Week one of the 2016 season is now in the books after the cancellations in Ruka, we had a better start in the 1994 Winter Olympic Venues of Lillehammer, Norway. Lillehammer has always been one of my favorite stops on the circuit even though I haven’t really had any solid competitions there in the past.
I was looking to change that as we headed in to the weekend. We arrived Monday and got some solid jumping and XC training during the week, which was very nice. On Friday we had our first qualification of the year, and I was looking forward to it. In Official training, I had a great jump and I was confident I could reproduce that in the next round. Unfortunately, I did not, but I also had some tough conditions, which helped me out a bit. I qualified 39th, which is not the best, but better then all my first period competitions from last year so I took it as a positive sign. Jumping on Saturday was cancelled due to extreme tail wind on the knoll, so we had to use the PCR jump from Friday starting me 39th. I was excited to finally race and try to move up as much as possible. The only thing was, I think I was a little too excited and pumped up as I went out way too hard for the race. I made up a ton of time on the skiers in front of me in the first kilometer through the whole first lap. I never really got into a rhythm and struggled as the race went on. Even though I didn’t have the best race, I still managed to make up some time and move into points finishing 26th. I had the 12th fastest time, and wasn’t far off the fastest time set by Pittin of Italy. Knowing that I wasn’t bummed, as I know I could of skied a lot faster given my lack of energy from kilometers 5-10.
Going into the second day, I was excited to get a good result. Unfortunately we were moved down from the big hill to the normal hill. I was a little bummed as the Big hill is one of my favorite hills, but I was alright jumping the k90 as It is always very tight after the jumping. My competitions jump wasn’t terrible, but wasn’t great either. I had a great jump, but didn’t fly my jump well at all. After looking at video, I could see I was too relaxed in the flight and didn’t stay on top at all loosing valuable speed and height. For that reason I was kind of bummed knowing I could have been in a much better position after the jumping. I started the race in 42nd and 1:52 second behind the leader. I was a lot closer to the front compared to the first day and only 1:10 behind tenth place. I knew I had a chance at a top 20 so I wanted to make sure I started the race controlled and worked on my pacing throughout my race. I ended up skiing from 42nd to 13th and had the fastest time by 15 second over Pittin of Italy. I was very pleased with the day, as there were a lot more positive factors for me.
We are now back in Park City getting ready for the Continental Cups this weekend. I will be skiing in them to get some extra races for myself but also trying to help the team out by securing a wild card spot for the next period of World Cups. I will keep you updated after the weekend!
All the best,
Taylor
I was looking to change that as we headed in to the weekend. We arrived Monday and got some solid jumping and XC training during the week, which was very nice. On Friday we had our first qualification of the year, and I was looking forward to it. In Official training, I had a great jump and I was confident I could reproduce that in the next round. Unfortunately, I did not, but I also had some tough conditions, which helped me out a bit. I qualified 39th, which is not the best, but better then all my first period competitions from last year so I took it as a positive sign. Jumping on Saturday was cancelled due to extreme tail wind on the knoll, so we had to use the PCR jump from Friday starting me 39th. I was excited to finally race and try to move up as much as possible. The only thing was, I think I was a little too excited and pumped up as I went out way too hard for the race. I made up a ton of time on the skiers in front of me in the first kilometer through the whole first lap. I never really got into a rhythm and struggled as the race went on. Even though I didn’t have the best race, I still managed to make up some time and move into points finishing 26th. I had the 12th fastest time, and wasn’t far off the fastest time set by Pittin of Italy. Knowing that I wasn’t bummed, as I know I could of skied a lot faster given my lack of energy from kilometers 5-10.
Going into the second day, I was excited to get a good result. Unfortunately we were moved down from the big hill to the normal hill. I was a little bummed as the Big hill is one of my favorite hills, but I was alright jumping the k90 as It is always very tight after the jumping. My competitions jump wasn’t terrible, but wasn’t great either. I had a great jump, but didn’t fly my jump well at all. After looking at video, I could see I was too relaxed in the flight and didn’t stay on top at all loosing valuable speed and height. For that reason I was kind of bummed knowing I could have been in a much better position after the jumping. I started the race in 42nd and 1:52 second behind the leader. I was a lot closer to the front compared to the first day and only 1:10 behind tenth place. I knew I had a chance at a top 20 so I wanted to make sure I started the race controlled and worked on my pacing throughout my race. I ended up skiing from 42nd to 13th and had the fastest time by 15 second over Pittin of Italy. I was very pleased with the day, as there were a lot more positive factors for me.
We are now back in Park City getting ready for the Continental Cups this weekend. I will be skiing in them to get some extra races for myself but also trying to help the team out by securing a wild card spot for the next period of World Cups. I will keep you updated after the weekend!
All the best,
Taylor
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