Ski

Uh, oh, new nickname time: NickTheDick!!

Exactly, Kragan...hey, what exactly is a Kragan? (And I'm sure Kragan would add that it's perfectly fine to post results and chat about racing, before, during, and right after a race...the point is just to not mention it in the header. Man, I feel like we must all be typing that in Latin, or something.)

There was a news report that we've now had 13 straight days with at least a trace of snowfall...all adding up to less than 4", though.

Jeez, Phil, put some ice on it and then get back on your skis. Most doctors are like car mechanics----they get paid to fix something. Shake it off, bro. Anything you can ski away from wasn't that bad.

"He is believed to have been traveling at a high rate of speed" + "Pallotta was not wearing a helmet"

America's Bode Miller finally completed a World Cup slalom at Schladming to end a year-long jinx. Miller made big mistakes during both runs on the floodlit course but eventually came in last of the 25 finishers, a hefty 9.60 seconds behind winner Benjamin Raich. His last finish in the technical discipline was in January 2006. Though a far from polished performance, the completion of Tuesday's race all but made sure of Miller's starting place at the world championships in Are, Sweden, with U.S. head coach Phil McNichol stating that the athlete's selection was now just a formality. "Bode's probably going to get a spot," McNichol told Reuters. "He finished and none of the other guys [still fighting for qualification] have. "I have to clear it with my bosses and go through all the process but I don't see why we wouldn't start him." Miller's two rivals for the two remaining slalom start places, Tom Rothrock and Tim Jitloff, both failed to qualify for Tuesday's second run. Miller, who left the finish area on Tuesday without speaking to reporters, has repeatedly stated that a slalom gold medal at the world championships starting on Saturday is one of his main goals for the season. If he can turn around his astonishing poor form in what was once his favourite discipline, the 2005 overall World Cup champion would become the first skier to win world titles in five separate disciplines. Miller is the reigning downhill and super-G champion and has two previous gold medals in the combined and giant slalom events dating back to the 2003 world championships. Although he looked scrappy on the steep lower section of the challenging Planai course, the American showed flashes of his old self during the early sections, and was sixth fastest at the first split time. "He's doing great, he just needs to finish too -- and with two relatively clean runs," McNichol said when asked about Miller's gold medal chances in Are. "Anything's possible with Mr Miller." Earlier on Tuesday, Miller said that he might not defend his downhill title at the world championships because of injury concerns. Miller said he was worried about suffering a recurrence of the knee injury he sustained on the Are downhill course at the end of last season.

Actually, whomever wrote the race press release for CB didn't really give Ridge enough credit... In J4/5 racing, individual runs count toward post season and the kid's combined times do not. For example, it's nice to get a podium with solid two run times, but it's better to win one run and crash in run two. An example: if one racer finishes third in both runs, he'd score 120 points toward Derby (3rd place=60 points). Then, if other top racers had each won a run or finished second, but they both crash out in run two, they don't make a podium, BUT they earn 100 points for their first place run. And only your best runs for the season count. So the kid that "won" for the day will only carry forward 60 point runs, while the other kids will move on with a 100 point race, which sets them up better when more races are finished. J4/5 individual race runs are scored on the World Cup scale. So Ridge earned 100 points by winning the first run, then 29 points for a 9th place second run. And to qualify for Derby, they take your "best of one less than half", which means if you race eight total runs, you divide those results in half, then drop the lowest remaining score---leaving your THREE best runs to be counted toward Derby. So Ridge has a 100 point run 'in the bank', then his 29 point run is a decent one that may or may not just get thrown out if he has better runs. It's a good system, IMO, because it takes all the pressure off kids as young as 7 or 8 from having to finish both runs to have a concrete accomplishment. It also teaches kids to 'go for it' on each run. Again, congrats, Ridge.

"The J4,5's led by the hard charging Kelly Rowland took first place among the J4 girls and posted the 2nd and 3rd fastest time among both boys and girls." Holy, crap...

C'mon, Rob, WTF is wrong with you? Let's hear about it! This was a REAL race...

A policy for common sense? Rob, are you honestly saying that you'd get the same enjoyment watching a sporting event that you know the results? I'm not saying you still wouldn't enjoy it, but the biggest reason people watch sports is the thrill of not knowing how it turns out. Like, who the hell would go to a horse race if they knew #5 was winning in the fifth (uh, unless to place a sure thing bet, of course)?

And it really sucks...fans went from having four races on cable TV two years ago, to two last year...now OLN (VS) all but dropped coverage...and NBC only does a couple of early season races. So we're left paying for shitty feeds, or stealing jumpy, low res copies. People in America would rather watch celebrity races pitting snowplowing soap opera stars over real racing. That's just the way it is.

