A step in the right direction...

This past weekend we raced only a single sprint, in Monguelfo, ITA. The format was quite interesting; the morning qualifier was held up the Gsieser Tal (valley) about 20km from Monguelfo on an off-camber farmer's field, while the heats were to be held that night on a downtown loop amidst a throng of spectators. The qualifying course was extremely fast with a long gradual climb that demanded powerful V2 up to the high point before rocketing downhill to the finish. After the previous weekend's disasters I was adamant and very psyched to put down a solid qualifier and making it into the evening's downtown heats. After a comprehensive warm-up I went to the line knowing I'd have to give everything to make the top-16. With the Olympics happening in Vancouver, the majority of top Europeans who weren't on their Olympic teams were here at these OPA Cups, making for a super-competitive senior men's field.

I started strong, and 200m into the race I knew I was feeling better than I had in a long time. I pushed hard up the long climb and by the high point had given everything I had. I tucked down the hill and threw in a hard jump-V2 to the line. Given the fact we were using timing chips I was able to instantaneously see my finish split when I crossed, and saw I had come in 30th, only 3 seconds out of qualifying and in the top half of the men's field.

It was a bittersweet race for me. I knew I had given everything and that I'm still not in top form yet. I got some of my best sprinting FIS points of the season. But I know I have the potential to be in that top-16, and I am anxious to get another sprint in to get closer to that goal.

Monguelfo City Sprint

Monguelfo City Sprint

Our third OPA cup race was in Monguelfo, Italy last Friday. It was one of the more exciting sprints I have done. The qualifier was held in the morning 20 km out of town, and the sprint was held at night in downtown Monguelfo. The qualifier went really well for me; it was a short course that was all V2. I qualified 11^th in the junior category, a little over 3 seconds out of first. It was also my lowest (best) FIS points race ever, with 76 points. For the heat they had laid a 400 meter loop of snow downtown. In my heat I had two Germans and a French guy. The guys did the loop three times. The loop was covered with spectators. The atmosphere was very festive and lively; I was super pumped. The trail was maybe 15 feet wide. It had been raining off and on all day and was just starting to snow. It was a double pole start and I got out third, the two Germans in front of me. Because the trail was so thin I knew I was going to really have to fight to get into second. There was one 15 ft. high hill, a corner right before it and a corner right after it. I knew that was going to have to be the spot I was going to have to make my move if I wanted to move on into the semifinals.

The first lap I made a move on the German in front of me but just as I was almost beside him he cut the corner sharp and boxed me out. I skied right on his ass for another lap waiting to try and take the outside this time so I could try to box him out on the corner. I made sure I was so close to him, every time he poled, his poles would hit me. I went into the corner right on him and went up the hill wide and just as I did that the French guy took the inside. There were three of us fighting for the second place position on maybe a 20 ft wide trail. The German and French guy got tangled just as we were cresting the top of the hill and the French guy tripped and fell into me, knocking me off the course into the fence. I got up as fast as I could but had lost 20 meters on the German and 10 meters on the French. I skied as hard as I could for the next lap but just couldn’t catch them. I was really pissed but it was still so fun. Definitely the loudest crowd I have ever heard in a ski race.

After finishing the French guy came up to me and shook my hand and apologized for knocking me off course. These guys are really intense athletes and want just as badly as me to do the best they can, and they will fight for it. It is really fun to compete against so many strong, talented athletes; It makes for a really tight race.

This is me going out of the start in the qualifier. Behind me in one of the red Swiss suits is Dario Cologna(the Swiss man who just one the gold medal at the olympics in the 15km freestyle) younger brother, Gianluc Cologna. Gianluc finished 17th in the junior race.

