March: Chamrousse French nationals

March 18-21 I went to Chamrousse France for the open French national championships. On Sunday, March 17, I flew from Rotterdam to Grenoble where I was picked up by the team. They had trained two days in Tignes. That night it snowed a lot, more than 60 cm of fresh snow. Monday we started with a slalom race. The first run wasn’t great, the circumstances were heavy with the fresh snow, still I finished 2^nd with a big lead over number 3 and 4, my direct competitors. Marie Bochet from France was far a head in first place, she is also the number 1 in the world. The second run was much better for me and I was able to expand my lead and finished second in the first race. 

 playing in the gym

The second day we skied slalom again, this time I had some bad luck in the first run, there was a Snowboarder next to me all the trainers were shouting at him and I lost my concentration.  I finished third for that run but I wasn’t that far behind. Second run I made a big mistake on the flat part my shin guards sort of got stuck together and I almost crashed. Ultimately I came in third. But despite that my gap with nr1 was smaller than the day before.

After slalom it was time for 2 days of GS.  Due to the soft conditions, the giant slalom race moved to the slope where we skied slalom. This initiated a short giant slalom with a flat start and steep hanging finish. On Wednesday the first part was set pretty fast and I was able to tuck the whole flat part. In the middle part I came a little bit late in my line a few times, but I had a good first run. I finished 2^nd with a lead of a second over number 3. The second run was better than the first run and I finished in second. I finished second overall that day so I was faster than women in the other categories (blind and sitting respectively), they use a factor to compare all the different categories that’s needed to calculate the race penalty. Finishing second overall was  a decent performance especially since I was ranked 7^th in that field. 

And then it was time for the last race of the season. Unfortunately the race calendar was somewhat limited for me this year because I did not qualify for worldcup (yet). I could have gone to Switzerland after these races for the Swiss championships, actually I should have done it for my GS points, unfortunately it wasn’t logistically possible.

The last race, again giant slalom after my good feeling of the day before I wanted to repeat that. Although I didn’t made any big mistakes, I was just slow, the GS was a lot more turny with a tight line, it was a bit difficult for me. After the first run I sat in second with 0.15 seconds lead over number 3 and 0.5 sec lead over number 4, my direct competitors. Unfortunately I could not hold on to my lead during second run and I finished fourth, just 0.25 seconds off the podium. 

Marie Bochet won all the races with a big lead but behind her we had  a fight for the podium. After the race I went back to Grenoble airport, Airport Security and I reached a new low, not only did I had to remove my pants (I consider that normal now) but now I also had to remove my orthotic and they put it in the scanner. But my leg continued to beep at the metal detector so they wanted to see some x-rays after a little discussion they let me trough just in time for my flight. I prefer the body scan that saves a lot of time. After all I arrived home at 6pm, tight schedule but great that it worked out.