7th Place... not what I wanted for a result in the first race of the season on a track I've had some success on in the past, but alas it's an Olympic qualifer (a top ten finish in a World Cup race) and that is the main thing at this point in the game. I was shooting for a top six or better an just narrowly missed the mark. Winterberg, Germany is an easy track to to slide in the respect that there are no corners that require a great deal of steering and the trick is to be as quite on the sled as possible. You do need to have a great deal of feeling and be able to massage the corners just right to maintain as much speed as possible. A good push helps at the start as there are few spots to really slow an athlete down or mess up really bad. I had two pretty solid runs and can't be too disappointed with the result. There are some very good slider in the field this season that have taken some years off and the Germans are always strong on their own tracks. Today is a day off before we travel to Altenberg, Germany up near Dresden for the second race of the season next Friday. It will be another tough challenge and it is a much more demanding track in terms of driving. I look forward to getting at it and I'll keep y'all up to speed as to how it goes. Until then, happy trails everyone.