Nate Holland asserts his dominance in Snowboarder X at Winter X Games Aspen 2012
Heading to Aspen, Colorado, for the latest edition of Winter X Games, the action sports fans knew that nothing short of a memorable experience awaited them at the Buttermilk Mountain. As always, the exciting athletes did not disappoint the fans and the first
two days of Winter X Games Aspen 2012 turned out to be spectacular. The competition continued to deliver a heavy dose of thrilling action on Saturday, January 28, much to the satisfaction of the hungry-for-action fans.
As the competition entered the afternoon on day 3, the entire focus of everyone in attendance at the primary event site shifted to Men’s Snowboarder X. With the likes of America’s Nate Holland, Nick Baumgartner, Jayson Hale and Pierre Vaultier in contention
for the coveted gold medal, an afternoon of adrenaline-pumping bout was undoubtedly on the cards.
Holland, the five-time Winter X Snowboard X gold medallist, was definitely the rider to watch out during the contest. The 33-year-old Idaho-based rider had held on to the top spot on the podium from 2006 to 2010 before sliding down to third place last year.
However, he had managed to clinch top honours in both his Quarter-final as well as Semi-final heats, clearly exhibiting a deadly form.
On the other hand, Baumgartner had shown a promising form on Friday as well. The 30-year-old rider had done exceptionally well to unseat Holland from the throne last year and was determined to hold on to it this year.
After Friday’s 24-man Quarter-final and 12-man Semi-final, Saturday afternoon saw the top-six riders take each other on in the Final. As the race for the coveted gold got underway, Holland got the hole-shot to take an early lead and separated himself from
the rest of the pack to move through the course without worrying about bumping into anyone.
A few minutes into the Final, the Sandpoint-native overshot a jump to find himself back in traffic. Norwegian Stian Sivertzen and American Vaultier capitalised on Holland’s hiccup and overtook him. However, their joy turned out to be short-lived as the two
ended up tangled farther down the course. The challenge presented by the Snowboard X course was something that could not be underestimated at any point and it seemed that Sivertzen and Vaultier had learnt this the hard way.
Holland once again moved into the lead and this time hung on to it through an extremely consistent riding. Clocking a time of 1 minute 27.570 seconds, the Idaho-based rider reclaimed his throne and added yet another gold medal, sixth to be exact, to his
CV.
Despite an early stumble, Baumgartner recovered quite impressively to get back in the race. Taking advantage of minor hiccups in his rivals’ performances, the defending Snowboarder X champion gradually improved his position to eventually cross the finishing
line in 1 minute 28.102 seconds, consequently securing the silver medal.
“You just ride and if something goes wrong … especially on this course, you can't get frustrated,” said Baumgartner, apparently quite satisfied with his silver-medal effort. “You just need to keep riding and try to smoothen everything out because anything
can happen. I'm just glad to be on the podium.”
California’s Hale clocked a time of 1 minute 33.273 seconds to finish in third place. The 26-year-old Sierraville-native had secured a bronze medal at Winter X Games in 2006 and was glad to have picked up another one this year.
While Vermont’s 25-year-old Alex Deibold just finished off the podium after clocking a time of 1 minute 56.815 seconds, Vaultier and Sivertzen rounded out the fifth and sixth place respectively.
It had turned out to be a pretty rough experience for Vaultier and Sivertzen in the Final. Talking about the fall that the two riders had taken just after overtaking Holland, the new Snowboarder X champion said, “Stian was riding really well and I was trying
to figure out where to get around him, just really trying to figure out where to go. I'd come up right on him and then he went down and gave me a clear shot to the finish. That's boarder-cross.”
Indeed, that is exactly how boarder-cross is. A slight hiccup can push a rider to last place and thus it is only the most consistent performer who is able to walk away with top honours. Holland had proven himself as one of the most consistent rider over
the last few years. It would indeed be interesting to see if the boarder-cross phenom would be able to extend his list of gold medals even longer.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely of the writer’s and do not reflect bettor.com’s official editorial policy.
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