With his win in today's parallel giant slalom, Matthieu Bozzetto became the first French rider to win a World Cup event on the slopes of Tandadalen. Victory here had thus far eluded the French alpine snowboard riders and so, with the French dominating parallel racing this season, it was exciting to watch as they broke this two-year-old spell.

	Bozzetto

Wearing the yellow World Cup leader bib, the French riders Matthieu Bozzetto and Isabelle Blanc had been the top favorites this time, but Bozzetto's was the only name added to the Tandadalen winner's list.

Looking safe throughout the finals, he advanced to the ultimate head-to-head duel for first place after beating Austria's Andreas Prommegger, Stephen Copp from Sweden, and France's Charlie Cosnier. He then met Felix Stadler from Austria for a remake of the Berchtesgaden Parallel Slalom final just two weeks ago and repeated that result with this, his first PGS win this season.

"I felt pretty safe on my board today but in parallel you never know... I am happy that I can still win those Parallel GS races...." — Matthieu Bozzetto, winner

"I was lacking confidence and continuity at the beginning of the season," the NOKIA team rider said, "but the more training I did the better it worked. I felt pretty safe on my board today but in parallel you never know...I am happy that I can still win those Parallel GS races also."

For the second consecutive race Stadler had the ability to beat the French, but had an obstacle today: "I had been very tired this morning and did not even expect to make it to the finals, that is why I am happy with second place." Worried though, he's not.

"Just give me some more time, I feel pretty confident that I could beat Bozzetto pretty soon," Stadler said.

France's Nicolas Huet, who (like in Berchtesgaden) was beaten by Stadler in the semi-finals by 29 hundredths of a second, met his teammate Charlie Cosnier in the consolation round and finally took the bronze.

"There must be a jinx on it," Huet said, "whenever I make it to the semi-finals, I feel very satisfied, but maybe just a little bit too much and thus I am mostly missing the big finals. Then, it is like waking up for the race for third place again, something like being really hungry..."

Bozzetto is further leading the Parallel World Cup standings with Huet still in second place. With his finish today, Stadler moved up to third.

In the women's race, it was a surprise victory by Austrian Ursula Fingerlos, her first ever in parallel racing. By just two hundredths of a second she eliminated Sweden's Sara Fischer in the semi-finals and faced Isabelle Blanc in the finals.

After Blanc crashed in the first run, Fingerlos just rode her best in the second run and claimed the win by a total of 19 hundredths of a second.

"It is so much fun racing here," Blanc, a NOKIA team rider, said. "The snow was perfect and I just did it, unbelievable." Blanc raced in second position this time ahead of Austria's Manuela Riegler and Sara Fischer from Sweden.

	Riegler

Blanc keeps the lead in the Parallel World Cup standings ahead of Manuela Riegler and Italian Margerita Parini, who dropped back to third by not making it to the finals today.

Further head-to-head duels are scheduled for tomorrow at the season's third parallel slalom.

—Britta Semmler, MountainZone.com Correspondent