Fawcett

After waiting for more than a year, Canadian Mark Fawcett scored his fifth World Cup victory today, taking the giant slalom. The super G specialist finished the first run with the third-fastest time and looked like he had the skills to even improve that result in the second run, which he did.

"I'm so happy I stayed in Europe, although I was supposed to go home after the race in Sweden and do some little snowboard camp. But I just said 'God, there is another World Cup, I've got to stay, I know I could win. I am riding well, I've just had bad luck,'" he said. "My last win was the super G at Mount Bachelor over a year ago.

"I was supposed to go home after the race in Sweden...But I just said 'God, there is another World Cup, I've got to stay, I know I could win. I am riding well, I've just had bad luck,'"— Mark Fawcett (CAN)

"Today's course was a nice one, although it was not easy, especially in the steeper section towards the end. The terrain itself was kind of falling away at some turns and there were small ruts in there," Fawcett added.

Austria's Stefan Kaltschütz finished 2nd, a surprising victory considering that he just got back on the tour this weekend after injuring his back in training at Schönried just three weeks ago, and after crashing again in yesterday's parallel slalom qualification. "I should have left that one out and got back to racing today in my favorite discipline," last year's GS World Cup Champion said. "Yesterday's crash did hurt all night but I tried not to think about it. I wanted to prove to myself that I'm okay and just said 'everything or nothing.' I'm so glad I made it."

US rider Chris Klug had finished the first run with the fastest time but could not repeat that in the second and dropped back to 3rd place. "I made a couple mistakes in that second run, unfortunately," he said, "and Mark charged it pretty hard in that one. I'm happy for him, although I certainly would have liked to win today."

Kaltschütz claimed the yellow leader bib again, pushing Matthieu Bozzetto (FRA) to 2nd place. Bozzetto crashed twice in the first run today and therefore could not even try to grab a medal. Klug now takes 3rd place in the standings.

	Riegler

Riegler Keeps Rolling
Manuela Riegler from Austria surprised everyone by winning her first-ever giant slalom race today — her second gold this weekend. Finishing first in both runs, no one else could touch her. "I just tried not to put too much pressure on myself when I was in the start gate for the second run," said Riegler. "Maybe I was reminded how good this worked yesterday."

Margerita Parini finished 2nd. The Italian had crashed in the first run and could not make up the time in the second. Austria's Isabell Zedlacher finished 3rd.

Aasa Windahl from Sweden did not qualify for the second run today and finished 23rd. However, she did reclaim the lead in the standings, which Sondra van Ert had been holding. Manuela Riegler is in 3rd, overall.

Snowfall that began last night continued this morning, causing some delays. But thanks to the continued efforts of the organizing committee, the riders faced quite nice conditions all day long. The season's fifth snowboard cross is scheduled for tomorrow.

—Britta Semmler, MountainZone.com Correspondent