Just three days after the Snowboard Cross World Cup opener in Montafon had to be cancelled due to the lack of snow, the Austrian winter sport resort comes back with a bang!

Instead of running a sbx race on the Hochjoch/Seebliga, Local Organisers and FIS Officials agreed to add a parallel slalom (Dec 18th) as well as the first ever Team Parallel Event (PSL, Dec 19th) to the FIS Alpine Snowboard World Cup tour calendar.

By running the first ever Team Parallel event, Montafon will secure its spot in the World Cup history books.

“I'm very happy that we can host two parallel events after being forced to cancel the snowboard cross race. It's an highlight to organise the first ever Parallel Team Event. Above that, Overall World Cup title winner Lukas Mathies is also pumped to compete on his home mountain,” said Christian Speckle, a member of the Organising Committee.

23-year-old local hero Mathies added: “Racing in front of a home crowd in the valley I grew up means a lot to me. Of course it's a bummer for my snowboard cross teammates but for me, personally, the Montafon World Cup is a pretty cool thing.”

FIS Race Director Uwe Beier drew a similar line: “We have a pretty big Alpine Snowboard World Cup tour. Therefore, it's still a bummer that we lost the snowboard cross races in Montafon, especially after the last two successful years.

An event in such a sport enthusiastic region is always special, so it's good that we have the additional parallel races.”

The preliminary schedule for the races on the Hochjoch/Seebliga looks like this:
•Thursday, Dec 18th: PSL single run format with qualifiers at 9 AM CET and finals to start at 1:15 PM CET
•Friday, Dec 19th: PSL Team Event with the finals to start at 10:50 AM CET