So another two weeks has flown by and im guessing your all wondering what exciting adventures we have been on and where the hell we are now!
Two weeks ago we travelled from Lienz, Austria to Sudelfeld, Germany for another Europa cup race. We arrived in town early Friday evening to masses of snowfall and our quaint little family hotel. As we had been driving for hours we all got our heads down pretty early and managed to get a reasonable amount of sleep before training on Saturday.
The next morning we awoke to a huge white out. Typical. Again the gods chose the wrong day to let it snow excessive amounts. We managed to get to the race slope without too much trouble. Our trusty snow chains added for some extra grip in the foot of snow we where managing to plough through.
As we got to the top of the course we where all amped to see that it looked amazing with some really cool features and some challenging tourane.
The course was amazing, running really smooth and with all the features flowing nicely.
The next morning we awoke to grey skies but this time, luckily no snowfall. Once again we arrived at the top of the course and from nowhere the sun magically appeared. What a turn up, a race that actually had some sun shinning. Anyway qualification went ahead and I put down a solid time securing myself some reasonable points in such a hard field. However our Oz companion in the form of Sami managed to win the girls category. A well-deserved victory for her after the hard work she has done to make it. SO WELL DONE SAMI!!
Another race had been and gone and we where on our way to Bormio for the English Alpine championships to try and take the title. The dive into Italy was ok and didn’t take two long but we did manage to travel through an England skicross team record of four countries in one afternoon: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy.
The apartment max and I where shoved in was actually really nice and between the two of us managed to cook a respectable tasting meal. The next morning was our first day off in ages so max and I went and did the necessities needed doing (clothes washing and internet). That evening another one of our colonial cousins Victor arrived. He also had travelled from the last race in Sudelfeld to stay with us for the week helping out on course, and waiting to travel down to the next race in the Sierra Nevada. Tuesday was time to shape the course so Ian, Victor and myself headed up to the race piste to do some course building. After 6 hours of sitting in a piste machine trying to explain to an Italian man that spoke no English what we needed, we ended up with a nice fast course.
Race day rolled on up and unfortunately my teammate max had caught the dreaded injury I occurred in Zweisimmem of shin bang so was not able to race. Gutted.
We strolled up to the race with sunny skies and lots of alpine racers looking to beat the England skicross team at their own sport. I wasn’t going to let that happen. The level of competition was extremely high with the winner of the men’s super G racing and the whole of the England alpine squad there to try their hand at skicross. Qualification took place putting me in 5th spot. The heats went by with many exciting overtakes, crashes and excellent skiing. Managing to battle to the final with some excellent competition I secured a good gate. The gate dropped and from the instance the gate was released all hell broke loose with two of the competitors being taken out in the first corner and leaving the course free for myself and brad to race with little distractions. I crossed the line to take the title of English Skicross champion and the 1st place trophy. What an amazing feeling standing at the top of the podium knowing I had won. But no time to celebrate we now had an epic drive to do from Bormio, Italy to the Sierra Nevada, South Spain. However luckily I had a friend that lives in Barcelona so that was our half waypoint. We left Bormio at around 9 am hoping to arrive in Barcelona mid evening and then go out for dinner and maybe some well earnt drinks. However when does it ever go to plan… We managed to get to Torino in good time but this is where the problem started.
As we entered Torino we saw the sign that we needed to take so followed signs towards it. At this point we lost sight of any possible sign that could get us out this city and on our way. We then spent another two hours driving round aimlessly getting more and more angry at Italy. Finally we found our way onto the right road but along time behind schedule swearing never to drive into Italy again.
The rest of the drive was bearable with Ian driving until he had to pull over and have a little four hour sleep whilst I drove the rest of the way to Barcelona. We arrived at Ninkas house at around 4.30 am all of us shattered and delusional from lack of sleep. We got straight into bed and slept solidly until mid-day. After awaking, eating, cleaning and saying our goodbyes to Ninka we set off again down the cost road. All three of us in board shorts, t-shirts and sunglasses.
Driving down the Spanish coast singing along to a now68 CD we found with high school musical!! OH YESS!
Ian then remembered he had a friend that moved to Benidorm so gave him a call to see if we could spend the night. He was more than accommodating taking us out for his girlfriend’s birthday and then onto karaoke in a little English bar.
What a great night that turned out to be. The next morning was horrible as the hangovers kicked in and the reality of driving for 5 hours up mountain roads was realised. Matty our host made us some packed lunches and sent us on our way with litres of water and food to keep us alive!
I would tell you how amazing the drive was but I passed out in the back of the van for a few hours waking up in Grenada. Our hotel was the best we had stayed in all season and a great place to recuperate from the fealing of death. The next morning we travelled up to the resort for team training and to get used to the different snow. We also met up with our Canadian friends and team SS (Sami and Shaun the Oz racer and Canadian coach) for some lunch and free ski play time.
Course training took place the next day with 2 hours for us to get the right line, which is more training than we’ve had on any course before. The Spanish really do run things well with a free lunch for all athletes and coaches after training to.
The next day was a FIS and Spanish champs race with a tough field. I put down a very quick time and qualified for the heats!
The first heat I was in was with a guy named Thomas Von Guntun one of the most experienced and talented skiers on the Europa cup circuit winning most events. The gate dropped and I got into second place behind the incredible skier that is Von Guntun, following him into the second corner and off the first feature hearing some battling going on behind me. I tucked it out and kept my line into every gate crossing the line coming in second and qualifying for the next heat. An exceptional result considering the competition. The next heat was filled with Victor my American friend a French racer and again Von Guntun. This time I got a bad start but still got into third in front of Victor. The race was in a train by the 2nd corner and we all crossed the finish line shaking hands happy with our results. I had just made 46.5 FIS points placing me 13th in the world for my age group. So in the two weeks I had become English champ and 13th in the world for my age. Not a bad few weeks.
Alas I still had another race to perform at the next day. All the team awoke in agony. Our shins had taken a huge battering from the previous day making it hard to even put a ski boot on. My first training run came around and I was close to pulling out but grinned and beard the pain for one more run.
Before the qualification run I could barely walk and therefore had to take some ibuprofen to numb the pain. Luckily it worked. I got into the start gate not feeling anything at all. I pushed it hard through every compression, every gate and jump I went over and felt solid. My coach Ian said it was probably the fastest run I would have set that whole week. However on the last corner I was at around 70km and my leg gave way under me. I hit the floor hard head first knocking myself out and rag dolled down the next 150m of the course awaking to an official above me. I stood up and skied down to the bottom of the course in absolute agony. The rest of the day was spent icing it and relaxing. That evening I could again walk on it, so we decided to go, go karting. Competition was worse than when we ski race but luckily I over took them both coming from the back of the field to secure yet another win! A good end to a horrible day.
Yesterday we left Grenada to head to St Lary, France. A 10-hour/650 mile drive through the whole length of Spain. Not fun.
However we are here now and staying in an incredible apartment that max’s (team mate) sponsors have given us to stay in for a two nights before we head back home to Nendaz tomorrow morning. The first time in a month!
I will keep you updated over the next few weeks on what happen.
Peace Cozzi x
