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ASPEN 2008
winter X-games 12

Winter X Games Mono skier X Gold
After 4 days of practise and racing Sunday the 27th it was time for the finals. It was a real exciting race for me, i had a good start and hit the first jump as 2nd. after the first corner I could manage to get in front line. Kevin Bramble who had a slower start pulled of after the second jump and passed me. At that moment I was second and try to make that position stronger. at one of the last humptie-du sections I saw Bramble crash in front of me, not much longer then a second I saw what happened and made the right descission to pas him on the outside, from that moment I knew that I would make the finish first if I made no Mistakes. And so the story went... GOLD!!!


Finals comming up.
Friday semi final day, 2 heats 8 competitors left. I was in the second heat with Tyler Walker, Scot Meier and Gerold Hayden. It was a real exciting race till the last moment. After a real good start I was in second position behind Tyler, loosing speed at the first table i opened the door for Scot. I stayed on his tale during the biggest part of the course, I saw my chance in the last section of the course and passed him and crossed the finish line as second, and got myself a place in the finals on Sunday. I really want to thank all my local fans that showed up to encourage me at the finish. An other cool thing was that even Daron Ralhves came to the finish to congratulate us for the spectacular race. It is great to see how much attention and respect we get for our sport, sitskiing is getting bigger and bigger!!

Qualified.
All the excitement really started with the qualifications on thursday. My run went real well and with the most spectaculair finish of the day I ended up as 4th qualifier. That was good enough and i did not have to ski a second qualification run and am secure of a place in the semi finals, wich we will run today. check www.expn.com 22:30 european time for live streaming tv
Checkout my qualification run on the right and some others below
Qualification run Zach Broderick
Qualification run Sam Ferguson
Qualification run Carl Burnett
Qualification run Gearald Hayden

Sunday morning 20th january 7 am the trip to Aspen took off, this time i'm accompagnied by my wakeboard buddy Rens Cosijn. After a long flight and a 4hourdrive we arrived after 22hrs at our fabulous hotel Stonebridge Inn in Snowmass village.

The first 2 days we used to ride the snowmass mountain and to make some cross practise for the upcoming mono-x event. Aldo the wheater is not a blue sky the snow is perfect and optimal to get used to the local conditions.

This year mono X is bigger then the last year, not only is the X-Course much more serious also the time available for mono-x is more then last year. practise and competition is spread out over all 5 days.

Program Wednesday: Inspection and Practise.
After the briefing from Kevin Jardin from Challenge Aspen we could go for a first close inspection of the course. The course is longer and much more technical then last year. Lots of rollers in front and after smaller and larger jumps makes that the course needs a 120% focus till the finish. Cause sitskiers can not absorb rollers with there knees it requires a lot of control from the rider.

After the first training I build up some good confidence not only because I managed to ride the course pretty smooth but especially cause i set an unofficial big air record in a sitski by hitting the last center kicker in the course, over 80ft Aprox. 30 meter. Bwaaa!!!! Stoked!!!!
After a good dinner in the evening with our good friend Bibian Mentel who came over for a halfpipe demo it it was time for a good night rest, Qualification runs for the semi finals are on the program for tommorow.


Bronze medal at X-games!!
My invitation for the X-games was already a big price, but winning a medal at this event, Damn I'm so stoked!!! In the practise I had some problems with my raceski and decided to go for save in competition on my Scratch twintip, not the fastest ski but definitly the strongest ski. After qualifiing I was 4th and in the half finale I finished 3th. In the final I couldn't pass Kevin Connelly (Silver) and Tyler Walker (gold)but i'm realy satisfied.
- Read about X Games and watch the video's from the final runs here
- Check for report Trip to Aspen an more pics here

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