Alta Badia GS, My Favorite!

So I have given you a run down on the Gardena and VDI races, and I am anticipating the DH at Gardena tomorrow. But I can’t wait for the Alta Badia GS. It is the best GS on tour (sorry Adelboden) although I might say Adelboden is the best when we get there. But Badia is unique, and I will tell you why.
First of all, you can ski from Gardena to Badia which is fantastic. You go up on a lift and ski down a pass to Corvara, then up a lift and down, etc., until you get to La Villa (Italian), Stern(German) and La Ila (Ladin) and you see a big yellow egg gondola going up. That is the hill. It is cool.
So here’s the story.
In 2002, I was in my first season with the USST and we were in St. Vigilio for a Europa Cup, about 20 minutes away from La Ila. We concluded our race and packed our stuff. We had decided on our starters in Alta Badia. Our NorAm winner in GS, Jesse Marshall, could decide to race if he wanted, on his earned quota spot. We convinced him to stay on the Europa Cup telling him to build more experience and work through the lower levels. So their plan was to go to Krompachy, Slovakia and the EC team was coming from Obereggen, near Bolzano. So in order to hook up with the EC group, the boys would all come to the World Cup hotel in La Ila and we were carrying radios to communicate easily, and wait for a pick up. As we drove up the valley, I saw to my left a large peak, sticking up almost on its own from the valley floor. Fully tree covered and in a pyramidal point, with a gondola going straight up the middle. Under the lift, a trail wound its way down, fenced in orange. I saw it and was shocked. For the first time I was there, the Gran Risa; beautiful and regal, in charge of the peak. As I drove by the hill on the way to the hotel , the radio crackled. It was Marshall. He said, “Can I change my mind? I want to race that hill, so bad.” Unfortunately, he could not change his decision, but it gives you an idea of the awe and motivation that the Gran Risa inspires, even from the road. I have never been anywhere for GS where It gives you that feeling, down below, just by looking at it.
I can go off on Badia for hours. The Hotel Dolomiti where the Pescolderunggs will do anything for you. Or to La Ila, to the beer and party tent in the finish area. They love having us here, they always have. But it is that way through the whole region. And they see themselves as Ladin. Not Italian, or Sudtiroler, or Austrian or even as a villager. They are Ladin, end of story and it is a wonderful place.
When you get off the top of the the Piz La Ila gondola, you can look straight back almost to the Val di Fassa. Little hills and valleys with lifts all the way back. When my son was 7, he and Shannon skied all the way back until they looked down on the Val di Fassa, then all the way back to La Ila. It took them all day. The granite peaks are breathtaking, to say the least. There is simply no place better. Then you slide off the plateau down to the start. Here you see the immaculately injected surface. Wall to wall and almost always perfect. It is 448 meters of exhilarating GS. The start is out to the left for 3 turns and a 90 degree to the right, then off a 50 degree pitch for 6 rhythm turns and bends about 70 degrees to the left onto a road, the 2 turns and 90 degrees to the right. Then about 6 turns on a moderate pitch to a 70 degree to the right for a delay and 1 turn and 70 degrees back to the left with about a 50 degree drop off. Then about 13 turns on a long pitch which eventually flattens as the trail bends to the left 30 degrees and flattens to the finish for about 15 turns. A brutal and exciting test the whole way. It’slike a road rally but on skis and down-hill, far more fun. There is absolutely nothing to match it in World Cup GS, except possibly Adelboden. When you get into the finish area, you look straight up and the podium is attached to a crane hanging above the finish and the bottom of the boxes says,” The platform at Alta Badia, hard to reach.” And add to that the air-show by the Italy Air Force as they rip through the tight alpine valley, it just closes the deal. It is great here.
For the real World Cup GS skier, your senses heighten here and it begins at the free ski. You are totally immersed now. There is no bull left in the schedule. It is all reality from here on out. Your morning excites you because you are Alta Badia, there is no better. You can describe it as you like but you know you have arrived at the big time.
Ted Ligety drew number 2 today and I have been waiting for him to win this one for a couple of years. I am going to call it again for him. It is the perfect hill for him. Blardone is historically strong here as is Simoncelli, Hirscher and Janka will be great here. As will Benni Raich. Watch also for Jansrud who is on a roll and I would think that Marc Berthod should re-introduce himself as a top-end competitor. Leif Haugen, who is now in the 30, should continue his assault on the rankings. Last, watch for Ondrej Bank(CZE) who’s first time in the second run was at Alta Badia. He might get in there again and has been skiing well.
CANADIANS:
Frank Bourque has a solid history on this hill but he hurt himself in Gardena in the SG and will not race. Other than that, I think the only chance they have at a second run here is Robbie Dixon. Sorry folks but with JP and Frank out, there is not much there. They might want to think of moving Dustin Cook up to the show in January after he has been dusting the field at NorAms in December.
AMERICANS:
Ted starts 2 and I will pick him to win. Love him on this hill. Jit starts 26 and needs to keep his head about him and ski within himself while pushing hard enough to get it done. I am not sure he has made it down this hill cleanly yet? Jake Zamansky starts 29 and he has a chance here. It is one of those hills where experience is extremely important and Jake broke through last year finishing 24th. Bode will do fine and move into the top 15 or so if he makes it down. And that frenzied pace we are so used to from him will not work in Alta Badia. I do not know when he is going to figure that out but it has to happen. It is just too steep and narrow to slam dead straight down the hill and make it clean. He might prove me wrong, he also might end up in the fence.
I am going to call out Tommy Ford. I know he probably feels awful about missing his start in Val d’Isere but it is time to grow up and pull it together. You are on the big tour Tommy, figure out your program and put away the childish stuff. It is time, you are good and you are talented. Get it together and focus on why you are there. This is no BS, it is win or not win. “DO or do not, there is no try” as Yoda once said.


