Bit of a while since my last post so I'll write about some of the stuff I was up to at the end of the season.
To finish off the Europa cup season I went to the SL's in Platak, Croatia where I narrowly missed the top 30....... again!!! Then went to Kranjska Gora for the finals where I finished 23rd after missing the topp 30 on the 1st run because of a few mistakes on my run. At Kranjska Gora Joery and me made a last minute plan to head to the east of Turkey for some races where there was some decent prize money up for grabs. I was skiing well in Turkey but only managed to pick up one second place after leading in the 1st run, in the other SL I was 4th after being 2nd on the 1st run frustrating especially with the prize money but the weather was pretty shocking so the condition were far from ideal. It was a fun trip and great to see somewhere new and off the beaten track of the ski racing circuit.
The warm weather across Europe at the end of the season made it awkward to find good races and I spent a lot of time hanging around waiting for the weather to change while races were cancelled and moved around.
Eventually we ended up at the British champs in Meribel where the weather was slightly better I raced in the Super-G but didnt ski so well, however I made up for that in the SL where I won and scored 14 a second FIS point result for the season. My last race of the season was in Les Arcs where I finished 3rd in a French FIS race and won the 2nd run against some of the French world cup guys........ so I headed home happy on the 4th of April to enjoy the amazing snow in Scotland and got in some great days of free skiing and back country action.
At the end of April I managed to get a holiday on the beach with my daughter which was well overdue!!!! It was great to finally get some beach time after a long cold winter, I only spent 4 days at home then I was off to the beach again this time in Cyprus for my step brothers wedding. On getting home I then had only a few days to prepare myself for the Etap Caledonia bike event in Pitlochry, I managed to hang on with the leading group for about 45 miles but then got dropped on the Schehallion climb and battled my way around the rest of the course to finish in around 80th place. Congratulations to Dave Ryding who did an amazing job coming in 2nd place narrowly missing out in the sprint finish.
As I write I am at home in Aviemore getting myself in good physical shape and figuring out how to make the coming season work with even less support than last year......... a tough challenge but one I am gonna make happen. I have made the decision to focus on SL for next year as I feel at this stage of my career that is the event where I have the best opportunity to make a big breakthrough in world cup racing. So its back to fitness for now then I plan to head down to Australia and New Zealand for the summer from the end of July.
Cheers
