More to life (at 109.5 kph), part 2.
A few weeks back I took a risk and called my shot for the 10th (annual) ‘Challenge des Entreprises’ – a week long series of FFS (French Ski Federation) races for (mainly) corporate ski clubs:
In early March I have another week of racing (a competition I’ve entered every year for the last 10 years) and my stretch goal is to aim for at least one top ten finish, and consistently finish in the top 15. I’ll need to work hard over the next 3 weeks if I’m going to have a chance to fulfill this goal as the competition will most likely be tougher than at last week’s races.
The week consisted of 2 races in each of the alpine disciplines: downhill, super-g, giant slalom and slalom. So how’d I do? Almost as well as I would have liked / had hoped for (in chronological order):
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SG 19th
DH 9th*
DH 11th (109.5 kph)
SG 19th*
GS 21st*
SL 27th*
GS 21st
SL 20th
(*)These races counted for the combined trophy in which I finished in 13th place.
The highlight (as usual) for me was the downhill – my favorite event – in which I managed my first top 10 finish ever and registered the second fastest speed of all the competitors at 109.50 kph (c. 68 mph for those of you in America!); the fastest – and the guy who won the race pipped me at 110.07 kph… I also managed to get my (FFS) points down to around 134 (from 181 at the start of the year.) For those of you unfamiliar with the arcana of ski racing, this is similar to a golf handicap with the best racers in the world at 0.00 points, ie the lower the better with your points representing a normalized representation of the time behind the best in the country or the world. The formula varies by discipline (based on a historical observation of dispersion of results) but as a very rough/conceptual idea, points of 134 mean that – at my best – I should be approximately 13-14% slower than the best skier(s) in France. (Good explanation of how points work here for anybody interested.)
The competition was indeed tough – with the top 15 seeds all having points below 100 (I was seeded around 40th) – so although I didn’t manage to break into the top 15 as often as I had hoped for, all in all I’m pretty happy with how it went. Have a look:
There were approximately 120 competitors (30 women and 90 men), a number than has been slowly but surely coming down over the past several years, mainly due to lack of marketing / publicity (all the people who organize this fantastic event do so as volunteers.) Speaking about this last night with the founder of the event, I thought about the idea of forming a ski club for (London/City-based) people with the main objective being to participate in this week of racing and social events (there are races throughout the winter on most weekends as well.) If anyone is potentially interested (or knows someone who might be), let me know. Just to be clear – while the top level of competition is pretty good, there are many competitors who come to compete on a purely recreational basis and enjoy the sun, snow and competitive spirit. The oldest competitor was 60 (the youngest 16) with probably the largest contingent between 35 and 45. Next year it will be from the 9th to the 14th of March. Mark your diaries!
