My racing season is in full swing. In the last two weeks, I have raced four slaloms, two downhills and one super G. This week, I will have two more super G races, two giant slalom races and a super combined.
My first series of races in Colorado did not go as well as I had hoped. The first two races were held at Loveland, and the two after were at Winter Park. The series was postponed because of heavy snowfall. During a six day span starting right before our races, it managed to snow nearly four feet. This did not make for ideal racing conditions. To make things more difficult, this series is typically the most competitive of all of the NorAm race series throughout the year. Many of the top world cup athletes use the races as a tune-up for the World Cup races soon after at Beaver Creek.
In my first race, I started 43rd with athletes from the Italian, French, and Swiss national teams starting in front of me, in addition to the usual Canadian and U.S. national team athletes. It is always important to be in the top 30 after the first run because the second run order is the top 30 reversed followed by the remaining finishers in the order of where they finished. So the racer that was 30th after the first run will go first on the second run and the first run leader starts 30th on the first run. It is always an advantage to run early. My goal was to get into the top 30 after the first run and give myself a chance to run on a fresh course for the second run.
I had a good run and moved up to 31st when I came down. Then one person who ran after me bumped me back to 32nd. I had just missed the top 30 by 0.2 seconds. It was a huge disappointment to be that close and not make it. Not a lot of skiers failed to finish and I had skied well, so I was not too upset. As it turned out, just missing the top 30 after the first run became the theme of the race series for me. Only one day was I able to be in the top 30 after the first run and that day I ended up finishing 18th.
By the end of the four-day race series, I was more than ready to pack my bags, move on to the next series of races and put Colorado behind me. Not having great finishes really wore on me, but it also made me look forward to racing downhill and super G here in Canada. I flew from Denver to Calgary the night after my last slalom and enjoyed the change in scenery.
I spent two days relaxing just outside of Calgary before heading to Lake Louise, where there were three speed races. Last year, these races were my first taste of NorAm speed racing. To be honest, I was pretty scared last season. I came back this year much more comfortable and that made a huge difference in how I did. I was familiar with the race trail and the course. I knew how to ski certain sections. This year’s course followed the men’s World Cup course from two weeks earlier.
All in all, I had three good days of racing there. Our first race came after two days of training runs. The start for the first race was lowered because of high winds. This played in my favor because it was the same start position that we used the year before. I did not have what felt like a clean run, but could tell that I was going fast. One of my close friends who is on the Canadian national team let me use his skis and I got a fast pair. I finished in 9th place. I was beyond excited about that finish. A top 15 result was my goal and I was in the top ten; it was great. The following day the wind died and we started from the top. I had only taken one run from the top and that did not help me. Some of the other athletes had been racing in the World Cup races there and had much more time on course then I had. The more familiar with a race trail and a course that a racer is, the easier it is and the better they typically do.
I skied well in the second downhill race, despite losing a lot of time to the leaders in the first 35 seconds of the course. In that time, I fell 1.6 seconds behind the leader, but only lost 0.6 seconds in the minute and 15 seconds after. That just goes to show how I did not feel comfortable on the top section. I still met my goal of being in the top 15 by finishing 14th.
Besides having fun scaring myself skiing downhill, the real reason that I do it is to help my chances in super G. Many times there are super G races immediately following downhill races on the same trail. It is an easy transition for me from downhill to super G and I tend to ski better in super G when it is after downhill. I was using the downhill races in Lake Louise mainly for training for the super G race there right after.
Last season I had very strong finishes in super G and was looking to continue that with this season’s first super G race. We woke up the morning of the super G to a snow storm. Luckily, I was starting number 5. We ran the course right after the girls finished, so there was no loose snow in the track to slow me down and I ran early so the track was rough after a lot of guys running it. I felt very confident that a podium finish was within reach.
I had a good run going on the top of the course. I was carrying more speed than I had thought during inspection, because I got so much air off a jump at the top that I landed next to the following gate. This made me happy and I charged even harder. Looking back, I should have skied a bit smarter. Right after I came into a turn that broke over onto a steep pitch, I leaned in a bit; possibly being too greedy and went down onto my hip. I did not miss any gate, but lost all of my speed. I couldn’t believe it, but I was still in the course.
I came down to the finish shocked and upset with myself that I let that happen. As it turned out, I fared much better than most. With that mistake, I had no chance of being on the podium or in the top 15, but many guys didn’t finish, so I ended up 15th and scored some valuable NorAm points. It took me some time to digest what had happened, but by the time I got back to the hotel, I knew that I could ski fast enough to win and would have more chances in a couple days. Having to pull and roll all of the safety fencing along the whole downhill trail helped get my mind off of it. All of the athletes came out to help, and four hours later in the dark we were finished. It was quite a job to pull three layers of fence on each side of a nearly two minute long downhill course, but it is well worth it to keep us out of the woods.