After last week's second run carnage on a deteriorating course, a hard surface and a well set course allowed many to have faster second runs in Sunday's GS on Vortex. Meanwhile, Taylor Simms-Brown, in his first race in two seasons, overcame the pressure of being late for baby-sitting duty and the need for a rerun to set the fastest run of the day and lead Craigleith to victory in the second inter-club of the season. More below, but first,
The view from the start ramp of the Super G.
Starting to glide!
Heading for Bowie - possible gate locations.
Super G Weekend!
The pictures above show some of what you can expect from the Super G on Saturday morning. It will start at the top of the Funnel chair, run along Cruiser (hopefully not into a head wind, or through new snow), past the top of the Comet chair, down Bowie, then back past the bottom of Porcupine to the finish line on Comet. It will be hard to get lost with the large amount of B-netting that is being erected. Be sure to arrive early (9ish) for inspection, as the Super G course is often closed down for a longer period than usual before the start, to allow for final preparations. Remember too that you must have a full helmet with hard ear coverings and that, as there will be several racers on course at a time, it is possible that you will be flagged down if there is a fall ahead of you, in which case you should stop and return to the start line for a rerun.
When the race is over, please stick around to help tear down and roll the nets. There is a huge amount of work that goes into preparing a course for us to run this very exciting race, and the Coyotes can't do all the work themselves for this one!
The Rest of the Schedule
- Speed camp runs Wednesday and Thursday mornings, including training on the Super G course, and all day Friday with higher speed GS on Vortex. Contact Laurel to register.
- Saturday adult gate training will be SL at 1 pm. Sunday's session will be SL at 9:30 am.
- Adult tech sessions are Saturday and Sunday at 9:30. Meet at the National chair.
- The annual Snow School apres-ski for adults is Saturday at 3:00 in the South Lodge loft - come have a beer and munchies on Cindy.
GDHL Race 3
Results are here. Unlike last race, 13 of the top 18 finishers had faster second runs on Vortex last Sunday, although the end result, a win for Alec Libert, was a repeat. The young guns swept the first four places, as Trevor Jackson took 2nd and his hirsute younger brother Spencer placed 3rd in his GDHL debut, followed by Ian Malcolm. Greg Cavers and Jeff Sutherland led the veterans in 5th and 6th, followed by older newcomer Doug Macmillan, who is quietly establishing himself as a force to be reckoned with. Craig Shibley lost a fine first run by repeating last year's trick of skiing the wrong side of the last gate, but rebounded with the identical time in his second run, while John Banfield is starting to work himself into the conversation after a slow start to his return from retirement. Brittany Stainer led the women, finishing 25th overall, while Lisa Warll came out ahead of Leslie Morgan in another close contest, as they finished 36th and 40th, respectively, less than 0.2 seconds apart. Lisa was tied with Will Andrew, who this week finished only 33 spots ahead of his ranking. Brad McMullen finished 44th, confirming the opening week's assessment that the rankings committee needed more data. Rob Bruce and Jamie Coulter scored solid improvements on their rankings (based on prior years), while Stephanie Clark edged out her progenitor by a mere hundredth. Offspring also prevailed in the Darlison / Dunlop family, with daughter Rowan establishing a more decisive margin from her forerunning position, while Austin Gust couldn't quite match his father's fine 12th place time but showed little consideration for his mother / fellow forerunner or his grandfather. (Have we ever before had three generations participate in the same GDHL race?)
See below for part of the reason it's so hard to get ahead in a GS race these days. And now you can get the same ski in a Dynastar livery as well!
Market share - Rossi Masters on the Millennium Chair after Sunday's GS
Kate Ryley
As an aside, Kate Ryley, who was a teammate of Libert, T. Jackson and Ruffolo in their Nancy Greene and Mackenzie league days, is off to a flying start in her NCAA races, having won the first three of the season. This includes one GS victory with a 3.64 second margin and a personal best 15 FIS points. Kate entered her final year of NCAA competition having been named an All-American in her first three years. Dare we hope for a 2015 return to the escarpment and the glories of the GDHL and Druxy's masters racing?
Interclub Race 2
Last Saturday afternoon saw the second race in the remodeled Interclub series, this time featuring a fifth team in the form of a joint Toronto Ski Club / Devil's Glen entry, and the announcement of a fifth race to be held at the Glen on 15 March. Craigleith's performance wasn't quite as dominant as in recent races, but was sufficient for an 11 point victory over the Peaks on their home hill, with Alpine claiming third. Jeff Sutherland, Bebe Zoricic and Glen Blaylock finished 1, 2, 3 in the men's 55 to 59 age category, racking up big points as usual, while Trent Winstone, Craig Shibley and Ian Latimer scored well in the 50 to 54 group. Anne Mathers, Margaret Isberg, Tiana Boyman, Greg Cavers and Patrick Brown (returning from a long absence) all won their categories. But it was TSB, claiming not to have even tuned his skis while recovering from surgery last season, who surprised and delighted most of the crowd with a first run that gave him almost a half second lead in the overall standings. Others ate into that margin on their second runs while TSB was attending to the twins, but couldn't spoil the triumphant return. Full results are here.
Self-Improvement / Live in Hope
It may have been a plan destined for failure from the start, but the flags placed on the stubbies in last Saturday morning's GS training course lasted only a couple of runs. It wasn't the stiff breeze that left them littered all over the course. The point is that there is a trade off between skiing the absolute minimum distance by pinching the gates and giving your feet some room to create edge angle without putting your upper body in harm's way. See the picture below of Ted Ligety skiing GS, something at which he's reputed to be pretty good. See the edge angle. See the distance his feet are from the gate. Look up the results. Coincidence? I don't think so!
And just think how well he could turn on the Dynastar Masters ski!
And here is some pretty sophisticated home video of the first run of the Comet SL shot by Morgan Rubes on his goggle camera. More of the similar is to be found on his YouTube channel.
Finally, don't forget to get Family Day weekend and Valentine's Day off to a good start with the Track 3 Race Day! Full details are at the end of this message.
See you at the top of Cruiser!
James Mathers
