During the last few days ofmy Europe trip I was really looking forward to getting back to the comforts ofthe United Statesand being home. It sure was greatwalking through the WashingtonDulles Airportand hearing predominately English being spoken. However, after a few days, for the first time in all my travelling to Europe, I began to miss some things that I had become soaccustomed to while there. To begin withI missed breakfast. In Austria atypical breakfast consists of fresh rolls, cold cuts (ham, salami, and orprosciutto), cheese, yogurt, muesli, soft boiled eggs and fresh jams. At first eating cold cuts and cheese on rollswas not that exciting, but it grew on me and I have come to miss it.
Perhaps the biggestdisappointment that being home has brought me has been with NBC's coverage ofthe Olympics. As many of you have seenthe weather has wreaked havoc on the events at Whistler. When the weather was finally good enough torun the Men's downhill Monday I planned my day around it. I was all set in front of my television at1:30 when it was supposed to start. Iturned on NBC only to see the last half of the 15k Nordic race. I flipped through other channels to see if itwas being aired, then opened my computer to check live timing on fis-ski.com tomake sure they had started. The race hadstarted on time, but it was nowhere to be seen live on tv.
In the evening when primetime coverage began they said the downhill would be aired. My curiosity could not be tamed and I hadwatched the live timing feed so I knew where everyone had finished. I was so let down by NBC's coverage of the"second biggest event of the games" (NBC's words) that words cannot begin todescribe it for me. In case any readersmissed it, six competitors were shown. Of those six shown two were Americans. They could not manage to spend the four extra minutes required to showthe other two Americans. The coverageended so that a special covering a Canadian town on the HudsonBay that's tourism revolves around polar bears could be seen.
As a fan of ski racing, Iguess I had just become spoiled while in Europe. There every World cup race is aired live onnational television. So on days where aWorld cup is scheduled it is more than easy to watch the race. I would not expect the same here, but Ifigured for the Olympics the coverage might be better, especially sinceuniversalsports.com, a part of NBC, has started showing all world cup raceslive on the internet. Wanting to have alarger primetime viewing audience is understandable for NBC, but if they are todo this they need to show more of the race. It was a very exciting race and better coverage might have grown the fanbase of the sport. As many know Bodecame down in the lead, then fought off a few runs that nearly beat him earlyon, that were not shown including one by Canadian Erik Guay. The drama began to build as he held onto thelead by the slimmest of margins until Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal snuckahead of him by two hundreths of a second.
In the end Bode had a greatrace, finishing third to two athletes who have a proven track record of comingup huge when it counts. Also worthy ofmention is Andrew Weibrecht's performance. In his Olympic debut, the Lake Placidnative finished 21st. I wouldimagine that he expected better after finishing in the top 10 in the trainingruns. I think he's ready for a big racein the super g.
Now that I have finished mydigression, the end of my Europe trip wastough. I finished up with three Europeancup races, a giant slalom and slalom in Meribel,France and a giant slalom inOberjoch, Germany. I was in Meribel a day early before the racesbegan and was completely blown away by the place. Granted it helped that it was a bluebird day,but the resort was massive. Meribel is apart of the Trois Vallée resort where one ticket gives any skier access to 198lifts, nearly 400 miles of groomed trails and endless off piste terrain thatwould be endless fun on a powder day.
It was a lot of fun cruisingaround checking out the place before the first race and eventually I found myway tot the race trail to check it out. Unfortunately the process of injecting the snow with water has not madeits way to France. The snow surface was pretty soft so the racewould be determined with starting position. In the first run of the giant slalom I started 42nd and had arun that moved me up to 28th when I crossed the finish. I was put into the hot seat to see if anyonecould push me back or if I would stay in the top 30 and have the advantage ofrunning early in the second run. As luckwould have it three people came from behind to beat me. I ended up 31st only 0.04 secondsbehind 30th. It washeartbreaking being that close, especially with how soft the snow was.
I was still determined to geta top 30 finish overall so I skied hard again second run. Right before the finish this strategy got mein a bit of trouble as I looked my arm in the panel of a gate and was spun out. I managed to stay in the course and finish,but I dumped a couple precious seconds. The slalom race the following day was another tough one. Starting 57th, I had trouble earlyon. I couldn't find a rhythm out of thestart and not more than 12 gates into the course I was on the side of thehill. Things came at me so quickly thatbefore I knew it I had missed a gate, but that's how slalom goes.
With one day off and 10 hoursof driving during that day to get form Franceto Germany,I had my last race of the trip shortly after. The two days of racing then sitting in the van didn't do wonders for mybody. The morning of my last race, myback was pretty sore. I was able to pushthrough it for the day, but it was tough and did not have a great race. Once again, I just missed making the top 30after the first run and the whole day became an uphill battle.
European cup races areperhaps the toughest in the world, and many top level World cup athletesagree. The level of skiing is as good asit gets and the field is so deep that moving up is very tough. Having a good race depends a lot on running aclean course, either first or second run. Because of my world ranking I always started in the 40s and had to beatquite a few skiers who are ranked ahead of me in the world. I skied pretty well in each race and camereally close to making that move up. Itwas a great experience for me and I am taking away from it an understanding ofthe attitude and approach it takes to let it all hang out each and every run.
Tentatively my next racesbegin this coming Sunday in Aspen,Colorado. The races there begin with two Noram super graces and a super combined. Until then Iwill be resting my back hoping that it gets better, I have a big month ofracing in March that I need to be healthy for.