Monguelfo City Sprint

We just returned from probably the most exciting race I have ever skied. Friday was the City Sprint in the middle of a little town named Monguelfo, in Italy. At ten in the morning we raced our qualifier about an hour's drive up from town, where there was better snow coverage. It was only an 800 meter race, so the most important thing was to be quick... and to stay quick for the entire 2.5 minute race. Only the top 16 made the heats for the city sprint later on that night. I ended up qualifying 3rd- 1.3 seconds back. The field was small, only 31, but packed with many really good skiers. Two of which were the girls that placed 2nd and 5th at World Juniors earlier this year.

Just after the road crossing- heading up the "hill" on the course.

At 6:30 PM, after resting all day we headed down the road to the city for the heats. It was raining and getting dark out- which was going to make the race all the more exciting. Warming up included putting on some running shoes and running down the highway. When we arrived they had all the fences up around the courses, all the arches and banners, and the streets were lined with spectators. There was a huge "Fire and Ice" party going on at the same time which drew in a lot more energy and spectators to watch and cheer on the skiers racing through the streets. 

Looking down the finish stretch

The heats were exciting and dirtier than any sprint race I have ever raced. You had to fight hard for your position. Because the track around town was so narrow, passing was limited. The best way to guarantee advancing to the next heat was to be the first one out of the start and stay wide so no one could move around you. Each heat only started four people, and top two advanced to the next heats. It was super exciting, the course was lined with cameras so that all the spectators in the finish area could watch the action all around the course. Everyone was super fired up. It made you feel like a celebrity skiing through the streets. The racing was tight from the beginning. My quarterfinal had the two girls who had previously placed 2nd and 5th at U23 championships so I knew I was going to have to fight for it. I led the entire heat and made it through. Semi-finals I secured second place and once again advanced onto A-finals. The A-final heat was a little bit dirtier. I did some serious fighting for my place with a French girl and nearly went down a couple times and at some point managed to get a pole in my lip. I fought the entire 800 meters to make it around her, but ended up crossing the line 4th- my first OPA cup podium! It wasn't until 9:00 PM that night until we finished our racing and then got our awards. One long and exciting day in Italy! 

Semi-finals. Following the girl that went on to win the event

First OPA cup podium! 1-Swiss 2-Italian 3-French 4-USA

Forni di Sopra – Short Race Recap

OPA Cup number two took place in Forni Di Sopra. They ran the race in a Tour de Ski-style format. There were three races: the classic sprint on Friday, the 10km classic on Saturday, and then the 15km skate on Sunday. The sprint was pretty hard; I didn’t feel a lot of snap and finished mid-pack in the under-20 men’s division. The classic distance went a little better; I knocked off a couple places. The skate distance was a handicap (pursuit style) start, so you started in the order that you finished in the classic race.  I skied with an Italian guy most of the race and we were able to work together switching off leading and ended up passing fifteen or so racers. We fought to the finish and I just barely outsprinted him.

All in all, it was a demanding but worthwhile weekend, as I got great first-hand experience in this next level of racing. 

Tour de Forni di Sopra- Sadie Race Recap

skate racing

We just finished our first series of OPA cup racing this last weekend in Forni di Sopra, Italy. I felt pretty good with the weekend and had my best distance race ever, points-wise.  The first day was a classic sprint. Unfortunately we found this out the day before the race when we were skiing around on skate skis and noticed the course had three classic tracks across it. The Europeans thought it would be funny to not tell the states what was going on. Apparently it was announced in Italian the weekend before in the team meeting that we were not present at because of our flu sickness. Luckily we found out the day before and rallied our testing and new selection of skis together and got everything under control. The race day was a bit of a different story. Tough waxing conditions and a one man wax technician/coaching  crew made for some difficult and stressful waxing conditions. The qualifier round went well as conditions were just beginning to warm up which made for fast, slick tracks.  The course was 1.4km with a steep hill out of the start and a long gradual downhill that required hard double poling and then a gradual climb up into the finish. I qualified in 11^th position, but knew I had a lot more to give. The heats felt a lot better, I felt like I was really starting to ski into it. I hadn’t done any hard training since having the flu, so the more racing I did, the better I felt. My quarterfinal had the 1^st place and 9^th place skier along with some others that qualified behind me. I knew that I was going to have to be aggressive off the gun- so I went out of the start behind the number one French girl and rode behind her for the first hill before I was overtaken by a Swiss girl on the downhill. I sat behind relaxed and ready to strike when I got the chance on the last hill into the finish. When we got there, seems the other girls had the same plan. So I fought hard to keep the gap between the second place skier and me close so I had a good chance to advance as lucky loser into the semi’s. Luckily my heat skied about 5 seconds faster than the other heats so I advanced onto semi’s. I was pumped that I was going to get to do more racing- I was beginning to feel really good. Semi’s went well. I fought hard to stay in the front of the pack and faded a bit double poling into the finish, crossing the line in 5^th. B-Finals are not raced anymore so I was done racing for the day, but the three hard efforts put me in 10^th. One of my goals for every sprint race is to finish better than I qualified initially, so I made that! I was happy with the race with all things considered. I headed home and put my feet up to try to recover for my day of racing the next day.

