Nocturne de Chamrousse

We raced in the Nocturne de Chamrousse on Tuesday night. Chamrousse is a ski area about 20mins for where we are living here in France, so there was no excuse for not going up for this small relay race. It was a very simple format-teams of 2, each taking turns to climb and ski 100vert meters, the team with the most laps in 1hr wins. The best thing about this kind if race is it is really social and great training.
Jane and I decided to race together in the "mixed" division which would make it more fun and make for an all kiwi team. I started out first, again getting a little caught out , but once under way "fun and "social" soon when out the window........
I arrived at the top first and had a pretty bad transition in the wind, and felt terrible when I arrived at the bottom. I handed off to Jane and laughed to myself, watching her run off in first place as the all men's teams followed behind. I was hoping that Jane would be passed by multiple racers so I would not have to go to hard on my next lap, but she arrived not far behind the leaders in 3rd place. This continued for the next 45mins or so and and in the end we did 4 laps each and finished in 1st for the mixed teams and 3rd place over all!
As always a huge feast followed and we met some fellow racers.
I have been really surprised, but a few different people have made a point of our 3rd place finish. On PisteHors.com they wrote "a mixed New Zealand team scored a notable third place overall (Jane Harper et Grant Guise of the CAF DSA)" and the FFME web site said similar (I think, its in French). I even got a small photo in the local paper....
This weekend I will race in a vertical race for the first time. Vertical races are just that, they involve no downhill skiing and just one climb. This race will be 1000m vert and is the French vertical championships. The French are renowned for vertical races, at the 2006 World Champs the had the top 3 places for the men, so this weekend is shaping up to be quite the reality check.