Boardercross boys to tackle Montafen

Courtesy: olympics.com.au

SNOWBOARD CROSS: The seven strong Australian Snowboard Cross contingent will hope to continue their form this weekend as the 2017 FIS Ski Cross Alps tour moves to Montafen, Austria. 

With Alex "Chumpy" Pullin currently wearing the yellow leaders bib closely followed by Adam Lambert in second, the Aussies are well placed for another solid performance. 

Also joining the pair will be Jarryd Hughes, Cam Bolton, Matthew Thomas, Adam Dickson and Josh Miller.

Lambert, the youngest of the group, is hoping to replicate his silver medal from this week's Arosa World Cup. 

“I’m excited, I don’t know what else there is to say, I’m going to go there, do my best again and see what happens," Lambert said, fresh off his first World Cup podium finish. 

"Hopefully something similar or better than this happens but I’m not going to put too much pressure on myself and just enjoy it.”

A silver medal finish was a career best for 20-year-old Lambert who surprisingly admitted the final was not the highlight of his day. 

“Highlight was definitely the semi-final,” Lambert said.

“I feel like I raced really well and I backed up my qualification – not quite, the first place – but pretty close. I’m super stoked, best result I’ve ever had.”

Dual Olympian Chumpy Pullin is looking forward to racing this weekend at Montafen, saying while he's recorded some solid performances on the course there is room for improvement. 

“I’ve had some good results there in the last year, so I’m looking to head back there and analyse what the course is," Pullin said.

"They’ve got a lot more snow there this year, so hopefully they’ve done a really good build and hopefully we get some good weather so we can get some good racing in."

Despite some heavy weather conditions across the whole Ski and Snowboard Tour, with three consecutive ski cross events being canceled, Pullin is feeling well prepared for this weekend's racing. 

"[I’m] feeling really good, body is feeling good.

"It is awesome to do a full World Cup and still walk away from it going ‘I could probably do another run if I really had to.

"We’ll just try and do the best recovery [and] enjoy the success …  for about five minutes and then we’ll start focussing on the next one.”

Montafon competition is due to take place on Friday 15 December, with finals scheduled to take place at 10:30 CET (8:30pm AEST).

Ashleigh Knight
olympics.com.au