start of my sprint heat

Waxing crew + Sam

Saturday I woke up feeling kind of tired and feeling the fact I had raced the day before. During my warm-up I wasn’t feeling it, but I decided to keep my head positive and give it a hard run anyway. 5k Classic is my favorite race of all time so I was confident I could still do well.  Over the past month I have met a lot of athletes and coaches from the various European countries so while I was racing I got tons of cheering from all the athletes and coaches of other teams, which really helped! I started hard and tried to hold the pace the entire way. The last kilometer was rough but on the last huge hill the Italian coach saved me as he screamed at the top of his lungs “di di di” which means go in Italian. He knew I was hurting but he knew my split and he knew I was in it. I ended up taking the same place as the day before, 10^th place, only 26 seconds back from the leader- a 78 FIS point race. Everyone was tightly packed within these 10 places, which made for an exciting starting list for the pursuit start the next day

Sunday was a pursuit start 10km skate race, which basically means you start based off of your total time from the previous two races. This put me starting 9^th, 52 seconds back from the leader. I had two girls starting 8 seconds in front of me and a French girl starting 1 second behind me. Once again I felt really tired during my warm-up but tried to stay positive. Two days of hard racing had taken its toll on me. I started the race aggressive, determined to catch the group of girls skiing in front of me. Soon I realized that was just not going to happen this day. I was going to need to hold on for the next 10 kilometers and put out a hard fight, which is what I ended up doing. I was passed by about 12 girls throughout the next 9km. About 7 of them passed me in a large group that went on to ski the rest of the race together. I rode with the pack for a while trying hard not to get pushed off the back. The last kilometer I decided to just put every last bit of energy I had on the table. I ended up passing two girls on the last hill into the finish and was within inches of catching a third. I crossed the line and collapsed immediately. I had given every last bit of energy. I ended up only losing 6 places coming in 16^th for the overall tour score.  I didn’t even have the energy to do a warm-down so I headed straight home and took a nice long nap.

about to pass the german on the last hill

start of skate race with the french girl starting 1 second behind

The most exciting part of the weekend was rooming with a German girl. She arrived by surprise at about 10:30 the night before the race when I was sleeping, so I woke up to a new friend in the morning. She had never spoke English other than during class but she did pretty damn well. It was really fun to get to know her. She knows all my German college buddies from back home which made it fun. I am sure I will meet up with her again in all these next races. The Germans were staying in the same hotel as us so we got to mix up our socializing a bit- YEAH!

After a good first weekend of racing we are spending the week here in Monguelfo, Italy recovering and training, getting ready for the night city sprint on friday. There are posters everywhere advertising the races and the many parties that will go on afterwards. Sounds like it’s a pretty big celebration here, should be tons of fun!

