Author: News

My Triple Play group from the Club has the chance to experience the beauty of Theodore Wirth Park. We have been meeting and talking about healthy eating and the importance of exercise for the past three weeks. Thanks to trips for kids for setting us up with bikes.

The staff at the Boys and Girls Club gave me a nice thank you: tickets to my first Twins game in the new stadium. I have always been a Twins fan ever since I was little and my parents told me they were named after my twin brother and I. Our house is only about 1 mile away on the bike path. We had a great spring evening and game. The red sox won by one in a close game with great plays.

The 2012 season wrapped up today with the 50km National Championships. Thank you to Craftsbury for fighting the eighty degree weather and hanging on to a race course for us. 33 laps today. I had a solid day and finished 12th. Thanks for the wonderful support. I am ready now for a little rest.Caitlin and my host sister cheering up a storm.

It’s late March and the end of the ski season is upon us. After racing (or cheering) in Italy Brian and I flew straight into Burlington, Vermont. We stayed with our (new) friends Tom and Anna in Burlington and reminisce about Minnesota before heading over the mountains to Craftsbury. When we arrived in Craftsbury the weather was sunny, clear and a balmy 77F. Brian and I moved into our home for the next two weeks with our wonderful hostesses Rebecca and Olivia. Every morning we are greeted with free-range eggs, beautiful views and the freshest and best tasting milk I have ever had. We are so lucky!!

Olivia is part of the after school running group called Run Girls Run. I joined her and her classmate Anna for a 3 mile run and then lead them through a routine of stretches and core exercises. 

After our run Olivia and I met with the younger Run Girls Run group and we talked to them about the Olympics and how far running can take you! The girls were psyched to have a new running partner and Olivia and I joined them as they ran aroung the common across from the school.

We have our first races tomorrow. We will both be racing the 3K prologue. The snow has been hit pretty hard here in the Northeast Kingdom. We are lucky to be skiing at all considering the warm weather from the past week. We will keep you updated on the remaining race schedule as we find out about it.

58th today, +2:13 out. Had a fun battle out there today with the guy who I tied with Yesterday.  He caught me at 5km and we tried to break eachother.  I was able to get 10 seconds on hime in the final kilometer.  Not battling for the positions I had originally wanted to but still enjoying the fight.  Tomorrow is a day to catch some people.
Enjoying the good and the bad

Caitlin and the APU ladies

Congratulations Holly on the OPA win today.  Results from the day on FIS here.

47th place today, 30 seconds out.  Pretty humbling.  A lot of fast guys in the race.  Looking forward to the 10km classic race tomorrow.

The stadium, note the hill created by going over the race builting.  Pretty awesome and that hill is legit.  Also pretty nice to have carpet laid over the mud for the 2 minute walk from the hotel to the venue.

Clarke Sullivan has joined the wax crew here for the Finals.  We had to wax outside and without power for the first days but these guys are on it.

Race course for the weekend. 

Tad and I testing out the Salomon boards.  Most of the racing in the US is on cold dry snow so it has been fun to test out my warm skis.

The mountains are amazing here, but the most beautiful thing just arrived in Toblach.  

My first trip to Europe as a ski racer I came to Slovenia for the U23 World Championships in 2006.  I didn’t really know much about U23 and World Juniors and actually found out that I qualified for the championshipis by an email that I thought was junk mail.  The trip was a real eye opener for me and helped shape me into a professional skier after graduating college.

On Monday we made the short 5 hour drive to Italy.  We traveled through the capital, Lubijana, and the small resort town of Bled.  Bled was the home base for the US Team at the U23/World Junior Championships in Medvode, Slovenia.  

The weather on our travel day was beautiful.  This was great since my memories of racing in Slovenia back in 2006 were mostly of fog and rain.  There is a large castle on top of a knoll in Bled and we stopped for a tour to break up the drive.

