DARON Rahlves started off the World Cup Finals in Sestriere, Italy, with a downhill win yesterday, making him the top American downhill racer of all time.
The win, which took place on the 2006 Olympic downhill course, was Rahlves sixth of the season and allowed him to clinch second place in the discipline standings for the second year in a row. Hermann Maier of Austria and Bode Miller finished out of the points, which go to only the Top 15 finishers at Finals.
The last four races of the alpine season are being staged in Sestriere, the alpine site for the 2006 Games. Outdoor Life Network will broadcast same-day coverage Saturday at 7 p.m. of Miller’s bid to win the giant slalom title; he heads into the last GS with a 61-point margin over his nearest competitor.
Steve Fisher kept it rolling Sunday with a $12,000 win in the Triple Crown at Northstar-at-Tahoe for his second consecutive snowboarding victory. Fisher posted his first World Cup win last weekend in Japan. Fellow U.S. Snowboarding rider Hannah Teter was second behind Olympic gold medallist Kelly Clark from Mount Snow, Vt. Fisher’s winning run opened with a 20-foot frontside air to his signature backside 540 to a 1080 followed by a cab 720 to a frontside 900 and capped with a backside 720 for one of the most technical runs on record.
Lindsey Jacobellis extended her World Cup win streak to four Saturday topping the women’s snowboard cross at the Mt. Bachelor Snowboard Classic.
The win comes just one week after the 18-year-old U.S. Snowboarding riders historic sweep of the Joetsu, Japan World Cup, where she won two SBX races before capping the weekend with a win in halfpipe. On the year, Jacobellis has won every SBX that she’s entered, including four World Cups, the U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix in Mammoth Mountain, Cal., and the X Games.
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On March 20, at Stratton, Vt., the U.S. Open’s most anticipated and long-standing event, the halfpipe finals, takes place. Annually attended by the top riders in the world, the U.S. Open halfpipe competition is widely recognized as the best contest of the season. The major contenders in last year’s halfpipe finals, including Shaun White, Hannah Teter, Danny Kass, Kazuhiro Kokubo, Daniel Franck, Kjersti Buaas, Ross Powers and Kelly Clark, plan to be back to compete for a U.S. Open title.
Wrapping things up at the Open is the slopestyle contest and the Junior Jam event March 21. In true Open fashion, the 2004 slopestyle contest will give riders what they asked for – the same prize money as winners of the Open halfpipe finals – $20,000. The Junior Jam is open to riders 13 years old and under and is where the future of the sport dukes it out for a coveted spot on the U.S. Open podium.