Some training photos-

Skiing in Elm, Switzerland

Training at one of the 2010 Tour de Ski venues Dobiacco

On Humility and Bread

Last weekend's races in Forni di Sopra, ITA were very indicative of the competitiveness of the fields in this year's OPA Cup series. World Cup athletes, U-23 and World Junior Champions, and other top national team members all showed up to compete in a 1.4K classic sprint, 5/10K classic race and 10/15K skate race. The weekend was scored in a Tour de Ski-style format, where you accumulate points and "bonus seconds" with each race, and a total is awarded at the end of the weekend. 

I went into the weekend with a mixture of excitement and desperation; it's been a rough season, performance-wise and I really wanted to put down a solid finish. It didn't help that the organizers changed the sprint from skate to classic, because skate is definitely where my strength lies. But I went into the sprint day feeling strong and was pretty confident I could qualify well. We had a bit of a struggle with wax testing given that the wax rooms were a good distance away from the tracks and, with only Scott waxing (though he is superhuman in that regard) we had a hard time dialing in good kick with the rapidly changing conditions from hard and cold to glazed and warm. I ended up double-poling the race on my warm-up skis as they felt faster right before the start. I felt strong and was confident I'd moved on. As it turned out I finished 44th, 14sec out of 1st and 4sec out of the top-30. Needless to say, a terrifically strong field. 

The next day was a different story. I don't know whether it was residual illness from the previous week's stomach flu, or fitness issues from the season, or mental flatness or a combination of the three, but my 10K classic race was a disaster. After falling twice, vomiting once and filling completely up with lactate, I dropped out at 5K. First time ever. Fortunately there was no entry fee so I don't owe Ruff anything. But certainly a very humbling experience and one I want to get past as soon as possible. 

Oh yeah, and if you go to northern Italy (outside of the Sud Tirol) don't expect very delicious bread. For a whole week we ate delicious Italian food complemented by depressingly-airy and weak-crusted bread. It's a blessing to be back in the Sud Tirol, German-influenced regions where bread is hearty and heavy. 

More later as we prep for this weekend's downtown night sprints in Monguelfo, ITA!

Vicious Little Flu Bug

MOD SQUAD- view over Campra

MOD SQUAD- view over Forni di Sopra

We have been without internet pretty much since the start of our five week adventure, so I am going to do a little recap of our series of unfortunate events early on in our trip. About two days after meeting up with Sam in Zurich, Erik and Sam woke up early with an upset stomach that soon lead to much worse. I spent the morning in my room trying to stay away from the germs while turning my music on really loud so that I didn’t have to hear the constant hurling noises in the bathroom right next to me. Within the next couple of hours the boys got so bad we decided it would be best to head down the curvy mountain road to the hospital about an hours drive away. Nearly 10 hours after checking the two boys in I was in the same state and headed into the hospital as well. After hooking up some IV’s and getting some pain medication, the doctors rolled me down many hallways into a room where Erik was also sleeping. Sam was lucky enough to check out only four hours after getting there and heading home to sleep it off. The nurses thought it was so great that Erik and I were going to be able to share a room while we were sick so we would feel more comfortable. It turned out being pretty dang nice. Every time I have ever gotten the flu, the one thing I want more than anything, even more than a cold glass of water, is my mom. Somehow she just has a way of making me feel more comfortable. But having your brother is the second best thing. It was pretty funny we both woke up several times throughout the night and it was pretty nice to have someone to talk to. The next morning we waited for what seemed like forever for the doctor to come and release us. I was still feeling pretty sick, but I wanted to just go home to the apartment and sleep it off. When the doctor got there he spent a couple of minutes checking me over and then went on to say I needed to spend another night there. Both Erik and I thought he was joking so we laughed it off, imagining how miserable that would be. When the doctor gave us a funny look, I had to ask “are you serious!?”.  Turns out he was serious! Erik got to go home, but I had to spend another night hooked up to an IV tube in the little boring white hospital jail room. I spent the next twelve hours of the day watching replays of a track event and some euro ball game that I have never seen played before. It got super boring the third time through when I knew exactly where every runner was going to make their move and who was going to win every event! I was starting to go crazy. All the nurses were really nice though so the company was nice. After two nights, nearly 48 hours, the doctor finally released me, and I got to go home! By that time Sam and Erik had got several meals in them, and they were feeling recovered and ready to ski again. For several days following we fought to get our meals down and feel strong enough to ski for at least 30 minutes. I know for me, it took about a week (the day before our first race) to feel good enough to ski for at least an hour and get a full meal to sit nicely in my stomach. Sam, Erik and I are still trying to figure out how the boys picked up this little vicious bug. They seem to think they got it from the gondola ride up the mountain to go sledding. That’s the best we can come up with. But it was certainly quite the adventure to start the trip out with. Unfortunately we had to miss our first weekend of races and went into our second set not as strong as we would hope but we will definitely continue to build from here. Hopefully we can avoid more situations like this. We carry our little hand sanitizer bottles around in our pockets and wash our hands before ever meal!

