Where are the British Team racers at the moment?

The curse of the Yellow Flag has struck again. A few years ago Finlay Mickel seemed to get struck week in week out by the dreaded sight of a course worker holding a yellow flag out in front of him. While Dougie had not left the start gate, the length of delay is always a nightmare for racers. When the race is running smoothly you get in the right mindset to go: the mental preparation for racing, and downhill even more so, is so important. When the race is running smoothly you can work out when you will be going. When you get a hold in the race, there is no saying how long it will take before the race starts again and you have to wait. And wait and then hurry up and wait some more. This all affects the mindset. A top racer will put this out of their mind yet it still affects the best.

After almost two years away from the World Cup, Dougie Crawford now has a battle on his hands. Two years ago it was just him and Ed Drake battling it out for the one spot on the World Cup speed races. Now there are three speed demons going for the one spot in Downhill and two in Super G: TJ Baldwin, the current Overall Champion as well as Downhill, Super G and Super Combined Champion from the 2011 Delancey British Championships.

Despite being fastr in the training runs, TJ Baldwin will make his World Cup race debut in the Super G. Baldwin raced at the World Championships last season with credit. The experience of Garmisch and having done a number of training runs will help the 21 year old greatly. Coincidently Baldwin will go the same number as Crawford went in the downhill, 66.

While the speed racers get accustomed to racing again, the tech team are back in Europe. Dave Ryding has been getting the miles in training back in Europe and according to Mike Pilarski, Head Coach for the GB Team, he will get 75 snow days before his first World Cup race comes round. This is likely to be the Alta Badia Slalom in December. Ryding was watching the Loveland Slalom and Tweeting about the level of competition – a sense of envy perhaps but Ryding is skiing well and despite a faceplant while training Giant Slalom (click here to see this) Ryding is as confident as ever.

Lake Louise Downhill Men (more)

Aspen GS Women (more)

No snow? (more)

Apologies for the inaccurate reporting on why Baldwin was not racing. Many thanks to Andrew Baldwin for pointing this out.