Hello from Austria!
I didn’t get the chance to update prior to my excursion overseas that I was racing on the Europa Cup circuit second half! To be fair, I found out about a week before I had to fly over so I was more concerned with arranging my flight, hotels and etcetera than I was updating my blog.
Anywho, I made the long haul across the pond on the 7th and literally hit the ground running. I met up with my teammates when I landed in Munich around 8:00am on the 8th and we drove directly to Innsbruck, Austria (which is about 2 hours away) where we threw our luggage into our rooms, quickly put our sleds together and drove to the track for paid training. I’ll be honest- I was not prepared. I hadn’t read any track notes, there was no track walk and I had watched video of the track maybe 10 times. Oops. However the first day went great and Igls is a very forgiving track so it was no problem!
Race 1 Podium
The Europa circuit had to do a bit of rearranging because a track that was on the circuit closed down after the final schedules were made. In order to have 9 races this season, they decided to do something a little different during the first race in Igls. Essentially, our first race counted as 2 races. The jury decided that our very first run on race day would count as a race, and then the race would proceed as normal: the winner is whoever has the fastest overall time down over the course of 2 runs. Fortunately my first run down the track was good enough for 4th place, and then my second run kept me in that position. So I finished 4th!
I ended up placing 6th in our last race in Igls. I made some mistakes in my first run that really bleed a lot of time, but fortunately it was fast enough to put me in 6th position. I was hoping to move up a spot after my second run (which was a PR…55.94!) but was .05 away from 5th, so 6th it was!
Team USA- Europa Cup
Overall Austria was pretty fantastic! I’m pleased with my results, but more so with the experience I’m gaining and enjoying. I’m getting to slide new tracks in beautiful countries and in Germany, I’ll get to meet up with one of my best friends/college roommate! It doesn’t get any better than this. Off to Altenberg, Germany- one of the most difficult tracks in the world! Cheers!
push from the top 