BBC - 606 - - A31520846 - The Bell report on Ski Sunday, part two

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The Bell report on Ski Sunday, part two

by Graham Bell - BBC Ski Sunday presenter (U10839560) 24 January 2008

Hi everyone, here's what's coming up on Ski Sunday this week (27 January, 1900-2000, BBC Two and BBC Sport website) and all the latest news from the slopes.

So another year goes by and still Bode Miller is without his Hahnenkamm downhill win.

Miller was lying in joint first with Mario Scheiber when Didier Cuche pushed them back into second. On camera, their reactions could not have been more different, Scheiber, who had skied the best run of his life shrugged it off with a smile, Miller stomped off.

For Miller a win on the Hahnenkamm would mean more than Olympic or World Championship golds.

What was worse for Miller is that he would have won comfortably if he had not run into the net at the foot of the Steilhang. In typical Miller style he managed to get both skis up onto the safety nets, yet still not lose too much speed.

Apparently he left a mark on the plastic banner that covered the net about a metre above the snow. Miller said later that the plastic had melted with the friction and left a coating on the base of his left ski, and he could feel it dragging slightly on the flats. To counter this he stood with all this weight on his right ski, so by the time he reached the finish schuss he had one burning leg.

Miller�s slalom form continued to improve, enough to win him the Combined title over Benni Raich, but his celebrations were subdued.

So far this season Miller has kept to his no booze promise to himself. He was spotted in the Londoner bar, but was drinking alcohol-free beer.

Celebrity Ski Race
Perhaps the biggest surprise of all the stars we invited out to Courmayeur was the newsreader Fiona Bruce, and I am not just talking about her skiing ability.

I was expecting a serious, slightly austere professional journalist, and was even quite nervous about interviewing her in case she cottoned on to the fact that I was new to this game.

Things started to look up when she ordered a round in fluent Italian. When I told her that I was under strict instructions not to flirt with the guests, her reaction was 'Why ever not?'

A few hours later that night, and we were singing karaoke in the hotel bar. Probably not the most professional coach-trainee behaviour on the eve of a race, but you don�t get to sing duets from Grease with Fiona Bruce everyday.

Turns out Fiona grew up in Milan, and skied regularly as a child. Her technique was sound, but would she have the killer instinct of a racer? Find out on Sunday!

Alpine Trek
Programme one saw me travel from Monaco to Champagny en Vanoise in the Savoie region of France.

I was over-nighting in a mountain refuge in order to get an early start, the plan was to go in search of the Ibex mountain goat. The Latin name for Ibex is Capra, the origin of my star sign Capricorn.

The Germans call them Steinbock, and 2000 years ago they could be found all over Europe. They would make their home anywhere there were rocky outcrops, as their method of defending themselves from their natural preditors, wolves and bears, was to seek high inaccessible vantage points.

When startled they will head for the skyline. With the invention of the crossbow, it�s not difficult to see why they were hunted to near extinction. They are now heavily protected, and numbers are growing again.

Joining me on my search for the horny goats was Alex Garnier, a ranger in the Vanoise National Park. Allowing one hour for every 300m vertical ascent with all the camera gear we would have a 10-hour walk ahead of us.

From Champagny we headed over to Chamonix to meet Pierre-Francoise Linares, the director of the Mont Blanc tunnel.

We talked about the new safety measures post the fire. Drove into the tunnel, back out again, then decided to take the scenic route over the top.

It�s a two-hour ride up the Aiguille du Midi, across the Glacier du Geants to Hellbruner, then down into Courmayeur in the Aosta valley of Italy. The rickety old gondola that takes you over the glacier and across the border was built by the Italians, apparently without French permission, and that is the reason it has never been updated.

The Aosta valley was originally part of the French dukedom of Savoie and although now part of Italy, the region still has special autonomy and French is still spoken in some villages. Next week I head down the Aosta valley to Gressoney to tackle the Monte Rosa, visiting the highest refuge in the Alps.

Watch the second part of my trek during Ski Sunday - 27 January, 1900-2000, BBC Two and the BBC Sport website.If you have any questions about the new series of Ski Sunday please post them here and I will try to answer them.

