Schilpario mini-tour

1 month, 8 races, 5 countries and 24 hours of flying later, I am back home in Canmore. It was an awesome trip but it is nice to sleep in my own bed and cook my own food again!

The races in Schilpario were set up to be a mini Tour de Ski so that the results from each race stacked on top of each other with a final overall award after the last race. The results are on FIS at http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/1228.html?event_id=25841&cal_suchsector=CC but they are the results from each individual day, not the overall results. Awards were given to the top 6 in the overall standings each day, not the times for that day.

Friday was the classic sprint. The course was really hard with a big uphill for the first third of the course, a twisty downhill, then flat around the stadium. I was feeling good and came third in the qualifier. I ended my recent run of bad luck in the heats as I made it into the A final. I lost some time on the uphill and was in 4th coming into the stadium. I was able to move into third with a double pole sprint to the finish, getting my first podium finish of the season! The metal cylinders in the picture are antique mining lanterns that were used in the amethyst mining in the region and were given out as awards for the day.

Day 2 was a 5km classic pursuit start based on the final results of the day before. First place started at 0 seconds, 2nd at 4s, 3rd at 8s with the time gaps getting smaller further down the rankings. I started 3rd and a few girls passed me on the first lap. I was in 6th at one point but I was able to stick onto one of the girls that had passed me and make up some time. I dropped a Slovenian at the beginning of the 2nd lap then I out-sprinted an Italian into the finish to come 4th in the pursuit (I had the 7th fastest time on the course). This meant I was in the top 6 again and got a nice amethyst trophy to bring home.

Sunday was a 10km skate, which I don’t enjoy much at the best of times but especially not after two days of tough racing. I didn’t have any energy or snap and I got passed by quite a few people. I'm not sure what place I ended up in the overall standings but I had the 12th fastest time of the day. I was utterly exhausted after the race and happy to have a break. We packed up, drove to Geneva where we spent the night, then we flew home Monday. Luckily we were on a direct Frankfurt - Calgary flight so we weren't traveling as long as we did on the way over.

The stadium:

Schilpario

OPA races: Zwiesel, Germany

We just wrapped up a good weekend of racing here in Germany. Saturday was a 10/15km classic individual start. It was a treat to do a distance classic race since the last one I did was the at the NorAms in Sovereign at the beginning of December (and that one barely counts because it was held at night, part of the course was pitch black, and it was -18)! I felt really good starting out and had the fourth fastest time on my first lap. Unfortunately I couldn't hold that pace and I dropped back to 10th then to 13th on the next two laps. It was snowing during the race and I wasted some energy on the third lap when I skied all the way up the main climb in a slow track with fresh powder on it because I was going the same speed as the girl in the track beside me and I couldn't get ahead of her. I'm sure I lost some time and energy there which was too bad. I finished in 13th position in the seniors, 18th when the fast juniors were added into the mix. Canada overall had a great day. Lenny won the men's race and Graeme was the 1st junior, 5th overall and Kevin came 6th. Brittany was 3rd senior, Amanda 6th senior so they both got to be on the podium.


Today was the skate sprint. The course was really short: 900m for the women (under 2min) and 1200 for the men (around 2:15). I was tired in the morning but I pulled it together and did a good qualifier, coming in 6th, 2.7s off Nicole Fessel (she came 2nd in the team sprint at the Whistler World Cups in January). Unfortunately my hopes of a top 6 finish ended in the quarter finals. I was sitting in second coming down the last hill but got cut off and was boxed in on the final corner and uphill into the stadium and wasn't able to make up the time to pass the other two girls. I came 3rd in my heat and unfortunately the heat was slow so I didn't get a lucky loser position. Once again I finished in 13th spot in a sprint. Jess and Jeff Ellis were the lone Canadians on the podium today. Jess was the third junior and Jeff was third senior.

Jess in the junior men's A-final

Pictures of Zwiesel:

We drive to Schilpario, Italy tomorrow and start racing again on Friday.

Alysson

Bad Goisern, Austria

On Friday we officially started the OPA tour. We drove to Lyon after the junior relays on Friday. On Saturday we drove for over 10 hours to get to Bad Goisern, Austria where we’re spending a few days training before heading to the first races. We arrived in the evening and we were horrified to see that there was almost no snow on the ground. We were worried that we would have to drive to find snow to ski on but luckily it started snowing early the next morning and continued all the next day. We had about a foot of fresh snow by yesterday evening. They didn't groom at all yesterday so we had to skate in fresh powder but we were happy to have the snow and no one complained. Today was a beautiful sunny day so we finally got to see the view from our balcony. Training was awesome but I had to keep stopping to take pictures (as you can see below!).

We are staying here until Thursday morning then we'll head to Germany. We have a15km classic race on Saturday and skate sprints on Sunday. Then we’ll be off to Italy for a classic sprint, classic race and then skate race.

I added all my photos to picasa:

http://picasaweb.google.com/alyssonmarshall

The Academy skiers

Kevin and Jess doing some off-roading

The view from the hotel

Bittersweet sprints

The U23 Championships are now over! I came 13th today which is my best International result so far. I was happy with my result but at the same time I was disappointed that I didn't make it to the sprint finals. I had a good qualifier coming in 14th. I really wanted to make it to the top 12 and I gave it my all in the quarter final. I had a slow start and was at the back going into the main hill but I made up some time and was in third coming into the finishing stretch. The finish was quite hard as it is striding uphill then slightly uphill for the last 100m to the finish. I double poled as hard as I could but I finished just behind the top 2 girls. The first 2 finishers in each of the 5 heats move on plus the next 2 fastest people out of all the quarter finals. It took them a long time to get the results out after the quarters so I had to wait in suspense to see if I would be one of the lucky losers. Unfortunately I was a few seconds out of the lucky loser positions so my day ended there.

Today was the first race for the juniors so Canada had lots of athletes on the course. The U23 men once again were amazing with all 4 placing in the top ten! Alex was 5th, Lenny 6th, Fred 8th and Brent 10th. Julien came 8th and Graeme 14th in the Junior Men. Other top-30 results were Marlis in 23rd, Heidi 24th, Amanda 25th, and Brittany 28th.

Now I get to hang out and train in Praz de Lys until Friday. I'm looking forward to doing some long skis and exploring some of the recreational trails here! The OPA/FIS tour starts on Friday. We'll do a weekend of races in Germany and a weekend in Italy then we'll head back to Canada on Feb.23.

Racing in the qualifiers

Alex and Lenny after the awards ceremony