You can "watch" as the times are posted live at http://www.fis-ski.com There's a link to a live timing site on the right side of the main page for alpine racing. Finding out results of World Cup results is easy...and so is avoiding them, except for what was happening here. The person was just going to http://www.skiracing.com or Eurosport.com and cutting and pasting results that the person actually couldn't care less about. It was being done as a way to piss a particular person off. If the X Games were held at 9am, but you were getting a delayed feed at 1pm, wouldn't it suck if someone just started posting "Tanner Hall Wins" in headers? If anyone on here really cares about World Cup race results, I'll happily post a dozen links to all the result pages and fan pages I have on my one computer. But I'm pretty sure than anyone that really cares about WC racing already has them. I honestly don't think anyone on PASR bought into the idea that a particular poster was doing it as a public service. Hopefully, the issue is dead. If that poster really wants to discuss World Cup racing in the future, then that's great. I don't hold a grudge for stupid stuff like that...

The snowmaking is unrelenting...coverage is great, but I think they plan to have us skiing until mid-April... After a weekend on Switch, I was pretty psyched about hitting Upper and Lower Fast Track today. It was windy and mo fo cold, but the guns were spaced and you could avoid them easily. Upper Fast Track is extremely wide and the wind just swept across it, so you pretty much had to tuck down to the breakover to Lower FT...which is where it was AMAZING! Man-made snow can be great when temps and humidity are really low, and Lower Fast Track was unbelievable. We set first tracks over and over and only saw a couple of people all morning. The skate up and around the Long Haul scares most people away, even though it only takes about 30 seconds. The new mall really screws up what used to be a great view, but oh, well... With enough speed, you can clear 80 ft down the headwall, just as you go back under the lift. Conditions were never like today....never in the history of the early private ownership, or under Lackannabee County.... They continue to stack up the snow in the terrain park, as well. It's still a hassle to have to take two slow lift rides up, so that'll be the key for them to draw the crowds. But the Phoebe is like a warm break as it climbs up through the evergreens... I had hoped to hit Boomer a few times before heading home, but you couldn't even see it through the snow guns...maybe tonight. I know I sound like a f*cking marketing director or PR guy, but management is doing everything right at this point. They wanted to show off the snowmaking power and are doing just that. They let it quiet down for the weekenders, but this week will be the best skiing in years.

Sorry, she's still in love with Doug because he'll shove popcorn up his nose and make it shoot out.

Nope and nope. She did ask if you also ate at the picnic table...I told her I wasn't sure.

Ha, the yellow course was faster, so it's only a true head-to-head when you take a run on each, then add the times. That's the set-up that I'm taking down Jeffy on, though. Hey, has there been any carnage on the bottom jump on Mainline? Seems a little sketchy to have a jump that lands people on a green circle runout (Highball)?

I know that a lot of runners get "shin splints', which is bruising of the shins from the impact of running. I think the only thing for that is treatment by icing and rest. Your damage isn't exactly the same thing, but probably should be treated the same way----ice and NO hot tubs. How to prevent it for what you're doing is a whole different thing...I imagine a softer boot, or even having a shop cut it to increase flex. But for exercise, a way to protect one weak muscle, is to strengthen an opposing muscle. Like, if you have a chronic sore back, one remedy is to build up your abs. You'd probably take some of the beating off your shins if you work on your calves...best way for that is to do "cheat' sit-ups, which are sit-ups with your toes being held down. That way, you're calves get the workout instead of your abs. Ask a simple question, Nick, and you get some long-winded bullsh*t... That definitely could be it...there's a big difference between loose boots and soft flexing boots.

What a blast! The Sno staff set a dual GS and we got to go head-to-head against friends...Ty raced a boy she met yesterday and I raced his dad. Those mo fo big-ass kickers in the park are freaking huge, btw...

Ha, TP4, you're too funny. Nick: it may have sounded like DH was being dickish, but he wasn't at all. That was pretty much it. The entire Switch slope shuts down and, if you saw today, they ran a rope across the entire entrance near the start house. But if you watch any race, USSA or even World Cup, course workers are constantly scraping out ruts between racers and while a new racer is just getting on course. People all scream "COURSE!" at the workers, to let them know to hurry back away from the gates where they are scraping. It sounds rude, but it's sometimes life and death and just the way it is. With NASTAR, they are particularly concerned with people barging the course, even if nobody is close to you, mostly because of the timing gear. Yesterday, several people wandered through the finish area when people were on course and there times were ruined. People paid to be on the course and people that didn't know any better screwed up their time. To keep anyone's feeling from being hurt and to keep paying racers happy, the best solution is to completely rope off a race trail...which is what they did today. Sorry you were yelled at, though. If you ever want to take a quick NASTAR run for free, go to the start house around Noon or 3pm, and ask Jim very nicely if you can take a quicky. Tell him you are a PASR and I'm sure he'll say it's cool. Maybe you'll get hooked and sell those twin tips for GS:12's like Jeffy.

Nick, cut school one day this week and I'll bring my professional gear up and you can even do one of Doug's Spread Eagle Crotch Grabs... But seriously...I'll hook you guys up with some pics, if you want.