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comment by jennytaxi (U10948018)

posted Jan 30, 2008

I have always enjoyed ss but please don't get rid of nearly all the ski racing !!! I am not against change as such. I enjoy the new features but please give us a bit more of the racing (not everyone has sky)10 mins is not enough!! We do not need to see GB's face while the short amount of skiing is beeing shown

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comment by pinktinyclanger (U9650221)

posted Jan 30, 2008

I think an opportunity has been missed here with SS. It is more like a travel show now with the presenters getting free trips that your average person cannot afford. What we want is information on the resorts that the majority of people ski in, which ones are good for families/nightlife/experts/beginners etc. Similar tips on equipment, technique, accommodation, travel to resorts, taking kids, saving money etc as the travel side of the show. More coverage of the major events would also be appreciated - there are plenty of ski and board events going on during the winter season. The celeb ski thing is quite a nice fun element in the show as most can relate to it.
I'm just very disappointed that the re-vamp has crashed into a snowdrift!!

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comment by tigertomcobbley (U10887271)

posted Jan 30, 2008

Did anyone see the Daily Mail yesterday...Charles Sail (or is it Sale?) who writes a daily collumn called Sport Agenda had a go at SS. He mentioned that the viewers had dropped hy half a million since programme one.

If this is true...and we don't believe everything in the Mail...then surely the producers will be sweating. And maybe, just maybe we will get some proper racing from now on. Keep your fingers crossed everyone. You can google his article. It's the second week running he has voiced disapproval, and he even quoted David Vine in his first article.

Maybe if Fleet Street are critical, someone will react, and help to bring back some skiing to SS!!

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comment by hamitup (U5567462)

posted Jan 30, 2008

Im all for ski sunday showing wider coverage of snow sports, resorts etc . But please, drop the celebs and show more racing. I got sick of seeing Graham Bells face when we could have been watching what looked like a great slalom race.

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comment by slalomlegs (U10944482)

posted Jan 30, 2008

Incredibly disappointed with the Ski Sunday show as already blogged above. There's a general trend for winter sports programmes to concentrate on resort guides or irrelevant side articles rather than the world cup race at hand.

The BBC used to get people interested in winter sports by showing incredible races complimenting wth intelligent race commentary - you really knew what was going on week to week, who was heading up the leaderboards for each event etc.

Please, please, please BBC go back to your original format, show races, racers, leadership contests and UK participation in all our winter sports inc. skeleton, bobsleigh, skiing, x country skiing and snowboarding.

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comment by johnDUB (U10775757)

posted Jan 30, 2008

... and bring back Hazel. Miles prettier to look at!

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comment by rosie275 (U10953131)

posted Jan 31, 2008

I had recorded Ski Sunday so could fast forward through the first half looking for some action. When I eventually arrived at the slalom, it was completely ruined as the camera constantly cut back to an excited Graham Bell. I gave up after that and won't be watching it again. It will be Channel 4 for me now. Thanks to the other viewers for letting me know about this coverage.

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comment by Rupede (U7308291)

posted Jan 31, 2008

Ski Sunday was so disappointing. It seemed to be a travel show about personalities and precious little about winter sports. After 15 minutes in Tokyo not even being able to see the fabulous snowboarding event I came to the conclusion that it was a good excuse for a select camera crew, producer and 'ski personalities' to have fun at the tax payer expense and make art film which will look good on the cameramans CV. The added hour on digital TV at last showed skiing that I wanted to see esp the slalom complete runs without Grahan Bells face getting in the way half way down. There is so much winter sports out there whether snowboading, freestyle, equipment tests ( the ones on the snowboards in NZ was interesting but did the BBC need to pay for trips to NZ and heliskiing) or resort reviews with great oppotunities for review of great downhill slopes that the rest of us can get to.
Forget the hype and the get back to basic good TV journalism.

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comment by 2skiornot2ski (U13760477)

posted Dec 27, 2008

i can understand what every1 is on about the new format for ss is amazing .... to bring a top gear format to winter sports is very very smart i would like to take this opp to say well done bbc !!!!!! ....
how can people say the celeb part is poor... we live in a world that is run now by tv like this.... so more more more of it.... also its great to see what gb has to say to help ave people.... if people are that keen to watch the races get free view and watch euro sport every friday and sat!!!!

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The Bell report on Ski Sunday, part two

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