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Natives Emma reports on all the action...
When the Natives girls arrived in Meribel on Tuesday it was a dull and overcast resort that greeted them, and the feeling was ominous...what was the weather going to hold for the race? Well, we're pleased to say that the 9th Workers Challenge in Meribel was a beauty!

The sun shone and the riders came in their droves to compete in the Ski Club of Great Britain Slalom at the Stade Corbey in Meribel. The Giant Slalom in the morning went off swimmingly, with the female snowboarders kicking things off, including your reporter who was second through the gate.

Let battle commence
Throughout the day, staff from Crystal (as one of our sponsors of the Workers Challenge series and title sponsor of the Crystal Skier/Boarder X in Val d'Isere on 11 March) were on hand to chat to all the Meribel riders about working a season. In the glorious sunshine, with a day’s exciting racing ahead and the sizzle of the BBQ courtesy of Jacks Bar warming up, there were plenty of takers! Who wouldn't want to be working out here?

There was plenty of competition on the hill as the snowboarders battled it out. They were followed by the female skiers, including Snowsports GB athletes Emily Sarsfield and Sarah Sauvey who both posted incredible times. Sarah’s was so incredible, it didn’t just beat all the women, it was better than all the men’s too! Not that as a woman it would be fair to gloat or anything but, you know, a girl kicked all the boys’ arses...including Martin Jeffers, local ski instructor and winner of the men's category.

It's all about the taking part...
Those three are Workers Challenge regulars, but don't be fooled into thinking you have to be a professional to race. It's all about the taking part, as we discovered when the Ski Club of Great Britain's young hopeful Emma Pearson (being filmed for SkiTV), swept through the gates for the first time ever and nearly wiped out cameraman James Rowden as she whizzed over the finish line. As is often the case with racing, she was heard saying, “It's brilliant, can I go again?”

Once bitten, the racing bug can certainly be hard to shake off. There's something uniquely thrilling about getting your line through gates and we know from experience. But it's not just about the winning, it's about the taking part and after a delicious snack from the Jack's BBQ and an Extreme drink it was time to head back up the hill for some head to head, friendly, but oh-so-competitive team racing.

Fighting to the death
The snowboard teams were pretty evenly matched and finally team ‘Le Bleu job’ proudly took the title. The ski teams, however, had a fight to the death. ‘Meribel ladies with a couple of gents’ was well placed from the start as all of the winners from the morning’s GS made up its winning five team members. One of the teams from sponsors Freeride.fr, ‘Buck’s Buxom Bunnies’, stayed in the running until they were knocked out by the eventual winners to end up third. ‘Meribel Ladies’, as MC Jon Trigell shortened their rather wordy name to as he eloquently fed all the action to the crowd, snatched the podium place from the Easy Tigers who put up a sterling fight. Commendable mentions go to Team Crystal, Ski Basics, Ski Activity and Skiworld, but it was the mighty ‘Meribel ladies and a couple of gents’ who clinched the gold medals in a nail-biting best of three final against Easy Tigers.

What a finish! The day flew by, as it tends to when you’re having fun and before we knew it we were in Jack’s for the prize-giving, in conjunction with the Show Love Tour. The joint was rammed and rightly so, because everyone wanted a piece of the podium action. The winners collected some amazing prizes thanks to our very generous sponsors, including two lucky winners who walked away with skis from Freeride.fr. The men’s medal was actually won by Buck from Freeride.fr but being a sponsor, he generously conceded to the next place, who was Natives own Iain Martin! So the skis and medal eventually fell into the hands of James Pryke, who was over the moon to walk away with top prize.

Much merriment and celebrating followed and talk of the race continued way into the night. All of this couldn’t have been possible without help and support from Meribel, Stade Corbey, MC Jon ‘Triggers’ Trigell, Jack’s Bar, and the incredible organisation of Natives MD Iain Martin.

Everyone's a winner
PLUS we’d like to extend a massive thank you to our sponsors: Crystal, skis (Freeride.fr), clothing (GONEboarding, Greeneye and Natives), helmets (SH+), eyewear (Ryders), and goody bags from Ski Club of Great Britain, flights from Ryanair, hats from Chaos and gloves from Swany, tickets to the Altitude Festival 2009 and drinks from Extreme Drinks, DVDs (Ride Freesports and Warren Smith Ski Accademy) board games from Schuss. Plus from our local sponsors, First Tracks ski school in Courchevel; 2 x coaching sessions, a meal for 2 at Pizza Express, Meribel, Lodge du Village, at La Tsarreta and Pub Le Ski Lodge in La Tania. Plus a bottle of vodka from Dick's Tea Bar,a 'ski-in lunch for 4' at the Frog and Roastbeef in Val Thorens, 2 x hoodys from Le Kalico in Courchevel 1850, and a 'Courche' t-shirt from the Courchevel Enquirer.