- Untitled
- The season begins
- Jan 2010
- Feb 2010
- March 2010
- April 2010
- May 2010
- Ski Pictures 2010
- June 2010
- July 2010
- August 2010
- September 2010
- October 2010
- Late October
- November
- December 2010
- January 2011
- February
- The European Youth Olympic Festival
- March 2011
- The season ends
- May and June 2011
- End of June
- July
- August in Yorkshire
- September 2011
- 28 October 2011
- November/December 2011
- Season 2012
- February 2012
- March and April
- June
- 'Summer' 2012
Its not about winning - but it helps
The plan had been to commute from Flaine to Les Houches, all part of the new low key low budget approach to ski racing. But Tim wanted the car to get to Geneva to fly back to the UK for a TV interview so at the last minute we were deposited at the delightful Hotel Slalom, ideal because it is opposite the Bellevue Cable Car; or would have been except that the first race used the Gondola at the other end of town.
In the event Honi got a lift and I got a leisurely start. Neither of us had any great expectation, because we knew she had missed a lot of training. My only proviso was that if she didn't make the top ten or made any kind of fuss about not doing well when she hadn't put the work in, it was time to take up embroidery. In fact she won the GS with a gutsy second run in rough terrain and messed up the slalom at practically the last gate but came down smiling. The real result, though, was she knew she wanted back in the game. I told her she had to tighten up her act, and so did I, because she had managed to set off for the slalom without her shin guards and, leaving in haste, to get them to her (and I hiked up the hill), I had managed to lose the hotel key, which was not one of those replaceable plastic card types either, but that we were with her all the way.
Two weeks later we watched her pick up three silver medals in Andorra. Not the biggest of the International Children's races but probably the scariest because it boasts a steep and fast SuperG.course. We. as spectators, were privileged. The sun shone, the locals were friendly and the food was excellent. Yes we had a small hiccup like a thumping great hole in the Subarru exhaust pipe and no overseas insurance, but we didn't let it spoil the event Honi was sleeping six to a room, with various bugs circulating, and after four days racing she was white with tiredness.
It was straight on to Flaine for the British Schoolgirls Races, where in our flat it was six girls in two rooms so pretty civilised, except I got the sofa bed while coach Sam slept in my bed on the basis that he couldn't really be stretched out in the living room in his boxers with all those girls in onezeys on the lose.
Five days later (1 Feb - the rest all happened in January) we wereback in Newcastle with an armful and silverware and a new training plan for hte late starting 2012 season.