ESPN Snowmobiling

Joshua Duplechian

Brett Turcotte and Cory Davis tag team the course during Speed and Style practice.

If the format of Speed & Style perplexes you, take solace in the fact that you are not alone. Levi LaVallee, who along with Joe Parsons is competing in all four sled events, beginning Thursday with S & S, doesn't exactly know the score either.

So here's the skinny: The course combines the Freestyle and SnoCross courses with one run amounting to a lap through both courses. But since it's head to head, one rider starts on the speed section while the other opens on the style (or freestyle) portion. Then the riders switch tracks, from speed to style or vice versa, with the scoring split 50-50 between speed and style.

Seeding —one through eight— will be determined by preliminaries in the afternoon in order to set up the four head-to-head quarterfinal matches (with No. 1 against No. 8 and so on). Winners advance to the semis and losers go home. In the semis, same rules apply- but the winners advance to the big final for gold and silver while the semi losers move to the small final for bronze. Got it? Right.

So four days and four events—how are you approaching it all?
Levi LaVallee: I'm just having fun. And unlike the rest of the guys, I get to ride the whole time while they sit and watch a lot. So I'm stoked. Just go out, practice and I just love being on the course doing my thing. That's the best part about it. As far as my schedule being busy, yeah, that's a given, but it's just more fun to be had, you know.

Are you focusing on one event more than another, or just taking each one on as it comes?
It's just one at a time, and trying to stay focused on what I'm doing. If you're not focused on what you're doing out here, it's gonna end in a bad way.

How's the S & S course this year?
There's still some things that need to be changed, and smoothed out as far as the course goes, but I think once that's settled it's going to make for some good action.

So you'll do seeding runs tomorrow in order to determine the pairings, or what?
Must be, I think. But I guess I couldn't tell you. I guess I'm not exactly sure about how it's all going to work out.

Will you be going all out in every event and keeping something in reserve?
I've got a game plan for every time I go out on the sled. And all the riding is ultimately going to get you more familiar with the course and more comfortable in general.

As the one and only champion of Speed & Style, who's going to get in your way this year?
The field is stacked. There's some good snowcross guys who've started jumping and I've seen some pictures of them throwing some pretty big tricks. So it's not only gonna be the guy who can throw big tricks, it's someone who can haul out there. So it's up for grabs as far as who's gonna come out swinging. Cory davis, Turcotte, both of them are riding strong, and Joe and Heath —Joe being an ex-snocross guy who's got the speed and sick tricks, and Heath's got phenomenal tricks. There's so many guys who have a chance and that's what makes it so interesting.

Guys with snowcross backgrounds have an edge, no?
It should be evenly matched as far as points go. If you're fast but you can't do tricks, it's not gonna pay off for you. If you can throw big tricks but you can't do the course, you're going to hurt yourself. So it's finding a combination of having some decent tricks and having the speed.

And no room for mistakes, right?
As short of a race as this is, it's so quick that if you make the smallest mistake on the speed track you lose so much time. And if you make the smallest mistake on your freestyle tricks, you've only got four jumps so if you mess up one of them you're not going to be able to make up the difference. You really just have to lay it on the line and hope you stomp everything.

We admire your approach in keeping quiet about the double backflip for Next Trick. But now it's out and we've got to ask—how's that coming?
I can't deny that I've been practicing in my foam pit. And it was going real well into the foam pit. One of the things about being up here is that we lose so much horsepower up at altitude. And a lot of snowmobile backflipping has to do with the rotation of the track, so with that loss of power, that plays a part in it. But if we feel good about it, if the sled's running strong and everything feels right to me, we might just see it.

Are you sleeping well at night?
I'm pretty comfortable with it. I know whether or not it's doable and if I feel comfortable with it. So I'm not losing sleep over it. And actually I don't have time to think about that —I've got to think about the Speed and Style right now.

Have you landed the double to snow?
No, no not yet. I landed it to foam. [laughs]. I can claim that.

Joshua Duplechian

Levi LaVallee living life in the transition.

Sort comments by: Most Recent | First Posted