CYPRESS MOUNTAIN, BC (Feb. 6) - Casey Puckett (Aspen, CO) survived a tough day out of the starting gates to finish sixth in a FIS Freestyle World Cup ski cross on the Olympic venue in Cypress Mountain outside Vancouver. Daron Rahlves (Sugar Bowl, CA) was taken out in a crash in the opening round and disqualified..

The Canadians used their familiarity with the course to their advantage, sweeping the men's podium and taking the top two women's spots. Canadian Chris DelBosco, who also led qualifying, won the men's over teammate Stanley Hayer. Canadian Aleisha Cline won over countrywoman Ashleigh McIvor when World Cup leader Ophelie David of France crashed while leading the final.

Puckett Battles Out of Start
It was a battle all day for Puckett, who qualified 12th but was fourth out of the start in every one of his heats. The veteran used his skill to stay out of trouble and wait for others to make mistakes. It served him well through the first two matchups to finish second and transfer to the next round. But in the semi-finals, he found himself third.

"In the semi final, I had Davey [Duncan] out of the start and I just had a miscalculation on the first jump," said Puckett. "I came up short and landed on the knuckle, which slows you down big time every time, so Davey just shot right by. If I would have hit the back side of that I would have been in third. Lars made a mistake and I would have transferred on, but weird stuff was happening in every heat. I was just banging my head saying 'you dummy, you could have had it,' cause, of all the things that can happen, that was the one I can have control over. I shouldn't have come short on that."

"Casey was skiing really well. He just, unfortunately, couldn’t get out of the start very fast," said U.S. Ski Cross Head Coach Tyler Shepherd. "He made some really good passes and he got lucky. There were some crashes in turn five and he just happened to be far enough back that he could avoid it. In the small final he made a really good pass on Lars Lewen coming out of turn six. He took him on the inside and that's what we were trying to work on all day."


Casey Puckett flies off a jump on Cypress Mountain. (U.S. Ski Team - Tom Kelly)

Rahlves Gets Taken Out
Rahlves qualified third and figured to advance handily out of the opening round of 32. But a tangle with Canadian Dave Duncan coming into the final course features sent him down hard. "He completely took out my line," said Rahlves of Duncan. "As we came into the final tabletop he leaned into me, elbowed me and completely took me out."

Rahlves said Duncan cut in on him as the two headed into the final tabletop pushing Rahlves completely sideways between the two jumps and he crashed hard. Rahlves verbally protested in the finish, but officials allowed Duncan to advance and disqualified Rahlves for grabbing Duncan.

"Daron was fighting the whole way," said Shepherd. "I thought he was going to make the pass but there was some questionable contact. It's tough to say what would have happened but I think he was skiing well enough to make the pass and he should have been moving on."


Daron Rahlves (red bib) gets tangled and crashes. (U.S. Ski Team-Tom Kelly)


Daron Rahlves discusses how he was pushed out of his line. (U.S. Ski Team - Tom Kelly)

Olympic Course Preview
The event was an opportunity to preview the course that will be used for both snowboardcross and ski cross in 2010.

"The course is really really good. It's very challenging," said Shepherd. "The start is something different that we've never really seen. It was similar to the Deer Valley course last year with what we call a Wu-Tang. There's two of them in a row and we definitely need to work on them so we can get a lot quicker. But the other features, including the banks, were really well built as well as the other jumps. I think the snowboarders next week will have a great time. We have some work to do to figure out how we can address and figure out this terrain a little bit. If we're going to get these kicky style jumps next year we certainly want to get some practice on them."

"The hill itself is on the steeper side if you compare it to other ski crosses - it's actually average compared to the ones in Europe, but other ones in North America are usually flat," added Puckett. "It also does a lot of winding back and forth. The hill itself actually lends itself to a pretty nice set and Jeff, the course builder, sets huge berms, which is another thing we're not really used to - it's more of a snowboarder thing. It definitely has a snowboard feel to it."

The weather also proved interesting, with huge fog banks moving in and out of the course all afternoon long.

"The fog was a concern because this snow, it was a little bit like skiing in a sand box," said Puckett. "You land off those big jumps and it just grabs your feet. I think some people just stoped when they landed. It was really strange to ski in and to have that kind of condition with no visibility was a little bit sketchy, but they pulled it off and they kept running it when it was nasty fog. I think they probably would have stopped it if it were an alpine race, but they just kept going."

The World Cup ski cross circuit now heads to Norway and Sweden before the World Championships in Inawashiro, Japan in early March. Puckett and Jake Fiala (Frisco, CO) will compete, while Rahlves will remain in the USA until Worlds.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
FIS FREESTYLE WORLD CUP
Cypress Mountain, BC - Feb. 6, 2009
Ski Cross

Men
1. Chris DelBosco, Canada
2. Stanley Hayer, Canada
3. Davey Barr, Canada
4. Thomas Kraus, Czech Republic
-
6. Casey Puckett, Aspen, CO
-
Not qualified for top 32 finals
45. Biche Rudigoz, Ketchum, ID
47. Jake Fiala, Frisco, CO
52. Justin Johnson, Park City, UT
53. John Teller, Mammoth Lakes, CA
62. Cody Smith, Spokane, WA
-
DQ: Daron Rahlves, Sugar Bowl, CA

Women
1. Aleisha Cline, Canada
2. Ashley McIvor, Canada
3. Karin Huttary, Austria
4. Ophelie David, France
-
Not qualified for top 32 finals
33. Caitlin Ciccone, Littleton, NH
34. Langley McNeal, Ketchum, ID
# # #

For complete results click here.