WC #1 and 2 Montafon and Lake Louise

Happy Holidays Everybody!!

    It's good to be home for the holidays and take a small break from bustling airports. In mid November to early December we had a training camp followed by our first World Cup race of the season in Austria. I had never raced that venue before but I really enjoyed my time on the course there. Unfortunately, the course layout didn't allow for many passing opportunities and I wasn't able to make it happen. On some days that is just how it goes.
    Next on the schedule was Lake Louise, Alberta. This was a venue that was completely new to the tour and looks like it will be better in the future. The course had its quirks as did qualifying day. Even though snow isn't unwelcome in our sport, it can definitely be inconvenient. Snow and wind make the speed on course change dramatically from run to run and I wasn't able to link a good run together once the course started to speed up again. I just missed out qualifying through to the heat racing but as always I am happy to walk away healthy. The heat racing had a lot of wrecks in it and many competitors weren't quite as lucky. We are heading back to Europe on January 6th for the next 3 races at 2 venues. There will be a double header in Andorra and then a single event in Veysonnaz, Switzerland. I'm excited to get back on the course and make a push to get on the podium. Thanks for reading and enjoy the time with your friends and family!

New Zealand Training Camp

      After a long hiatus I will be back to updating during this coming season and my journey trying to qualify for the Olympics. I am about 38 hours into my travel back from the second on snow camp of the summer in Cardrona, New Zealand. I wasn't able to attend the entire time but was able to get some much needed time on a course and brush up on a few skills. The team at Cardrona did a great job putting on the camp and provided us with a great training course. Although the weather was a little touch and go due mostly to visibility there was still a high level of riding from everyone on the course.
      For those of you that haven't been to New Zealand, it is one of the most beautiful places on this Earth in my opinion. It is a truly remarkable place that really helps you stop to smell the roses, so to speak. I posted a large amount of photos on my Instagram from the trip, so if you didn't get a chance to have a look bounce over there and follow me at alexjtuttle.
     I'm feeling good about where I'm at but there is always something to work to be done. I'll have to be super focused when our next camp happens in Soelden, Austria prior to the first race of the season to keep myself on track but I am excited to be back on snow and racing. I'll be sure to check back in soon and you should too. The updates will keep coming during fall training! Get outside and enjoy the fall weather folks!

Blue Mountain, Ontario WC

It was a short trip to Canada this time and we arrived to find a course that a lot of people felt was less that satisfactory. A lot of small jumps for the speed we were carrying and a lot of narrow places that would allow multiple riders to make it through at once. This had its obvious effects come race day, with crashes in nearly every men's heat. Qualifying day was another stressful one as I had some trouble in my first run and had to rely entirely on my second. I played it a little on the conservative side and crossed the line with a time of 68.72, finishing in 18th place. I knew after running practice with a few of the other guys that things were certainly going to get dicey in all areas of the course. In my heat I had a good start and came through the first turn battling for second place, I wasn't able to take the line that I wanted through the turn and I lost some ground. The same rider collided with me going off of the double in the second turn and I was able to power through the next roller section and pass back into third place. A few turns later the same rider collided with me again on the take-offs of one of the jumps. I was down and out of the race, another unlucky turn of events. Thanks for reading.

X Games

After a lot of flying we arrived to Aspen at what would be our house for the week. It certainly felt good to be back in the States but my body didn't seem to care that there had been a significant time change from Europe. It was safe to say that I would never be late to our 9am practice sessions because at that point I had already been awake for 6 hours. The practice sessions were going well and the course was very mellow in comparison to past X Games venues. But it was plenty of fun still. The qualifying day came around on Friday and I was feeling good. The format had changed so all of the riders only got one time trial run, so it was all or nothing. Snow had fallen the night before and the speeds down the course slowed to a crawl. I had a great run going but I didn't feel that I was carrying enough speed in the last jump, which was imperative to clear, so I popped as hard as I could off of the lip but this placed me in the back seat. So I landed on my butt and struggled across the finish line, crossing in 18th place. It wasn't the best finish but I made it into the heats. I had a tough draw for first heats the following day, couple that with a less than desirable lane choice and some mistakes on my part led me to not advance out of the first round. Definitely a bummer but there will be more races and that's how things go sometimes. Thanks for reading!

