For the first time in World Cup history, the tour makes its way to Andorra this weekend. Action begins earlier than planned, thanks to the rescheduling of the cancelled women’s giant slalom race from Courchevel in December. That race will launch the race weekend this Friday, Dec. 10 and the originally scheduled GS follows on Saturday with a slalom wrapping up the event on Monday.
The venue lies in the Soldeu sector of Andorra at Grandvalira, the largest ski resort in the Pyrenees Mountains.
Both the GS and slalom races will be held on Grandvalira’s black Avet slope – sure to be considered one of the more technical of the women’s tour. The top of the GS lies at about 2,250 meters, while the village of Soldeu and the finish area are located at 1,840 meters. The GS course measures 1,187 meters with a 400-meter vertical drop. The slalom is 590 meters with a 200-meter drop. The entire Avet course is visible from the arrival area. Several renovations have been made to the slope over the last five years in preparation for the World Cup.
The Avet course begins with a short but very steep wall that propels racers into an intermediate zone combining gentle flats and pitches with dramatic changes in vertical grade.
The long final stretch includes a gradually increasing gradient and a steep arrival across the finish line.
In 2009, German Lena Duerr won the Europa Cup GS on the Avet slope, but otherwise not many of the women competing this weekend have experienced the venue.
“La Molina was nice in Spain, so I guess Andorra will be nice as well,” said world GS champion Tina Maze, who has also been doing very well in slalom this season. “I don’t know anything about it. I will let it surprise me.”
Current World Cup leader Lindsey Vonn recalls skiing in Andorra many years ago on the Europa Cup circuit.
“We raced Europa Cups there a long time ago – I’m super excited about the races this weekend,” she said adding that it’s not all she’s looking forward to. “I’m also excited about the shopping – Andorra has great shopping … no taxes! I always set goals, so if I do well, I can go shopping, if I don’t do well, I can’t. After two GS races – if I do well, Saturday, I’ll hit the town and do some shopping.”
Pas de la Casa sector also in Grandvalira and near the French border in Andorra first staged a European Cup in 1974, and this country in the heart of the Pyrenees has been a regular stop on the Europa circuit since 2003. Europa Cup races were held on the Avet slope in 2009 and that circuit returns to the venue again this March.
Although English is spoken in many shops and restaurants around Soldeu, the native language of Andorra is Catalan. French, Spanish and Portuguese are also commonly heard throughout the country.
The Grandvalira ski area reaches a vast amount of terrain (193 kilometers of marked slopes), from Pas de la Casa to Encamp, Grau Roig, El Tarter, Canillo and Soldeu.
Skiing is one of the staples of the Andorran economy and the European state has produced 28 Olympic skiers to date. Located about 2 and a half hours from Barcelona in northern Spain, Andorra is the sixth smallest European nation, with an area of 468 square kilometers.
The venue, like several others in the southern mountains of Europe, opened the winter with scant snow but has since produced and received several meters and organizers say conditions are optimal for this weekend’s races.
By Shauna Farnell
