Dual Olympian Alex ‘Chumpy’ Pullin remains on top of the World Cup Snowboard Cross rankings after winning bronze last night in Cervinia, Italy.  
 
Pullin, who opened his season with a double gold weekend in Argentina, had retained his number 1 status despite electing not contest the finals at Montafon, Austria last week due to risky weather conditions.
 
Opening his Cervinia campaign in emphatic fashion and facing a large field of 79 riders, Pullin qualified in second place on his opening run, guaranteeing a top 16 seeding and entry to the 32-man final. Team mates Cam Bolton and Adam Lambert joined Pullin in the top 32 after hard racing in their second qualifying runs.
 
Pullin and Lambert both won their heats in the opening round of the finals and with Cam Bolton all moved through to the quarters, where Pullin again won but Lambert and Bolton were out in narrow thirds.
 
Experience and smart tactics in the semi delivered Pullin his third medal final of the season – an opportunity he was happy take.
 
“I had a good race and very happy to get a podium and continue to lead the world cup standings,” Pullin said. 
 
“The conditions were challenging with high wind which changed the speed of the features, but I managed to keep a good rhythm and make it to the podium.”
 
The bronze medal win at Cervinia marks his 21st World Cup medal in an international career that began in 2007 and which has included back-to-back World Championship wins and Crystal Globes. 
 
Cam Bolton had a return to the form and a result that he has been after for three seasons as the second highest qualifying Australian and final 10th place.
 
Like Bolton, Adam Lambert narrowly missed the semi-finals and finished overall in 12th.
 
Jarryd Hughes, who just five days ago won the Montafon World Cup, was disappointed to miss the top 32 qualifying time by 0.04 seconds, finding himself in 33rd position and out of the finals.  Matthew Thomas placed 41st,   Adam Dickson 52nd and Josh Miller 72nd.
 
The next Snowboard Cross World Cup will be contested in Ezerum, Turkey on January 19.

Despite suffering a serious knee injury last week, Snowboard Cross athlete Belle Brockhoff has declared she will do everything she can to make the start line at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games.  
 
The 24-year-old suffered a bad crash in training in heavy weather conditions last week in Val Thorens, rupturing her ACL and chipping cartilage in her knee, forcing her to undergo surgery yesterday in Melbourne. 
 
But a determined Brockhoff has said even this won’t stop her from a second Olympic campaign. 
 
"I’m not giving up on the dream so easily," Brockhoff said. 
"I will be giving it my very best to come back since I know I'll regret it if I don't."
 
“I feel confident I can come back for the Olympics and perform as best I can."
 
2018 Chef de Mission, Ian Chesterman said the entire Olympic Team is behind her decision to push ahead towards the Olympic Games.
 
“Whilst this is a setback, Belle is still focussed on going to PyeongChang,” Chesterman said. 
 
“Her medical team have put a plan in place to treat the injury to give her every opportunity to compete in PyeongChang.
 
“Belle understands the risks involved in attempting to compete in PyeongChang but we will support her in every way possible to achieve her dream of competing at the Olympic Games next year.”
 
The Sochi Olympian has had an unfortunate 12 months of injury, starting with a crash at the 2017 World Championships in March, which saw her tear her ACL. 
 
After a intense five month rehabilitation period, the Melbourne-native got back on her board in August at Mt Buller, hoping to kick start her 2018 Olympic campaign.
 
"I know I have the support of my family, the OWI and the Australian Olympic Committee. Everyone is doing everything they can to get me back on a board in time for February."
 
Brockhoff finished the 2016/2017 season, third on the women’s world rankings and finished 8th in her Olympic debut four years ago in Sochi, Russia.

AOC

Australia’s exceptional start to the Snowboard Cross season has continued after Jarryd Hughes claimed the top spot on the podium at the World Cup event in Montafon, Austria last night.
 
After finishing 26th in qualification, Hughes confidently progressed through the eight final, quarter-finals and semis to make the four-man big final.
 
It was there that the NSWIS rider showed his best as he held off local favourites Alessandro Haemmerle and Markus Scharer of Austria to take the gold medal.
 
"I am absolutely stoked with this result," Hughes said.
 
"I have been working incredibly hard in the off season, so it feels amazing to have that pay off at this event.
 
"This is my second career World Cup win and it's given me a huge confidence boost heading into the Olympic season."
 

With the final featuring Olympic Champions and World Cup winners, Hughes knew he had to be in his best form to secure a victory.
 
“It was a great race with a super-hot and competitive field,” said the 22-year-old Sydney-sider.
 
“I knew I had to step up, calm any nerves and just put down the best run I could.
 
“The fact I was able to execute and get the win feels awesome.”
 
Both Matt Thomas (12th) and last week’s silver medallist Adam Lambert (16th) were knocked out in the quarter-finals. Alex ‘Chumpy’ Pullin chose to sit out of finals racing and rest up after a crash in training before qualifying.
 
