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Honda Ski Tour shines spotlight on Maine man
Maine native Simon Dumont took home $80,000 and a new Honda over the weekend after the halfpipe star clinched the Honda Ski Tour's overall title with his third win. (Post / Jason Blevins)



Simon Dumont was the man to beat heading into the final Honda Ski Tour halfpipe contest last weekend at California's Squaw Valley. The Maine native, who probably spends more time hovering above icy halfpipes than anywhere else, threw down his trademark gargantuan airs to seal his third victory of the tour and the overall title, taking home $80,000 and a new Honda.
New Zealand teen phenom Jossi Wells, rebounding from a broken collarbone suffered at Aspen's X Games this season, took second, followed by Carbondale's whiskey-flipping Peter Olenick. In tour standings, Canadian Mike Riddle took the $35,000 second-place spot. Olenick rode his one-of-a-kind, first-hit double backflip - dubbed the "whiskey flip," the crowd favorite at every pipe contest of the season - to third place in the tour and $24,000 in prize money.
Snowmass skiercross king Casey Puckett took a rare tumble on Squaw Valley's burly skiercross course and missed the podium in the fourth and final installment of the inaugural Honda Ski Tour. His limping fourth-place finish was still enough for the former Olympian and three-time Jeep King of the Mountain champ to finish the tour in second place (and $60,000 richer) thanks to his victories at the tour's Sun Valley and Breckenridge stops. Frenchman Enak Gavaggio finished the race first and Canadian Stanley Hayer took second, but in the tour's overall standings it was Hayer, Puckett and Gavaggio. Puckett, by the way, was not the only injured skiercross racer at Squaw. Two unnamed racers were dramatically injured when a Red Bull banner spanning the race course deflated and snagged the airborne racers. A tour spokeswoman said the injuries were not serious, citing an evaluation by the tour's traveling doctor.
BOARDERCROSS: Jacobellis clinches World Cup
Fresh off her three-race sweep in the Jeep King of the Mountain series, Vermont's reigning world boardercross champion, Lindsey Jacobellis, clinched the World Cup boardercross title Sunday with a win in Lake Placid, N.Y., at the U.S. Snowboard Cup. There is one more World Cup race, Saturday at Quebec's Stoneham ski area, but Jacobellis has harvested enough points in her three World Cup races this season to take the title. Sunday's win was her second World Cup boardercross victory in 48 hours.
It was a matter of inches in the men's final, where Canadian Drew Neilson - this year's Jeep King of the Mountain winner - edged Squaw Valley's Nate Holland in the same 1-2 finish of the previous three World Cup races. Neilson has won all three World Cup boardercross contests this season and Holland has finished second every race. Holland is only 600 points behind Neilson in the World Cup standings, meaning the World Cup title is open for both riders in Saturday's finals at Stoneham.
SNOWBOARDING: Coloradans star in halfpipe
Colorado riders owned the pipe Saturday at the U.S. Snowboard Cup - a World Cup contest - in Lake Placid. Breck's Steve Fisher, winner of X Games gold this year, led a U.S. podium sweep in the men's halfpipe while Aspen's Gretchen Bleiler won the women's contest. Four other Colorado riders finished in the men's top 20: 12th- place Broc Waring of Edwards, Jake Black (15th) of Dillon, Dylan Bidez (16th) of Minturn and Matthew Ladley (20th) of Steamboat.
SKI AREAS: Crested Butte adds slope time
As if the early delivery of an extra hour of daylight was not enough of a gift this week, Crested Butte Mountain Resort is giving skiers more reason to celebrate with 90 additional minutes of slope time. The resort will turn its Red Lady Express chair until 5:30 p.m. every day until the mountain closes April 8. Keystone, citing the same early delivery of daylight-saving time, will offer its typical Wednesday-to-Sunday night skiing every night of the week in March.