My podium:
GS: Ligety, Janka, Svindal
SL: Lizeroux, Herbst, Hargin and I think Ted backs up the GS win with a top 5 and announces his return to world class slalom skiing.

Levi Slalom: Men's Preview

Who is going to win this race? The one who skis the fastest...Really? Is that it? I think in this one it really is. There have been only 2 men's World Cup slalom races on the Levi Black and there were 6 different guys on the podium. (Grange, Miller, Matt in 2008) and (Raich, Larsson and Rocca in 2006). Here we are in 2009 and no repeats on the podium to draw from. And not really any repeats in the top 10 that we can draw anything from. Look at last year's podium. Grange is a great skier who is excellent on moderate hills. Miller is possibly the fastest, while most inconsistent top slalom skier in history. And Matt is among the most consistent in history. In the 2006 podium you have a winner who is super consistent and was on his way to a slalom globe that year, Larsson who rivals Miller for lack of consistency and Rocca who is the streakiest slalom skier ever. So, if I put all of those facts together with a qualification margin of 1.40 last season and 1.71 in 2006, I see flat-out, wide-open racing. The course setting is likely to be fairly open for the hill to ski well so we should see more of the same. I expect a high-risk, leave-it-all-on-the- hill approach even in run 1 because if you play it too safe, you will find yourself too far behind to make up the places. Or maybe watching it from the finish area?
With the courses expected to be open, I see very little tactical adjustment or planning. Maybe a tiny re-direct of the skis at the top of the pitch to be ahead of the tempo for 3 or 4 turns and then a full-gas approach the rest of the way.
All of this makes it incredibly hard to pick, but a lot of fun to watch. It also leaves some favorites for their style of skiing. I will hit on some of that here and have a look at the favorites, and their positives and negatives.

TOP DAWGS:

