Superb start to the season!!

After a very long preseason of selection races and training the first two races of the Intercontinental cup in Winterberg rolled around on the 27th and 28th of November. The races were to be raced back to back due to scheduling issues, and it was a great feeling to be gearing up for competition against the rest of the world again! :) The 3 days of training leading into the races went fairly smoothly, the track had been cut differently to when we were last training on it, so a lot of new 'lines' had to be played around with in order to squeeze out as much speed as possible from the track. However i was confident going into race day that everything would come together and i was certainly not disappointed. The first of the two races was set to a typically dreary drizzly day in Winterberg, however the track held up well over the course of the two runs. My start time on the first run again blitzed the majority of the field and led to me laying 6th after the first run. The run was a bit of a mess with the timings of the steers having changed again due to quicker track conditions to when we had been training. However the second run was strong, and combined with another impressive start time led to me picking up 4th spot overall, a result that my parents, coaching staff and myself were very very pleased with! Indeed I was the highest ranked Brit with Chris type coming in 5th and Ant sawyer in 9th.

I tend to have problems with back to back races, experiencing mental and physical fatigue as the sport is very demanding, however I went home from this first race, executed all of my recovery procedures and came into the next day ready and raring to go. Indeed the exact same thing happened as per the first race. I was lying 6th after the first run, and after a stunning second run that was the 2nd quickest downtime of the run i managed to pick up several spots and claim 4th spot again. A result that reinforces my belief that I can be a force to be reckoned with this season! Indeed the results over the two races leaves me ranked 15th in the World and 3rd on the ICC circuit. More importantly however it means i have acheived the selection criteria to move upto the World Cup Circuit, it also ranks me as the 3rd highest Brit, which with the Olympic Games looming is a place i fully intend to hold onto and hopefully better...

So our next stop is in Konigssee in the South of Germany, one of the shortest tracks on the circuit and coincidently one of the most fun. Hopefully I can go one better this time around and bring back a medal! :)