“The depth of Australia’s snowboard cross athlete in the OWIA/NSWIS program is unbelievable right now,” Hughes said with this result seeing Pullin remain on top of the overall World Cup standings, with Hughes now in fourth and Lambert in fifth after four of twelve World Cups.
 
“It puts our country in a great spot leading into the Olympics and that is really exciting.”
 
 

After coming out all guns blazing last season Australia’s Adam Lambert has proved that he’s a force to be reckoned with, finishing second in the FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup at Val Thorens, France overnight.
 
Lambert’s incredible result isn’t the only cause for celebration though, with the 20-year-old and his fellow OWIA teammate Alex ‘Chumpy’ Pullin having now taken out first and second places on the overall World Cup Standing.
 
“I’m super stoked, best result I’ve ever had,” a jubilant Lambert said.
 
“The whole day I was in second place, but those first few heats I was working pretty hard to get through. I was a bit slow at the start, I was in third and I was making my moves the last two, three turns but I got through.
 
“I feel like I raced really well and I backed up my qualification. Not quite the first place, but pretty close.”
 
The PyeongChang hopeful is the only Australian to have previously competed at Val Thorens, coming first in two of his races at the French resort during the 2016 Europa Cup.

Pullin said that he had a feeling on the morning of the finals that Lambert was going to have a great race day, especially after coming first in the qualifiers.
 
“He came in here, he’d raced here last year. He was feeling the groove early on in the track, put a lot of that into play, won qualifying convincingly and then this morning when we were just warming up, I looked over at him and I’m like, ‘Man!’,” he said.
 
“I didn’t want to jinx him but I was like ‘This kid’s got it, today he’s in the vibe’.
 
“I’m just so pumped for him. Since starting to ride with him, especially the last year, year-and-a-half when he’s been on tour he’s just really put in some good performances and this one especially.”
 
Sochi Olympian Cam Bolton placed 27th overall after coming fourth in his eighth final alongside fellow Australian Matt Thomas who came 16th. Meanwhile, after progressing through to the quarterfinals, Josh Miller ranked 11th.
 
Despite coming second in the qualification runs on Tuesday, a fall in his final meant that OWIA athlete Jarryd Hughes came in at 25th following the conclusion of the World Cup.
 
Following double gold in Argentina earlier this year, Pullin said that every single run for him at Val Thorens “was a challenge” but nevertheless, the two-time Olympian managed to gain enough points to keep him in the top spot overall after finishing sixth.
 
“And now in the rankings, the first ever in history Australia [is] one and two in the world – it blows my mind,” he said.
 
“I’m so happy and it’s just really cool because we put in a lot of work, we enjoy it, we love our sport. Everyone’s having a good time. Lambo’s comment that really turned my head this morning, he just said ‘I’m just buzzing man, look at what we do. It’s just so fun.”
 
Pullin raced in the finals against long-time rival and Frenchman Pierre Vaultier, who finished seventh.
 
“We’ve had an incredible rivalry throughout our time, met him in the second round and we went the whole way through,” he said.
 
“He didn’t make it to the [big] final either so it was really on my mind to beat him in the small final, which I got the pass at the last turn. I had to elbow the fence out of the way and make some room in the track and that’s really cool.”
 
The team will now have one day off before they’re back in the start gate again in Montafon, Switzerland. 

Dave Barden
OWIA
 
 

Sochi Olympian and Snowboard Cross athlete, Belle Brockhoff has suffered a crash in Val Thorens and will now return to Australia to assess the damage. 

"This definitely wasn't the return I had hoped for," said Brockhoff who was hoping to compete in her first World Cup at the French event.

"The visibility was horrendous so I couldn't see the take off on a feature. I missed the timing and landed funky."
After a year of injury problems that included surgery in March and only getting back on the snow in August, the Melbourne-native is remaining positive.

"Right now I believe it is bone bruising but I'll get a MRI in Austria this Friday.

"It is what it is really, there was a lot of positives that came from yesterday regardless of the crash."

Brockhoff said she had hit the benchmarks she had set for herself and it was just an unfortunate occurrence.

"Anyone could of made that mistake. There were a bunch of crashes on that course, even Eva Samkova (2014 Olympic Champion) crashed and now needs surgery.

"I don't feel I came back too early or wasn't ready, it was just unlucky. I am flying home to do my rehab and get stronger."

Brockhoff said the thing she was most disappointed in was not being able to defend her title at Montafon this week.

"I'm a little bummed I can't do the next few races but I want to be in the sport for a long time so I'm thinking about the bigger picture."

The 24-year-old was excited for her Australian team-mate Adam Lambert, who took home the silver medal at the World Cup event.

"I'm so stoked for Adam for his first ever World Cup podium, a huge congratulations to him."

