What a month in North America

The 5th of November I travelled from Salzburg to Denver, USA. Two weeks intense training was coming up before it was time for the races. But we also got time to see Colorado Avalanche play hockey one game and got to meet the Swedish national team player Gabriel Landeskog. He is a great guy. We were in Copper Mountain where the most of the teams prepared to get used to the typical American snow.

The readjustment from glacier-snow to the more aggressive North-American snow was big. But I found a good set-up together with my service-man, Ziga. Already on the training we saw that we were up and competing against the best in the business. That gave us a great kick of motivation.

In Colorado we were training on a high altitude so we needed to be very careful with the loading. It was so important to have a good planning to get training, recovery and our diet to be well-balanced.

Then it was time to go to Canada by car to Lake Louise where the first race was held. The plan was to use the training races as the qualification between me and Felix Monsén to see who was the fastest, because Sweden has only one starting position in Super-G and in Downhill. The fastest of us in training would get to start. Now the qualification training was cancelled due to the weather conditions so the coaches decided that we got one race each instead, I was going to race Super-G and Felix Downhill.

I was really happy, after my long-time injury and all the hours in the gym and at the physiotherapist, I was finally back in the World Cup. I was nervous of course but I felt really well prepared and “ready to rumble”.

With Bib no 55 and a race on the edge I placed myself as no 40. I missed top 30 only by a couple of tenths of a second but I was anyhow really satisfied with my race. In three fourths of the race we were on our way to score some WC-points and I am feeling we are knocking on the door to the Top racers of the world. Really satisfied and pumped up self-confidence we went back to Colorado for the last races on our North-American tour.

The famous ”Birds of prey”- downhill in Beaver Creek was coming up. Same thing here, me and Felix was competing about one starting position. The fastest in training gets to start. Unfortunately as in Lake Louise the second training race was cancelled and the coach decided once again we got to start one race each. I was going to race the Downhill and Felix Super-G.

I risked it all but the ”Birds of Prey” wrestled me down the same way as many others and I couldn´t perform the way I wanted. I was really disappointed on my race. But those things happen in ski-racing and it´s no time to look back, I need to focus forward. The whole tour to North America was an overall success for me. I really feel we are getting closer to the best skiers of the world and getting closer to breaking through.

Now I am back in Europé to prepare for the upcoming races in Val Gardena, Gröden. That is where I made my World Cup debut 3 years ago and for me that makes that race a bit special. Friday the 14th of December it´s time for Super-G and on the 15th it´s time for the downhill. I will keep you updated via Facebook and Instagram if I qualify or not. Keep your fingers crossed. Thanks a lot for all your support. Now we aim for Val Gardena, Gröden!

By the way, check out the pictures from my Norht American November trip!

Greetings

Alex