Instalment Number 1 - December 16
Arriving in Europe to little or no snow in many areas wasn't what I had in mind when I left the hot/fly ridden Kiewa Valley, but with some encouraging words from Finn he assured me that we would be on snow the day after arriving. I had decided to take the long route to Europe via the USA with a 12 hours stop in San Francisco. Exess baggage and a much cheaper flight were the two reasons for this but after getting a sore throat 3 days after arriving, I began to question this decision.
We arrived in Val Di Fiemme to little or no snow. The stadium was a bare and muddy grassy paddock. This was disappointing for two reasons. We had come to race a world cup sprint that was going to be on the World Champs course, and the second reason was that we had to drive right across the top of Italy to where the world cup had been moved. However we could ski up near the Lavaze pass so all was not a disaster, and I have to give a big thank you to Marco Selle and his family (our hosts in Cavalese) who were very hospitable and helpful.
After several rest days and some limited skiing due to my throat I was feeling good again and we left for Cogne with high expectations. The sprint was changed to classic at the last minute and last year when we had raced there I had a cranker getting FIS pts in the low 40's, just missing the Salt Lake qualification. As a bonus there was a chance that we would get to say hi to the hospital staff who had taken care of BD when he had chicken pox.
It was snowing in Cogne as we arrived and we soon discovered we were sharing a hotel with the Russians. Let me rephrase that. A SCHMICK hotel with the whole Russian team. 40 of them, 2 of us. Good food, no Eurosport but 200m from the track and heaps of snow. Besides annoying the crap out of the people who had the room below us with hacky sack practice in our room, I think we managed to pretty much stay out of trouble with the hotel staff. The girls in the restaurant must also be thanked for their generous Nutella donations at breakfast and dinner. One girl in particular offered us "SOAP" just after we had sat down. Checking our armpits we enquired politely if she was offering soap and she said again, "yes soap". " Ahh you mean SOUP, yep at $135 a night each, we want the works baby!"
The 30km the day before the sprint was great to watch. Good snow , warmish and lots of laps so we saw a lot of the racers. Testing skis for the sprint later that day I did my first interval session and felt ok. The next day would tell the story.
No matter who you talk to, your coach, another athlete, or your parents, it's never fun getting your arse kicked. Falling snow had slowed the track a little and there were less starters than we had thought, but we were just outclassed on the day. I felt ok going around and thought that I could at least match some of those boys in double poling. See Finn's report for a detailed story on the finals, but my points were less than impressive and all I can say is thank god for the French. It seems as though each year there are less and less guys racing sprints who are off the back, or bunnies as we like to call them. This year there are none.
The competition is HOT and I mean FAST HOT! Not all big strong guys, some skinny, some tall, some short some HUGE, a.k.a the whole Norwegian team, but they just move fast, and if you are having a bad or even an ok day you will miss the bus by 20 seconds.
One consolation is that the times have remained the same form the last 2 years. 4-5 seconds to qualify for the top 16 and the finals. 6-7 seconds and you get world cup points (something I believe Australia is capable of in the next 18 months) and after that every hundreth counts as they tick by.
After the race we got in the car, well I got in the car scratching my head and hoping like hell things would improve in Linz in 4 days. Time will tell. After driving for 9 hours thanks to Finn's stamina and stories of Bob Dylan and AC/DC [Note - he had to be taught a little rock history before trying to become a rock star in Sweden] we arrived in Ramsau. Fitting chains at the bottom of the hill wasn't on the agenda but when we saw a few cars slip sliding all over the road we were happy to cruize by with the metal on the rubber.
KT, Matt O'Rouke and Circa are training here so it is great to have some other ozzies around, (not that I'm bored with Finn's music stories). They are chasing FIS points around Europe for Worlds qualification, something that is tough but certainly rewarding when you go under that magic number.
Skiing in Ramsau this morning many of the other world cup teams have made the drive too. As the sprint world cup in Linz, only an hour or two from here, many will be here for the week. The snow here is pretty good with a short loop of 2-3km but the guys in the stadium are working feverishly to get a 5km done. We will be here till Wednesday then will go to Linz for our last world cup before March. Then both Finn and I fly to Sweden where we will be based for the next few months. Along with Leon Spiller and Tim Retchford,I have the unique opportunity to train with some of the best sprinters in the world in Borlange, so I am hoping that we can learn and improve dramatically while we are there.
The rest of this trip for me depends on finances. This year I decided to resign from my job and put into plan a 3 year program that involves me spending alot of time training and racing in Sweden. After worlds in February, I will return to Borlange and ski as long as I can, returning to Australia in time for winter some time in June.
To all those back home for summer, I wish you a happy xmas and new year. This year we have the possibilty for a number of seniors and juniors to make the World Senior Champs, and it would be fantastic to have them there as part of the team. Until next time, hi to all of my juniors in Mt Beauty and enjoy the hot weather and the river.