New resort "Rosa Khutor" in Sochi holds Russian stage of Freeride World Tour

On March 6, the slopes of the ski resort "Rosa Khutor", located in Krasnaya Polyana near Sochi, hosted the final race of the Nissan Russian Adventure - the Russian stage of the Freeride World Tour. The racers and organizers of the competition speak about the high level of the complex and the need to develop the freeride sport in Russia.

Every year, starting from 2008, the Russian stage of the Freeride World Tour is held in Krasnaya Polyana. This year, it took place on March 4-6. The stage is notable for traditional participation of the world freeride elite in it. In Sochi, only men - skiers and snowboarders - took part in the races.

For the first time the competitions were held at the new resort "Rosa Khutor"; all the previous years they were hosted by the ski complex named "Alpika Service". The "Rosa Khutor", which will take in 2014 a part of the competitions of the Olympic Winter Games, is located at an altitude of 2320 meters above sea level, with the altitude gap of slopes from 400 to 500 meters. As reported by the "Caucasian Knot", in mid-December last year, Sochi commissioned a 9-km-long course at this resort, as well as the necessary infrastructure needed for the races.

The winners of the Russian stage were the skier Samuel Antamatten (Switzerland) and snowboarder Flo Orley (Austria), who are now in the lead of the general World Tour. The runner-up among skiers was the Frenchman Aurelien Ducroz, while the Austrian Stefan Ausl was the third. The leader after the first race Aasmund Thorsen (Norway) showed a good ride, but eventually became only the eighth.

The runner-up among snowboarders was Mitch Tolderer (Austria). The winner of the first race the Frenchman Jonathan Charlet was only in the third place.

"It's fine that this stage was organized here; freeride is already developing in Russia; a lot of young guys go in for it. This is a big promotion for our country, same as the fact that our racers are involved in these competitions," racer Idris Uzdenov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"The competitions were held in a perfectly normal and standard setting. From my viewpoint, this was one of the best stages, held this year," Nicholas Hale Woods, founder and organizer of the Freeride World Tour, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. "Mounts of the 'Rosa Khutor' are among the best. In fact, we had expected more snow in this period, but though it was not plenty of it, the snow condition was excellent; and we were lucky to have two weather windows to hold the competition. And I would like to emphasize that directly the infrastructure and support of the "Rosa Khutor" complex are really super."