Winterberg Update,
If there was ever any a good time to
have a crash the race in whistler this year was a good place, since the
following week we had a break from sliding before the next World Cup (WC) Race
in Winterberg, Germany.
During our week break I returned to
Colorado Springs where I continued to train for the last two races of the first
half. The official WC season had been underway for only three weeks, but since
I had left for Lake Placid three weeks earlier this year it felt longer. It was
a nice break, and good to be back around friends in Colorado Springs, along
with not having to eat fast food the majority of the time. That week off also
allowed me get the new ice burn (from the Whistler crash) on my right shoulder
properly attended to.
After my down week in Colorado Springs
it was off to Germany once again. In order to save the team some driving time
in Germany we flew into the Frankfurt Airport as opposed to the Munich Airport.
Usually when we land it’s off to the
airport cargo area to unload our sleds. However, since we had a two hour delay
in Chicago our team mates landed before us and sadly enough they had unloaded
the sleds from the crates, and packed them in the trucks before we arrived! I
and my team mates who were on my flight were so very disappointed that we could
not help them load up the trucks……NOT! Lol loved that delay!
From Frankfurt, it was only a two hour
drive to Winterberg, Germany the site of our next world cup race! How do I explain
Winterberg, Germany…..well it is how it sounds. Every time I have been there it
has been overcast and either blizzard like conditions or freezing rain or a
mixture of both! And yes you guessed it; it’s everyone’s favorite spot on tour!
lol However, I was pleasantly surprised that during training we only had one
day of wintery weather. Even still I just knew that the clouds were storing up
its true ability for miserable weather until the weekend when we needed to
race. With the clear skies overhead the
week of training went pretty good considering it was Corey’s second time
driving the track. One of the complicated areas on this track is a curve that
is more like a kink in the track than it is a curve, which is why it’s properly
called Kink (Stop shaking your head that was the best possible way to describe
it).
Going into
the race weekend as a whole my team was pushing pretty well together; we were
.01 off of USA 1 in our 4-man push. Also, the guys from my team (Corey and JQ)
were looking good in 2-man training. On
Saturday the two-man race was off to a solid with USA 1 finished 5th,
USA 3 (the guys on my sled finished 9th and USA 2 finished 13th.
Although….there was one issue that occurred
that would affect my team! On the second heat of the race Corey my driver
strained his right groin and was walking pretty gingerly after the race. This
being the case instead of Corey waiting around till the race was over we sent
him back with one of the trainers so they could do what they needed to have him
as ready as possible for the 4-man race.
Regardless of the circumstances that
existed the next day was the 4-man race; Corey’s our driver and as a crew we
had to be prepared to do the best we could to make up for an injured team mate!
Oh, hey remember when I told you the skies were pretty clear all week, well Mr.
Snow flake and a billion on his buddies decided to come out and watch the
four-man race. We were 23rd
or so off the hill, USA 1 had already gone and pushed a 5.12, USA 2 also had
gone and pushed a 5.24. Being that we had pushed so close to USA 1 in training
I just knew we would be somewhere in teens for the race. Well sadly to say I
was wrong, we pushed 5.30 just .01 than what we pushed in practice. The load was not as smooth as I would have
liked either; we were out of position inside the sled because of it causing the
crew to ride a bit high. Once we got down to the bottom we realized we had
finished outside the top 20 sleds so for us the race was over. We were all
rightfully frustrated with our results and the way things have been going the
entire first half. But despite our frustration we returned to the top of the
hill cheered on USA 1 and USA 2 for their second heat. USA 1 finished in 6th
place and USA 2 finished in 11th place.
After the race it was a quick stop at
the hotel to shower, eat some lunch, pack up our luggage and hit the road for
the last WC race of the first half in La Plange, France.
God Bless and I hope you all had a great
Christmas Celebration! John 3:16
P.S I am having trouble uploading pictures
to my web-page but I will have them up as soon as I can.
God Bless!
Jesse
www.jessebeckom3.com
Twitter: @jessbeck3
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