I have been fairly busy and didn't have any access to internet in my hotels. I'll give you an idea of how much time I’ve been travelling lately.
Bariloche- Sauze d’Oulx - Approx 35 hours.
I arrived back to Europe on the 22nd of March then headed straight up to the Crystal Ski Challenge at Sauze d’Oulx, where I met the group of around 140 participants who were training hard for their events at the end of the week, so I was on hand to give some tips and do some demos to help everyone improve their skiing. It was great to see some of the same faces returning for another year and also that the event has grown considerably from last year. Unfortunately, I had to leave on the Friday lunch time just before the GS race so I didn't get to see the real action.
Sauze d’Oulx- Santa Catarina - 6 hour drive.
Next I headed for Santa Catarina for the Italian National champs slalom. On the morning of the race we had a pretty early start and I was really struggling with my jetlag from the trip back from Argentina so on the first run my performance was not too good however I wakened up a bit for the 2nd run and put in a reasonable run not losing any time to the race winner Killian Albrecht.
Santa Catarina - Meribel - 8 hour drive.
After the race it was straight back into the car again and off to Meribel for the 1st downhill training run, great to be back on the downhill skis!!
Meribel- Val d’Isere - 90 min drive.
Next I travelled to Val d’Isere for the French champs Gs which turned out to be cancelled due to too much snow which seemed really strange because just over the hill in Meribel it was blue skies and perfect racing condition where they had 2 runs of downhill training which I obviously missed with trying to squeeze in the Gs in Val d’Isere. So back in the car to Meribel.
Val d’Isere - Meribel - 90 min drive.
Next it was British Champs week starting with 2 downhills in 1 day, race 1 was for the senior title and race 2 for the juniors. In run one I really didn't feel 100% sure of my line so I felt I skied rather tentatively and finished about 0.83 behind Finlay with Dougie Crawford in 2nd only 0.10 sec in front of me. On the 2nd run I skied in a more aggressive style putting in a better performance finishing clear of all of the field except Fin who also skied better and was 0.40 in front of me.
Next up was Super-g which I was feeling fairly good about going into but unfortunately, I didn't put down my best performance and finished in 4th place kind of mad at myself.
I think my poor performance in the Super-g only made me more motivated for the Slalom race the next day which really was a race off between Alain and me, I was leading after the first run with Alain in 2nd, so we were running 29 and 30 on the 2nd run. Alain skied a very strong 2nd run taking the lead in the finish by almost 2 seconds and I could see and hear it all at the top and knew that I had to pull out a great run. I skied a really solid run and won the race by 0.44.
On the final day we raced GS and I was the top ranked skier going into the race. Of all the events GS requires the most feeling which seemed to have deserted me and I battled my way down the courses making a few silly mistakes. In the end I finished in 2nd place which was enough to take the overall title together with Dougie Crawford who also had 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th from all of the races.
So all in all an ok championships I would say especially considering I was still jetlagged coming into them having missed 3 weeks of skiing.
Meribel- Bansko- 14 hour trip
Now I am in Bansko, Bulgaria for 3 Slaloms with Alain, which we were invited to by Killian Albrecht.
Otherwise all is fine. Maca and me had a little baby girl called Maria Guadalupe which I'm not sure if I had mentioned. I miss being around her but will get to spend a lot of time together over the Summer so that will be really great I'm sure.
bye for now
Noel Baxter
Bariloche- Sauze d’Oulx - Approx 35 hours.
I arrived back to Europe on the 22nd of March then headed straight up to the Crystal Ski Challenge at Sauze d’Oulx, where I met the group of around 140 participants who were training hard for their events at the end of the week, so I was on hand to give some tips and do some demos to help everyone improve their skiing. It was great to see some of the same faces returning for another year and also that the event has grown considerably from last year. Unfortunately, I had to leave on the Friday lunch time just before the GS race so I didn't get to see the real action.
Sauze d’Oulx- Santa Catarina - 6 hour drive.
Next I headed for Santa Catarina for the Italian National champs slalom. On the morning of the race we had a pretty early start and I was really struggling with my jetlag from the trip back from Argentina so on the first run my performance was not too good however I wakened up a bit for the 2nd run and put in a reasonable run not losing any time to the race winner Killian Albrecht.
Santa Catarina - Meribel - 8 hour drive.
After the race it was straight back into the car again and off to Meribel for the 1st downhill training run, great to be back on the downhill skis!!
Meribel- Val d’Isere - 90 min drive.
Next I travelled to Val d’Isere for the French champs Gs which turned out to be cancelled due to too much snow which seemed really strange because just over the hill in Meribel it was blue skies and perfect racing condition where they had 2 runs of downhill training which I obviously missed with trying to squeeze in the Gs in Val d’Isere. So back in the car to Meribel.
Val d’Isere - Meribel - 90 min drive.
Next it was British Champs week starting with 2 downhills in 1 day, race 1 was for the senior title and race 2 for the juniors. In run one I really didn't feel 100% sure of my line so I felt I skied rather tentatively and finished about 0.83 behind Finlay with Dougie Crawford in 2nd only 0.10 sec in front of me. On the 2nd run I skied in a more aggressive style putting in a better performance finishing clear of all of the field except Fin who also skied better and was 0.40 in front of me.
Next up was Super-g which I was feeling fairly good about going into but unfortunately, I didn't put down my best performance and finished in 4th place kind of mad at myself.
I think my poor performance in the Super-g only made me more motivated for the Slalom race the next day which really was a race off between Alain and me, I was leading after the first run with Alain in 2nd, so we were running 29 and 30 on the 2nd run. Alain skied a very strong 2nd run taking the lead in the finish by almost 2 seconds and I could see and hear it all at the top and knew that I had to pull out a great run. I skied a really solid run and won the race by 0.44.
On the final day we raced GS and I was the top ranked skier going into the race. Of all the events GS requires the most feeling which seemed to have deserted me and I battled my way down the courses making a few silly mistakes. In the end I finished in 2nd place which was enough to take the overall title together with Dougie Crawford who also had 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th from all of the races.
So all in all an ok championships I would say especially considering I was still jetlagged coming into them having missed 3 weeks of skiing.
Meribel- Bansko- 14 hour trip
Now I am in Bansko, Bulgaria for 3 Slaloms with Alain, which we were invited to by Killian Albrecht.
Otherwise all is fine. Maca and me had a little baby girl called Maria Guadalupe which I'm not sure if I had mentioned. I miss being around her but will get to spend a lot of time together over the Summer so that will be really great I'm sure.
bye for now
Noel Baxter
