Aspen, CO (Monday, January 26, 2004) - Triple threat Lindsey Jacobellis (Bondville, VT) repeated her Winter X Games snowboard cross championship Monday by nearly two seconds over three-time World Champion Karine Ruby of France. Seeing her on the top is getting to be a tradition in Aspen as she placed fourth in halfpipe on Saturday after finishing 13th in slopestyle earlier that day. Yvonne Mueller of Switzerland was third finishing just over a second ahead of ’02 X Games winner Ine Poetzl of Austria.

“Lindsey just crushed everybody,” said U.S. Snowboarding Head Coach Peter Foley. “Ruby got the hole shot each time and then Lindsey just proceeded to ruin her – it was amazing. She rides so well in all these events, but when it comes to training, we try to keep her about 75 percent on halfpipe and 25 percent on SBX. The injury factor with SBX is so much higher, but that just goes to show you what a talented rider she is.”

A graduate of the Stratton Mountain School in 2003, Jacobellis has two World Junior Championships to her name (’02 SBX, ’03 HP) and has won every SBX that she’s entered on the year. Her first came Jan. 5 in Bad Gastein, Austria for her first senior World Cup victory and was followed just five days later with a win at the Chevrolet U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain, California.

It was also Déjà vu in the men’s race as Swiss rider Ueli Kestenholz bested World Championship silver medalist Seth Wescott (Farmington, ME) in a stacked final that included ’03 X Games silver medalist Xavier Delerue of France and Canadian speedster Drew Neilson.

A crossover between alpine racers and freestyle riders, it’s common to see a mix of talent in major SBX races and that’s what brought Nate Holland (Olympic Valley, CA), Jeff Greenwood (Boulder, CO) and ’02 Olympic parallel giant slalom bronze medalist Chris Klug (Aspen, CO) out to play. Holland shared the top podium spot at Mammoth with Jacobellis, yet finished seventh at Aspen, winning the consolation round with a time of 57.9, one second faster than Kestenholz’s winnning time. Greenwood and Aspen local Klug finished ninth and 12th respectively.

“Holland, Greeny and Klug are just super strong riders,” added Foley. “We’ve seen what Greenwood and Klug can do on the alpine courses, they just need a few more miles in SBX and they could have some serious results.”

Winter X Games action continues Monday night with the men’s halfpipe final filled with the whose who of professional snowboarding, including the top three qualifiers of Shaun White (Carlsbad, CA), Ross Powers (South Londonderry, VT) and Steve Fisher (St. Louis Park, MN).

WINTER X GAMES
Aspen, Colo. – Jan. 26

Women's Snowboard Cross Final
1. Lindsey Jacobellis, Bondville, Vt.
2. Karine Ruby, France
3. Yvonne Mueller, Switzerland
4. Ine Poetzl, Austria
5. Joanie Anderson, South Lake Tahoe, Calif.
6. Line Oesvald, Norway

Men’s Snowboard Cross Final
1. Ueli Kestenholz, Switzerland
2. Seth Wescott, Farmington, Maine
3. Xavier Delerue, France
4. Drew Neilson, Canada
5. Simone Melusa, Italy
6. Matt Shrive, Tahoe City, Calif.