World Cup 2, La Plagne
And the snow begins!!
After a treacherous drive through the mountains in blizzard conditions, Paula, Bex and Kel made it to La Plagne first ahead of pete who was in the car! Victory! We were joined by Team Jackson, the Great Britain mens 1st Team, who were competing on Europa Cup for the first few races of the season.
La Plagne was put onto to World Cup Circuit at the last minute, after Cesana could no longer hold the competition.
It was the first time Paula had driven this track after only being here as a brakeman, but thankfully our coach Peter Gunn was the British Champion here several years ago and therefore knew the track well.
Most mornings began with a shovel, de-icer and ice scrappers to get the van out.
After a tough week with only 6 runs to learn the track, the girls gained another top 10 result.
World Cup 3, Winterberg
Even though we do a winter sport, snow is extremely annoying!!
Trying to get up the hill to the track proved impossible as the wheels just spun round. Looking up the hill our boys were having the same problem 100mts ahead and two other nations behind us!
Needless to say training was postponed two hours because of the weather!
Trying again later, training got under way and the usual routine of moving sleds and polishing runners began again.
Winterberg isn’t a favoured track of Team Walker, but the little hut half way down the track, with hot chocolate and chocolate waffles keeps us going!!
Race day came, and brought with it terrible weather for competing. It was luck of the draw who hit a break in the poor conditions and got a good run and who felt the brunt of storm.
As a result, times varied massively, with the two major incidents including Canada’s Kaille Humphreys dropping from 2nd to 10th and the Australian sled going from a 6.08 start to a 6.60 in the second lauf.
Our team finished in 12th place, which the girls were a little disappointed with but all in all not a bad start to the first half of the season…
Home for Christmas.
