I am glad I decided to stay for the extra weekend of racing after the official OPA tour. Saturday we did a 5km classic mass start. It was a very early morning as we went with a Swiss provincial team and they left Davos at 5:45 Saturday morning to drive to the race site in Gibswil. There were about 30 girls in the mass start. I started out with the lead pack and was in the top 5 up the main climbs and over the top of the course. I pushed really hard because most of the hills were in the first half of the race so by the first long downhill at around 3km my legs were very tired... I ended up getting caught in some soft snow and doing a full faceplant. About 10 girls whizzed by me as a got up, wiped the snow from my eyes and got going again. I wasn't able to make up much time after that and I ended up in the middle of the pack. It has been a long time since I have crashed in a race and it is not fun!
Sunday was a 5km skate individual start. I felt good, stayed on my feet and was consistent throughout the race and ended up 4th. Sara had a good race and finished in 2nd spot.
The stadium in Gibswil
Sara on the podiumAfter Sunday's race we got dropped off at a train station and waved goodbye to the Swiss skiers. We dragged our massive ski bags and duffel bags on and off two trains, up and down stairs and down the sidewalk to our hotel near Zurich. I'm glad we didn't have a deadline that night because it took us a while to figure everything out! We learned the difference between ankunft (arrival) and abfahrt (departure) when we dragged all our stuff down a flight of stairs then realized that we had been at the right gate all along and had to drag everything back up the stairs.
We spent Monday exploring Zurich and shopping then we flew home Tuesday. Thanks to the Lufthansa pilot strike we had to leave at 7am and spend 6 hrs in the Frankfurt airport but we eventually made it home.
Exploring Zurich
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