JB Grange(FRA): It all seems to be leaning in his direction. The hill is mellow, the courses will likely allow a lot of carving, he's the slalom king and defending champ. Along with a top 7 number and watch out. JB is definitely the favorite. His one real weakness, the lack of a classic pole-plant move, will not likely be deadly on this kind of hill.
Manfred Pranger(AUT): Always a threat and a guy who gets extremely ramped up. I actually think that will hurt him on this hill. He might get overamped and not even make it through the rollers on the top flat. Plus, Manny is much better on tighter courses with less swing. I expect the opposite type of sets in Levi.
Julien Lizeroux(FRA): I like his aggressive style and positive attitude. But I think he is similar to Pranger in many ways on the hill and I think he might push for a little too much and be a DNF or have a major error.
Ivica Kostelic(CRO): A big, strong guy and always a threat. His best is 5th in Levi and I think it's because he is also a little better at the straighter, tighter stuff. Just not versatile enough. He also is very energy-dependant. Sometimes he looks like he is just not into it. He also carries nagging injuries into the early season after their overly aggressive preparation period training volume.
Reinfried Herbst(AUT): I think he is built for this type of hill. A lot of success in similar venues over the years. I am pretty high on him in Levi and with Hoeflehner setting run 2, I think he can charge onto the podium on run 2.
Manni Moelgg(ITA): I am a big Manni Moelgg fan. He hails from St. Vigilio, a beautiful place nestled deep in the Dolomites near the Kronplatz and Alta Badia. A great place you should visit at any time of year. I do think he can be ok in Levi but he tends to excel on steeper, tighter, tougher stuff.
Mattias Hargin (SWE): This hill is tailor made for him! You heard it here! A free-swinging Swede who has found himself in the top 7. Similar approach to Byggmark. It's like a heavyweight fight that opens with a flurry of punches when this guy hits the hill. Unbeleiveable energy and speed. With a fairly gentle hill, watch out for a big breakthrough.
Mario Matt(AUT): One of the most consistent slalom skiers of this generation, along with Benni Raich. He will likely do well but I am not sure he will risk enough to win.
Marcel Hirscher(AUT): Super fast young guy. Born in 1989 and just making his mark on the FIS World Cup. He can be in there for sure.
Benni Raich(AUT): See Matt above. I think he lacks the risk for this hill even though he did win here in 2006. If there is going to be a winner by default or attrition, it will be Benni.
Mike Janyk(CAN): Here it is Canadian brothers, Mike Janyk will compete for a podium in Levi. The hill sets up perfectly for him and if the courses have room and swing, that is right in his wheelhouse. Good luck Mikey, let it rip!

AMERICANS:
I have avoided being a homer in the blog so far this season. But I am hearing so much good stuff out of the American training sessions, I just have to chuck fairness out the window. The news has been positive, I believe they are talented and skilled.

The USA is starting Miller, Ligety, Jitloff, Cochran and Nolan Kasper.
Here it is in a nutshell. The word from the American training in Taernaby is that Ted has found his speed and is ready to go. Ligety will fight off a mediocre first run start position to win this race. Ted has never won a FIS World Cup slalom. He has 6 podiums, the last coming in Wengen on Jaunary 12, 2008. He went all last season without a World Cup podium. That streak will end, the winless streak will end. Ligety will win on Levi Black.
Bode will do very well too. He is likely not ready yet but this is a great hill for him and will compete well for a top 10 finish.
Jitloff and Jimmy C will fight off some tough start numbers to qualify and then turn in excellent 2nd runs to make the top 20. And while I like Nolan as a skier, I think he has too much to overcome in start number and nerves to get it done here. But not to worry, he is a good skier and the tougher hills might favor him more. I think we come out something like: 1, 8, 13, 18.

CANADIANS:
As far as the neighbors to the north, I think they have a lot to cheer for. Janyk is ready to make a move, for sure. When you look at he rest of them, you have occasional qualifers in Trevor White, Brad Spence, Ryan Semple and Julien Cousineau. They all ski well on this type of hill. They just need to get a little lucky with course conditions and risk/reward but they can get it done.

Other dark horses to watch? Giuliani Razzoli(ITA), maybe Mark Gini(SUI) to come from outside the top 30. The same with Christian DeVille(ITA). Sandro Viletta(SUI) also brings a lot of heat to every run. One last one, this was the first big breakthrough for Jens Byggmark in 2006. Watch for him again, this time on Volkl.

Whew, that was a whirlwind. It just got me so fired up for this race!

Soelden Men: "The Good,The Bad and The Ugly."

Since I started this thread with the girls on Saturday night, I will follow it up with the same format for the guys.
First a little summary. From what I saw, I liked the course setting at Soelden. Speed control for the men was pretty good except the usual trap of letting them go a little too soon coming off the pitch. There is always a temptation to straighten out the set thinking you are off the pitch when setting. And, with the long flat stretch to the finish you want the athletes to have speed to carry through the very flat finish line. The big mistake is that the course setter often lets the set go and does not keep it straight enough or does not give enough room. And, as usual, the hill at Soelden showed her teeth causing a lot of mistakes throughout the field. Even the best had problems. The second run was characterized by dark, flat light, bumpy terrain after almost 200 attempts on the hill and some broken through turns with some bally snow. Now on to the GBU.

