British Telemark have just finished another successful development camp in Val d’Isère training with Ben Langridge from TeleTracks. He organised a great week which focused on the race start, skating, gates and jumping with video analysis after each session. It was a fantastic introduction to racing for the newer members and great development for the more experienced racers.

Day one: Drills, technical skiing and a chance for Ben to asses the ability of the group.

Day two: Gate training on the parallel course at the Bonnevie Stade.

Day three: Race starts and skating.

Day four: GS Fléche race on the ‘Orange’ piste.

Day five: Gate training on the parallel course at the Bonnevie Stade.

Day six: Gate training on GS course with a jump at the Bonnevie Stade.

Everyone improved throughout the week and it was great to see some new faces who are keen to get involved in telemark racing. Ben’s own Alpine racing experience and numerous seasons on telemark mean he is a great coach to take the Development Camp. British Team member Anna commented on the week:

“Ben is very passionate about telemark and it really shows when he is teaching. He explains things very clearly and I especially learn a lot from his video analysis sessions. He is a fantastic skier himself so he demonstrates drills well.”

It is an exciting time for British Telemark with lots of new faces each year and a strong season finishing in 5th place overall out of 13 nations this World Cup season. Sadly this was the last week of skiing for British Telemark this winter but the indoor races are fast approaching!

Next season TeleTracks will be running a few telemark weeks in Val d’Isère for all abilities, keep an eye on their website for more details. If you have your own group they can tailor the week to what you want too, contact them directly for more details. They have a big selection of Scott NTN telemark kit in resort so you can rent equipment from them or try NTN if you are considering moving from the cable bindings! They will be taking some race training at three of the indoor races this summer at Manchester, Tamworth and Hemel so you can meet them there.

A huge thank you to Ben and TeleTracks for another fantastic week, see you next year!

 

The French Championships were held in Les Houches this weekend, these were sadly the last telemark races of the winter season. Team members Jack Harvard Taylor and Anna Morrissey were competing as well as Junior team member Ollie Wotton. Jack and Anna did a couple of days training beforehand with coach Seb Mansart and the Les Houches Ski Club. Conditions were very difficult on Saturday for the classic with a thick fog covering the whole course, fortunately the sun came out for Sundays sprint race.

Congratulations to Anna who came 2nd in the Classic and 3rd in the Sprint in her age group. Ollie Wotton, who only raced on Saturday, came 7th in his age group, this is a great result for him after spending most of this season injured. It was great to see team member Alistair back on skis too on Sunday after a very bad injury at the start of the season.

The indoor race series is next for the team, catch them at one of the four events this summer in Manchester, Tamworth, Glasgow and Hemel. For more information see the events tab.

 

The British Team have just finished competing in the last World Cup race of the season in Rjukan, Norway. Anna Morrissey and Louis Hatchwell were competing in these races. Anna came 15th in both the Classic and the Sprint, unfortunately she had a fall in the Classic which lost her a lot of time. Louis had two more top 30 World Cup places in these races which is fantastic for such a new racer.

The final World Cup standings have also now been published for this season. The British Team came 5th out of 13 nations competing on the circuit this year. Individual team members have also done very well this season with Jasmin Taylor World ranked 7th and Anna Morrissey 9th overall. In the men, James French is our highest ranked Brit in 32nd place. Well done to the whole team!

Some of the team will attend the French Championships in Les Houches this weekend which is the final race of the French Cup series. If you are in the area I am sure they would appreciate the support. This will sadly be the last race in this winter season but the team have worked very hard and I am sure they are looking forward to a rest. They will then be looking forward to the Indoor Series this summer.