We had 99 starters for Sunday's GS race. Alec Libert regained his spot at the top of the tables after two weeks of disappointment. More below, but it's Super G weekend, so timing is everything.

Here's the Scoop

The Super G is Saturday morning, starting at the top of the Funnel chair. There will be a special newsletter with details later this week. Read it carefully. Most importantly, if you miss inspection (which may close early) or don't have a helmet with hard ears, you won't be allowed to race.
Saturday adult gate training is SL and moves to 1:00 pm, or whenever the nets are down from the Super G, whichever is later. Check the National chair for the location. Likewise, the Saturday adult tech program will switch to 1:00 pm or later. Meet Al at the National chair.
The Snow School adult apres ski is from 2:45 until 4:00 on Saturday in the South Lodge loft.
Sunday training is back to the usual morning schedule for both gates and tech, starting at 9:30.
And before all of that, there is lots of midweek training. It features speed-oriented gate training on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 9:30 and Friday at 1:00, plus gateless training on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. Pay as you go on the usual Friday pricing arrangements. Contact Laurel in the Snow School office.

GDHL Race Recap

Results are in the GDHL website database here. The set was aimed at getting speeds a bit higher in preparation for the Super G, and slick snow assisted with that. As a result, Alec Libert laid down a smoking 30.83 GS on Big John to lead the way. Chris Barber, winner of the first two races, slipped to second, followed closely by Jesse Shepherd. Everyone else got beaten by someone over 40, in the person of Jeff Sutherland, although youth largely prevailed in the top 10.

*The boys of 1989, Alec Libert (1st), Phil Ruffolo (T-6th), Jesse Shepherd (3rd) and Trevor Jackson (T- 6th)*

Andrew Athey continued his strong performances, finishing fifth, while Brook Dyson took advantage of an early start draw prize to finish 8th, posting a strong second run as well. Jerry Patten posted a GDHL career best 15th from his 36th ranking, Kevin Gust continued his history of strong GS performances and Jeff Craig jumped 22 spots above his ranking to finish 19th. The time gap between Jeff and 53rd place was less than two seconds. Among those in that gap were Brad McMullen, who is ranked 72 based on last year's rookie season results, when his best finish was 44th, but jumped all the way to 21st with his second run time. Just behind him was newcomer James Callow, who was dubious when told that his ranking was based on coach Shelley Johnston's prediction of top-30 potential. If he and brother in law Kevin Gust can figure out how to ski SL, trouble's a comin'. Brittany Stainer, Kate Veer and Samantha Higgins were there as the top three women. Also sliding into that tight bunch were Bill Shepherd (32nd from 60th rank), Patrick Galligan (34 from 62), Paul Woodhouse (38 from 69) and Paul Henschel (50 from 97). Paul H apparently got a good tip on his line during Saturday training. Finally, Dean Beallor jumped from his 85th ranking to 58th place and Bob Waite continued to cast doubt on sister Cindy's predictions with a 61st place finish.

The forerunner times were: Forerunner 1 - 31.72, Forerunner 2 - 32.36 and Forerunner 3 - 32.54.

Careful observers will note that times have been reconstructed for Jeff Sutherland and Jon Price on their second runs, despite the conditional reruns that they were offered due to some temporary confusion in the finish hut.

Live Timing

Sunday's race brought the first public offering of live timing online for GDHL races. The Coyotes and friends expect to be able to bring this to you going forward. The home page for this is http://livetiming.mectiming.org/. You can go to this page on your computer, smart phone etc. and click on GDHL races in the listings of past and current races to get the past results or current live timing during a race. You'll see that the results may not be corrected for timing issues such as occurred on Sunday, so the GDHL database is the official source for scoring. (The database is usually updated on Sunday evenings after a race.)

Interclub Results

Saturday saw the first race of the season for the Druxy's Masters Interclub league, a GS at Devil's Glen. Click for team results and individual results. Untimely illness and injury left the team two skiers short of complement, resulting in a six point loss to the home team. (Even one more racer would have led to a comfortable victory, so the team isn't too dismayed.) Paul Atkinson took overall individual honours on the strength of a smokin' second run, while Kat Zoricic was third fastest woman, Jeff Sutherland was high point scorer of the day and Anne Mathers, Tiana Boyman, Kate Veer and Greg Cavers won their age groups. Next race is 31 January at the Peaks.

Fashion News

Regular readers will remember that Carrie Grinter-Lenauskas left Spyder when it moved out West, but she is now ensconced with Karbon, which happily has a similar approach to sizing its samples. Carrie apparently now has some old outfits to clear from her closet, if you like what you've seen on our pages in the past. Featured below is the Pascal jacket in white with silver fox fur and next year's Conductor pant in white tweed. In addition, a commercial collaboration with Giro will result in us seeing a wide variety of matching or contrasting helmets and goggles going forward.

Self Improvement

Sometimes you just can't wait for your natural talent to shine through and a little hardware boost is in order. Our generous sponsors and good friends at Squires now have a sale on FIS slalom skis and bindings. Dynastar, Rossignol, Atomic, Fischer and Volkl skis in 155 to 165 lengths, which are regularly race priced at $849.99 to $950 are now on sale for $699.99 (skis only). Matching bindings are $200 (regularly $250 to $299.99). These are the real deal. See here for my insightful commentary on race skis and other equipment. Also see Squires for demos on some of these skis as well as the Dynastar and Rossi masters' GS race skis that all your competitors have!

Give Back and Get Something in Return

With the money you save on skis, consider a few copies of the Coyotes' cookbook - 131 great recipes and all proceeds go to support the Alpine Ontario Para Race team. $15 cash or cheque, payable to
"Linda Housser in Trust - Craigleith Coyotes Cookbook." Contact Linda at 123 Arrowhead Crescent, 706-445-9821 or linda@housser.ca And don't forget the Track 3 Friends & Family Race Day on Friday, 13 February. See last week's newsletter for details and watch for more info in coming weeks.

Diversions

Finally, here's an example of what happens when good skiers go to the park side. Guy should have stuck with racing. This kind of anarchy and disregard for equipment cannot be tolerated.

More than enough for now! Be sure to watch for the special Super G edition later this week and read it carefully to avoid heartbreak.

Cheers,

James Mathers