2004 British Skibike Team Race Report

The British Skibike Team had a great season by all accounts despite the lack of early season snow that unfortunately forced the Skibob Association of Great Britain (SAGB) to postpone the British National Championships from January in Nesselwängle (GER) to the World Championships in March. With no government funding and the odd snippet of coaching from our friends in the Austrian, Swiss and German teams (together with the expertise of Richard Platt, GB Team Captain!) the team’s results have improved considerably, time-wise, this season. Nic Platt, British Champion 2004, is now breaking into the top echelon of the sport and has the Austrian team complaining to the FISB (Federation Internationale de Skibob) that the GB Team are still ranked in the B-Nations (non-alpine) category!

The 2004 Junior and Senior World Championships in Destne (Czech Rep. 24th-29th Feb) saw 121 competitors from 8 nations compete. The British Team was bigger this year and the Senior Men’s class extremely competitive. The outstanding result was Richard Platt’s, 58yrs, Bronze medal in the Super-G in the Senior Men’s Class 3 of the World Championships, beating ex-World Champions along the way! The racing pistes were hard and icy with temperatures below freezing during the day.

Darren Walker, 33, from Scotland, claimed the British Senior Men’s Championship trophy for the first time, with Simon Marsh (son of ex-World Champion Tony Marsh), 33, claiming 2nd Place in his first season back in the racing scene after many years. Richard Platt, 58 and last years champion, could only manage 3rd Place in this year’s competition. India Muirhead was British Junior Champion for the second year running and with the right training could become a real threat to the other European nations on the World Cup circuit in the years to come. This year she even beat one of the Senior Team members!!

The Elite GB Team then went to the 2004 World Championships in Gosau, Upper-Austria, where there were 58 competitors from 9 nations competing. It was another clean sweep for the Brits in the B-Nations and at the prize giving all the verses of the British National Anthem were played loud and clear in their entirety, much to the amusement of the GB Team supporters. This meant that the British B-Nations winners stood on the podium for twice as long as anyone else, including the eventual World Champion Marcus Moser of Austria! The Union Jack was flying high in all its glory.

Competing against the other nations who are funded to train and race from October onwards, the Elite team acquitted themselves admirably with Nic Platt, 25, finishing 22nd in the Combination out of a field of 35 racers in the Men’s class. Nic was closely followed by his twin brother, Tim, who finished 24th in the Combination and also claimed 2nd place in the British Men’s Championship. Their older brother, Alistair, 29, finished only just behind them in 25th place and was 3rd in the British Nationals. It was snowing for most of the week in Gosau so the race pistes were soft with deep ruts at the gates and together with the warm winds, made the racing very difficult, especially in the faster race disciplines.

The most notable absence from the final results list was Harry Dearden, 25 from Wales, B-Nations Champion in 2003, who crashed in the second run of the Giant Slalom a few gates from the finish. Courageously, he managed to pick himself up and finish the race in considerable pain only to discover after a trip to hospital for an x-ray, that he had in fact broken his right leg at the ankle! We wish him a speedy recovery over the summer and hope that he stops trying to dance on one leg, as he did at the end of championships party, and perhaps opts for some rest.

The rest of the Elite team (minus the wounded!) then travelled on to Neukirchen am Großveneidger, in Land Salzburg, Austria for the World Cup Final 12th and 13th March. The World Cup in the Men’s was won again by Marcus Moser, who was dominant on the World Cup circuit throughout the season, despite a late charge from Franz Tschümperlin, of Switzerland. Moser now has a record 29 World Championship medals! The Women’s World Cup was won for the third time by Alena Housova of the Czech Republic and Ales Houser, again from the Czech Team, won the Junior Men’s class.

The top 15 in each race win World cup points and the eventual World Cup winner is the racer with the most points at the end of the season. Nic Platt was the top placed British racer in Neukirchen; he finished in 23rd place in the Super-G and in 25th place in the Giant Slalom. The snow was the best of the season by far, with clear blues skies and sun all day, a welcome change from Gosau.

A massive thank you to all our travelling support, particularly Shirley, Susie and Jenny and to our sponsors and supporters: Positive Altitude, Ski Bartlett, Beans of Bicester, Skibob Association of Great Britain, Drambuie, Binatone Telecom and Racer Ready magazine. For more information (official results, racing photos, press articles etc) on the GB Skibike Team or their sponsors, please visit www.skibikeracing.co.uk or email: sagb_racing@yahoo.co.uk.

Tim Platt
Racing Sec.
British Skibike Team
Skibob Association of Great Britain

March 04