Ciao from Italia
So finally it arrived, these 2 days seemed so far off; "Oh
but Topolino is not until the beginning of March!" But now the beginning
of March has come and gone.
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| Madi Hoffman (46) in the GS start. The winner, Lara Della Mae, is bib 47 |
Friday was the U14 GS and the U16 SL, as well as Annie's 14th Birthday. The weather was
very different to in Leogang, fog covered the sky and a light rain drizzled for
most of the day. The snow was slushy but thanks to our best friend Mr. Salt the
courses were as hard as ever. The day began early for the U16s; with the first
forerunners starting at 8:40 we were all up before 6. The U14s ran a half hour
behind us.
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| Annie's B-Day Cake |
Folgaria was a very convenient race hill; we could drive
to the bottom of the race run and park in the lot there. Almost the entirety of
the 3 courses could be seen from the bottom.
For the most part it was a fantastic day with Alec Scott
scoring a 4th in the SL and with Annie Hough coming 13th and Madi Hoffman
coming 20th in the GS; however, Friday also brought some frustrating news for
Robbie Morrison who injured his ACL in the GS, we all wish you the best for
your recovery!
We woke on Saturday to the sound of rain patting against
our windows, always what you want to start a race day. With spare goggles,
gloves, coats and socks packed we set
off for the hill knowing that we had the upper hand: you aren't an Australian
ski racer if you haven't raced in the rain at least once before. The rain had
mostly stopped by our first inspection and we actually saw the sun for a brief
moment.
The rest of the day was quite filled with drama. There
was confusion with the course set for the U14 girls SL second run and they had
to inspect twice, almost three times. Lexxy was bombarded by a large group of
old Italian ski patrollers who refused
to accept that everything was okay.
Brett managed to cut his hand on his tape measure and was taken to
hospital. It began pouring rain, bucketing down, and they cancelled our second
run of GS. Amazing job to the U14s for sticking it out in their second run
despite the down pour. Saturday also brought some very good results with Annie
in 13th and Theo Coates in 17th for SL and Oliver in 19th for GS.
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| Prize Giving for the races |
These few weeks have been an amazing experience. For most
us, all of the IR crew at least, it was our first European race, and hopefully
there will be many to follow. We have made new friends from all over the world:
Sweden, Chile, Great Britain, Japan, Canada and The Netherlands and hopefully
our paths will cross again in the future.
We have had such an adventure here and are sad to be
leaving. We have lots of fun memories to take away with us; almost loosing all
of our baggage, surviving the autobahn's fast lane, nearly puking at the smell
of some Austrian macaroni cheese, almost fainting at the sight of the pitch and
sidehill of the Kitzbuhel Downhill, only slightly drowning on the second
race day, surviving 2 trips to the
hospital and discovering the delights of Almdudler and Milka chocolate. I think
it is fair to say that we conquered Europe. Well done everyone!
Sarah=
