Snowboardcross: Frenchwoman Chloé Trespeuch wins her first crystal globe

Frenchwoman Chloé Trespeuch won the Snowboardcross World Cup on Sunday in Mont Sainte-Anne (Canada), winning her first crystal globe in the specialty at the age of 29, after her fourth place in the last race of the season.

Olympic snowboardcross vice-champion in 2022 on the slopes of Zhangjiakou during the Beijing Games, Chloé Trespeuch joins Karine Ruby (1997, 2001, 2003 and 2004) and Nelly Moenne-Loccoz (2015), the only two French women to have until then won the snowboardcross crystal globe.

In the 12 races contested this season, Trespeuch reached the final nine times and reached the podium seven times.

In the general classification of the World Cup, she was 35 points ahead of Briton Charlotte Bankes (792 against 757), winner of the crystal globe last winter, who had struggled at the start of the season but who returned to her best level in recent weeks.

On Sunday, Trespeuch set off on the Battle Royale - the name of the track at Mont Sainte-Anne - with an 85-point lead over Bankes before the last race. A fifteenth place was enough to score 16 points and be out of reach of the Briton, which was done with a qualification for the semi-finals, not without a little scare in the quarters.

The Frenchwoman finally finished in fourth place in a race won by Bankes, ahead of the Italian Michaela Moioli and the Australian Josie Baff.