WC Women at Killington

WC Women at Killington

Postby jbotti » Sun Nov 27, 2016 10:25 am

Perhaps some of our east coast brethren were spectating at yesterdays or today's races at Killington. It was great to see another WC race in the US and back at Killington for the first time in 25 years. Having said that, wow was it one ugly race (yesterday, have not seen today's yet). Conditions just absolutely sucked with slushy break away snow from top to bottom and dense fog for large parts of the race. I am all for more WC races in the US but in conditions like these I'd pass every time.

As Harald has said in the past, everyone skis the same course and Tessa Worley was in a class by herself, but ice is always the fairest surface and the odds of getting ice at Killington are probably 50-50 throughout the winter.

They will have the same issue at Squaw in February when it could be cold and perfect or 45 degrees and sunny those days. I guess that is the case at most venues but there still are some places where it is usually freezing or below from December through mid March.
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Re: WC Women at Killington

Postby Basil j » Sun Nov 27, 2016 11:31 am

It was 22 degrees at Killington this morning. This is awful early to hold a world cup race in the east. Between January and March would have been more reliable.
My buddies went yesterday. Supposedly over 15k fans. Good to see the support for our racers.
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Re: WC Women at Killington

Postby jbotti » Sun Nov 27, 2016 1:20 pm

Yes colder temps today so a hard course. About to go watch it. Shiffrin with her 21st WC victory at age 21 is beyond remarkable. Marlies Schild has 37 victories and 35 in slalom. At this pace Shiffy will blow past that in a few more seasons (and she missed the bulk of last season with the knee injury).
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Re: WC Women at Killington

Postby DougD » Sun Nov 27, 2016 1:59 pm

Better conditions today, colder temps, decent visibility, firmer snow. Shiffrin won convincingly, though hardly the best skiing she's capable of.
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Re: WC Women at Killington

Postby Roundturns » Sun Nov 27, 2016 2:59 pm

I have a friend that was in Vermont this weekend and he wasn't sure he was going to go. He said tickets were $120. My buddy and I were skiing over at Beaver Creek couple years back when they were skiing the Men's Downhill. We skied over to the bottom of the DH and watched Bodie come across and win .
Maybe the grandstand tickets cost money at BC that day, don't know.
Michaela certainly delivers. She is very transparent about fighting nerves. I found it interesting when she was being interviewed after winning the slalom,she spoke of having a bad feeling about the race and maybe not doing well.
I know next to nothing about her, but she seems a bit of a tortured soul in contrast to a lot of world class super confident athletes. Makes me want to root for her more.
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Re: WC Women at Killington

Postby arothafel » Sun Nov 27, 2016 4:57 pm

What a great way to bring the WC back East -- with an American winning. Really fun for me, personally, since I'm from Rutland.

Beyond her racing ability, she's equally impressive with her media savvy. Very poised.
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Re: WC Women at Killington

Postby ToddW » Sun Nov 27, 2016 5:48 pm

On my way back home.

Big crowds. Lots of excitement. Splurged on vip tickets which made for a very enjoyable experience.

Most of the bobbles and falls both days were in the same place, just below the center lift tower. (The others in GS were just past launchpad coming off the head wall where the tilt of the course switches) It wasn't just temps on Saturday. There's a divergence in the fall line there between near and mid skiers right of the tower and rapid short range variations in pitch and effective fall line. Some of that will survive no matter the effort put into grooming. I predicted many of the glitches a few turns in advance just knowing the underlying terrain well and watching the skier. Two of the slalom forerunners missed the same gate shortly after that area ... challenging course.

BTW Shiffrin was the only skier who handled the transition from the flats to the lower pitch well in GS run 1. But she'd already lost time up above. Later, others got the hang of it too.

The steeper part of the lower face was harsh on those with overly strong canting in today's slalom.

And, no surprise, Doug Lewis' description of the terrain (and skiing) wasn't altogether right, so don't take it as fact.

Seeing in 3-D with two eyes is different than seeing video. I now have even greater respect for all of Harald's teachings on CA and the timing of it.
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Re: WC Women at Killington

Postby ToddW » Sun Nov 27, 2016 5:55 pm

Round turns,

Of the 16,000 in the audience, only a few thousand paid for admission. Grandstand was $20 original price or more with a discounted lift ticket and commemorative bling.VIP tickets went for much more but very very few of those were sold.
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Re: WC Women at Killington

Postby theorist » Sun Nov 27, 2016 5:57 pm

This is great for New England skiing. Anyone know if Killington has hosted a WC race before?

The last New England WC event, 25 years ago, was at Waterville Valley. I know because I drove there from DC with some friends, Friday after work, to watch the men's slalom. We spent nearly the entire night getting there, got a couple hours of sleep, did a bit of skiing, and watched the race on Saturday. Had to drive back the next morning for work, so we didn't get to see the other races. Not many people went to see it (not like today!), so we had our pick of viewing points (and it was free!). Basically you could stand next to the netting at nearly any point on the course (from what I saw during the broadcast, that's no longer allowed, probably for safety reasons). We choose a spot with a large direction change on a particularly steep section. You can't appreciate the extraordinary power and ability of these guys until you see them in person and up close. What was also remarkable is that we could predict the first, second and third fastest for each run based on how cleanly they skied as they came past us, even though only fractions of a second separated them. Not something I can do watching the race on TV. We got to see most of the big names -- Alberto Tomba, Lasse Kjus, Paul Accola, Rudolf Neirlich, Armin Bittner, Finn Christian Jagge, Francois Simond, etc. The winner was Thomas Fogdoe, with Tomba and Neirlich taking 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

Between 1969 (the WC started in 1967) and 1991, Waterville was a regular stop on the WC tour, hosting 11 events, including two World Championships. Don't know why the WC stopped visiting Waterville (and New England) after that, but I'm glad I caught the last one!
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