Kildow shines, while Bode f*cks up twice: American Lindsey Kildow won today's SG in Italy: American Lindsey Kildow beat in-form Austrian Renate Goetschl to win a women's World Cup super-G race on Sunday. Kildow's third win of the season, and her first in super-G, came with a superb run on the Fraiteve course used for last year's Winter Olympics. Her time of one minute 30.06 seconds was 0.17 seconds ahead of overall Cup leader Goetschl, who won both Friday's super-G and Saturday's downhill here. Austria's Christine Sponring had her second podium place in three days by finishing third, 0.29 seconds behind Kildow, in the final women's race before the world championships. Kildow, whose Olympics were marred by a bad training crash, has had a patchy season with her seven podium places before Sunday matched by as many failures to finish races. "This win is huge for me after my disappointing moments in the last weeks," the 22-year-old American told reporters, adding that she would go to the world championships in Are, Sweden, next weekend with her confidence high. "I'm really excited because this is exactly what I needed before Are," said Kildow, who had two fourth places at the Bormio world championships two years ago. "I'm really proud to have also won a super-G this winter, especially ahead of Renate who has been so dominating in that speciality," added Kildow, who won her first super-G in March last year. Goetschl, who leads the super-G standings as well as the overall, notched up the 100th podium place of her career. Her hopes of a third race win in as many days were dashed when she caught her left arm on a gate pole midway down the course. "It twisted me a little and I lost some time getting my rhythm back," the 31-year-old former overall Cup champion told reporters. "When you fight for hundredths of seconds such a problem can decide about winning or losing. I was aiming for the hat-trick today but this second place is fine too. It's also important for my chances to clinch the super-G World Cup trophy this year. There are still two races left so I have to be patient but it looks very good." Goetschl leads the overall standings with 1,001 points, 85 ahead of team mate Marlies Schild, who finished just outside the points places on Sunday. In the super-G competition, she has a lead of 130 points over Kildow with two races, carrying 200 points, to come. In Kitzbuehel, unknown Swede has double-slalom win, while Bode DNF's both races: After completing an astonishing Kitzbuehel slalom-double, Swede Jens Byggmark is looking ahead to next week's world championships on home snow. With less than a week to go until the Swedish resort of Are hosts the world championships, Byggmark seems to have chosen the perfect moment to burst on to the international stage. Despite his nervousness in front of the world's media, he said he would be totally composed once the championships got underway. "Of course the expectations are going to be great now but I think we will see a great party in Are and I just think it's going to be a lot of fun." The 21-year-old newcomer received plenty of attention after confirming Saturday's maiden triumph with a storming performance in Sunday's sequel. Hailing from the same tiny town of Tarnaby that produced former slalom great Ingemar Stenmark and Olympic slalom champion Anja Paerson, Byggmark proved himself a talent in his own right with a gutsy performance in challenging conditions on Saturday. Competing in his first full World Cup season and with just 15 previous senior races under his belt, the youngster then displayed impressive mental strength to put all the fuss behind him on Sunday and do it all over again. "This victory is even more crazy and amazing than yesterday's," Byggmark said shortly after completing his double. "I received so many phone calls yesterday evening I was really moved. Today I just wanted to get a good result but I never expected to win again." Though not quite left speechless by his weekend heroics the Swede struggled to cope with the barrage of questions aimed at him during his two post-race media conferences. "I don't know who I am right now," a giggling Byggmark said on Saturday when asked to describe himself and his interests. He also had no idea how he had won the two races, what he would do with his prize money, what his hobbies were, why he started skiing, or how many hours' sleep he had got on Saturday night. "I didn't sleep very much at all," Byggmark said, "but I didn't actually look at the clock." One thing he did know was that he was not alone in his sleeplessness with his home town fans partying fiercely on his behalf. "They celebrated in Tarnaby a lot I think -- because I got some phone calls from drunk people," Byggmark grinned. "Now I just hope everybody in Sweden has their eyes open for more."

...

But it's true...confidence makes such a big difference in racing and he just plain old believes in himself. He pretty much closed the gap on a bunch of ASRA guys. The Vegas odds just went to Even on whether he gets a top 10 before he gets l*id for the first time. He's gotta get rid of his current pick-up line: "Hi, I'm from New Jersey, go to community college and live in my mom's basement." But, hey, it worked for George Costanza in that one Seinfeld episode. F*ckin' Metzy might just know something. Okay, enough Metzy talk. Sry.

Speaking of meteors, we should've had Metzy call in with updates from the Sugarbush ASRA races. Somehow, selling golf balls had made the boy a lot faster.

Props to the best gate-setter in the East... Ty and I had lunch with a father/son that raced today, (I'd just met them at the Twood ASRA last weekend) and they had as much fun as we did. He's considering buying a season pass to Sno next season and a big part of his decision is because the effort you and your staff put into NASTAR. Again, thanks for a great day...rumor has it that you lurk here once in a while...