepherd said. “One, you don’t want to get beat. And, two, you get immediate feedback, say, if you scrub a turn and a guy comes up on you. So you learn on the fly.”
The competitive instinct is but one of the subtle nuances that seem to separate alpine racing from skiercross. No one doubts the competitive fire in a guy like Rahlves, for example, but his results ultimately reflect the way he handles himself in the unfamiliar circumstance of sharing the course with up to five other racers at once.
“We call it being comfortable in traffic,” Puckett said. “Some people aren’t comfortable being surrounded by five other guys doing 60 mph, poles hitting you in the face, passing and being passed and still focusing on your skiing.
“It’s a lot different than alpine. In alpine, you’re really focused on your turns. In skiercross, there’s a lot more going on and you have to make a lot more split-second decisions. You have to compartmentalize a little bit more.”
And, surprisingly enough, you have to be more patient. Sometimes those competitive juices can get the best of you.
“The start of the course is extremely important. If you are out just a third or a half a ski length from the start, that’s a big difference that you have to make up already,” Shepherd said.
Of course, if you’re out in front from the start, there shouldn’t be any problem. To that end, Rahlves has gone so far as to buy a skiercross starting gate, which he set up in his backyard near Lake Tahoe, Calif.
“I think it’s just a matter of practice, trying to figure out the right technique,” Rahlves said. “And then it’s just getting strong in the start. I’ve never had to do that before. At my first skiercross race, I was so nervous up there I felt like I was going to puke.”
Danger is their business
Skiercross is simply go fast and don’t crash. The event has progressed in the past 10 years and will be in the next Olympics. Four to six racers line up in the starting gate, and the first one down wins. It’s all based on speed, no style points involved. This year’s X course is just short of a mile long and has 15 features or jumps. How it has been brought along:
Feb. 1997: First organized skiercross event at Homewood Ski Resort in Lake Tahoe, Calif., called the “Lord of the Boards” Tour.
Jan. 1998: Skier X debuts at Winter X Games 2.
Nov. 2003: First season sanctioned as a World Cup sport under the FIS (International Ski Federation).
Nov. 2006: IOC announces skiercross will be a medal sport at the 2010 Games in Vancouver.
Jan. 2007: First event of the new Honda Ski Tour, which has skiercross events sanctioned by the U.S. Ski Association.
Feb. 2008: First skiercross World Cup event in the United States is Saturday in Park City, Utah.
Sunday’s events
11 a.m.-1 p.m. Ski slopestyle elimination
12-2 p.m. Skier X men’s and women’s finals
12:45-2:30 p.m. Snowmobile freestyle elimination
2:30-2:45 p.m. Mono skier X final
2:30-4 p.m. Ski slopestyle final
7-7:45 p.m. Snowmobile freestyle final
7:30-9 p.m. Snowboard superpipe men’s final
Scott Willoughby: 303-954-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com
X Games
AT BUTTERMILK MOUNTAIN
In Aspen
SNOWBOARD SLOPESTYLE
MEN
Finals (best run listed)
1. Andreas Wiig92.00 points
2. Kevin Pearce88.33
3. Shaun White83.33
4. Eero Ettala82.66
5. Heikki Sorsa77.00
6. Charles Guldemond76.33
7. Mason Aguirre63.66
8. Mikkel Bang51.33
9. Mathieu Crepel43.00
10. Jussi Oksanen42.00
WOMEN
Finals
1. Jamie Anderson90.66 points
2. Claudia Fliri86.33
3. Spencer O’Brien80.00
4. Jenny Jones72.00
5. Marie-France Roy68.33
6. Megan Ginter63.66
7. Cheryl Maas36.66
8. Alexis Waite38.00
9. Erin Comstock28.00
10. Leanne Pelosi17.33
SNOWBOARDER X
MEN
Finals
1. Nate Holland93.48 seconds
2. Markus Schairer93.81
3. David Speiser95.80
4. Graham Watanabe104.42
5. Seth Wescott109.23
6. Derek Wintermans119.85
WOMEN
Finals
1. Lindsey Jacobellis102.00 seconds
2. Tanja Fredien102.67
3. Sandra Frei104.33
4. Dominique Maltais104.62
5. Mellie Francon112.05
6. Zoe Gillings126.88
SNOWBOARD SUPERPIPE
MEN
Qualifying
(Best run listed, finals today)
Ryoh Aono 92.33 points; Shaun White 88.33; Mason Aguirre 85.00; Danny Kass 80.00; Iouri Podladtchikov 78.33.
Kevin Pearce 75.00; Kazuhiro Kokubo 72.33; Antti Autti 70.00; Gary Zebrowski 68.66; Elijah Teter 68.00.
Jack Mitrani 67.66; J.J. Thomas 67.33; Risto Mattila 66.00; Tommy Czeschin 59.66; Louie Vito 48.00.
Guildemond 36.00; Andy Finch 32.66; Brad Martin 24.33; Scotty Lago 17.66; Steve Fisher 15.00.
SNOWBOARD BIG AIR
MEN
Semifinals
Kevin Pearce def. Andreas Wiig, 3-0
Torstein Horgmo def. Travis Rice, 2-1
Finals
Torstein Horgmo def. Kevin Pearce, 3-0
SNOCROSS
MEN
Finals
1. Tucker Hibbert
2. Brett Turcotte
3. D.J. Eckstrom
4. Steve Taylor; 5. Zach Pattyn; 6. Levi LaVallee; 7. Ross Martin; 8. Robbie Malinoski; 9. Shaun Crapo; 10. Willie Elam; 11. Dave Allard; 12. T.J. Gulla.
