‘Unstoppable’ Grondin set for date with destiny in Montafon

On current form, the rider who has stood on every Snowboard Cross FIS World Cup podium this season needs only to stay on his feet in the Austrian Alps this weekend to secure the first crystal globe of his career.

Such has been the total dominance of Eliot Grondin (CAN) on the men’s circuit this season, the 22-year-old Canadian can wrap up the title with three races to spare on Saturday.

Failing that, two finishes of no lower than 19th in the double-header in Montafon, Austria would give Grondin all the points he needs to cut the fine threads on which the crystal globe hopes of Alessandro Haemmerle (AUT) and Cameron Bolton (AUS) have been dangling in recent weeks.

Not that Grondin himself would admit to having ‘done the math’.

“I haven’t seen the numbers and I don’t even care, to be fair,” he said in typically relaxed style moments after claiming win number five in Cortina d’Ampezzo last weekend.

“Yes, for sure I want the globe but right now I’m not racing for it, I’m racing for me and I’m racing to have fun.”

At times this season, Grondin has made the high-octane sport look easy. Five wins, two runners-up spots and a solitary finish of third in the eight FIS World Cup races have given him huge leads of 372 points over nearest challenger Haemmerle and 383 over Bolton in third.

“Eliot has been largely unstoppable this season,” Bolton says. “He hasn’t missed the podium once this season – it’s very, very greedy. He’s earned everything he has achieved, and I’m stoked for him. 

“I’m not sure if we’ve ever seen a season like it. We’re all just racing for second in the overall now.”

Haemmerle is himself no stranger to sporting supremacy, but even he missed plenty of podiums during his crystal globe-winning seasons of 2019, 2020 and 2021.

“Eliot has had a really impressive season,” the 30-year-old says. “He is riding really well but to reach these kinds of levels you need more than just good riding. The whole team needs to be on-point every race. They have deserved the globe more than anyone this season.”

Haemmerle is frustrated with his own recent performances in Sierra Nevada and Cortina, having exited at the quarterfinal stage on tracks shortened by around 300 metres due to a lack of snow. It is little surprise, then, that he is keen to get back to longer-format racing in front of his family and friends in Montafon, where he won the last World Cup held there in December 2021.

“It’s always a big push to ride in front of your home crowd – it just feels different, and it’s really a privilege to have this possibility,” Haemmerle says. “I am hoping for a more challenging course. We have a lot of snow at home, which opens up the range of elements which can be built.”

So much snow, in fact, that organisers were forced to cancel a testing of the course on Wednesday.

“Montafon always puts on an incredible event and it’s one of my favourite stops on tour,” Bolton says. “I’ve seen snippets of the track and it looks incredible – I can’t wait to race it.”

A familiar name sadly missing from the men’s start list for Montafon is Lucas Eguibar (ESP). The 2021 world champion ruptured the Achilles tendon in his left foot in Cortina and underwent surgery in Innsbruck, Austria, on Tuesday.

Trespeuch back as race for women’s crystal globe hots up

In better news on the women’s side, overall FIS World Cup leader Chloe Trespeuch (FRA) says she is “back to 100%” fitness after her own ugly crash in Sierra Nevada a fortnight ago. The 29-year-old collided with Charlotte Bankes (GBR) as they raced to the line in the Big Final in Spain.

“I had big pain in all my face just after the crash,” she recalls. “I saw the blood but I didn’t know where it had come from. It was scary but nothing serious.”

Nevertheless, Trespeuch had a rare off day in her next outing, finishing eighth under the lights in Cortina.

“I didn’t find any solutions to do some correct starts,” she said. “I think I was fast on the bottom but it was too late to build some great passing (opportunities). It’s the game and not a problem for the rest of the season.”

The top three on the women’s podium for the December 2021 staging of the World Cup in Montafon has a familiar ring to it: Charlotte Bankes (GBR), Belle Brockhoff (AUS) and Chloe Trespeuch (FRA).

All three have been fighting it out this season and a similar result across this weekend’s double-header would boost Bankes’ own late bid for the globe and heap more pressure on Trespeuch. The French rider has seen her lead over second-placed Michela Moioli (ITA) shrink to only 58 points in recent weeks.

“I really like pressure, it’s why I do Snowboard Cross,” Trespeuch says. “I like challenges, so it’s just a motivation for me to play for this crystal globe. 

“Competition is what I love – we will see the ranking in the end. And until the last competition, nothing is fixed, and this is what’s interesting in a World Cup season, no?”

WEEKEND SCHEDULE

The action in Montafon begins with qualification runs on Friday, with the men’s and women’s races slated for 15:45 CET on Saturday and 14:15 CET on Sunday.

QUICK LINKS

Full 2023/204 FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup Standings
Full 2023/24 FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup Calendar
Montafon (AUT) pictures