VAL D’ISERE, FRANCE — I was really psyched about Beaver Creek two weekends ago. I got a personal-best in super-G (seventh), finished second in the giant slalom, and we got an extra day of training on the hill the following Monday. That’s huge, because it’s a complicated GS hill tactically, and it’s good to get another crack at it.
We flew to France on Tuesday, arrived Wednesday, drove six hours right off the airplane to Val d’Isere, trained Thursday and raced Friday.
The races here were important because the world championships will be held here in February. Friday’s super-combined, normally a race involving downhill and slalom, was a super-G and slalom. It was a make-up race for the combined we lost to weather in Beaver Creek.
The Val d’Isere super-G course is super-difficult, really technical with some interesting terrain changes. The super-G portion of the combined went really well for me. I was tied for fourth with Benjamin Raich, the Austrian who ultimately won the race.
Unfortunately the slalom was the tightest we’ve ever had. It was ugly to watch the best racers in the world ski this thing. I wound up having to hike twice to make gates I skied past. What started out looking like it had the potential to be a really good day — a potential podium — ended up not so good. I finished 27th.
I was 12th in Saturday’s giant slalom, with a big mistake in the first run. The GS hill is unlike other GS hills in that it’s so steep the whole way that they have to cram in a lot of gates and it’s not really comparable to other GS courses.
Plus, racing in December in Europe, everyone has sun for the first run, but in the second run the first five guys have sun and then the lights go out. When I went, I could barely see anything, which was a bad thing considering the hill is super-bumpy.
So it was dark, bumpy, steep and so turny that you were barely able to arc your skis. It was almost impossible for me to make up for the first-run mistake.
Olympic combined champion Ted Ligety reports regularly from the World Cup in collaboration with Denver Post ski writer John Meyer. He is second in the World Cup giant slalom standings.
