Vail’s Iced Out Racing keeps rolling in Aspen

ASPEN, Colorado — On Sunday there was another J2 Junior Olympic race in Aspen, which meant there was another chance for Iced Out Racing to strut its stuff.

The Vail-based ski team saw Hunter Schleper win Sunday’s giant slalom for his second victory in as many days and Iced Out’s third in three races. Kitt Flowers, who won Friday’s downhill, was third. Kieffer Christianson, who was third Friday, took fifth and was tops among first-year J2s.

“It was a very good day for us,” said Iced Out Racing coach Bruce Knoepfel. “It was highly satisfying.”

Schleper, coming off his super-G win Saturday, started out with the third-fastest opening run and trailed then-leader Michael Ankeny by 0.40 seconds. On his second pass, Schleper had the top run by 0.82 seconds to finish in a combined time of 1 minute, 49.57 seconds. Ankeny was second at 1:49.99.

Flowers was in second after the first run and had the third-best second run.

“Kitt had two phenomenal runs,” Knoepfel said. “He had a hip check early on the second run and really slayed the bottom to hold on to third.”

Christianson moved up three spots in his second run thanks to the fourth-best second pass.

“He had a phenomenal second run,” Knoepfel said.

Nearly four seconds separated the top 10 finishers in Sunday’s race, which was held on the women’s World Cup hill.

“That’s what you expect on a tough hill,” Knoepfel said. “The guys who skied well are great skiers.”

Iced Out Racing has five podiums in three races along with two top-10 finishes.

“There have been no surprises,” Knoepfel said. “Just satisfaction. Everyone got the job done.”

The J2 Junior Olympics continue today with the ladies giant slalom.

DelBosco fourth

MEIRINGEN-HASLIBERG, Switzerland — Vail’s Chris DelBosco continued his stellar World Cup skicross season Sunday with a fourth-place finish in Meiringen-Halsiberg, Switzerland.

DelBosco, who competes for the Canadian Olympic Team, came back from a hard training crash to put down the best qualifying run.

After a win in his opening heat, DelBosco came out on top in the quarterfinals with current World Cup leader Tomas Kraus, of the Czech Republic, in second. DelBosco was second in the semifinals amid a heavy field that included Kraus and American Errol Kerr. Sweden’s Lars Lewin won the race, his second World Cup competition in a row.

With his fourth-place finish, DelBosco moved up one spot in the World Cup standings to fifth. The tour closes out its season Sunday in Italy.