Hey guys,
like my good friend said, “the highlight of Switzerland was Switzerland!” The place is incredible… great people, great food, amazing scenery, nothing short of epic.
I got there a day earlier than my coach who sacrificed himself so we could have a car there (it took him 8hs driving), so when the day rose, I was way better rested and went to the race course for a day of training. Most teams decided to rest that day and wait for the official training, since we were all tired/demolished from Finland / flying.
Myself, I needed the training on that new course. It was potent & fast, and likely the most technical start I’ve ever had. Not easy and I was having a hard time. On that day I did really well, didn’t fall not even once!
On official training day, I started well, then they announced that they’d also do the qualifiers that same day, since a storm on the following day could cancel the race. I was excited that I had more training than the others! But then… on the qualifier run, I fell for the 1st time… don’t know if it was nerves or my body was just extremely fatigued. It was probably both, but turns out I did poorly on qualifiers and that counted as the race, and I had a shocker result (10th) :/
So they did cancel the 1st race, since they couldn’t even fly a chopper up there, if there was need for an emergency evacuation. I happily took that day for rest.
Race #2, seems my mojo was gone. I kept falling, which was unusual for me. Had a bad qualifier again and started badly on the race. The chance to redeem myself came on the 4-men heat and I put on a great fight, to try and advance for the semifinals! Unfortunately, I came very close but short. Only 2 men advance, and I was 3rd by a few milliseconds :/
So I finished 9th, and this was my debut back in the elite level, “World Cup”. I’m always learning… now it’s time to go back home and to the drawing board. Keep training, dialing up the race prosthetic and on we go. Next up will be Steamboat Springs, CO, just added to the calendar. It’ll be the first time they have a race on American soil in years. Following that we’ll go straight to World Championships!!