we pulled into Les Relais after driving two hours from Montreal at around 8:45 just in time to make it for training, the course opened at 10:00 so I was out on the hill by 9:15 in order to warm up before training. After riding the course for about thirty minutes the thin layer of snow on top of the skating rink like ice had been well worn off and at this point it was like survival training in the course, just trying to stay up. The coaches were forced to set a new course beside the old one because of how torn up the old one was. Even though the course conditions weren't ideal I was feeling very good with my riding and was ready to race. After riding we went to our Air BNB in order to get settled, we tuned our boards and met with the coaches before we turned it in early in order to get a good nights sleep for the race the next day. It had snowed that night and when we arrived at the hill you could tell the snow was going to be soft. After getting ready and heading out for some warm up runs we inspected the course and it was quite straight for a GS course. When it came time for the first run I was ready, I was riding very strong and having a great run until it came to the fifth last gate where I got caught in some soft snow, pressured too hard and hooked a heel side way out of the course , for the second run the snow had stiffened up a lot so it was way firmer, I was able to have a clean, fast second run and qualify 13th in finals. Unfortunately in finals I was paired with my teammate Riley who ended up advancing by a tenth of a second, I finished 13th. I was happy with how I rode and was looking forward to the next day of racing. The next day the snow was better, more firm but the course was even straighter, I had two clean qualifying runs and made it into finals in 13th, same as the day before. I went up against Cody winters in the first round of finals and unfortunately lost by only a tenth of a second again, At the end of the day because of upsets in the finals I finished at 15th. Still very happy with my riding and consistency I was looking forward to the last day of racing, the junior FIS. After 2 clean runs on a much rounder course I was sitting third, in my first run of top 8 I was paired with a friend of mine Eric, During my first run, in the gate my goggles fogged up because of the heat of my face and the moisture in the lenses and I wasn't able to see properly. About half way down the course I hit a patch of ice I couldn't see and took a hard fall. For the next run I switched goggles and really focused on my riding, I was able to put down a fast clean run but I missed making up the differential by 2 tenths of a second which was unfortunate but I was happy for Eric to move on because he had been very frustrated with his season but he was finally able to put together some great runs. Now It is time to really buckle down in January and focus on training on the hill and in the gym in order to get me ready for the next block of races.
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