LA MOLINA, SPAIN — We almost never have an opportunity to go sightseeing during the season, but we got one last week in Barcelona and took advantage of it.
We stopped in Barcelona en route from Canada to the races at La Molina, which is about two hours away from Barcelona. We had all of Tuesday afternoon to look around, see the sights and window-shop. After a press conference on Wednesday the Rossignol guys took us to Sagrada Família, the famous 19th-century church designed by Antoni Gaudí.
Maybe you remember it from the 1992 Summer Olympics. It is one of the most amazing buildings I’ve ever seen, and I took all sorts of pictures.
The races in La Molina had surprisingly good atmosphere. There was a ton of people, and they were all really excited about the races. A lot of ski-club kids were there, some of them from France. There was just a lot of energy. Normally you see energy like that in Austria but not too many other places.
In Saturday’s giant slalom I was disqualified for missing a gate, but in Sunday’s slalom I got another podium, finishing second to Maria Riesch of Germany. It was my second slalom podium in three races this season and kept me in the lead in the World Cup slalom standings.
I’m hanging on tightly to that red bib in slalom. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be able to keep it, but it was a really good race and I was really happy with it. Maria is my best friend on the tour, she had two amazing runs, and I’m really happy for her.
This week we go to St. Moritz, Switzerland, for downhill, super-G and super-combined. This will be a big opportunity for me to pile up points toward the overall title. It’s a great hill, I’m comfortable and confident on it. Hopefully I can keep the ball rolling in the speed events — historically my best events — the way I have been doing in the technical events.
It’s almost like I’m suddenly doing so well in the technical events that it’s putting pressure on my speed events to keep pace, but that’s not a bad problem to have.
World Cup overall champion Lindsey Vonn, a product of Ski Club Vail, reports regularly from the World Cup tour in collaboration with Denver Post ski writer John Meyer. She leads the World Cup standings for this season.
