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David Ryding: World Cup debut – “I just wish it could have gone better!”

It almost happened in Wengen in 2009 but it did happen in Alta Badia in 2009! David Ryding joined a long list of racers who have raced on the FIS Alpine World Cup in Slalom. David, a two time British Slalom Champion, has had a hard week with three Europa Cup races leading up to the second World Cup Slalom of the season. None have gone especially well with his start number varying from mid sixties to twenty seven, yet all resulted in a did not finish.

In the race in Alta Badia, the race for David was over before it had really begun: Three gates in and the margin of error was ever so slight but he straddled: “It is a brutal feeling straddling so early,” explained a disappointed Ryding after the first run had finished, “I never normally straddle and I have straddled twice in the last three races, that is Slalom I guess!”

The first run was set by Ante Kostelic, father of Janica and Ivica, and he had been vocal in the fact that he wanted at least a third of the field to crash out. He got his way with five of the first fifteen seeds failing to finish including Mario Matt who made a schoolboy error in cutting in too early for the first delay gate. 

While David Ryding straddled the third gate he did not have the shortest race, that honour went to Switzerland’s Carlo Janka who went a gate earlier! David admitted that he had felt really good at the start, being a World Cup race “did not bother me, I did not feel the pressure. I was not bothered about it all as I had done the World Championships. I just wanted to put in a solid run but it was over before it had started,” Ryding admitted.

Ryding will now gone home for a week and rest his body and hope that some of the niggles that are appearing can be ironed out. Then it will be back out “and firing!” While there was support for Ryding in Alta Badia in the form of the clothing suppliers Colmar, Ryding knows he can ski fast and make it down: “I am always charging but am just not so happy with the last four races!”