Val Thorens Snow Report: 4th March 2014

I’ve had a great weeks training in Meribel. I trained Giant Slalom and Super G on the Meribel Stade. I was feeling really fresh after my week off and had some really good training runs that gave me a lot of confidence. I’m still working on a few things that I have been trying to improve all season like not moving off of my outside ski and the end of the turn too quickly and keeping my hips up.

This weekend I had two FIS races in Les Menuires. I was really looking forward to these races as I love the race piste at Les Menuires and I’ve had good results every time I’ve raced there this year.

On Saturday the conditions were very tough. They were about at the limit that you could allow the race to run! It had snowed a huge amount Friday and on Saturday morning so there was a lot of fresh snow around and the visibility was zero. The light was very flat so you couldn’t see any bumps or ruts on the course. There were a lot of very good skiers on the start list and I was starting way back in 46th out of 83 racers. On my first run I skied well on the steep and didn’t notice any of the bumps that I had be warned about so I let my skis go a little too much on the flat where I got jolted by a few of the bumps but when I reached the finish I was in 27th. In the technical events the top 30 after the first run are flipped for second run. This means if you finish in 30th you get to go 1st second run and if you finish 1st you go 30th. This is a huge advantage especially when the conditions are as bumpy as they were! Unfortunately I was pushed down into 31st place and missed out on starting first by 0.08 seconds! Despite this I had a good second run and finished in 24th place.

I was happy with the way I had skied but knew I could go faster the following day. The weather cleared up and the Three Valleys were greeted with bright blue skies and sunshine. However the 13th racer had a nasty tumble and had to be helicoptered off the hill. This meant the race was stopped for over an hour. I had a good start and skied well on the first steep. When I came onto the flat I went too straight at a gate which pushed me out into a pile of soft snow. I managed to hold on for one more gate before I was pushed too low and came out of the course. I was disappointed as I thought maybe I could have stayed in the course but this was the first time I had come out of a Giant Slalom since March last year so I knew it was going to happen at some point. I was just relieved I could ski down to the bottom and didn’t need a helicopter!

The race calendar in France is a bit empty for the next few weeks so I will be training up in Meribel. Next week I will be training three days of Super G on the Meribel Stade which I’m very excited about as it is where the French and British Championships will be held!