Best finish yet for the 16 year-old U.S. snowboarder.
March 5th, 2007
CALGARY, Alberta (March 3) - Sixteen-year-old Dylan Bidez (Minturn, CO) finished second in halfpipe Satuday night as the World Cup tour made its annual swing into North America. It was only the career second World Cup contest for the U.S. Snowboarding rookie, who was fifth Friday under the lights in Calgary.
"It's definitely amazing to place on the podium," said Bidez, who was sixth at the 2006 Junior Worlds. "It's my best result ever. It was my second World Cup so far. Yesterday I was fifth and today I'm second. I just went out being myself and improved my score. It's absolutely exciting. I'm still shaking."
Bidez rolled into the 1988 Olympic city with a halfpipe victory on the Chevrolet Revolution tour, the premeir U.S. development series, from Minnesota's Spirit Mountain two weeks ago. His first run score of 41.4 landed him behind Japan's Ryoh Aono, who won for a second day in a row with a huge score of 46.3. Luke Wynen (Mammoth Lakes, CA) was fourth, also making the final in the second contest after finishing sixth Friday. No American women competed.
"It was Dylan's day today, his weekend. He came into his first World Cup last night and finished fifth, then came out today, continued to roll and went bigger," said U.S. Snowboarding Head Coach Mike Jankowski. "He's exactly what the U.S. Snowboarding Rookie Team is all about and proves that we're running a great operation. Louie Vito (Bellefontaine, OH) set the bar for this program last season and now Dylan and Matt Ladley (Steamboat Springs, CO) are getting it done this year." Ladley was third in the final Chevrolet U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix behind Vito last weekend at Idaho's Tamarack Resort.
The 2010 Olympic hopeful got a taste of what Vancouver will look like as Calgary organizers built a lighted test pipe for upcoming Games, complete with 22-foot walls at the official training facility for the Canadian snowboard team. A pipe, Jankowski said Bidez used every inch of boosting a second place run of a frontside 900 melon grab, McTwist, frontside 720 tail grab, cab 720 stalefish and a huge air to fakie to close it out.
"He went so big in his first run of qualifiers that he didn't land his straight air before the pipe ended, so he had to nail his second run just to get into the final," said Jankowski. "He went big, risky and it was spectacular. That's what U.S. Snowboarding is all about - we go for the podium and that's exactly what Dylan did. He just rode like he knows he knows how. This program is about being yourself and guys like Dylan really legitimize what we're doing."
With the results, Bidez will easily finish in the top 30 of overall World Cup rankings in halfpipe and secure U.S. Snowboarding an additional quota spot for the 2008 World Cup tour.
"We're going to keep working towards 2010 with Dylan, I couldn't be more proud of what he's been able to accomplish this year, With guys like him, it's easy for us to continue to develop such progressive young riders."
Next stop for Bidez and U.S. Snowboarding is the State Farm U.S. Snowboard Cup starting Thursday in Lake Placid, NY with the first of two World Cup snowboardcross races. Halfpipe will follow on Saturday with the second SBX on Sunday.
SNOWBOARD WORLD CUP
Calgary Olympic Park
Calgary, Alberta - March 3, 2007
Halfpipe Finals (top 12 make finals)
Men
1. Ryoh Aono, Japan, 46.3
2. Dylan Bidez, Minturn, CO, 41.4
3. Brad Martin, Canada, 39.6
4. Luke Wynen, Mammoth Lakes, CA, 36.8
5. Brendan Davis, Canada, 36.7
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14. Broc Waring, Edwards, CO, 34.5
32. Ross Baker, Reno, NV, 15.8
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Women
1. Manuela Laura Pesko, Switzerland, 41.5
2. Holly Crawford, Australia, 40.7
3. Liu Jiayu, China, 39.7
4. Soko Yamaoka, Japan, 37.8
5. Paulina Ligocka, Poland
Complete results are here.
