VAIL - It's not really freeskiing and it's not really alpine racing, but skiercross athletes seem to be happy with their in-between niche.

As Sweden's Lars Lewen and Canada's Ashleigh McIvor will both attest, most of the world's top skiercross athletes have an alpine racing background.

Lewen and McIvor won Saturday's Saab/Salomon Men's and Women's Crossmax events at the U.S. Freeskiing Open in Vail. Lewen landed himself $6,000 with the win and McIvor $3,000. French skier Enak Gavaggio came in second ($3,000) for the men with American Tyler Shepard in third ($1,500) and Ryan McCullough fourth ($750). McIvor's Canadian teammate Anik Demers was close behind her in second ($750), with Americans Brett Buckler third ($500) and Erin Boucher fourth. The top two Americans in both the men's and women's races earned themselves a spot in the skiercross event at the Freeskiing World Championships March 17 in Finland.



On the back roller

As far as freeskiing goes, skiercross athletes feel they fall out of the limelight a bit. Although they spend some time in the air hitting rollers and jumps on course, the crux of the event comes down to who crosses the finish line the fastest.

"We were talking up at the top about how skiercross fits into the whole freestyle thing," said McIvor, 21, who embarked on the sport three years ago after breaking a leg the previous year and ending her alpine-racing career.

"Skiercross is kind of put on the back burner," she said. "Initially (in 1994 when the sport emerged), everyone was stoked on it - all the freeriders - because they could actually do well at it. Now, all these ex-racers have caught on and some of the jibbers can't keep up."

On the other side of the coin, McIvor said she'd be hard-pressed to stand a chance in a halfpipe or slopestyle event, although she does spend some time in the air in skiercross.

"There's not much air on this course," she said of Saturday's course on Golden Peak, which had fewer rollers to fly off than a typical course but several tight, fast turns. "This course is super technical," she said. "As far as air, there's one course in Canada where you're barely on the ground. On courses like that, it definitely helps to be more comfortable in the air rather than strictly being just an ex-racer. But, what makes (skiercross) even more sketchy is that there's five people with poles beside you. And, as far as the speed goes ... it's not for wimps."

McIvor dislocated her shoulder in the time trial of her very first skiercross event in Northstar, Calif. Although official skiercross rules forbid elbowing, kicking and blatant shoving, it happens inadvertently on course, and typically, as in other cross events, some racers end up on the ground long before the finish line.

The only notable casualty Saturday was Swedish racer Lisa Ydeskog, whose legs buckled on the landing off of the final kicker. She still managed to slide across the finish line in fifth place and hobbled away with a knee injury.

In the men's event, Lewen, Gavaggio and Shepard were fighting for the best line throughout the short duration (around 40 seconds) of the race. They ducked around corners, drafted each other, shot ahead over rollers until Lewen was the lucky guy in front when the finish line was underfoot.

"The start is really important," said Lewen, who quit alpine racing three years ago to pursue skiercross and won a silver at last year's Winter X Games in Aspen and gold in 2003.

"You have a turn directly out of the start. You can't think so much about the other racers," he said. "Just do your job. Of course, if you have someone in front of you, you need to change your line. In this race, maybe you could have passed after the second turn. After that, it's difficult."

Many skiercross racers feel that if they don't have the lead by the first turn on the course, a victory is almost out of the question.



Off to a good start

"The start is huge," said Shepard, a former member of the U.S. Alpine Team, the University of Colorado in Boulder and a former student at Vail Academy.

"It's like motocross. You've got to get to that hull shot and lead the way for everybody. The organizers call it NASCAR tactics. They're giving us rules and saying there's a lot of pushing and shoving. It's not that difficult, but it takes a lot to get comfortable with it."

As far as freeskiing goes, Shepard said he admires slopestyle and halfpipe competitors and often spends a lot of time in the terrain park himself training for skiercross.

"There's nothing real specific you can do to train for skiercross," he said. "We put a lot of effort in - as much as the slopestyle guys - I go into the park a lot. I don't think any of the (skiercross) guys are scared of it."

The U.S. Freeskiing Open wraps up today with men's and women's superpipe finals.

Sports Writer Shauna Farnell can be reached at 949-0555, ext. 610, or sfarnell@vaildaily.com.



Vail, Colorado