Sunday, March 21, 2010

Slovenia Europa Cup Finals Report...Finally!

The final weekend of the European "OPA" Cup tour brought us to Rogla, Slovenia. We were greeted by a massive blizzard and strong winds in the first several days so we spent got to spend spend some time trudging through the snow. Here's the Spanish team coaches shoveling a path to get to the door of their wax trailer.
We stayed in cabins near a mall-like hotel that had everything from polka techno music and belly dancing in the main lobby to a roller coaster outside. The feel of the place was unique and random-- and I loved it!

We had a full weekend of back-to-back pursuit style racing with a 2.5/3k prologue, a 5/10k classic and then finished off with a handicap start 10/15k skate race. The level of racing was high and you had to have your A-game together to compete at the front of the pack.
Here's Mikey Sinnott (USA) gettin er done by leading the front pack up one of the climbs on the second day of racing.
Slovenians apparently take a lot of pride in their nordic skiing champions. Petra Majdic's face covered waterbottles and billboards in Rogla.
The woman herself with Becca Rorabaugh. Petra is still recovering from her crash at the Olympics, where I got to witness her race to a bronze medal after breaking her ribs and puncturing a lung. This woman is tough!
In addition to getting to see new parts of the world and having a lot of fun, the European tour was very valuable and exposed us to a high level of competition, helped improve our points, and get us fired up to train in the coming year. It was also a great opportunity to team up, work together on getting faster and bounce around ideas on how, as a country we can take skiing to the next level. Sylvan Ellofsen, Nicole Deyoung, Mikey Sinnott, and I doing a little sight seeing in Munich after the races were over. We also got to hang out with cast members from the "Mama Mia" musical which was a total trip!

The past week I have been spending time in various homes in around Maine, thanks to OPA teammate, Sylvan's connections. A huge thanks to the Cushmans, Woods, and the Benoit-Samuelson families for taking me in and being such generous hosts. I recently made the trek up to Fort Kent where we had an beautiful morning of crust skiing. I am looking forward to the last races of the season. More to come!

Katie

Thursday, March 11, 2010

The OPA Cup in France

I joined up with additional American skiers and coaches after the Swiss Cup races and made our way over to the Savoie Grand Revard region in southeastern part of France.
Here is part of our racing squad after training. Many of us hail from different club teams from around the country but we are combining forces to represent the USA as one team while abroad.
Caitlin Compton and Becca Rorabaugh at the racing venue in La Feclaz, France.
Wrecka, Ronski, Noah "the Hoff" Hoffman, and Mikey Sinnott out crust cuisin' after the races were over. Mt Blanc is in the distance.
Those of us who are the same age have grown up racing together, whether its on the same Junior National teams, J1 Scandinavian Cup trips, and previous World Junior Championship teams, etc... Whether it was getting to know each other better or just reconnecting after spending the early part of the season in different team vans and hotels representing the US together provides a good opportunity share ideas, learn from each other, and have fun together which helps strengthen and unify our ski nation. A huge thanks to the US Ski Team and NCCSEF for making this trip happen.
Kudos to whomever can name the 5 American skiers in red suits in this snapshot from the mass start distance race.

Friday night featured a 2x3x1k classic team sprint event under the stars and lights of down town La Feclaz. I paired up with Sadie Bjornsen and we raced to a 6th place finish. The pair of Caitlin Compton and Nicole DeYoung were just getting started when they posted an 8th place finish in the team sprint. These two lead the American women's team in the distance race by both finishing in the top 10th and 11th respectively and scoring sub-62 points. The mass distance skate race reminded me of pack racing in collegiate cycling races because the pack stayed together for most of the race and there was plenty of drafting, rubbing elbows, crashing, maneuvering around piles of tangled racers and/or carnage of equipment for almost everyone involved. Pure fun in my book. I didn't feel like I was in my absolute top form but it was a confidence boost getting to rub elbows with some top ranked skiers in the pack and afterwards realize what "could be" if I could race just a little bit faster. There is potential to score incredibly good points here. I finished 22nd and it was still my best points races of the season. Points are important in team selections and helpful in gaining favorable start positions. Peter Kling finishing things up near the end of his skate race in downtown La Feclaz.

For those of you who dont know much about the European or "OPA" Cup racing-- they are similar to our "Supertour" races although it is known to be more stacked with elite full-time racers. Each European nation takes a limited number of athletes so there aren't a large number of racers, but those present are fierce and fit and the time gaps are typically small. The field includes many skiers who are familiar to the World Cup scene but are still gaining experience before stepping up to race on the World Cup circuit full-time. Several of the top skiers in our races last weekend have medaled in international championship events and a few were just racing at the Olympics.

Compton was one of the Olympians who came over right after the games.
In addition to racing, I enjoyed getting to check out the old churches, statues, cemeteries, and historic castles (!) in the region. I was amazed by how old the buildings looked, but yet so many of them were cozy and livable inside. Sometimes it was difficult to tell the difference.
Here's the school house of St. Francois, which is the tiny town were we stayed for the week. We thought the school was no longer in use but after taking this photo and checking out the building a teacher came out and asked if she could help us. It was a good thing that Pete can speak French.
Our accomadations in France were great. The hotel staff was very friendly and we had all the fresh bread, wine, and stinky cheese that we could eat.
Here's the wine and cheese cellar in the basement of our hotel. I'm into trying the ethnic food in each place we go. I try to do this prior to the race weekend or long van rides just incase there is any sort of disagreement with my stomach....
Don't worry Wrecka, I wont tell! "Fart" is the French word for wax (see the sign).

