I am glad to be back and happy to report that my last two week trip was a very successful trip. I was in Klingenthal, Germany first for a couple Continental Cup races. I started off on a good note with jumping and felt very comfortable on the large hill in Kthal. I knew my form in cross country was still very strong, and with solid jumping I knew I could be close to the podium and possible on the podium.
Day 1:
The first day made for some challenging conditions. We woke up to some heavy snow, and light wind. After a strong trial jump I was feeling very comfortable for a strong competition round. I have been feeling more confident with my jumping and jumping is starting to be on a higher level! After the comp jump I was placed 17th, 1:03 behind the leaders. This weekend, there were several world cup skiers trying to fill the weekend with a competition. I knew that it was going to be hard to catch them but, I put the head down and pushed hard to reach the lead group. Unfortunately I didn’t have the speed to match the top 2 as I had to make up a large amount of time in the first couple laps. I was happy to finish 3rd and was looking forward to the next day!
Day 2:
As far as day 2, things couldn’t have gone better! I woke up feeling super confident after the first day and felt like today was going to be better! After the trial round, I knew my feeling was super on the hill. Next came the comp round, and I had one of my best competition round jumps ever! I was placed 7th after a long jump of a 133 meters. I was 45 seconds behind the leader Tomas Slavik from CZE. Right away I had made up a large amount of time and felt comfortable pushing the pace. On the last lap and hill I had pushed the pace hard enough to drop Slavik and ski away with almost 30 second in hand for the win!
With the success of the weekend, I was really excited to try my luck in the world cup in Predazzo!
Predazzo
Team event:
The first race for me was the Team sprint with Johnny. After some decent jumping on both our parts we were starting 1:10 behind the leading team of France and Germany. Johnny went out first and put in a good effort to make up some time on the leaders. It was up to me next to continue skiing strong. We did that and made up some solid time and caught the leaders half way through the race. Then came some bad luck! As I was tagging off to Johnny, he was leaving the exchange zone and got tangled up with another skier, named Billy Demong! Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make up the lost time and finished 10th! After my strong skiing, I was very excited for the next day!
Individual:
I was really excited for the individual as I was coming of some solid results. I had put myself in a good position after the jumping and knew I could move up some spots in the race! I had some strong skiers around me and I could work with them to move up. After sitting in most of the first lap, I took the lead and never looked back. I moved up from 33rd to 14th with the 5th best time to get my best finish in a world cup to date!
Next up is a long trip for us! We will head back to Klingenthal, then to Liberec, Lahti, then the final in Oslo. I hope to keep up my level of skiing till the end of the year. Tune back f
