Ski Club Vail’s Lindsey Kildow, an all-event racer on the U.S. Ski Team, reports regularly from the World Cup tour for The Denver Post. She has won two of three downhills this season, most recently this past Saturday.
Val d’Isere, France – It was cool to win because on an otherwise good run, I made a mistake in the middle, and I didn’t think I could win after that.
A lot of people were being really hesitant because the weather was bad – snow and high winds. I think the conditions got the best of them and they weren’t being aggressive.
I got a really good course report from Julia Mancuso, who went 11 racers before me. She said the snow was really in good condition, that you couldn’t see anything but you had to charge. That’s what I did.
The conditions were similar to the way they were at Lake Louise when I won last year. When it’s really flat light and it’s snowing, I do better because I’m young and I haven’t had any big injuries. I attack more than some of the older girls who have had injuries and might be freaked out by poor visibility.
You have to be really tactical to win at Val d’Isere. You have to be smart, know where you’re going and ski the line you picked when you inspected the course. If you get late or you get off course, you’re out of the race. That’s why I was surprised I won. In the training runs, if you made a mistake, you had no chance to be with the leaders.
I like the course because it flows. It’s never abrupt. It has turns that cross the fall line but not where you have to slide. You can arc everything really nicely. The jumps are really cool. They’re not really big, but the way you take them tactically is important.
It really gives me confidence to pick up my second win of the season. I haven’t been skiing that well in super-G, but after winning Saturday it gave me an extra boost of confidence for Sunday’s super-G. (I was fourth.)
It’s nice to have another World Cup win, especially because it was my first win in Europe. I’ve won twice at Lake Louise, and I’d been on the podium three times in Europe, but I hadn’t won over here until Saturday. You’ve got to get over that hump and I’ve done that now.
This week we race giant slalom and slalom, Wednesday and Thursday, in Spindleruv Mlyn in the Czech Republic. We’ve never raced there. The girls who have trained on it say they don’t really like it that much.
