The Snowboard FIS World Cup tour kicked off, finally, at Tignes, France, the well-known Haut-Savoie ski resort, which presented itself at its very best: -8 ºC and pure sunshine.

	Margerita Parini

"It was really fun, nice weather, a perfect slope...could it be better for the season's first race? A perfect start," said Sweden's Aasa Windahl, 2nd in today's giant slalom.

Windahl was the first one out of the start gate and gave herself the perfect birthday present with the first-ever 2nd place of her career. She was in the lead after the first run and could have won the entire event, but last year's World Cup and reigning World Champion Margherita Parini snatched it away from her in the second run. The Italian finished a disappointing 9th due to bad tuning on her board. But she sharpened the edges and really smoked the second run for the seventh World Cup win of her career.

"It was a huge opening with 158 riders from 27 nations. Out of 99 men, last year's GS World Cup Champion Stefan Kaltschütz from Austria proved that he's a contender for the World Cup trophy again this year...."

"I had problems with the turns in the first run but that was my fault and I did not want to leave it with 9th place," Parini said. Last season's unlucky bird Karine Ruby from France finished 3rd, but was happy. "That's fine," she said, "I was ready to attack again."

It was a huge opening with 158 riders from 27 nations. Out of 99 men, last year's GS World Cup Champion Stefan Kaltschütz from Austria proved that he's a contender for the World Cup trophy again this year. He just wanted to make this clear ahead of time. "I'm willing to keep the globe," he said. "It's better to sign up for the winners from the very beginning..."

	Podium

Current GS World Champion Markus Ebner from Germany was pretty confident that he'd make it to the podium. He took 2nd place. "Thanks to our new coach, the team is very motivated. Stanislaus Kulawik got us together and everyone is in a good mood. This gives us a lot of self-confidence," said Ebner.

With Maxence Idesheim, at least one French rider made it to the men's podium after Tignes' local Nicolas Huet failed and took 6th place. "I'd really like to catch up with my results last year (four podiums) and even improve them. For me the slope was super perfect and the snow, as well. It was time to start the season and this was a good place to do it," said Idesheim.

"Mr. Bombastic" Matthieu Bozzetto (FRA) could not follow up his results from last year, but he knew why. "I don't like hard snow, this is a horror for me...," he said, but thought again. "The snow was not bad today but I just could not do it. I'll wait until the good snow comes in and then attack again."

Needless to say, Aasa Windahl will have a good celebration tonight: "I think the birthday party is going to be huge...everybody is talking about it," she said.

The halfpipe riders will kick off their season on the Grande Motte glacier at Tignes tomorrow and the conditions are supposed to stay the same. Looks like it'll be another awesome comp day.

—Britta Semmler, MountainZone.com Correspondent