Landgraaf Update

[philfell]

Greeting, I hope everyone id doing well. For those of you who don’t know I’m in Europe for the PSL World Cup event. Our travels in the Netherlands are going well so far. The event is being held at an indoor ski area in the town of Landgraaf. It’s kind of surreal having to bundle up indoors for snowboarding, then wear a t-shirt outside. I defiantly did not bring enough layers, the indoor ski area is much cooler than I thought it would be. We arrived a few days ago and did some freeriding at an indoor area in the town of Zoetermeer, the snow was good, but the run was pretty short. We were only able to get in about 10-12 solid turns before we were at the bottom. After a few days of riding there, we traveled to Landgraaf to train on the race slope before the World Cup. It’s really nice here and the ski area and event organizers are doing a great job at making us feel welcome. Everything we need is right here the ski slope, lodging, gym, food; you literally do not have to go outside at all. Very bazaar considering we are involved in an outdoor sport, but who knows with global warming and climate change maybe this is simply cutting edge…..I hope not I like powder too much.
The hill here is pretty flat, but is long enough for the race to be legit, today’s training course had 21 turns in it and was about 23 seconds for the men and 27 seconds for the ladies, which is close to what most PSL races are outdoors. This is the 6th year that Landgraaf has hosted the World Cup and they really do seem to enjoy having us here. This year they have add two good sized rollers in the course to give a little extra excitement and add some challenge to the riders.

Racing in Europe is quite different than racing in North America. The community is very supportive to have us in their town, they are here watching us train, asking us questions and actually know who the riders are. There is also live TV for the finals broadcasted by Eurosport.

One more day of training then we race, wish us luck.

[philfell]

today's training course

[philfell]

Getting ready to rule Zoetermeer.

[philfell]

Landgraaf's mid-mountain lodge, just in case the 22 SL turns from top to bottom was too much and you needed a place to take a break.

[philfell]

calling all investors, here is Adams Smiths home made plate, initial impressions were good. I think it only connects to the board in two locations.

[yyzcanuck]

Phil, thanks for the update on things in Landgraaf. Maybe sitting in the 'mid-station' is the best place for a coach to see the race from?

[inkaholic]

Phil,

In honor of DFJ you should do some coaching from the mid mountain lodge while drinking a fine glass of red wine. Similar to what he would do at Howelsen Hill late in the day.

Thanks for the info and I wish our racers the best of luck!

Ink

[Steve Prokopiw]

I will build in the back yard when I win the lotto!Thanks for the report.Very interesting.

[philfell]

Here are some more World Cup tid-bits.

SG boards numbers are getting very close to Kesslers as far as athletes on thier boards.

The Black Pearl boards actually look like they track pretty damn good and by the time they become available to the public they should be a legit option.

Oxcess race boards are now a titinal sandwich constrution, but I'm pretty sure that their SBX boards have no titinal in them


And the rumor out of the Swiss team is that they are coming to the November races in Copper......So if you guys are in Colorado Nov. 19/20 and not coming to watch the race you are missing a chance to see some of the top riders in the world compete. Between the US, Canadian, and the Swiss, it will be good for anyone to watch.

[stevo]

philfell, thanks for the pictures and the inside info....pretty cool stuff

good luck

[Hans]

........ you guys have fun here in that fridge.

I always go there five times a year to get the feeling alive when its summer.

It's the longest indoorslope we have here in Europe, about 500 metres.

You can watch the webcams:http://landgraaf.snowworld.com/pages...cams_lgen.aspx

[Scuff]

Yes - Thanks for posting Phil!
Best of luck to our riders

[Transistor Rhythm]

........ you guys have fun here in that fridge.

I always go there five times a year to get the feeling alive when its summer.

It's the longest indoorslope we have here in Europe, about 500 metres.

You can watch the webcams:http://landgraaf.snowworld.com/pages...cams_lgen.aspx

The snow quality is surprisingly good most of the time. But it's often too crowded to make nice wide carves, I often just get a nice hour of cleared piste before closure.

[yyzcanuck]

Results posted here.

[yyzcanuck]

Mens results here.

[Hans]

Results posted here.

Wow , Nicolien Sauerbreij 3th, even with a very painful footh injury.

[philfell]

Pretty good for the US guys. Adam had the fastest red course time and finished second overall on his home made plate. Justin made it into the second round. Zac Kay had a great day, second fastest red course time right behind Adam. Zac ended up qualifing 11th won his first run in the finals, but made some small mistakes on the second run and did not advance, but he is riding really well and is looking strong going into the rest of the season.


Klug had a real battle all day long. They dq'ed him on the first run saying his board went inside a stubbie. He protested saying he hit the stubbie with his nose, but his feet went around, after the officials took a look at the video they said that Chris was right and he was allowed to take his second run. Then he ended up in a tie for 16th place with Benjamin Karl (last years overall winner), so they each had to take another run on the red course winner goes into the finals, losers watches. Karl won the coin toss and got to run first, he set a great time and put the pressure on Klug. Klug made one small mistake over the first roller and that cost him just enough time not to make it past Karl.....So after 3 runs Klug was out of the top 16 by .01 that is how close the times were.

[Hollywood 90210]

Phill,
Thanks for the updates and photos. While our numbers aren't big there are still a few race fans out here, so keep it coming whenever you get a chance. Hope you are doing well. Glenn

[philfell]

Here is view of the race course from the bar. Not a bad place to hang out have a drink or two and watch the race.

Also to let you tech nerds in, we waxed with Swix HFBD7 and it was about as fast as you could get. Perfect for the snow which was, very old, super dirty and was at 20 degree snow temp, and the air was very humid. Just like conditions I've seen a lot in the east coast.

[xray]

Actually Phil, the snow wasn't that old......indoor snow is just different.
Good having you in Zoetermeer and Landgraaf and once again, you sure spend way too much time on this forum!

I was cocommenting for dutch TV and had a monitor with great shots right in front of my nose. Klug for sure had the speed to be in the finals but both final runs just had too many little mistakes at unnecessary spots. He really was ruling the lower section with the last noll though.

Justin could have beaten Benjamin Karl, he really let him slip away. So steady up to that point.

For the rest, for us dutchies always great to have the World Cup circus in our country.

[Willow 15]

Thanks Philfell its great to hear about the racing, please make it a regular thing. Does being the world champ daunt other riders? Sounds like it, Benjamin Karl got through to the final 16 by the skin of his teeth then proceeds to take the full 1000 points.

[philfell]

I don't think being the World Champ daunts the other riders. They way the mentallity is on the World Cup is that it makes him more of a target, in order to prove things. They look at the chance to race him as an oppertunity, they wouldn't back down from that. At least the top guys......the guys not able to make the 16 much, then that is probably a little different.

[biggerwrangler]

Jealous!
looks like a well setup event.

[Steve Prokopiw]

to mention that something like this indoor area would have been a way better project for Silver Mtn to spend the 25 mil they spent on the water park.Especially with the chance of the gondola that gets us up to the ski mountain closing for high winds occasionally.

[JK moscraciun]

Some good video here with the final runs!
http://www.fissnowboardworldcup.com/

[Willow 15]

Great link JK, never seen that site until now. How trick do those black Kessler's look, great photo of Adam smith(photo 3).

[JK moscraciun]

Black si the new silver!!!!