Postings for november 2009 | Aksel Lund Svindal
Lost the red bib
I had the red bib today as the winner of last year’s super-g cup. Lost that to Manny(Osborne Paradis) today, but I’ll be back to fight for it. Always fun when racers win their home races like Manny did today. Also a sad day for the Canadians as possibly their best skier John Kucera got injured. Rumors say tibia fracture. That sucks! Johnny was the most consistent when we were skiing together in Chile this summer. Now packing bags and gonna jump on an early plane tomorrow morning down to Denver.
Cuche wins
Cuche continues showing the rest of us that he’s had a very good preparation for this season. He was the fastest in the first training and today he kicked ass again. I was doing pretty good myself until I made a big mistake after around a minute of skiing. Was only 0.30 seconds on that split, but than messed up the run. But looking at it from the bright side, it’s better to be faster and make mistakes than just being slow… And my leg seemed to hold up good even though it was pretty bumpy today and I attacked 100%. So ready for the Super-G tomorrow. Also thinking about TJ who had a bad crash. Hope he's not to bad injured and we'll see him back on the tour soon.[...]
Equipment control
No skiing today because of the heavy snowfall. I need a little more skiing before I’m ready, so I hope we get to do the training run tomorrow. One thing to do on a day like this is equipment control. There are regulations about speed suits, skis, lifters on skis and boots, pretty much everything you use when you’re racing. Skis and boots get measured almost every run if you’re in the top 30, and suits get measured if you’re on the podium. I measured a new pair of boots today. They were ok. The limit is 43.32(I think) millimeters and mine were 41.00. Mike is the man in the finish areas on the World-Cup, and he’s also responsible for the equipment control. Regardless if you just had the run of your life or you lost the gold, he is the first guy you’ll see. I guess he has seen all kinds of emotions from racers. So after a few years on the World-Cup tour you get to know him pretty well.
Movember
Ever heard about Movember? It’s the month of mustaches in we’re in it right now. November. The Canadians have been honoring it for a few years, but this is by far the best I’ve ever seen it. Closest to the camera is Robbie Dixon from Team Canada, the other guy is TJ Lanning from The US Skiteam. He’s taking Movember very serious and I think he’s got the best mustache on the World-Cup tour. Looks almost as good as Burt Reynolds in his best days… haha!! 
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New York Times
MIAMI BEACH — The nearest snow was more than a thousand miles away. The rest of the Norwegian Alpine ski team was training in Canada.KLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE