PHOTO: @amarcster.sport
The brother and sister team of British ski racers Robert and Charlotte Holmes reflect on the stop-start to the season which finally got underway after a series of cancellations
The clocks going back and the evenings becoming darker signifies the beginning of winter, and for us that means the race season of 22/23 finally gets underway.
The season hasn’t had a perfect start, but does it ever? Andreja Slokar, Katharina Gallhuber and upcoming Austrian star Victoria Olivier had all sustained ligament damage on the women’s tour, and on the men’s side injuries to Itamar Bira and Max Franz means they are out for the season, providing a stark reminder of the risks athletes face when ski racing.
Those lucky enough to stayed uninjured preseason, travelled to Solden for the first race of the season where womens and mens GS races were scheduled for the weekend of 22 & 23 of October. With the start at over 3,000m high and the finish at 2,600m the race is always susceptible to challenging weather conditions.
The women’s race was called off shortly before the morning start on the 22nd with the FIS releasing the statement which said: “Due to the current weather situation and the future weather forecast today’s women’s Giant Slalom has been cancelled.”
Later they went into further detail by explaining that overnight rain had not frozen and wet snow the next morning meant it was too soft to guarantee a safe race.
This was a huge disappointment for the women’s athletes awaiting the first race of the season, especially those who were making their debut on the tour or returning from injury.
The following day, the men were given the green light to race down the brutal Rettenbach glacier.
The noise from a large crowd of race fans proved how pleased they were to be back after the pandemic restrictions, and they watched as 70 racers made their first run.
Swiss skier Marco Ordermatt emerged on top at the halfway point, closely followed by Lucas Braathen and Zan Kranjec. With 30 skiers qualifying for the second run, it was all to play for, with the crowd eager to see if Odermatt could produce a victory on the Rettenbach.
Fifth skier out the gate on the second run was USA’s Tommy Ford who produced a blistering time to ski into the lead. Fourteen skiers later Ford was still in the lead, but Norway’s Rasmus Windingstad was able to produce his own fantastic run to take the top spot by just five hundredths of a second.
The 2021 overall champion Alexis Pinturault failed to better Rasmus’s time but then superstar Henrik Kristoffersen laid everything down on the gruelling Rettenbach to produce a tantalising run which was just enough to knock his fellow Norwegian off top spot with five skiers remaining.
Next out of the gate was Austria’s Manuel Feller, who is always exciting to watch. But he too failed and he dropped to 16th place. The Olympic silver medallist Zan Kranjec was the first to go from the top three after the first run, but following 26 others skiers meant the conditions were more challenging. This did not to phase Kranjec who pipped Kristoffersen’s time by 11 hundreths of a second.
The penultimate skier to push out of the start gate was the Lucas Braathen, hoping to make notch up his second win on the Rettenbach glacier. But his second run was slightly off the pace and Braathen slipped down into 3rd position with Ordermatt still to ski.
With an incredible haul of victories and podiums in 2022, including becoming Olympic champion and overall world cup champion, a first win on the Rettenbach was still one to tick off for Ordermatt.
The Swiss racer pushed out the start gate, and with an advantage of nearly three quarters of a second over Kranjec, Ordermatt was able to produce another trademark performance and clinch his first win on Solden’s famous Rettenbach.
After Solden the FIS announced two more of the upcoming sets of races to be cancelled. This time the cancellation was of the mens and womans set of Downhill races at the Matterhorn, Switzerland in early November.
The reason given for the cancellations was warm weather conditions which caused the snow to fail FIS tests despite great efforts from the Swiss organising committee. Days later on the 6 November FIS made its third cancellation announcement of the season. This time it was the mens and women’s parallel races in Lech Zurs in Austria.
The women finally took to the race in Finland’s Levi where USA’s Mikaela Shiffrin completed back-to-back Audi FIS World Cup slalom victories
Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener was second and FIS World Cup slalom champion Petra Vlhova from Slovakia came third. The weekend of racing featured GB racers Charlie Guest and Alex Tilley
In other news…
The UK dryslope race season came to a close with the national championships ending another exciting summer of competitive racing.
October also saw the announcement of the Scottish and English schools teams heading to Turkey in 2023 for the ISF (International federation for School Sport) World School Games.
Team England alpines team consists of 20 athletes, 10 females, 10 males plus reserves born in the years 2005-2008 from schools all over the country.
The Scottish Alpine team will also send 20 athletes to represent the nation on an international stage. Congratulations to all those selected, and the best of luck representing your country. Most of all have fun!
Robert Holmes is supported by: Hippo Motor Group; Fischer Skis; Shred; Leki; Winter Sports Foundation; Ski Bartlett; Pendle Leisure Trust; Tass; Pendle Ski Club
For more info on his racing go to: robertholmesski.com/
Charlotte Holmes is supported by: Fischer Skis; Shred; Falke; Leki; Winter Sports Foundation; Ladies Ski Club
Categories: Racing