The Good:
Great job by Cuche, Ligety and Janka. Proving that they are prepared to make an assault on the GS globe and GS gold in Vancouver. And that they can tough it out in not great conditions to have strong runs.
Ligety's success validates training this summer with less time on snow. It also gives him confidence in his knee and rehabilitation program.
JP ROY! Great job following through on first run success and getting into the top 10.
Robbie Dixon: Great job from that start number and maybe a stepping stone to more?
Both JP and Robbie's success today validate the Canadian preparation period.
Leif Kristian Haugen (NOR): Fantastic performance coming out of Denver University and the NorAm circuit. Awesome!
Kjietl Jansrud (NOR); Once again the winner of run 2 in Soelden. I am sure there is more to come.
Ondrej Bank (CZE): Welcome back to the 2nd run after missing almost 2 whole years with a severe knee injury. VERY IMPRESSIVE!
Tommy Ford (USA): The 20 year old from Bend, Oregon in his first World Cup getting to 32 falling just short of qualification. Qualifying in Soelden from over bib 50 is statistically the toughest in the world. Good job, and make that leap in Beaver Creek!
Switzerland: 1st, 3rd and when you can qualify Zurbriggen in GS, you are doing well.
In general I thought it was a pretty strong showing for the field. With a month to prepare for the next GS in Beaver Creek, the competition will be much deeper.


THE BAD:
Like the ladies yesterday, 3.25 margin of qualification is way too high. Soelden averages 2.56 over the last 8 years.
Not qualifying:Christoph Gruber (AUT), Markus Larsson (SWE), Tim Jitloff (USA). You guys should qualify every time. Even with mistakes, one pole, whatever.
Austria: 5th, 13, 14,18, 25, 27. The long-term decline of their GS skiing is starting to show. Long-time quality GS guys looked horrible.
Thomas Fanara (FRA): You are known for attack, you did not.
Stefan Goergl: See Austria above.

THE UGLY:
Almost the entire field for not picking up the point at which you could let things go coming off the pitch. Almost every guy in the race did not control the ski and keep elevation long enough coming onto the flat. Go download the splits and you will be amazed by the amount of time being given away on the bottom.

To every guy in the field who blew the little turn just above the finish. 6 turns above to be exact. It is there every year. Sometimes a delay, sometimes not but there is always a little ripple cross-rut there from the traverse from the ice box after they start building the finish area and a lot of you chiseled away time there. Pay attention.

Manny Moelgg (ITA): How could you do that after Manu did the same thing the day before? The St. Vigilio/Kronplatz fans are not happy this weekend!

Aksel Lund Svindal (NOR): I am speculating here and no one has reported anything yet. But watch the video. Aksel goes inside and down with his hip skiing right to left and then goes to switch to his left foot and skis out. He immediately lifts his left leg off the snow and does not put it down. Then on stopping, he reaches for his left knee. I am not saying I know anything but that is a classic move to rupture something in your knee. Not always ACL but meniscus, etc. Again, I do not know but watch the tape. Aksel knows if something is wrong. And that would be ugly if what I thought I saw actually happened. I sure hope not!

So that wraps it up for Soelden! We saw a lot, and it will all change by the time they get to Aspen and Beaver Creek. Next is Men and Women SL in Levi, Finland. I will start blogging on that one as soon as it makes sense.
Alpine Race Consulting just finished 2 speaking engagements this weekend for PSIA-NW. Thanks for your hospitality and reception. It was a lot of fun. See you all on the hill this winter!