We spent a day driving across Italy en route to our next racing venue. I was in search of the best castles, the guys were picking out sports cars, and we all stopped at a restaurant to eat some incredible pizza. Now we are in Rogla, Slovenia preparing for the OPA Cup finals. More to come soon!

Best of luck to those of you racing at AWG, Junior Nationals, NCAA Championships, or the World Cup this weekend!
Katie

Thursday, March 4, 2010

More Snippets from Swizerland

I am a fan of using skiing to provide opportunities, especially when it involves checking out new places, networking, and expanding my understanding of how the world operates. Last week was memorable in all of these ways so I am going to share more photos and experiences.Erik Bjornsen in Feutersoey with a block of Rene's homemade cheese (see my last post for more). Feutersoey is near an expensive and touristy area in Swizerland. Even if I had the funds, going to a foreign place to staying in a fancy hotel and use the lift service doesn't appeal to me as much as traveling in a lower budget fashion if it is more likely to include getting to meet the locals and learn about their way of life. It was neat to see the pride Rene had in his milk, cheese, and sausage products and see how much he cared for his animals. He knew the name and history for each one. Sam Naney making friends with one of the cows after the race. Is that a ...Swiss kiss? Another major highlight from the past week-- which will be something I will never forget-- was getting a complimentary helicopter ride from Reto, the owner of Heli-Linth! Our Swiss Cup coach, Scott, and Reto became friends while climbing in Alaska many years ago. Reto was crucial in helping Scott find housing, rent an affordable van, and figure out the logistical details of the trip. In the heli ride we sped through the Linth Valley, toured over the mountain tops and veered through a sinuous canyon in a way that should've been out of the movie Avatar. The Linth Valley is the most dramatic in Swizerland and there are places where the vertical relief is 10,000 ft. The pilots at Heli-linth are very experienced and Reto said that on a good work day they will make that same trip (minus the sight seeing part) about 200 times. From what I can recall, about 80% of their work is contracted-- either developing a hydroelectric dam to store energy (which there's a great capacity for due to 2 lakes in the nearby mountains that are at varying altitudes), eco-friendly logging, building skyscrapers in Zurich, or transporting sling loads of cheese or honey from remote mountain passes. The other 20% of their business is for avalanche and mountain rescue missions. They keep busy and work hard to say the least.
Avalanches and rock slides are common in this area and now there is a tunnels system that helps avalanches to pass over the cars and roads safely. Apparently back in the 80’s an avalanche wiped out and killed the entire British World Junior Biathlon team when they were driving toward the venue. There have not been any international competitions in the region since then-- although I couldn't find any written evidence of this tragedy to verify the details of this story. Here's Sam and Sadie standing next to our bomb shelter that was below our landlord's house in Urnerboden. My understanding is that there was a period during the Cold War every home was required to have one of these fall out shelters, along with a 2 year supply of food that would protect and feed people after a nuclear attack. Swizerland still has the world highest ratio of shelter space to population size.
I know I haven't done much reporting on the ski training and racing aspect of my travels lately-- but that does not mean it has been any less interesting than normal! Here's Sam at one of the many road crossings along the distance skate race. The Euro version of a "Chinook" wind and rain came through and transformed the snow from firm crust to slush very quickly. The volunteers did a lot of work to lay down snow and make the course skiable but we still raced over crossings that I would have dismounted for in any non-racing scenario.

Right now I am in La Feclaz, France and preparing for the OPA Cup this weekend. I'm signing off for now but there are plenty more stories to share soon.

From one of the luckiest kids out there,
Katie

Monday, March 1, 2010

Swizerland

Hallo from Swizerland! I met up with the Methow Olympic Development Team and a few other American skiers and I have been having the time of my life seeing new sights, learning about Swiss culture, and using skiing as my mission in mind. Marshall Greene, Erik Bjornsen, Sam Naney, Sadie Bjornsen, Katie Ronsse, and Noah Hoffman outside our home base in Urnerboden. Scott Johnson has been our coach who has organized the logistics and made this trip happen. Urnerboden is a tiny town of 27 permenant residents that is at the end of the road toward Klausen Pass, which is a mountain pass only open in the summer time. The valley has groomed trails we can walk to from our doorstep and a gondola you can take up the mountain for extreme sledding adventures. Sadie getting in some balance practice after the gondola dropped us off. On our way down with the sleds. I gained a new appreciation of Olympic sledding events because steering down a steep and slippery slope is not easy. American cowboys: Marshall and Sam.
Katie Ronsse on top of the world in a "Kwigillingok Ski Team" shirt.
Here is Rene, a very generous Swiss man who is letting us sample the difference between 2 and 3 year old cheese. Rene let us use a vacant part of his barn to wax our skis before the races when we were in Feutersoey for the Swiss Cup races. The Swiss people have been tremendously friendly. Rene also gave us a tour of his barn full of cattle, cheese factory and sent us home with home made Swiss cheese and sausage.
Sadie (left), a Swiss skier, and I (right) racing in the final heat of the "Atomic Swiss Cup" classic sprint last weekend. Notice a pair of skis directly on top of Sadie's skis. It seems to be accepted in the European racing circuit to ski over other competitors skis and shove others out of the way in order to gain a tactical advantage. Sadie and I will be team sprint partners this weekend in France and we are ready to fight back!