Hi!
After a disappointing World Cup result in Nendaz, SUI, where I placed 25th, and an even more disappointing World Cup result in Stoneham, where I fell in my first run, got up and continued riding, only to miss the last gate and get disqualified, I still qualified for the Canadian Olympic team! The team was announced in Quebec City with much fanfare, including a deejay and a smoke and light show to introduce the 2010 team to the media!
I left Quebec feeling good and went home for a few days where I visited Homma elementary school, chatted with a few television and radio stations and managed to find and buy my wedding dress!
Buoyed by my successful dress-shopping excursion, I left Vancouver again to join the team in Bend, Oregon. Mt. Bachelor, a short 30 min drive from Bend, is one of the best places to snowboard or ski. There is a great variety of terrain and typically lots of great snow! This trip was no exception. Our first day of training, it was snowing and by the next day, the sun was shining and the grooming looked fantastic!
Of course, as our luck would have it, by race day, today, the snow was falling and the wind was howling. The racecourse was set out of the wind, but the top bit of the chairlift ride was an arctic adventure unto itself.
We raced the PGS today. I qualified second after getting hooked up in a heelside turn and looping wide out into the powder next to the race line.
In the finals, I raced Ivanna Trudel – an ex racer from Quebec who is making a bit of a comeback. Then I went against up and comer Megan Farrell – cousin of my teammate Pat Farrell. Finally I met up with Kimi in the semifinal. Kimi looked like she was going to beat me until she made a big mistake two gates from the finish, allowing me to move onto the big final where I faced of against Caro. Caro fell in the first run which gave me the full penalty advantage moving into our last run and she was not able make up any time on me and I took home the gold! For sure this was our best race ever, with me in first, Caro second, Kimi third and Arianne our rookie in fourth – we completely shut the Americans out of the podium!
In the men’s side: Michael was first, Chris Klug from the USA second and Jasey third – so, it wasn’t a total Canadian domination, but there is always tomorrow when we will race a two run GS at Bachelor.
Cheers,
Alexa