Soelden: Women's Preview

Look on the calendar and it is 3 days away. What is going on in Soelden? What are the teams doing? How are they acting? What is happening with hill prep? And who are the girls to watch?
Soelden: The weather is iffy and all the coaches and athletes know it. The FIS is acutely aware of their situation. The forecast is for a cool night tonight and very cold tomorrow night. That is the good news. The bad news is that there is a slight warming trend into the weekend. With barely freezing temperatures at night and warm and sunny during the day. Will the hill break down? Probably. But FIS will try to get a preemptive strike against mother nature by trying to freeze the piste as hard as they can!
FIS will inject the hill, possibly twice to take advantage of the cold night on Thursday. They have already done it once and will likely do it again so there is water in the hill and near the surface on Thursday. If is gets warm on Friday, they will cancel the free ski on the race hill to try to preserve the surface. If this weather forecast holds true, the hill will break down in the afternoon of the women's race and likely re-freeze for Sunday. Leaving a very bumpy, icy surface in the morning on Sunday and a broken down, rutted, bumpy and dark 2nd run for the boys.
The athletes are tapering their training down, making some last minute ski selections if necessary, going to press conferences. Some are trying on new uniforms. The coaches are scrambling around getting boots and skis measured, suits plombed and figuring out how to get the athletes to the bib draw on time through the crazy traffic in Soelden. 20,000 fans on a glacier with only 1 way in and out? Tough traffic.
MY 7 FAVORITES:
Katrin Zettel(AUT): I think she is the favorite. She has great start position and a good draw will nail it down. She has steadily improved since October 2005. She was 5th that year, 3rd in 2007 and won last year. Same course setters as last year, which will help her cause.
Tanja Poutiainen (FIN): Very solid skier with good history on the hill and with the course setters. Top 5 in 4 of the last 5 races in Soelden. The down-side? If she wins the first run, she will not win the race. Not a great leader going into run 2. I also think she misses her former coach, Michael Bont.
Andrea Fischbacher (AUT): 3rd last year. 5th in 2005. She is not that consistent but when she is confident she can let it rip.
Tina Maze (SLO): 2 wins on this hill. Very up and down from year to year. From all reports out of Slovenia, she is on her game so look for a big show from her. A lot of time on snow this summer but only in Europe on glaciers? Good for Soelden, maybe not so good later in the year?
Niki Hosp (AUT): Part of the famous 3-way tie in October, 2002 with Maze and Flemmen. It was her rookie year on the World Cup and I think she can regain that form. A lot of Men's team coaches were switched to the Women's side in Austria this year and I think it has helped her skiing. From all reports she is healthy again. Start number will hurt.
Denise Karbon (ITA): My favorite female GS skier with Lara Gut out of the field. I think that when Denise is on, she will win. She can get on a roll and keep it going like no other. She is traditionally strong on men's hills, as Soelden is. And if they get the surface very hard, it is even more in her favor. My pick to win.
Viktoria Rebensburg (GER): Young up and comer and I think a dark horse to win this race. I think she has a real chance of making a big splash this season in GS.

THE AMERICANS:
Lindsey Vonn: Great all around skier. Very professional. Hard working. I cannot say enough positive about Lindsey's approach to the sport and to her professional life. Her GS has improved a great deal in the last year and a half but I think the podium is asking a lot of her in GS. 7th-10th place is my guess, and I think she should be happy with that with the late ski company switch. Remember what comes with that. Every time she looked down, put her skis on, picked up her skis, walked into the ski room for HER ENTIRE LIFE, the skis said Rossignol. Now they say Head. New service man. Should it matter? No. But sometimes it does. It will be interesting to watch.

Julia Mancuso: She definitely lost her way after the magical 2006 season.
She was 2nd in the Soelden GS in 2007. The word on the street is that she is "rededicated." We'll see, but I wouldn't bet on her. Not this early in the season with only one top 5 on this hill in her career. Start number will not help.
Sarah Schleper: I hope Sarah can find her old form. She was out for a while and has now had a year to get back into the fold and get moving up the WCSL. She is 44 on the WCSL and 41 on the FIS list. Tough move from there to the top 30 if the course starts to break up.
Resi Steigler: Resi stands in 37th on the FIS list. It means she only needs to move up 7 spots to get a 2nd run. She has been out of World Cup GS for a long time and Soelden is a potentially rude welcome back. I think this is a race for Resi to get her feel back and be used to starting World Cup GS again. She can do it, but it is a stretch.
Megan McJames: Megan is an excellent young skier. Tons of talent and a technically solid skier. She really has great potential in GS. The main obstacle in Soelden is her start number. While she holds 36 on the WCSL, this is a double bummer. First of all, skiers outside the 30 are seeded by FIS points. Her FIS rank is 63. To add a little insult to that, 31-35 ranked on the WCSL are protected to starting right after 45 if ranked worse than 45 on the FIS list. This is a problem in that she did not score enough WC points to get into the 30 AND did not get good FIS point scores at Europa Cup and NorAm Cup to start earlier on the FIS list. Or, she did not get the opportunity to do so? Regardless, Megan has a tall order to get into the 30. Hopefully she finishes 29 or 30, gets a clean 2nd run and can reproduce her 14th place from last year. She is certainly a good enough skier to do it.
Jess Kelley: Healthy? Starting 55 or so? Tall order for Jess. She will need to toughen up and get it done. Simple as that.

