Saturday, December 20, 2008

Arosa world cup


Today was the finals of the world cup in Arosa. I qualified yesterday in somewhat changeable conditions in 10th place.

It was snowing very heavily today, so much so that I think if it wasn’t for Eurosport covering the race live they would have postponed it till tomorrow. Thankfully the visibility stayed good enough so that it wasn’t overly dangerous and the race went ahead without too much disturbance.

My first heat today didn’t have any big names in it so I felt pretty confident going into it. The 4 of us all went into the first turn together and were very close together which resulted in one of the girls falling right away. Then there were 3 of us, soon to be 2 when another girl went down farther down the course meaning that me and the remaining one could cruise through to the next round quite easily.

My next heat was another story with some really good girls in there. My start out of the gate wasn’t very good so I had to battle through from behind. I passed Maelle Ricker (ranked 3rd in the world) on the exit of the first turn. I was then fighting with Helene Olafsen for 2nd place. We went around one turn very close together then I got forced over to the side of the next jump so I landed off my line and in the fresh snow slowing me down considerably and allowing Maelle to get in front of me again. I managed to gain speed over the next roller section and pass Maelle AGAIN before trying to get into 2nd place again, I gained on Helene over the final rollers and over the last jump but was unable to get close enough to pass before the finish line. I finished that heat in 3rd so I was then in the small final to decide places 5 to 8.

Maelle was also in the small final with me so I knew it was going to be an interesting race.
All 4 of us were very close together in the first turn again so much so that there just wasn’t any room left and Maelle went through one of the gates and disqualified herself. I was then fighting for 2nd place but it wasn’t till the final set of rollers before the last jump where I got a chance to overtake. I knew that most of the girls were slowing down quite a lot before going into these rollers because they were quite bumpy and it was very difficult to stay in control over them. I wanted to pass though so I went into them as fast as I thought I could handle and gained on the girl in front just enough to pass her in the air over the final jump!

I finished that heat in 2nd place putting me in 6th over all.

I must say that last minute pass was my favourite part of the day!

Even though I beat everyone who was ranked above me in the world today in the end my world ranking actually went down, to 6th. The 2 above me are only 20 points away though so it won’t take much to get in front of them again.

I am heading home for Christmas tomorrow and am greatly looking forward to decorating my parents house with Christmas decorations (they need me to get there so I can climb up into the loft to get them) and of course exchange gifts, like the gift of video analysis software Pokerstars are giving me which will be very useful in analyzing all my training and competitions.

After Christmas I am heading back out to Europe to prepare for my next world cup which is in Bad Gastein, Austria on the 10th of January.

Merry Christmas everyone!