Home to Italy to Czech

Once the winter gets rolling it often feels non-stop without a break to unpack the suitcase and barely a moment to get clean laundry.  This year, though, I had two and half weeks over the holidays at home to recover, train, spend time with friends and family and recharge the batteries part way through the long season.

Christmas eve bonfire with caroling and gluhwein

It was a winter wonderland at home for most of the break with great skiing at Craftsbury and Mt. Hor.  Whenever I was home last winter there was only manmade skiing so it was nice to be able to ski Sam’s, Ruthies, and everything else at the center.  I jumped in the Mt. Hor hop which was fun to do a race and hammer around the twisty narrow trails of the Willoughby State Forest. 

The family on Christmas morning. It was fun to be home with everyone and the perfect mental break from the intensity of the winter.

It didn’t take long though before I got that racing itch and wanted to get back on the start line.  Just a little time away makes it pretty obvious how much I love what I do!  I flew to Munich and drove to Val di Fiemme, Italy where I met up with teammates who were finishing the last couple stages of the Tour de Ski.  I was very impressed by how much energy and enthusiasm they still showed despite having raced for many days in a row.  I got to watch and cheer for them while they raced in a 10/15km classic mass start and the hill climb up Alpe Cermis.

Looking down the hill climb course. It was a super brutal climb up the alpine mountain. Some sections the skiers skied straight up the face while other times they switchbacked around gates. I was impressed with everyone for making it up the hill at the end of the long tour but huge congratulations to Liz who had the 2nd fastest time of the day! She was hop skating steep sections when she passed me!

Check out this hill! 28%?!?!!

It was sunny and hot at the top which probably wasn’t the best for racing but great for spectating!

Italy was warm, sunny, and beautiful.  It was the perfect place to get used to the time change and train.  With such warm temperatues there wasn’t any natural snow but manmade snow on the Val di Fiemme race courses and snow that was trucked in along the point to point Marcialonga trail.  We stayed in a cute little hotel in the town of Predazzo and there was homemade gelato at the hotel every day so I was in heaven.  

Skiing in the Val di Fiemme stadium

Skiing along the strip of snow which is the Marcialonga race course, a famous 70km marathon hosted in the valley every winter. They were still spreading snow along the course, preparing for the race.

Skiers of all ability levels and ages skied on the Marcialonga trail.  Lots of Italian masters were rocking retro neon one piece suits. 

The evening after the final stage of the Tour de Ski we drove to the town of Feltre, Italy for an exhibition night team sprint.  It was a super fast course and fun to race against other World Cup skiers in an event put on by the owner of the company Sportful.  Jessie and I finished 3rd after leading the whole race and Holly and Liz took the victory with a strong finish.

Great prizes with baskets full of champagne, salami, cheese, jam, and cookies!

Yesterday we left sunny Italy and drove across Austria, Germany, and the Czech Republic to Liberec where we will be racing this weekend.  It was an eight hour drive starting in the sunny alps and getting progressively grayer and rainier as we headed east.  While driving through Germany, I was very impressed by the number of solar panels.  Almost every house or building had one side of the roof lined with panels and there were additional panels in the fields along the road.  It’s inspiring to see the initiative which Germany has taken and didn’t look like it would be too difficult to replicate.

We arrived in Liberec last night and there isn’t very much snow here but we are only racing sprints this weekend so only a short loop will be neccessary.  I went for a walk/jog with my camera and checked out the city of Liberec.

I thought this was a church but I went inside and couldn’t find much besides offices and it didn’t look like I was supposed to be there.

An open square in the center of Liberec

Lots of narrow cobblestone streets

An art gallery

Lots of old buildings

We’re staying downtown which makes it easy to see the city. This building is across the street from our hotel and I’m curious as to what it was but the sign on it was all in Czech and nobody around seemed to speak much English either.

The train station which was next to a couple big shopping malls where there was lots of cheap shopping to be found

A church on top of the hill overlooking the city

There is lots of great architecture in the city

And also lots of ugly apartment buildings mixed in throughout the city, highlighted by brightly colored trim

A residential area of the town

Little shops along the streets sell pastries, bread, and beer.

This is our hotel for the weekend. The rooms are nice and the decor features lots of extravagant fake crystal chandeliers. The food has been good so far although vegetables have not yet been included anywhere on the menu.

Need a ride somewhere? BMW is the official transport for the weekend so maybe I’ll take the hotel shuttles to the venue rather than riding in our team rental vans.

The view from my hotel room. I see a little bit of snow out there! Tomorrow we will be able to check out the 800 meter loop which is all the skiing there will be this weekend. Luckily it’s a sprint weekend!

Excited to race this weekend!