THE CANADIANS:
Sorry, not this week. Not starting any girls in the top 30 is bad news in Soelden. Christina Lustenberger at 32 is the best number. But Marie-Michelle Gagnon at 38 is their best shot at scoring points. She is their best skier and only 20 years old.

Other skiers to look for: Kathrin Hoelzl (GER), Michaela Kirchgasser (AUT) and Tessa Worley (FRA). All 3 of these girls are very strong competitors and have the mental toughness to compete on a tough hill like Soelden.

Alpine Race Consulting will be presenting at Mt. Hood Community College and Seattle Pacific University this weekend at the PSIA-NW Fall Seminars. Men's preview tomorrow!

Course Setters for Soelden, what does it mean for the race?

Every day there seems to be something new to blog about the upcoming FIS World Cup season opener in Soelden, Austria.
As I wrote about on Friday, the hill at Soelden is a unique hill. It is in the middle of a large glacier. It has a very flat start and a very flat finish with an extremely steep pitch in the middle. The course setters for the race have some hard work to do to control speed and get a large percentage of the athletes to the finish. The good part about setting in Soelden is that you rarely have to set anything tricky or difficult to separate the competitors. The hill is difficult enough to take care of that itself. It is a great opportunity to set at the World Cup and allow the hill and the athletes to shine.
The course crew is mixing wet man-made snow into the natural snow that has fallen on the hill and will try to inject the hill later in the week. Probably Wednesday to allow time for the snow to set-up and get consistent.
The course setters for World Cup races are listed at the beginning of the season so everyone knows who is setting for the entire season. World Cup coaches know the tendencies of all the course setters and try to prepare their teams accordingly. The men's first run will be set by David Chastan of France and run 2 will be set by Franz Gamper of Norway. Women's setters are Anders Paerson of Sweden and Trevor Wagner of the USA.
What does it mean to the race? The course setters will have an impact on the outcome of the race in both results and finish rate.
CHASTAN (FRA): Given the opportunity, Chastan will set open and fast. Soelden does provide for this as getting minimum gate count is not difficult. This is generally bad news for Ted Ligety. But luckily it is only run 1 and you have that second chance. Look for Svindal, Jansrud, Janka and Fanara as good skiers of Chastan courses.
GAMPER (NOR:) Franz Gamper has not set a lot on the World Cup. Athletes who skied fast when he set in Alta Badia 2nd run last year were Marcus Sandell, Thomas Fanara, Kjietl Jansrud and Marcel Hirscher. Sandell will not race as he is recovering from injury. There were a lot of DNFs last year when he set.
PAERSON (SWE): Anders Paerson has one thing in mind, setting to his daughter's strengths. I think Anja's better years are behind her so having Dad set will not help much. Anders set the second run last year and Zettel, Chemmy Alcott and Megan McJames were fast. Good news for Megan so she can have confidence and get deep into the top 30 after run 1 from her mid 30s start position.
WAGNER (USA): Trevor Wagner is an experienced course setter and likely will do an excellent job helping his girls move up. He set the first run last year and Lindsey was 10th, which at the time was an excellent result for her in GS. Julia was 18th and Megan was 29th, qualifying for her first time at Soelden. Look for strong opening runs from Tanja Poutiainen, Katrin Zettel and Denise Karbon. They have all skied well on Wagner GS courses in the past. They were 1-2-3 last year after run 1 last year which was set by Trevor.
I will be blogging at least 2 more times this week at least. Preview of the field on Wednesday and the USA starters on Friday! Get ready it's coming! Alpine Race Consulting will be speaking at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon this Saturday and at Seattle Pacific University on Sunday.

Soelden Confirmed, Here's an early preview!

