December: Pitztal and Lenk races

Ohw damn I have been neglecting this blog so badly, sorry guys, time to catch up month by month.

In the beginning of December I took a trip to Pitztal for IPCAS races Super G (2x) en Giant Slalom, Pitztal was so damn cold -30 brrr. I drove the 1000km to Pitztal alone, which was a bit a challenge considering the blizzards and traffic jams but I made it safe. Nick and Thomas where already there. The first day we trained some Super G, I hadn’t been on my Super long Super G ski’s for almost a year. The next day we had two Super G races scheduled, the first race I was slow, holding back and not attacking. A result of a lack of training and with that a lack of confidence. The next race was a lot, and a LOT better, I climbed one spot and was a lot faster (something like 24 seconds…). In that race I skied my best Super G result 277,78 points.

The next day it was GS time, first run I made a big mistake which cost me some valuable time, second run was pretty good. All in all I was happy with the races in Pitztal, I drove home after the GS race and stayed home for 5 days before leaving for Lenk.

In Lenk I skied my first European Cup races. I arrived in Lenk on December 15, celebrated my birthday the next day on ski’s. December 17^th was the first race day, we started with 2 days of GS, since I’m not GS EC qualified yet I couldn’t race. The first race I was able to be a forerunner, it was a challenging course and I was glad with this opportunity. The next day I did some free skiing on my  own. On December 19^th I skied my first EC slalom, this course was a lot more challenging then IPCAS races, it was much longer and steeper. Unfortunately I straddled a gate in my first run, so no second run for me, I used this time to get some extra training in. The next day a new chance I had a so so first run, bit slow not attacking, I finished 11^th . The second run was much better I started attacking more and I finished 8^th for the run 9^th in the race. After that it was time for Christmas! The Lenk races where a lot of fun, we watched the night slalom races on TV in the lobby of our hotel with the other athletes.