 by Cassandra L. Watson, ESPN.com MOUNT SNOW, Vt.-- With all the excitement of the women and men's Snowboarder X and the Snocross finals, Biker X could only be described ...well...as boring, but then again it was only the first round of qualifying at ESPN's Winter X Games. Among the photo finishes, crashes and upsets of the other finals, Biker X qualifying was business as usual. Lars Tribus qualified first with a time of 1 minute, 03.487 seconds, followed by Myles Rockwell and last year's gold medalist Steve Peat. The second round of qualifying will be held Saturday followed by the sure-to-be-more exciting final. Tribus, a pharmaceutical salesman from New Jersey, was pleased with his time. "I made a couple of mistakes, a few bobbles here and there," said Tribus," but I'm definitely pleased considering I had to work 50 hours this week." The women also had their first round of qualifying, with Missy Giove leading after the first day with a qualifying time of 1:20:112. Marla Streb and Katrina Miller were second and third. Defending champion Tara Llanes followed in fifth place. Despite finishing first, Giove believes she could have done better. "I was really conservative on the hill. I wanted to make sure I had a good qualifying time today so I could really let go tomorrow (during the second round of qualifying). I feel I can take at least four seconds off my time," said Giove. Both riders had some concerns with the course. "It was a little rocky, but still it was fast. The snow could have been a little harder packed," said Tribus. Giove said the course was too soft and could have been a little faster. "I'm hoping to get a center lane where the snow should be harder, they will probably push the softer snow out to lanes one and six," she said. Tribus believes his time should hold if the course starts to deteriorate. Both riders have a chance to improve their times during the second round of qualifying on Saturday. |
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