I hope everyone had a great Christmas filled with lots of laughs and a great time. Apologies for the lack of blog updates lately but for more regular updates make sure you follow my Facebook athlete page posts (click like on the right ->)
I left NZ on the 26th November in the best physical shape of my life, all those long hours spent in the gym ensured I was stronger, more powerful and fitter than I have ever been.
I arrived to Canada to somewhat bearable temperatures and a had great training camp that then lead into the first World Cup of the season at Nakiska. However….. the temperatures plummeted to a minimum of -36 celsius for the week of racing. When it is that cold you have to ensure that no skin is showing to avoid frostbite on your nose and cheeks, it is not so fun.
The track at Nakiska was 1:30 min long twisting its way down the mountain. Your lungs were burning from the length and the -30C air, that lungs don’t enjoy sucking in! In the first race I placed 53rd from the 70 starters- not what I had hoped for but a combination of a costly mistake and not nailing the wax were big let downs. Unfortunately due to the extreme cold temperature one of the scheduled double races had to be cancelled : ( 
Canada is COLD.
It was then straight onto Europe where I flew into Frankfurt, Germany, to pick up my rental car and start a long drive to Val Thorens in France. The track there was sooo much fun, a large wu-tang, injected icy negative-banked turns and a heap of large jumps and a ‘money booter’ kicker into the finish.
Training went really well and I managed to start figuring out how to be fast on the course (I had some top 15’s in the training runs). I missed out on finals by only a whisker, 00.12 sec and finished in 38th place from the 72 starters. 
Start Wu-Tang – Val Thorens
Top of Val Thorens in my new Helly Hansen and Shred kit.
Final jump air time! Photo FIS Freestyle
The tour then traveled right across the top of Italy to San Candido. I split up the long drive with a night on the outskirts of Milan and then went into the city to be a tourist for the morning and check out some of the sites in the fashion capital of the world! Check out the pictures. 
The impressive Duomo Cathedral- Milan
Milan
Due to Europe’s poor snow fall so far, the track at San Candido, Italy was definitely smaller than the huge Val Thorens course. There were two races there this year and unfortunately some major mistakes in the first race and then a mixed result of 47th place in the second race from a late starting bib on a deteriorating track. 
Dolomites Italy
A ‘German train’ during practice
Some entertaining supporters.
I have not quite yet managed to get the results I had hoped for but I now know that it is all there ready to be unleashed, I just need some minor tweaks and to execute complete runs during the important qualification run. It was great to meet up with my brother Nick on Christmas morning and then hang out with him the last few days. It is now back into some training here in Austria and will soon figure out where I head to in January after just finding out they have cancelled our next scheduled WC race in Megeve, France, due to limited snow! Fingers crossed they can find somewhere to replace the event at this late notice. 
Christmas day go-karting kit
Start training in my new All Blacks Jersey Christmas present
I hope everyone is enjoying the summer break back home in NZ or wherever you are in the world!
|Jamie|