The Bulgarian was a surprise package last season after coming from seemingly nowhere to win the overall title and the 26-year-old will be among those to beat again.

Tomorrow's competition in Carezza is a parallel giant slalom, with Yankov winning the corresponding event last season.

He also won a parallel slalom competition in Bad Gastein in Austria as he topped the overall standings with 4,050 points.

That saw him beat Italy's Roland Fischnaller, the parallel slalom champion, into second place as he finished on 3,620.

Russia's Andrey Sobolev won the parallel giant slalom title and was third overall with 3,046 points.

In all, 130 athletes from 16 countries will compete in Carezza in a single run format.

The women's campaign last season was dominated by the Czech Republic's Ester Ledecka, who won all three giant slalom races en-route to the overall title.

The parallel discipline, which sees two snowboarders descend down the course at the same time, was removed from the programme for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

This decision was made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in June 2015 when curling mixed doubles, speed skating mass start, an Alpine skiing team event and snowboard big air were all added to the schedule.

The inclusion of big air pushed parallel racing off the programme, although it was with the agreement of the FIS.

American snowboarder Justin Reiter attempted to challenge the IOC decision through the courts, but later dropped his case.  

After the action in Carezza, a parallel slalom race will be held at another Italian venue, Cortina d'Ampezzo, on December 17.