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| 5am wake up calls and no time for breakfast - bounce balls come in handy! |
The programme was to have 2 FIS slaloms and 2 FIS GS races. The 2 slaloms ran as planned, the conditions were really tough! The slalom hill was still injected from the men's European Cup event only a few days previously, and after heavy rain the night before the race and it freezing to -10 meant it was really icy. It was also the biggest girls field I had ever raced in with 94 girls starting. I knew it was going to be tough, I hadn't trained in conditions close to those at all so I just gave it my best shot. The first slalom went much better than I expected, I was fairly pleased with my skiing, for the first race of the season I didn't have huge expectations due to training situations... But I managed to score my best slalom points of my career, finish top 20 from a start number of 62 and finish as first British girl. I was really happy!
Second slalom didn't go as well, conditions seemed even harder on the second day and I felt more nervous for some reason. I think I definitely ski better when I'm relaxed and not thinking too much about the outcome. My first run was full of mistakes and the time showed it, second run I straddled gate 6 lost my ski and crashed out.
Between the races I had a couple of days to free ski around, managed to get some limited time on my GS skis, th snow conditions have been so bad I hadn't been on them in over 2 weeks. In Les Houches the snow was really really bad you were pretty much limited to 2 pistes and one of those was the race piste for the children's races. I headed up to Argentière to do some free skiing with my Dad. It's the sunny days, views like this and the great snow that make me miss this valley so much! It was so good to be back!
My GS races were eventually cancelled due to a combination of lack of snow and lack of safety netting. The TD decided it wasn't safe enough to race. This meant an earlier return back to Austria. I spent a night in Zurich before flying back to Ljubjlana then getting a train to Austria. The journey went pretty smoothly apart from getting chased by a drunken homeless man around Ljubljana train station. Running around with all my luggage wasn't really the fitness training I had in mind but I made it safely to my train.
I spent only one night back in Weissbriach, followed by a short morning session of GS in the rain in Nassfeld before our team left for Croatia to do 2 slalom FIS races in Sljeme, Zagreb. Another tough set of slalom races. The World Cup slalom events had been held there just a week ago so the hill was still in good condition. The 20cm of snow we had just before the races made the conditions even harder. The girls field was small but with a really high standard. On the first day only 11 girls finished out of the 38 starters. I was happy I managed to finish a really tough race. I was really tired and probably not in the best shape considering I hadn't had any rest from racing and training in the previous week and the travelling. I wasn't happy with the way I was skiing - all of my bad habits came back. Didn't score any points but wasn't too far off. On the second race I think the tiredness, mentally and physically got the better of me. I had a poor first run and in the second run I made so many mistakes I had nothing left in the tank to make the recoveries I needed and came out.
Recovery run in the amazing sunsets!
Once the races had finished it was time to hit the road again, I took a 7 hour train from Zagreb central station to Vienna to catch a flight to Geneva. I'm now off to Switzerland for the Welsh Alpine Championships in Morgins. Hopefully I'll be able to get my first GS race under my belt, I feel like I have done too much slalom!
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