OPA races are the real deal. 11 countries brought athletes and techs to Rogla for the weekend.Same wax trailers as on the World Cup. Each country has one with their flag on the door. Colin (SVSEF), Fish (USST) and Casey (APU) gave us all some great skis today. Several different teams are represented on this trip but in the wax room we are all Team USA.Most of the athletes use Swix poles. We have a second trailer for the athletes and gear.We took over the meeting room from the coaches meeting to watch the NCAA championships streaming live. Nice work Americans.

We had a fast race course out there today. I went out hard and felt good. At 3km I got a split that I was 26th, 30 seconds out. Not good news seeming as my goal was top 5. I focused on skiing smooth and felt even stronger as the race progressed. I had a good battle the final 2km with the Swiss skier who started behind me. I felt good out there today although am a little disappointed with my placing. Surprisingly I was the exact same time back as the 10km in Switzerland.Tad (5th) Me (23rd) and Gelso (21st) post race

10km Freestyle Results from today on FIS or click the link on my twitter.

I decided to race the 30km classic tomorrow. It is going to be a fast tight race.

The long drive from Switzerland to Rogla went pretty smooth.  It took us pretty much all day but as we left the mountains we also escaped the snow.  We are staying at the top of the mountain at the resort in Rogla.  The road up the mountain from town is very windy and I am happy that we don’t need to go up and down it each day.  We had to halt the scrabble game during the final part of the drive.

Tad and I are in bunkbeds in what is described as a bungalow.  The room is tiny, but we have everything we need.  The rooms have a kitchen, table, shower and bathroom and are not much larger than 10′ x 16.’

Temperatures are just below freezing and we had great skiing this morning.  We had a relaxed start to let things soften up a bit.  It is cool to ski many of the same hills that I have seen on televison watching the annual World Cups in Rogla.  

Good day for the Americans here in Feutersoey, Switzerland.  As the men waited for the start command we were able to watch Becca (APU) take the win.  Erik Bjornsen led the day for the US men finishing a strong second place to World Cup veteran Remo Fisher.
We had 5 road crossings out there today. Some of them were used as the scrub zone for lanes.  This one is coming in to the stadium.

Women’s Results (sorry I didn’t have the focus dialed in).  Congrats Becca (APU) on the win.

Men’s Results.  Great race Erik Bjornsen.  Nice to see the Methow on the podium

Men’s Podium

Becca with double podiums for the weekend.

Erik and Peter Kling took the early lead in the race.  Competitive field but perhaps the smallest mass start race I have ever contested.  At 4km Remo took the lead and the pace heated up.    At 5km I fell off the pace and stayed more or less in no man’s land.  Reese caught up to me after a crash with Peter Kling on the first lap and we skied a lap together before I dropped off the pace.  Skiing smooth was important today and as I tired I became a bit choppy.  I am dissapointed with my performance today but excited to see Erik and Becca throw down.  Next race is a 10km Freestyle in Rogla, Slovenia.

Waxing in a barn for the Swiss cup, but these races are legit.  Remo Fisher (6th in a World Cup this year) was the man to beat today.  Congratulations to Tad today who went for it and gave it a good go.  He was 1 second up on Remo when he got me from 30 seconds back at 5km.  I hung on him for 2km and he made me hurt real good.  Warm out there today but we had some fast boards.  Strange conditions today.  Even at 55F my fastest skis today were with an s2 grind.  Typically a cold grind but if was great today with a little more structure.  I dropped off Tad and had a real hurt session before coming around a bit to hammer it into the finish.  4th place today for me which I am very happy about.  Excited for tomorrow’s 15km mass start classic race.

The barns and buildings here in Switzerland are sweet.

One of the things we have been waiting all year to do is get out skiing with the neighborhood kids.  The last few weeks the kids have stopped over every few days to ask, “Can we go skiing today?”  With the Birkie coming up and battling a small flu bug we weren’t able to make it happen.  Today though everything came together for a great day in the snow.

Rudy Project shades makes skiing way cooler

Finally there is snow on the ground in addition to the man made loop. 

Antja excited about her first time on snow. Is it better than street skiing?

This is fun…. .

…Sometimes this is really hard. I want to go as fast as you and Brian.