Keystone, Colorado

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Day started sunny, but clouds quickly moved in, and it was snowing to end the day. Pretty warm, temps in the high 20s/low 30s. SL race day. Took a few warm up runs, getting decent snap, but back really hurting. After inspection, found something to help roll my back a bit, and then headed back up for another couple runs. 1st run skiing felt okay - a bit jammy and braking, but no mistakes, and apparently it was fast--just a couple hundies off Noel.

I set R2, which was a bit of a pain because the drill bits are 35mm, but they use the Break-a-way gates, which need a 42mm bit. Anyway, back didn't really like that either, so after inspection I got another quick roll, then up for a warmup and my race run. Not quite the same attack in my skiing as in R1, but I skied pretty well. Made a mistake on the final pitch, getting a bit back and late, but still held on to the podium (3rd; +0.84), which was nice.

Fun to be in a tight SL race--top 5 were all within 0.5 sec after R1, and within 1.6 overall.