The second GS in Kranjska went slightly better than the first. As you probably imagined since I haven’t sent out an update in the last couple days, my mission was not accomplished. Antti Kolstelic, the old grumpy Croat who is my hero, set a painfully turny course without much rhythm. I pushed out of the gate and skied quite well on the upper pitch. The snow on the top was quite icy and my skis were getting great grip so I was able to be on pace in the top interval. At the same roll as the day before, I got a little light and made a big mistake, but stay in the course. I came onto the flat without much speed, which is never a good sign. From there down the snow was very grippy so I actually had too much grip on the bottom and found myself never having early pressure, sliding the top of the turn, and crawling to the bottom. Essentially, I was never any speed from half way down. I finished 40th so I didn’t get a second run (only the top 30 get a second run).

It was definitely Dane’s final World Cup start so it was fun to celebrate with him, the New Zealand crew, and a bunch of others getting ready for the Olympics. Right now we have a 3 day break after a month of hammering from one venue to another so Dane and I drove to La Spezia, Italy. We stayed in a hostel last night in the ghetto. Worrying about someone breaking into our van we tracked down some cardboard boxes, newspaper, and magazines from the street and scattered them all over the inside of our van trying to make our 12 pairs of skis and countless equipment look like a bunch of trash. We checked on it this morning and it was untouched. We’re going to start walking from town to town in Cinque Terra area. The weather here is beautiful; there are only a couple clouds in the sky and the temps should hit 50 degrees today if we’re lucky. Then we’re off for a couple Europa Cup GS races in France and Germany before I catch a flight home on the 12th.

Hope all is well, w