Swiss Recap

In the first of two races over there I took a spill during my first run of time trials and couldn't get it together for my second run. It was completely a mental block and I learned a lot from the experience. So for the first set of heat races I was a spectator, which did allow me to get a great perspective to help me out with the next race and let my lingering aches and pains heal up a little bit.

The second day of qualifying came a few days later and after a couple of training runs my riding had come back to where it was and I finished the day qualifying in the 14th position. This is a great considering the big cross wind that was sporadically blowing along the length of the track. The heat racing was a great battle as is always the case as World Cups. In the first round I had a top to bottom battle with Paulo De Le Rue, an olympic medalist from France. We had a photo finish for first place crossing the line, even though the top 3 were advancing from each heat it was better not to take any chances. Quaterfinals came and I was lined up in the gate next to fellow American, Nate Holland. Nate had finished 2nd in the first race and so he had been riding the course very fast. We both had great starts and dominated most of the top section together, until a German rider, Konsti Schad, snuck in front Nate. Konsti and I were back to back battling going over a hip in the top section and when we landed we locked edges and I caught the raw end of that deal. I went down and watched everyone buzz  by. So in a few seconds I went from first to sixth and ran out of real estate before I could make up the distance. My riding has been great thus far in the season and I'm looking forward to X Games at the end of this week. Thanks all.

Veysonnaz, Switzerland WC # 2 and 3

Greetings!
So I found out that the language automatically changes on here depending on where I am. So I'm trying to navigate the sight in German so bear with me. I've been in Veysonnaz freeriding for a few days and we are finally getting down to business. Training day tomorrow and the first qualification day will be the day following that. We will be running two races over here to make up for the cancellation in Austria. I'll check back in soon.

World Cup #1- Telluride, CO

I just returned from Telluride, Colorado where the first world cup race of the season is held for the past few years. There is always a training camp a week prior to the event where a small course is provided to us to get everything dialed in before the big day finally comes. The training camp went well for me and it seemed that my riding was up to par and I got to practice some new techniques during the week.

When the real practice day came around I felt as though I was only riding mediocre, so I paid really close attention studying lines and things that I could improve on during video review the night before the time trial. I did a lot of visualizing and spent a lot of time stretching to make sure that my body was as good as it could when the day finally came. The weather on qualifying was nothing short of erratic and time certainly reflected it. There would be large spurts of heavy snow and uphill winds from time to time. I was lucky enough to have both of those in full effect during my first run. I felt as though the fun was good but I was sitting in 27th after the first run. The weather began to clear shortly after I went and the times started to speed up considerably. I had a great run and qualified in 10th place, this was my second best result in qualifying at a WC. Good way to start things off.

We were given a much appreciated rest day in between qualifying and heat racing. I took the time to go to the gym and get on the stationary bike to work some of the acid out of my legs from the day before. The board was waxed and we headed up the next morning. It's always a little weird racing in the first few heats of the year, ya have to kind of remember how everything works. It definitely showed in the first heat, I ended up crossing the line in third which was the last transfer spot to the next round when the 6-man format is being used. After that my head started to click back into it, and it showed in the second round where I crossed the line in first advancing to the semi-finals. In this round, I ended up having some trouble and was unable to advance to the big final and so I was in the small finals racing for 7-12 place. This was a great heat with two fellow Americans, Seth Wescott and Jon Cheever. I had some contact in both the top and the bottom of the course and would have to settle for 4th in the round and 10th overall. Seth and Cheev would 7th and 8th overall. It was a great day of racing and helped get some more WC starts over in Europe in a few weeks. Thanks to everyone who helps and supports me! :)