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Bartels picks up GS win to maintain overall lead

Nate Peterson

Bob Bartels doesn’t want to talk smack.

The overall points leader in the Beaver Creek Race Series picked up his fourth win of the season Monday in a giant slalom with a time of 26.70 seconds, giving him a fourteen-point cushion heading into next week’s series finale.

Still, the premier racer for the Mill Creek team doesn’t want to boast or lay claim to an overall title that is not yet his. He’d rather let everyone else do the smack talking instead, and let his skis do the talking for him.



“It’s a great confidence boost going into next week,” Bartels said about his win Monday. “The funny part about the whole thing is, the best skier on the Snowell team, Eric Archer, he was really talking a lot of smack at the start today.

“He was saying that he wanted to write the article for the newspaper this week. He also said that Snowell is going to buy out the newspaper, so they could actually write the articles themselves. I just stood in the back and kept quiet. I had a great mental game coming into the day and I knew I had the overall and that I needed to win today to actually clinch it.”

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Bartels beat out both Snowell’s John Meckem (26.96) and Archer (27.00) for the win, along with the crucial win points for his Mill Creek team, which still trails Snowell by four points heading into week seven.

“Next week is full on. It’s not over,” Archer said. “It counts as two races and it’s a lot tougher course, so you’ve got to be mentally prepared. It’s a long day and one mistake could cost you everything.”

Other winners

Annelies Zirknitzer of the Coyote Cafe team won her fourth race of the season in the Women’s Alpine Division with a time of 28.10 seconds, beating out teammate Kathryn Keane (29.61) and Billie Cavalloro (29.67) of the BC Race Rookies.

“It was a really good course today,” Zirknitzer said. “It had a few tricky bits in it. There was a turn that you couldn’t see too well unless you inspected it properly, which I didn’t do the first time.”

In the Men’s Snowboard Division, Snowell’s Anton Pogue won with a time of 30.62 seconds, beating out Jedrzej Jermanowski (32.85) and Justin Farnell (34.09), both of the BC Snowboard School team.

Snowell’s Tory Hauser won the Men’s Telemark Division at 32.27 seconds, while Sari Chwalk of Mountain Quest Sports was the fastest women on heelless bindings with a time of 39.73.

The Beaver Creek Race Series finishes off next week with a pro-style dual GS race in which winners continue on, while losers get to look on.

Contact sports writer Nate Peterson at 949-0555 ext. 608 or via e-mail at npeterson@vaildaily.com.


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