After a great week at the FIS World Championhips in Schladming it was time to go onto Bormio for the English Alpine Championships, for what is always a great week. I had high hopes for Bormio, some of which were achieved. Alongside my own races I also looked forward to fore-running the FIS races, and I saw this as a good opportunity for me to gain experience for my FIS debut next year and give me a good insight into the work I have to do in the summer to achieve my aspirations.
But before all that however I'd like to say a big thank you to Paul and Team Evolution for offering me an overnight stay at their base. Also big thanks to Sega for collecting me from Schlad, taking me over to Bormio and making life a whole lot easier for me. They have a fantastic set-up in St Johann and some great coaches who're going to improve a lot of racers over future years.
After the 6 hour drive from Austria we finally arrived in Italy - the 10th European country I'd been in over the month of February.
Frustratingly, Super G is the discipline I've struggled to achieve regular consistency in, despite it being by far the most enjoyable. The combination of speed and technique required is a test for anybody, but the lack of time and facilities in Alpbach mean that opportunities to train Super G are minimal. Generally it's a first lift blast from top to bottom before tech training, however it is always extremely fun!
My podium at last year's British Champs and a solid top ten in my GB Children's team outing in Andorra offered me confidence that the consistency was arriving however. After a great opening to the run I made one mistake on the steep which cost me loads of speed and time. Effectively the error cost me an overall win, however a solid second place and first English boy meant I'd achieved my first aim of the week - adding my name onto the English SG trophy, and settling myself for the rest of the championships.
As ever I was hoping to do well in the GS, not least given the development work I'd done in advance of Schladming. Irritatingly a poor first run I left myself a lot to do, which was the tone for the early half of my season really. However a great second run charge - my best run of the year so far - gave me another podium place and plenty of belief to go onto the slalom.
Slalom has been a big frustration this year. I've had some fantastic training days over the winter but have never really got going when racing the discipline I've always felt strongest at. It's either rapid or dnf at the moment, however if I cut out the dnf's then I know that the podiums will flow. Certainly the work I did with Richard Breese in advance of Bormio had me full of confidence but another mistake riddled first run left me with all the work to do. I rode my luck with an all or nothing 2nd run in G.S. the day before and tried to go for the same again, but going too direct on the steep led me to a mistake I would come to regret.
After 15 pretty tidy gates I found myself slumped on the ground next to the coaches with the week's overall children's title - which at that point was mine to lose and one I was intent on retaining - thrown away on the last run of he week.
The three weeks back home since has given me time to refresh and prepare mentally for a final assault on Winter 2013 and children's racing - the British Champs. I'm fit, ready for the challenges ahead and hoping to do well. In any case, 3 full weeks in school at this time if year is more than long enough!
