Just last weekend, I competed in another set of boardercross events, both at Ski Cooper once again, and as I said I would do before, I improved. The first weekend, I took two 9th places, not even making it out of my heat once. But the second weekend, things changed. First, there were only 9 competitors the second weekend, compared to the 16 that raced on the first weekend. So I don’t think that 100% of the improvement in ranking was based on skill. Just wanting to put that out there. Anyways, onto the retelling.
Last Saturday, I took third in my first heat, but since there were only 9 people, and my first heat was technically the semifinal, I got to race in another round, the consolation final. In the consolation final, I took second place after two riders fell, and placed 6th overall. You can watch the video below (I’m in gate 1, closest to the camera).
Jadyn’s heat, which was just a final because there were only 4 girls, was extremely fun to watch. She tried a type of start called the pressure-start (where your board is pushed up against the start gate so that your board gets out of the starting gate as quickly as possible), which she had only practiced once, and it payed off. She took the lead right out of the gate, and held it until the second turn, where her friend Anika passed her. You can view that video below (Jadyn’s the one in the blue)
Sunday turned out even better. In the first heat, I took second place, which put me in finals. During finals, we all started super close to each other, with all four of us battling for position around the first turn. I moved into third place, and stayed that way until the end of the race, where I skidded out over the third to last turn, and ended up taking 4th, both in the heat and overall. If there’s one thing that I’m striving for in boardercross, it’s a top-3 finish on the podium. Unfortunately, that was the last Ski Cooper boardercross event, so I’m going to have to wait until next month to attempt to take a medal again. On a higher note, with that fourth place finish I am now ranked #40 in the country, and hopefully I can improve that ranking at Crested Butte later this season. But for now, it’s back to trying to land some 540’s in the park!