Tour de Europe

Hi Everyone!

Wow! Time flies when you're having fun! I just realized that it's been 3 weeks since you've heard from me on WCSN.

Same procedure as every year, I find myself running around Europe from here to there and back again. Just the other week we had a race in the deepest innards of the Czech Republic, WAAAAAY out there in the boonies I tell ya. Imagine traveling to some far off place into another country (try the movie Hostel for example) and that's pretty much what we had going on... no kidding, when we got there at midnight and got out of the car, the coldest Siberian arctic blast of wind ripped through our bodies. Brrrrrrr!

No, honestly though, Spindleruv came through for us with light snow for the GS race and then full on clear skies for the slalom. My races were so-so: 9th in slalom (I'm happy about that actually... my training has paid off!), and 8th in GS (bummer).

Back to Kirchberg, Austria where I had great great training sessions and skied some of my best slalom ever (gotta see if I can get some of that footage onto my website). Perhaps it had to do with the new plates Rossignol and I got hooked up on my skis. They seem to turn better for me. We developed those for my St. Anton downhill and as you may remember I did pretty well there.

But still, new plates and amazing training and all, didn't make for a winning experience in Maribor, Slovenia, where I didn't quite make the grade. Maribor, always a good time, was soooo WARM (unlike the Siberian blast we experienced in Czech). It was +13C at night and the slalom was so slushy and rainy, it was nuts. The more skiers went down, the deeper and deeper the ruts got. I am so amazed at just how well those course workers prepared the hill in the first place. Without their hard work, the race could never have been held.

Off to Venice to meet up with Mom and the family. WHAT AN AMAZING CITY! It really is everything the romantics say it is. And Carlo, my friend who runs Shred Optics with Ted, invited us all to such an amazing restaurant. Soooo good. Thanks Carlo!

And now, as I write this, we're socked in about 40 cm of snow in Cortina. 2 downhill training runs have been canceled and there's no end in sight for this snowfall. It's nice and cozy in the bus, so we're happy.

I was just thinking that maybe a little powder session is called for... hmmmm... should I? Yeah. I will. Gotta go hit it! Talk to y'all later!

Ciao tutti!
Jules