The opening GS races at Soelden, Austria were confirmed today after the final snow inspection by the FIS. Not much of a surprise considering the normal mid-October snow storm hit Soelden as it has every year in the last 8 except for October, 2006. Couple that with top to bottom snow making on the race hill with cold temperatures and you can count on the race happening. You can also count on the race preparation crew there to start the injection process. The snow should be very hard and fair.

The Hill: The race hill in Soelden is unique on the World Cup in many ways. It is on a glacier, in the middle of the glacier so the crazed Austrian fans can watch anywhere on the hill, on their skis with lift access. It is a wide-open snow field with a lot of access. The race opens atop a very large start ramp and opens with about 8 very flat tuck-turns. Then breaks over into a short pitch and bends to the right a little. The pitch is 2-3 turns long, flattens again for 3 turns before breaking over again into a very long, very steep pitch. Depending on the course sets, this pitch could be 11-15 turns long. By far the longest major pitch on the tour. Then it gradually runs-out on a very long flat to the finish.

Courses: There is no problem getting to minimum turns on this hill so look for wide open GS racing with quite a lot of swing. I would think that you would see 26m-28m on the pitch to 32m on the flat approaching the finish.

Tactics: A good, strong start with excellent quality tuck turns to the first pitch for all. Look carefully at when the athletes are breaking their tucks and how much they are setting up the first pitch. Believe it or not, there is a lot of variation in approaches here. Next, look for when they set up the main pitch and how they get direction in their skis to get the appropriate elevation for the main pitch. Good quality turns for 10 turns or so on the pitch gets the job done and then look for when the skiers start to take chances coming into the bottom flat. How straight are they willing to go and how high on the pitch are they when they decide to do it? Then watch for delays on the flat and see who does it right. Also keep in mind that it is the first race and there are a lot of athletes that are not quite ready to go. Look for big mistakes and lots of crashes!

Other issues at Soelden: The women and men both race on the same hill on back to back days. This can beat up the hill pretty badly by the time the men race run 2. Morning runs are characterized by bright sunshine on nice days and the afternoon can be very dark. Very flat light with bumpy conditions makes for exciting racing.

Enjoy the race and the anticipation! This is my favorite time of the year. The work is almost done, the athletes are going to race. Time to find out if you did a good job. And with a month before the next GS, there is time to make changes. Will the season end with a scene like the one in the photo above? I hope so.

More to come on the athletes to watch next week! I am at Gonzaga tomorrow delivering the keynote speech at the PSIA-NW Fall Seminar. 10:45 AM.

Alpine Race Consulting in Spokane, Wa. 10/17/09

Hi Everyone-

Fall and winter are in the air depending where you are. Loveland opened in Colorado on the 7th, Red Lodge, Mt. got 3 feet of snow. It's cold in the Pacific NW. And it sounds like the high sierra is going to get pounded with high elevation snow and a lot of it this week! Boreal is open outside of Truckee, Ca. too! Everywhere you look, winter is on the way. So don't forget to buy your passes at your local ski area and get some new skis and boots! Get ready to go!

I am very happy to announce that I will be the keynote speaker at the PSIA-NW Fall Seminar in Spokane, Wa. this weekend. It will be held at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wa. on October 17, 2009. You can get more information at www.psia-nw.org. The subject matter will be presentation of foundations and fundamentals of skiing that cross from alpine racing to recreational skiing and learning. What to teach and how to teach it. It will be a lot of fun for me to speak to a new group with a different application of many of the same concepts. I will also be speaking at 2 other PSIA-NW Fall Seminar locations over the weekend of the 24th and 25th in Gresham, Or. and Seattle, Wa. respectively. There will be more information in next week's blog.

I will be writing at least once a week all winter long. Next week will include information on the PSIA Seminar as well as the beginning of previews for the FIS World Cup opener in Soelden, Austria! Get ready, it's almost here!

Thanks to Boyne

Hi Everyone-
I want to thank everyone at Boyne Mountain Resort for their hospitality and friendliness during my visit and presentations this past weekend. It was a fantastic experience for me and thoroughly enjoyed presenting, Skitoberfest and the social atmosphere. Congratulations to everyone for a successful first Skitoberfest and I am sure there will be more to come.
Both presentations went extremely well and I think the message was well received. We had a great time at the beer tasting afterwards as well as a great dinner. I am very excited to get back there some time soon for some more clinics! Maybe something on snow