Less than a week after the tour kick-off in France, the riders will be visiting the contest face in Fieberbrunn on Friday. In Chamonix, there was still a lot of uncertainty as to whether it would be possible to ride the tried and tested contest face, the Wildseeloder, at all. Repeated rainfall at over 2000m above sea level in recent weeks had taken its toll on the snow cover. Rumors about replacement faces were already doing the rounds and well-known locals such as former Freeride World Tour starter Ursl Wohlschlager were constantly asked for situation reports. However, with two heavy snowfalls in the last week, the start in Fieberbrunn now seems to have been saved and the participants can prepare for one of the most popular stops on the tour.
New names in the starting field
With Nicola Thost (GER), Janina Kuzma (NZL, Ski Women Halfpipe 5th place) and "European Freeskier of the Year " Markus Eder (ITA, Ski Men Slopestyle 15th place) are joined by not only another Olympic starter, but even an Olympic champion. The winner of the halfpipe snowboard competition in Nagano in 1998 and current patron of the "Springboard" campaign (a talent scouting series) will be competing in the women's snowboard competition for the first time on the Freeride World Tour. Tom Leitner from Bavaria is not a new face on the tour. The former World Tour rider will replace the injured Fabio Studer with a wild card, who injured his knee after a backflip and subsequent rollover at the first stop and will be out for at least four weeks. Tom, who is remembered by many for his freestyle tricks in the FWT competitions, is likely to have fond memories of Fieberbrunn, having won an FWQ here in 2009. This gives Felix Wiemers from Germany one more reason to show in Fieberbrunn why he rightly received a wildcard for the entire season.
The battle for the points for Alaska enters the penultimate round
The first cut will take place after the third stop of the FWT in Andorra in mid-February, and only some of the riders will travel to the coveted stop in Haines Alaska. That's why some of them will have to step up their game in Fieberbrunn to have a realistic chance of getting a ticket to the far north. Innsbruck's Fabi Lentsch and Alex Hoffmann will have to step up their game after crashing in the first stop, as will Felix Wiemers (21st place with a mediocre run in which he missed his second feature). It will also be interesting to see how Sam Smoothy responds, who cannot be satisfied with the scoring of his run in Chamonix (some riders who crashed differently to him were ahead of him in the final ranking). Eva Walkner (AUT) and Flo Orley (AUT) have put themselves in a good starting position with a 1st place in the women's skiing and a 3rd place in the men's snowboarding. It remains to be seen whether they want to consolidate their position with a safety run or perhaps even book their ticket to Alaska early with a full attack. Stefan Häusl (AUT) is currently close to making the cut. Due to an illness, he showed a noticeably weakened safety run and is currently in 15th place. It will be interesting to see whether he can show the youngsters how to stay on the tour for a long time again this year with consistent runs in the top 10, as he did last season.
The start is currently scheduled for Saturday, 31 January 2015 from 08:30. The organizers have to confirm the contest 36 hours before the start. This means that on Thursday evening it will finally be clear whether the race will actually take place on the Wildseeloder on Saturday. The whole contest will be livestreamed on PowderGuide.com. On Sunday, the Juniors will follow with their series. In the second competition of this series with a total of 3 stops, the performance of Hank Bilous (NZL) will be particularly exciting. The 17-year-old New Zealander has already impressed with podium finishes in the adult category at the Chill Series and the New Zealand Open!
