Page 75 - The Royal Lancers Chapka 2018

REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL LANCERS (QUEEN ELIZABETHS’ OWN) 73
The American Ski racing legend Bode Miller once remarked “sometimes it’s all about the win, sometimes it’s about the skiing”. This year for the Royal Lancers Alpine Ski team, it was definitely all about the skiing.
The eight man team consisting of five “experienced” skiers and three novices, deployed to Verbier in early December for Exer- cise White Knight 35; The Royal Armoured Corps’ and Army Air Corps’ ski championships. The Exercise was to comprise of three weeks of intense training, followed by a week of fierce inter-regimental ski racing. The Exercise kicked off with the highly anticipated ‘ski-off ’; an individual run down a gentle red slope, watched by the Ecole De Suisse instructors, all exercis- ing troops, and what felt like the entirety of Verbier, in order to determine which ability group you would train with. Like every year, this superficially benign event proved to be the great of un- doing of many so-called “experienced” skiers. Lieutenant Reed remained particularly bitter for the duration of the Exercise.
The combination of large dumps of snow prior to our arrival followed by bluebird conditions, provided perfect conditions for the first two weeks of training. These conditions were exploited
Stiff competition within the team for the best pout...
Mr Cave tries to shave another fraction of a second from his finishing time
by combining ‘free ski’ days, powder days, and race training days, thereby ensuring that skiers developed their all-round ski- ing ability. Incredibly, within just two weeks of putting on skis, the novice skiers of the team were conquering Mont Fort-Ver- bier’s highest peak and knee-knocking mogul field. Alongside this, six of the eight team members were introduced to race poles for the first time; Lieutenant Reed quickly discovering that sla- lom was not his event.
Following a highly enjoyable and fun-filled festive period, ‘race week’ commenced with the Giant Slalom (GS) seeding race which placed the Lancers into a strong position prior to the championship races starting. Of particular note was Lieuten- ant Cave’s impressive second place finish; a performance that set the precedent for the remainder of his strong racing season. The championship kicked off with the individual GS, which saw Lieutenant Cave taking fifth place, Lance Corporal Hitchcock taking 21st, and Lieutenant Reed taking 35th. Onto the more technical (and infinitely less enjoyable) slalom, where individ- ual brilliance from the Lancers’ very own Lindsay Vonn saw Lieutenant Cave taking first place and the gold medal, Lance Corporal Hitchcock taking another 21st, and Lance Corporal Starkey taking 31st. Further strong individual performances from seasoned racer Lieutenant Cave and novice skier Trooper Collins saw Lieutenant Cave placing second overall in the com-
Alpine Lancer