X Games links

Originally it seemed as though there was no mention of the inaugural Monoskier X event in Aspen anywhere on the web, but in fact, there are some photos out there on ESPN's media site. And the Denver Post printed a nice story along with a great photo of Lacey and Laurie's crash.

I'll also post this email from Kevin Jardine, our team's head coach, who served as the organizer for the event:

Hi guys! How is everyone? Hopefully most of you are getting pumped up to go race in Europe. I wanted to send out an email to give everyone a little taste of what we experienced at the X games. It was incredible. So incredible that I can't talk. I lost my voice after the event Monday and still don't have it back so if you need to reach me do it through email for a few days.

We arrived on Saturday to take an early peek at what we had to do as far as
the course changes. What did I see? HOLY CRAP!!! The skier and boarder X
course was out of control. How in the world would we ever make that safe?
Well, we did it. In a team effort the staff made the final call on how to
change the course and make it scary and challenging but safe. Then I met
with the grooming crew that was the world's best. They arrived at 4:30 on
Sunday to do the impossible and right in front of our eyes. It took them 45
minutes. We made some serious changes but left a couple intense and scary
sections. For example: The cheese wedge as we called it was a 4.5 foot
ramp that launched the guys at least 10 feet in the air and 30 - 50 feet
down the hill.

We had a meeting on Monday morning with the athletes at 9:00 AM
as our staff worked on the hill from 6:30 - 10:00 to get the 4 inches of new
snow off the track. We had to do everything from putting in the start gates
to dying the track. But we got it done. After our meeting explaining the
rules and schedule we headed up for inspection and our training run. The
guys inspected the course and then headed down to watch Ben forerun for them (with no helmet or poles). Then it was back to the top for the first and
only training run of the day. This was a full non stop run down the track.
We had a few crashes in training and so we cut the women's field down to 4
and decided to move all of them right to the final. This ment the boys were
up first. 10 minutes before the race we announced the heats and off we
went. The first heat consisted of Joe, Tyler, and Scott Meyer. The second
heat was CDY, Dan Metivier and Kevin Connolly. The third heat was Bramble, Roger Lee and Sam Ferguson from Aspen. Tyler, Chris and Sam all moved on to the finals after a disappointing crash by Kevin. The Women's final was next with Laurie, Lacey, Sarah Will and Katy Orr in the race. Laurie and Sarah got off to a good start and Lacey quickly passed Sarah and went after Laurie. Laurie and Lacey both caught big air on the last jump coming into the finish and both crashed at the exact same time. Laurie was the first across the line with Lacey second and Sarah third. It was a very scary but exciting finish. Tyler had the best start in the Men's final but was eventually passed by Chris about 1/3 of the way down the course. Chris held that lead through with Tyler in a close second and Sam Ferguson third.

It was a fun day to say the least. Some of the most exciting racing I have
ever seen. We put on a great show and had tons of press coverage to follow.
I have attached a few pictures but if you want to see more go to
www.espneventmedia.com and check them out.

On another note. We leave on the 15th to go to Europe. I will be sending
out more info this week. Thanks again for everyone who came to Aspen to
compete, help and watch.