I was running low on pictures of me hanging my head in defeat, so here's one of me walking the Cesana track a few days earlier. Sigh ... those were happier times ...

Well, it wasn't the way I wanted to finish my Europa Cup circuit, but a lousy race happens to everyone.

I was really gun-ho for the race this week - I had been training well, and it finally felt like I was on a track that I really clicked with. Cesana is a technical track where you need to be paying attention at every turn. That means you are doing a lot of driving, and driving means breaking form. So for those of us whose form is a little bit ... ummm ... lacking, a driving track puts us on equal footing with all those perfectly pointed-toed sliders.

The night before the race, someone had this hilarious video of a slider going through one of the corners virtually sideways, with his feet pointed at the roof and his head down towards the barrel of the corner. We were rolling on the floor laughing because it was so crazy looking.

So, yeah ... ummm ... I am not laughing as hard now ... because I did EXACTLY the same thing, and in the race to boot.

As I came into this huge corner that needs a hard down steer as you enter, I tapped the wall, which pointed my sled down. Adding that big, hard downsteer at the same moment kicked my butt end up and the next thing I knew I was skidding around the corner and hemmorgahing all my speed.

Two years ago this would have terrified me and I would have panicked, but all I could think as I was riding the corner ass-end up was "Are you kidding me? This is SO amateur! Oh yeah, and I am sorry for laughing at that video now ... "

I recovered and finished off the run cleanly, but it didn't matter, I had lost all my speed and there wasn't much I could do. My second run was mediocre at best, and I finished the race in 10th place, which was disappointing.

But you live and learn. And maybe drown the lessons in a drink. Or two. Or six.

Just a sidenote ... champagne, plus gin, plus vodka, plus low alcohol tolerance, plus high-heeled boots ... yeah, ummm ... maybe not the best plan I ever had ...