Team News
48Straight
Mar 18 2008
Sun Valley, ID 48 Straight Jeep Tour
This weekend was the final event to the 48 Straight Jeep Tour in Sun Valley, ID. The skicross course was a little over a minute and stacked with good terrain by our friendly builder Corely Howard. He threw in rollers in the turns, step downs, step ups and gave us some speed to work with. It pulled out some dynamic skiing from all us and made for good racing. (I posted one pov run of Errol Kerr and me on a practice run.) We had a mix of weather, sun and snow, but the speed was still good in the middle and bottom. I had a wire to wire win in the 1st round. Quarters I battled it out with Errol, Jake Fiala and the Norweigen Audun Gronvold. Audun and I dragged race to the finish line in Errol's draft and I snuck into the next round. Next up was a heavy one in my semis with Davey Barr and Chris Delbosco the Canadiens and me and Errol. I got worked on the top flat and they pulled away. In the rollers I pulled up on the pack and snuck on the inside of Errol. Then Davey out jumped the step up and I made an outside inside move in the air to take over 2nd and dropped in on Delbosco's tails. Around the willow turn I got a little jacked on the second of three rollers and almost rode it into the fence. Squeeked by on that and managed to keep the speed to stay in front of those two and advance to the final. The final was me and Delbosco with Tomas Kraus the Chech and another Canadien Stanley Hayer. Out of the start Delbosco pulled out in front with Kraus, Stan and me trailing. I pulled up on Stan at the end of the rollers and he moved over to protect the inside. I had just enough room to slip by him and the next gate, but then his right leg came over and clipped my left ski and sent me to the ground. You kidding me! Again in Sun Valley??? So with a pounding headache and bummed I didn't get a chance to battle it out on the hill I let emotions take over. I skied to the finish and got in Stan's face. Looking back it's funny I even did it. That's the nature of skicross. That happens all the time. After confronting Stanley I had a chance to see on the tv feed that my ski tip flattened out his tail and sent his ski into mine. Stan handled it well and took my abuse. Sorry but I had to vent and thanks for dealing with it. IT's all good. Last year the same thing happened in the finals where I went down and I was looking for redemtion. It's fine closing the line down and trying to hold someone off, but don't take a cheap shot. I was wrong in thinking he did it intentionally. So that's that. With a crash in the final I ended up 4th and that put me 3rd overall for the series. Not the way I wanted it to end, but have to say it was a fun day with lots of emotions flowing. Thanks to my sponsors Atomic, Red Bull, Spyder, Oakley, Giro, Under Armour and Sugar Bowl for the support this year at XGames and The 48 Straight Jeep Tour. Now it's time to find some pow in AK. I'm heading to Haines to ski with Reggie Crist and Tom Wayes with Rage Films then to Valdez to hook up with team Atomic. Check back for tv air dates from Sun Valley. Later, Daron
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