Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Europe 2011



Scott arrived in Europe Jan 13th. He’s spent the past six days training at Paganella, Italy, near Trento. Unfortunately he has limited (almost none) internet access, so don’t be looking for blogs at his site.

Paganella is where the USST stays to train while in Europe. I don’t know all of the details, but they have a support relationship with the community and ski area which nets lodging and training at either no, or greatly reduced, cost. They have a dedicated ski trail for training, which by all reports is very steep.

Scott’s schedule changed numerous times before flying over here, and when he arrived he discovered that he will only race three Giant Slalom races during these two weeks. Although disappointed, he’s focused upon capitalizing on the good training venue while trying to enjoy Europe. He’s working hard on his German as well.

His first race of the trip was today at Kirchberg, Austria, which is in the Kitzbuehl valley. It was a Giant Slalom on a fairly steep pitch. It rained last night and intermittently today, with foggy patches coming and going during the race. Scott started 78th in a strong field. The course was pretty chopped by the time he ran, but he climbed to 51st after the first run and 38th overall after the second. He skied conservatively at times “to miss the biggest holes…”) but finished both runs without major incidents. Given how his tech races have gone thus far this year, he was most interested in having a solid finish.

Scott ran into his two Austrian friends from the 2008 Trofeo Topolino today. He’s been staying in touch with Christian Juffinger and Christian Steiner via Facebook and they were the impetus for him studying German. I hope he got to regal them with his linguistics – forgot to ask.
He returns to Paganella tonight and I’ll see him again the 24th and 25th for two more Giant Slaloms at Zell am See, Austria. In the interim I’m going to do something I’ve always wanted; I’m going to Kitzbuehl during Downhill week. It should be an amazing experience.

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