Hey everybody, it has been a while since I've checked in with you all and I hope that the new year has treated everybody well.  I'm writing this as I wait to head up for my SG run at Kitzbuhel, trying to kill some time before I attempt to throw myself down the notorious Streif. 

The last couple weeks have been a busy transcontinental trek with some invaluable learning experience and more time on the always-difficult world cup tracks.  We spent Christmas over in Bormio (my first in Europe) and enjoyed a nice Christmas Eve dinner with our friends from the Canadian team.  A couple days later I gave my first shot at the Stelvio track in Bormio, which proved to have a couple more tricks than I was ready for that late into the trip.  The team as a whole seemed to be fairly worn out by the time Bormio came along and our results as a whole reflected as such.  Directly after the race we drove to Zurich where we caught a flight home for some much needed R&R in our own beds away from Europe. 

The time at home, though relaxing was very intense in terms of off hill dryland training to try to reboot the system physically before our return back to Europe.   This was the first year that we did anything like this quite as intensively and speaking for myself I felt like it was truly invaluable and I started to feel like an athlete again after eating two meals a day of pasta for a month in Italy.

Upon our return back to Europe we headed up to Wengen one of the true classic races left on tour and also one of the longest and most tiring.  Refreshed from our time off it seemed as though the team skied well overall with Bode walking away with the combined win (he would have also had a DH podium but fell on the last gate) and three of us in the points in the DH.  The tech team also performed well in the SL posting an eighth for Ted and a twelfth for Jimmy Cochran.

Now at Kitzbuhel we are looking forward to a great weekend, Bode has come into this week skiing well winning the second training run looking like he is back near his usual form.  For the rest of us the training hasn't been great so far, but after looking at massive amounts of video we are hoping to come out swinging in the DH race. 

Well that's about all I have time for now, it's time for me to try to wade my way through a sea of inebriated Austrians and give a shot at what this year's SG has to offer.  It has been a pleasure writing for you and I hope that you follow the team as we make our way back to North America for the games coming up in Vancouver.  Thanks for reading and all the best to everybody in the belated New Year.