Men's coach JP checks in from Europe…
"After being on the road and in the air for a total of about 30 hours, the BC Alpine men's team made it to the lesser-known resort town of La Thuile, ITA last night at 7:00 PM (January 7th). La Thuile sits up high at the head of the Aosta Valley, which is at the exit of the Mont Blanc tunnel on the other side of the mountain from Chamonix, FRA.
"This morning, the very next day after our long journey, the boys were a little beat up from the jet lag (understandably), but Brandon and I saw some good turns and some good runs. The highlight of the day was Martin Grasic's performance. In the first run he moved up a few spots from his bib number, and started first in the second run after the flip.
"Too bad the hill didn't get any easier over the lunch break. Grasic just made it look that way. To wit: Racing the first leg of this race at what was essentially 1:00 AM PCT (10:00 AM local), Martini was almost 5 seconds out of the winner's first run time. In the second run though, Martin was inside one second of the winner's second run time!
"After what proved to be a tough stretch of GS races for Martin last December at home in BC, Brandon and I were very happy to see him ski out of his earlier funk. In a more general sense for the entire group of guys, this nice performance is a great start to our Euro tour. It sets the tone.
"This being a very difficult giant slalom in challenging conditions for a first day out, Roger Carry was our only other athlete to cross the finish in the first run. Rock & Roll Roger ran into some trouble on the lower part of the course during the second run and ended up with a DNF. Too bad really, because his second run was looking even crisper than his first, which was very respectable.
"The other boys all had issues in the first run. Broderick, Brodie, Patrick, and Dominic exploded out of the course, and their gear, on the same particularly bumpy gate near the top of the course.
"The team is nonetheless very excited to be racing here, on what I would consider to be the toughest GS trail/course I have ever been on. When you realize that just about half of this giant slalom course is protected by A-nets, it gives you an idea of the severity of the pitches and level of skiing required to make it down."
Benvenuti a Italiano FIS corsa!
from Men's Team Coach JP Daigneault