3 of us are fielding a team of World Class ski racers, every Thursday night At Nashoba Regional. Team Name: SPG and the Scotts, The team consists of:
Jeremy "Skinnyphat" Cratty (SP)
Jean-Claude Gumbo (G)
John "Smudger" Smith (Scot #1)
Phil "Berserk" McGurk (Scot #2)
The format, 2 giant slolom runs against a supposedly evenly match opponent. A win is a point, and time against your handicap is worth points. Top 3 skiers from the team add to the team score.
The MRCers have never ski raced, and the nerves were running high. Phil, the veteran, was downplaying his capabilities.
Week 1 report:
120 or so racers. Gumbo was up first with # 72 so we had a long wait. The early racers are the fastest from the year before. Top times early were 21.5-24secs (legit ski racers) but soon were dropping to high 20s and low 30s. Gumbo finally is up and the heckling began. He shot out of the gate like a, well like a 50 year old guy. But the flow took over and and he gracefully made his way his way down the course with no apparent mistakes and edged his opponent for the WIN! 31-ish second. 1 - 0 good guys. Smudger was shortly after. His opponent? No one, apparently that person saw Smudger and ran for the hills. He cruised to a solid 29-ish time and a win. 2 - 0. Skinnyphat is up next, and the competitive juices were flowing. He looked at his opponent, an attractive 20-something female from Boston. That upped the pressure a bit, as immaturish (not a word but still) ribbing would be coming my way if I lost. I blasted out the gate, carried way to much speed into the "steep" section, almost crashed, hung on and won but it was close. 28-ish seconds. SPG and the Scotts 3-0. Berserk McGurk went last and was outgunned by a clear sandbagger who posted a 25 sec time. Our first blemish. Round 2 went downhill (the bad way). Gumbo crashed and had to climb back up to make his gate. 50+ secs and a loss. Smudger spun out and also had to backtrack, oh but wait, still a win against the phantom opponent. 4-2. I had a long wait as the guys in front crashed into each other. My female opponent was playing mind games with me. I went even harder this time, was a bit sloppy on top but smoother on the bottom. Win #2 and a slightly faster time. Berserk got smoked again, not much he could do. 5-3 overall, and when everything was tallied we were in 9th place out of 40 teams. We held our own in the bar, but better nights are still to come.
MRC Ski Race Team Weekly Blog
Re: MRC Ski Race Team Weekly Blog
Great job guys!
Skinnyphat your race report was a laugh
—as always.
Skinnyphat your race report was a laugh
—as always.KT
Re: MRC Ski Race Team Weekly Blog
Week 2 - How the mighty fall
With Skinnyphat in Vegas and the Berserker in California this was always going to be a tough week as the top 3 in the team score and we only had Gumbo and myself.
Motivated by last week's performance I was feeling good and Gumbo's new sponsorship deal had come through so he had his new Head race skis ready to take on all comers. Snow was not quite as fast as last week and the course had 1 more gate so the pace setting times were a in the 24s range.
I had a good 1st run last night, smoked my competition looked round and saw 29:03 but the clock doesn't stop and keeps running. Good news is I get a re-run. Head back up on the lift, go up to front of line to take another shot. With the course in my head I should be able to shave a few hundreths and get a 28. Standing at the gate and the starter tells me to step back they are checking the timing system. Stood there for 10 min before I get to go. The re-run didn't feel horrible but when I looked round for a time I got 33:36?????WTF???? I did still get a win point though as my competition was real slow.
2nd run I need revenge. Let the competition go 1st this time with a couple of seconds start. Smooth start and get round the toughest icy gate and am right on the competition heels at the steepest part of the course. Guess I was too focused on catching him and not looking at the course so spun out again like last week. I recovered quickly but still 36s and no points.
There are sandbaggers in skiing also. With points for most improved there were guys who had obviously mailed it in last week. Gumbo was up against tough competition. Even his new race skis couldn't help him get a point. He did have 2 smooth runs and no crash like last week.
With only scoring 1 point we fell from 9th to 26th.
Skinnyphat is at a detox alpine training camp in VT this weekend so looking for a big bounce back next week.
With Skinnyphat in Vegas and the Berserker in California this was always going to be a tough week as the top 3 in the team score and we only had Gumbo and myself.
Motivated by last week's performance I was feeling good and Gumbo's new sponsorship deal had come through so he had his new Head race skis ready to take on all comers. Snow was not quite as fast as last week and the course had 1 more gate so the pace setting times were a in the 24s range.
I had a good 1st run last night, smoked my competition looked round and saw 29:03 but the clock doesn't stop and keeps running. Good news is I get a re-run. Head back up on the lift, go up to front of line to take another shot. With the course in my head I should be able to shave a few hundreths and get a 28. Standing at the gate and the starter tells me to step back they are checking the timing system. Stood there for 10 min before I get to go. The re-run didn't feel horrible but when I looked round for a time I got 33:36?????WTF???? I did still get a win point though as my competition was real slow.
2nd run I need revenge. Let the competition go 1st this time with a couple of seconds start. Smooth start and get round the toughest icy gate and am right on the competition heels at the steepest part of the course. Guess I was too focused on catching him and not looking at the course so spun out again like last week. I recovered quickly but still 36s and no points.
There are sandbaggers in skiing also. With points for most improved there were guys who had obviously mailed it in last week. Gumbo was up against tough competition. Even his new race skis couldn't help him get a point. He did have 2 smooth runs and no crash like last week.
With only scoring 1 point we fell from 9th to 26th.
Skinnyphat is at a detox alpine training camp in VT this weekend so looking for a big bounce back next week.
Re: MRC Ski Race Team Weekly Blog
Sorry, 100 times down the bunny slope with the kids won't help my ski racing...Smudger wrote:Skinnyphat is at a detox alpine training camp in VT this weekend so looking for a big bounce back next week.
Re: MRC Ski Race Team Weekly Blog
The Berserker and I are killing it at Loon yesterday and today. Expect big things this week from Phil.
Re: MRC Ski Race Team Weekly Blog
Week 3 update:
We only had 3 ski racers, as Smudger was at the doctor getting his man-parts reattached. Let's cut to the chase, we had our most consistent outing, unfortunately so did our opponents. 6 clean runs resulted in 6 narrow defeats. As we say in golf, you can't play defense.
There's a bright side. Afterwards in the bar, we set a world nacho-speed-eating record while downing several quarts of beer, so we have that going for us. We also decided that next week we're going for broke, risking it all no matter who gets hurt in the process. Sort of like a Mark Cavendish sprint, but slower...
We only had 3 ski racers, as Smudger was at the doctor getting his man-parts reattached. Let's cut to the chase, we had our most consistent outing, unfortunately so did our opponents. 6 clean runs resulted in 6 narrow defeats. As we say in golf, you can't play defense.
There's a bright side. Afterwards in the bar, we set a world nacho-speed-eating record while downing several quarts of beer, so we have that going for us. We also decided that next week we're going for broke, risking it all no matter who gets hurt in the process. Sort of like a Mark Cavendish sprint, but slower...