I know I have come a long way, as in previous years I couldn’t make it down the steep course without falling over, whereas now I’m training at full race pace. In a bizarre way, a lot of what I’m doing and improvements I’ve made, can be attributed to riding the motorbike. Learning how to steer the bike around the race circuit has given me a new insight into how weight and body movement can affect a turn shape. In the same respect, the winters skiing should also help with the track days, although I do go considerably slower in the sit ski.
During one of the quietest periods on the mountain, we took out our speed skis for a few runs. Coming back down to the mid station, with just the four of us boys on the entire slope, we all hit 60mph plus. We were nearly line abreast, holding a clean carve and balanced at speeds that gives you goosebumps – I am really proud to be a skier with Tim, Russ and Sean. The smiles from that run took a long time to come off, and they still emerge whenever I think about it.
The training then moved onto the Stubai Glacier, which continued at a slightly slower rate. We had three days off to begin with, the first day on the hill was a complete white out and then it kept on snowing. Our coach got ill and was unable to come up on the hill for a few days in the first week, so Tim and I spent our time out of gates practicing drills. A number of guests in the Gasthous that came down with a ‘cold’, so Tim and I were being extra cautious, eating oranges, taking paracetamol and drinking lots of fluids.
Overall nearly a metre of snow fell during the time we spent in Stubai, which was great for the powder skiers and resort, but not so great for those who wanted to train. We couldn’t set gates as the snow was too soft, for example; when I would get up to speed and put the ski on its edge, the ski sank about six inches and the nose would lift out of the turn. It meant skiing had to be very precise and measured, light during the turns and not forcing the shape of the turns (which is what you want to do in a race). I did try to increase the pressure of turns right at the end of one day, when the slopes had been packed down by skiers, but it was still too soft. The ski dug in, flipping me over the side and then sent me cart-wheeling down the slope. I broke the ski, got a lot of people worried (due to the amount of snow exploding around me) but came away with just a small stiffness to the neck.
It was then onto Pitztal, which lived up to its reputation of cold, snowy and windy. We saw the sun on our first day, but then it ran away and didn’t come back out. The snow continued to fall, making training difficult and racing even harder. The first race was the German National GS. I made a costly mistake on each of the two runs and ended up in 12th place, some 16 seconds behind the winner, not the start I had been after. The race was held in very poor conditions, the course became rutted quickly and you couldn’t see where the bumps were. The next day was the first Europa Cup GS and conditions were even worse. After the first run I was five seconds off the leader, having made another silly mistake in exactly the same spot as the previous day, you’d think I’d have learnt my lesson. The weather then closed in to a point where a helicopter wouldn’t be able to land and as that is part of the rules for medical cover, the race had to be sacked. I was really annoyed as I needed to lower my GS points. Luckily the committee decided to run a further GS the following day, with the Super G on the final day, instead of slalom. This time I was far more cautious with my run and was just under five seconds off the leader, but in 15th place. The coach had a word with me and said I needed to ski like I had done in training. So the second run saw me attack the course, keep on the race line and I was second fastest overall for the run and lifted up into seventh place. The points were good enough that my average is now 65 in GS.
This has meant that I am now available for selection for the 2010 Winter Paralympics.
There are a number of different selection criteria for athletes to meet, and one if them is to have your race points less than 100. The others are linked to being fit enough to train and race, finishing a race this season, etc. So, whilst I cannot say I am going until the selection on the 23rd Jan, things are looking a lot better than before. The races were also good for other members of the Team, with Sean collecting a medal in each, Tim getting top tens, and Russ continuing to lower his points as well.
The Team has now moved to Kuhtai for the next set of Europa Cup Races. We are having the day off before returning to training. There doesn’t seem to be as much snow here as in Pitztal, but this is a resort rather than a glacier, so is much lower in altitude. We are all confident of continuing our successes.