Ed Drake

2007/08 Season
Racing At Meribel, Slalom Super Combine

Skiing is my full time occupation I live, breathe and sometimes literally eat skiing!!! Following the end of last season’s pretty snow-less winter, I’ve been training on and off the piste. Hitting up the European glaciers and indoor resorts through the early months of the summer, then a break from the norm, we got the chance to go all the way across the globe down to Chile to ski their winter snow. Whilst an amazing opportunity it’s certainly not cheap!! The majority of my program is self funded, therefore I needed to earn some money so that I could go, once I overcome that hiccup, I was off!

We stayed right on the piste at over 3000 metres, I could see right down into Santiago (through the smog!). The skiing there was amazing! the snow had far more grip in comparison with the European white stuff! I had a few races in Chile, one of them starting directly behind the Turin Olympic Downhill Champion, alas his performance didn’t quite rub off on me as I crashed, hard, at speeds of around 60-70mph. Unfortunately I didn’t get my line correct around one of the control gates and ended up skiing right through it, falling onto my face, as my Austrian coach says “had a yard sale” translation; my skis came off (as they are supposed to during a big crash) my ski poles came out of my hands and my goggles dislodged as I came to rest on the race course! Thankfully no long term damage, some bruises and swelling, but nothing too serious. After a few days off recovering I was back onto the proverbial horse. Crashes as I am sure you all know, come with the territory when taking part in any extreme sport, part of the buzz I think! Chile was over far too soon and due to the hectic schedule I had no time to explore the surroundings or experience the local culture. Unfortunately whilst training or racing this is always the case even Chile.

At the beginning of November the winter season really got under way. We had the British Ski Teams official launch in Leicester Square, an amazing film shot in Chile and was being viewed by all our guest they could see what we had been up to, giving an insight into life as a professional ski racer, exciting, but at the same time a bit scary, when a twelve foot me appeared on the cinema screen!!

The start of the season saw so much snow, we even had to put chains on the vehicles, which had turned totally orange because of course, we hadn’t needed them last year! Getting back into a racing frame of mind is quite a challenge especially when we haven’t been racing for a couple of months. I had a meeting with a sports psychologist, and, no, there is no sofa and no guy going “oh, so you go straight down the mountain in a skin tight lycra suit at over 70mph, I can’t help you, but the psyche ward down the road can!”  Instead we talked about visualising and mental preparation, that sort of thing.

Armed with some new techniques, we did time trials for races in Scandinavia. The slalom time trails took place in an area called Reiteralm in Austria. After winning runs 1 and 2, I decided to go all out on the 3rd and final run just to push the envelope. In retrospect, not a good plan!!  I crashed into the timing board at the bottom of the course, I was left with a few aches and pains but nothing too bad, or so I thought. Turns out I went home for a much longer Christmas break than scheduled.

I flew back to Austria on the 31st December after a pretty subdued New Years Eve.            

2008 kicked off with training as usual, however in a more relaxed manner and not at 6.30am with free skiing and no gates. It was great being able to ski at our own pace. The recent fall of snow in Lofer I took full advantage of this rare opportunity too ski off piste and enjoy the jumps and just generally clowning around. By the afternoon the locals we out in force hence the need to bring the day to a close, slightly earlier than anticipated but with so many people around from beginners to accomplished skiers, we were dodging equipment and people strewn across the piste!

Since then training has been far more serious, back to skiing courses in order to achieve the best training our day begins very early as this is when the snow is at its iciest. The timing has been set high in order to help simulate race conditions. With video cameras at the ready, the coaches are able to make evaluations after each session including one or two falls from some of the other lads, coupled with near misses caught on video help to keep mood light! Fortunately for me I am still in one piece my skis stayed beneath me!

10th January it was back to races with a super g in a Europa Cup which went pretty well. Followed was a month of full on speed races, downhill and super g, throughout Europe; Crans Montana, Chamonix and Sarntal in Italy where I got a 20.68 Fis points in super G. During this period I was also achieving super combined races for the first time. This is one speed run then a slalom run timed together.  I was very pleased with my results. But no rest for the wicked it was back to training the technical disciplines.

We recently finished 8 continuous days of GS and slalom races winning the last FIS Slalom race in Jena Germany. A great way to finish! I am now back home for 4 days for our mid-season break to re-charge the batteries before the run in to the end of this season, then back out again to practise more speed.

19th February 2008