Baldwin gives the low down on the North American races...
Top British speed racer TJ Baldwin has passed on his thoughts from the North American tour so far, through his father. The traditional leg of the World Cup that takes in Lake Louise and Beaver Creek is not for the faint hearted and this was very much an experience gathering exercise for Baldwin and Crawford. Baldwin's initial thoughts:"So the north America world cup tour is over and wow, what a couple of weeks! Lake Louise was awesome! Its a really fun course to ski with a decent average speed and with no really scary bits just a few key turns!"
When it came to the decision as to who got the one spot in the race for the Lake Louise Downhill, Baldwin explained "I know me and Doug were both very close in the DH in Lake Louise,12 hundredths is nothing over 2 runs. Me, Doug and Bud (our coach) spoke about it and decided that Doug should get the spot. I already had the SG spot so it seemed fair for Doug to race and get the opportunity to score some WC points."
So while Crawford battled down in the downhill, Baldwin focused on getting his head in the right place for his world cup debut. Training runs in the downhill are one thing but to kick out of the gate in anger for your first start in a World Cup race is something else. Baldwin has raced in the World Championships but the bread and butter World Cup is a different ball game. Baldwin explains the feelings "On to the SG. My first ever WC start and to say I was excited is an understatement! It wasn't great weather with consistent light snowfall, some strong winds and not great visibility. Kostelic's dad set a pretty tricky course using all the terrain on the hill to its full. After inspection they moved the start down onto the end of the flats as the winds at the top were too high, which if anything, played to my advantage (I am only 77kg)! As my run approached and I was in the start area warming up I could here over the team radios that some people with numbers around me where skiing fast and getting into the top 30. I knew I had a great opportunity to get in there as well but I also knew I could not just ski down and do it. I was going to risk everything and that is what I did! I had an ok time to the first split but coming into a really fast tricky section I made a slight line error off a jump and had to throw my skis sideways and take out all my speed to make the next few gates but I carried on fighting knowing everything was not lost! I came onto the pitch and risked everything, taking a direct line trying to carry as much speed as I could on to the flat. Just coming onto the flat I hit a hole in the course and got bumped off line and and was late coming onto the flat carrying no speed at all. I was trying so hard to get back on line without losing any more speed but the distance between the gates shortened and everything was speeding up. When I came to a hard right footer over a very aggressive role I was still behind the line and a little bit in the back seat which meant I couldn't get enough ski direction before the break over and didn't move with the terrain and missed the next gate! A school boy error if I am honest but least I went for it and risked! Still, pretty gutted with my performance though!"
Times waits for no one and with on eye on the weather down in Beaver Creek, the World Cup circus moved at speed on to the Colorado venue. "We travelled to Beaver Creek on the Monday straight after the SG. Because of bad weather forecast they moved the training runs a day forward which meant we had no time to recover and went straight into it. I had skied the course once last year but didn't put in a great performance so after inspection I was pretty nervous! It is one of the toughest courses in the world with a huge amount of terrain, massive top speeds and crazy step section! I had done some good skiing in the training runs in Lake Louise so I was confident in my skiing but the course is still very daunting! A lot of places where things can go very wrong! When it came to my run I had pumped myself up and was feeling ready. Boy oh boy did I get it wrong down the step! It was not a good run at all, I had some big line errors in sections and didn't ski technically brilliant in some places but I made it down in a time not to far behind what my target was.
"Training run 2 arrived and after watching some video of me and of the top guys the night before I felt confident of what I had to do. It was really strong tail wind on the top flats which meant the speed you carried onto the step section called the brink was up by a fair bit! I had a much better run, I skied technically a hell of a lot better and actually stood on the ski and was driving through the turn creating speed. I had one big mistake down the steep round a turn called basketball but I recovered well and the rest of the run was good. I finished 3.9 seconds out so I was pretty happy with that. Looking at the split times later on in the day I found out that I was 31st fastest in one section which made me ever happier and gave me a huge boost for the race the following day.
"Race day and the weather was awesome, good light and no winds which is what every racer wishes for. I was feeling good, confident, focused and fresh. Time to risk everything again and lay one down! I gave it my all and finally nailed the line everywhere and as I was tucking down to the finish line after the last jump I thought I had done a good run. I looked over to the board and was gutted, I had given it everything I had but was slow. Very slow. I was so unsure as to why I was slow I spent some time analysing my run. Turns out I did ski a pretty good line but outcome of that was that I wasn't letting the ski run and didn't carry any speed the whole way down. Looking back I shouldn't have worked so hard to ski the correct line and been a bit more wild and then the ski would have been running and i would have carried good speed. It was my first WC DH start and only my second WC start so even though I am disappointed I'm not going to beat myself up about it, I am going to take what I have learnt and apply it in Val Gardena!"
Baldwin now flies "back up to Canada for a couple of Nor-Am SG's where I hope to score some good FIS points and carry on skiing fast!"
Baldwin has managed to secure some funding through his column on the www.snowheads.com website and you will see the Snowheads logo on his helmet from the Lake Louise Super G.
Many thanks to Andrew Baldwin for passing this on.
Postscript: After racing in Beaver Creek, Baldwin went on to race in Nakiska in the Nor Am races taking a fantastic fourth place in the first race. More important than the placing was that Baldwin scored his second best ever FIS result in Super G, 20.84. Sadly in the second race, Baldwin was not able to back this up and finished 31st.