Campra, Switzerland

We arrived in Campra yesterday afternoon. Like all the other places we have been in Switzerland, It is beautiful. Yesterday I was able to get in a hour and a half distance ski and today two hours. I'm feeling good now and recovered from my nasty sickness. I got to spectate the 15k skate skate today. It was a deep field of competitors, and most of the European Juniors that raced at World Juniors raced here. Sam skied a solid race with what seemed like very even splits. This is the first hotel that I have been able to get consistent internet so I'm going to try and add some pictures from earlier in the trip.

Campra

Lots of skiers out on the trails today

Pretty intense downhill

Graeme Killick

Glarus/Klausen, Switzerland

In the waiting room at the hospital

Sam and I went on a sweet sledding trip

Sam on top of the world

In the gondola

Our Cabin

Loading up the van

Hinterzarten, Germany

A pretty famous church in Freiburg, Germany

Some hunters tree house behind our hotel

The train bridge behind our hotel

The town 20 min away from the World Junior Venue

Some sweet Clocks

Knocked Out

Just a quick posting here as Erik and I are sitting in the van outside a closed bar advertising free internet. Not sure how long we'll stay under the radar...

Times have been a bit crazy since the MOD Squad reconnected in the Zurich airport on Monday morning. I flew in from Wenatchee and they had driven in that morning from Germany. We gathered our things and jumped on a train to Glarus, a small town in the Linth Valley of Switzerland where Scott's friend Reto runs a helicopter business and had set us up with a nice apartment on a ski trail. We got an early ski in and had a great Italian meal in town. The next day we opted to head into the mountains to Klausen, a quintessential Swiss village higher in the Alps with beautiful ski trails and equally beautiful views. After a nice ski on rolling terrain Erik and I headed to a gondola which took us up to 8000ft and the top of a groomed sledding run that takes about an hour of fun to get down. Dinner, then bed. 

The excitement began yesterday morning. I woke at 5am with some stomach aches which felt like hunger. Erik walked in and asked if I had the same pain he was feeling, and also mentioned that Adele (Espy; another athlete staying with us for our trip) was doubled over in the living room, vomiting and hardly able to breathe. I said I just started feeling bad, and just then ran to the bathroom to vomit. This commenced a tag-team of sorts as Erik and I alternated vomiting in the bathroom then returning to the fireplace in a vain attempt to cure the chills we had. Scott had decided to take Adele down the mountain to the hospital and at around 9am, I called him to say Erik and I had better check in as well, to get on an IV as we were losing a huge amount of liquid. So, a hour later both Erik and I were in hospital beds. I got to check out a 3pm but Erik still was in bad shape so he stayed all night. Shortly thereafter both Scott and Sadie picked up the virus. Sadie is still in the hospital and will stay there until tomorrow morning. Erik got released this morning and is feeling better, as am I. 

At this point racing this weekend is out; none of us are feeling fresh and Scott is in no position to be traveling and waxing, either. The focus now is rest and recuperation and preparation for next week's three-race weekend in Italy. 

I've taken lots of pictures so far; when I remember my camera card I'll post a bunch of them. Until then!