First Blood

The North American Cup (NORAM) season began this week at Loveland Basin and Aspen, CO. The NORAM, or Continental Cup, circuit is most easily defined by comparison with AA baseball. These are the top athletes in North America who have not yet been called up to AAA (Europa Cup) or “The Bigs” (World Cup). The competitors are aged 15 (rarely) through adult, with competitors from all over the world, which sometimes includes a smattering of Europa and World Cup athletes.

The early season races in Colorado are a tough game. When the World Cup moves to North America, many of the international racers use NORAMS as “tune-ups” for the upcoming races at Beaver Creek. Such was the case this year, with World and Europa Cup athletes from Austria, Sweden, Canada, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, Finland, Korea, France, Slovenia, Netherlands, Japan, Argentina and Belgium jamming the field, along with the entire US Team. Add seven of the top Div I NCAA teams to the mix and it was hard to even qualify for a spot on the start list.

The slalom track at Loveland is a varied and steep pitch with many off camber areas and plenty of “micro terrain.” The surface this year was injected a few weeks ago, although several inches of snow fell and were groomed over during the past two weeks leaving a varied surface with some chop and ruts for the later racers.

Scott had a good day. He started 85th and blew out of the course half-way down, but he had a good day. How can that be you ask? Because victories are few and far between in ski racing so one must celebrate the bright spots whenever they appear. Scott absolutely ripped the top of the course, including two tricky combination gates, however, he hit a pot hole created by the other 84 competitors and was spit out of the course. So the bright spot is that his head was in a good place at the start (and after the mishap) and he knows he can rip. That's good enough to bring him back full-steam tomorrow for the next race. Sort of like hitting a great drive on the 18th hole after playing a miserable round of golf!

Oh, by the way, only 42 of 102 racers finished the race. Wait a minute, these are the best in the world and in the USA... how could that be! Because at this level everyone rips and there's no room for temerity. Go all out and see where the chips fall.

Hopefully I'll have a great report for tomorrow.