Brockhoff said 20-year-old Lambert's silver medal overnight is a step in the right direction for the next generation of Aussie snowboard cross athletes.

"I'm so excited by younger athletes coming up through the ranks, it's great for our sport and the future of Australian snowboarding," she said. "Plus it lights the fire under our bums and gives us a run for our money."

Ashleigh Knight
olympics.com.au 

​Australia’s Snowboard Cross athletes will kick off the FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup Cross Alps Tour in Val Thorens, France this week no less than three months after their last World Cup in Cerro Catedral, Argentina.
 
Adam Lambert, who came out all guns blazing last season winning three Europa World Cups – two of which were in Val Thorens – said that he’s in “a pretty good spot going into the next few races”.
 
“365 days ago I would not be thinking that I would be here. Everything last year had to go almost perfectly to the tee, I got those two wins at Val Thorens and that win at Grasgehren a month later and that just got me my first start,” he said.
 
“But if I hadn’t gotten those I probably wouldn’t have gotten start in Feldberg and if I hadn’t gotten seventh at Feldberg I probably wouldn’t have been able to race in Sierra Nevada at the World Championships.
 
“So everything last season happened really quick and it happened in a really good order for me I feel and I’m super excited.”
 
While the 20-year-old is the only one out of his OWIA teammates to have competed in Val Thorens, he believes it only gives him a “minute advantage” coming into the World Cup.
 
“The course is not going to be the same, Europa Cup course is smaller, it’s only made for four people. When we go to the World Cup it’s going to be much bigger, it’s going to be made for six people in the line,” he said.
 
“I guess I know the mountain but I don’t know the course, maybe there is a slight advantage there but I wouldn’t say it’s anything … it’s nothing major.”
 
As for the rest of the Aussies, the thought of having never competed in Val Thorens before doesn’t faze them at all – after all, as coach Ben Wordsworth pointed out, the team hadn’t competed in Cerro Catedral before either.
 
“We went to Argentina as well and we hadn’t been there before on that course and our guys are good, they’re good with learning courses pretty quickly through their skill level,” he said.
 
“I’m sure our guys will be quick.”
 
OWIA athlete and Sochi Olympian, Jarryd Hughes, added that the advantage of there having never been a World Cup in Val Thorens means “everyone is on a pretty level playing field”.
 
“I have been preparing for this event really well with the Reign Snowboarding team, we had an amazing camp in Finland and I think it’s setting me up for a great season ahead,” he said.

Sochi Olympian Cam Bolton is relishing the opportunity to compete at a fresh venue, which he believes will be “a good chance to race everyone on a new course”.
 
“People haven’t ridden the course, it’s not like [there’s] particular fall lines which people can look out for and have an advantage from previous years,” he said.
 
“It’s a really good opportunity to go and test yourself out and pick up the course as quick as you can and put down your best performance. By the time finals roll round you’ve probably had eight or nine runs in the course in total over a couple of days.”
 
Two-time Olympian Alex ‘Chumpy’ Pullin will head into the first event of the Cross Alps Tour after winning double gold in Argentina at the last World Cup meet -- but he’s taking it one day at a time and considers each race a fresh start.
 
“Winning the last two races doesn’t put me any step ahead for that next race in terms of deciding Val Thorens as a result. It doesn’t put me any further towards the finish line than any other of my competitors. We will all still start at the start line – even,” he said.
 
“I’ve been waking up every single day thinking about boards and working on the way I eat and training, imagining racing and trying to pull all these little tiny threads out of who I am as a competitor and as a person and how to be better every day so that when I get to the race I can win.”
 
Lambert, Bolton and Pullin recently joined up with Belle Brockhoff, to train in Pitztal, Austria ahead of the Cross Alps tour.
 
Brockhoff, who has already been in Europe for two months working on her technique, said that it was great to have her teammates around so that they could all work off of each other.
 
“The guys are a lot stronger than I am, so Cam, Chumpy and Adam are a lot faster,” Brockhoff said.
 
“I can jump in with any one of those guys and be challenged, which is awesome.”
 
The 24-year-old Sochi Olympian says that she’s heading into Val Thorens “aiming to compete” but just eight-and-a-half months out of knee surgery her number one priority will be to not risk another injury, taking it “day-by-day, heat-by-heat”.
 
“I don’t feel held back at all by my knee, I don’t think about my knee when I’m riding, I’m just purely working on technique,” she said.
 
“I’ll watch the course testing, I’ll do the training if everything is up for it.”
 
Val Thorens signals the start of a jam-packed schedule that will see our Aussies compete in three World Cups within two weeks crossing the European continent and racing in Montafon, Austria and Cervinia, Italy.
 
You can keep up to date with the live results HERE and on OWIA’s Twitter account. 

David Barden
OWIA