Category: XCFeeds

This past weekend we raced only a single sprint, in Monguelfo, ITA. The format was quite interesting; the morning qualifier was held up the Gsieser Tal (valley) about 20km from Monguelfo on an off-camber farmer’s field, while the heats were to be held that night on a downtown loop amidst a throng of spectators. The qualifying course was extremely fast with a long gradual climb that demanded powerful V2 up to the high point before rocketing downhill to the finish. After the previous weekend’s disasters I was adamant and very psyched to put down a solid qualifier and making it into the evening’s downtown heats. After a comprehensive warm-up I went to the line knowing I’d have to give everything to make the top-16. With the Olympics happening in Vancouver, the majority of top Europeans who weren’t on their Olympic teams were here at these OPA Cups, making for a super-competitive senior men’s field.br /br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Mg2hQbkHkNs/S4EUli0TkBI/AAAAAAAAAX8/iV9Bhj5zhko/s1600-h/IMG_2255.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Mg2hQbkHkNs/S4EUli0TkBI/AAAAAAAAAX8/iV9Bhj5zhko/s320/IMG_2255.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440652460074176530″ border=”0″ //adivbr //divdivI started strong, and 200m into the race I knew I was feeling better than I had in a long time. I pushed hard up the long climb and by the high point had given everything I had. I tucked down the hill and threw in a hard jump-V2 to the line. Given the fact we were using timing chips I was able to instantaneously see my finish split when I crossed, and saw I had come in 30th, only 3 seconds out of qualifying and in the top half of the men’s field. /divdivbr //divdivIt was a bittersweet race for me. I knew I had given everything and that I’m still not in top form yet. I got some of my best sprinting FIS points of the season. But I know I have the potential to be in that top-16, and I am anxious to get another sprint in to get closer to that goal. /divinput id=”gwProxy” type=”hidden”!–Session data–input onclick=”jsCall();” id=”jsProxy” type=”hidden”div id=”refHTML”/divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2910103639238326543-6210037450995481693?l=methowolympicdevelopment.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

!–StartFragment– p class=”MsoNormal”Monguelfo City Sprint/p p class=”MsoNormal”span style=”” /spanOur third OPA cup race was in Monguelfo, Italy last Friday. It was one of the more exciting sprints I have done. The qualifier was held in the morning 20 km out of town, and the sprint was held at night in downtown Monguelfo. The qualifier went really well for me; it was a short course that was all V2. I qualified 11supth/sup in the junior category, a little over 3 seconds out of first. It was also my lowest (best) FIS points race ever, with 76 points. For the heat they had laid a 400 meter loop of snow downtown. In my heat I had two Germans and a French guy. The guys did the loop three times. The loop was covered with spectators. The atmosphere was very festive and lively; I was super pumped. The trail was maybe 15 feet wide. It had been raining off and on all day and was just starting to snow. It was a double pole start and I got out third, the two Germans in front of me. Because the trail was so thin I knew I was going to really have to fight to get into second. There was one 15 ft. high hill, a corner right before it and a corner right after it. I knew that was going to have to be the spot I was going to have to make my move if I wanted to move on into the semifinals. /p p class=”MsoNormal”The first lap I made a move on the German in front of me but just as I was almost beside him he cut the corner sharp and boxed me out. I skied right on his ass for another lap waiting to try and take the outside this time so I could try to box him out on the corner. I made sure I was so close to him, every time he poled, his poles would hit me. I went into the corner right on him and went up the hill wide and just as I did that the French guy took the inside. There were three of us fighting for the second place position on maybe a 20 ft wide trail. The German and French guy got tangled just as we were cresting the top of the hill and the French guy tripped and fell into me, knocking me off the course into the fence. I got up as fast as I could but had lost 20 meters on the German and 10 meters on the French. I skied as hard as I could for the next lap but just couldn’t catch them. I was really pissed but it was still so fun. Definitely the loudest crowd I have ever heard in a ski race. /p p class=”MsoNormal”After finishing the French guy came up to me and shook my hand and apologized for knocking me off course. These guys are really intense athletes and want just as badly as me to do the best they can, and they will fight for it. It is really fun to compete against so many strong, talented athletes; It makes for a really tight race.a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_pZgXW6b1QMk/S4ESZQBiw-I/AAAAAAAAAHE/slqfN0XduVs/s1600-h/IMG_2245.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_pZgXW6b1QMk/S4ESZQBiw-I/AAAAAAAAAHE/slqfN0XduVs/s400/IMG_2245.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440650049847739362″ border=”0″ //aa onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_pZgXW6b1QMk/S4ER6zW-buI/AAAAAAAAAG8/nK4KxyvqEkE/s1600-h/IMG_2246.JPG”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_pZgXW6b1QMk/S4ER6zW-buI/AAAAAAAAAG8/nK4KxyvqEkE/s400/IMG_2246.JPG” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440649526756929250″ border=”0″ //a/pp class=”MsoNormal”This is me going out of the start in the qualifier. Behind me in one of the red Swiss suits is Dario Cologna(the Swiss man who just one the gold medal at the olympics in the 15km freestyle) younger brother, Gianluc Cologna. Gianluc finished 17th in the junior race.br //p !–EndFragment–input id=”gwProxy” type=”hidden”!–Session data–input onclick=”jsCall();” id=”jsProxy” type=”hidden”div id=”refHTML”/divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2910103639238326543-8997761167836401690?l=methowolympicdevelopment.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

div style=”text-align: left;”We just returned from probably the most exciting race I have ever skied. Friday was the City Sprint in the middle of a little town named Monguelfo, in Italy. At ten in the morning we raced our qualifier about an hour’s drive up from town, where there was better snow coverage. It was only an 800 meter race, so the most important thing was to be quick… and to stay quick for the entire 2.5 minute race. Only the top 16 made the heats for the city sprint later on that night. I ended up qualifying 3rd- 1.3 seconds back. The field was small, only 31, but packed with many really good skiers. Two of which were the girls that placed 2nd and 5th at World Juniors earlier this year.br //divdivbr //diva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S4EOYdCwegI/AAAAAAAAAQY/aFUIqYr133o/s1600-h/IMG_2225.JPG”img src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S4EOYdCwegI/AAAAAAAAAQY/aFUIqYr133o/s320/IMG_2225.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440645638116112898″ style=”display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 268px; height: 320px; ” //adiv style=”text-align: center;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-weight: bold;”Just after the road crossing- heading up the “hill” on the course/span.br //divdiv style=”text-align: center;”br //divdiv style=”text-align: left;”At 6:30 PM, after resting all day we headed down the road to the city for the heats. It was raining and getting dark out- which was going to make the race all the more exciting. Warming up included putting on some running shoes and running down the highway. When we arrived they had all the fences up around the courses, all the arches and banners, and the streets were lined with spectators. There was a huge “Fire and Ice” party going on at the same time which drew in a lot more energy and spectators to watch and cheer on the skiers racing through the streets. /divdiv style=”text-align: left;”br //diva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S4ESgpcG7MI/AAAAAAAAAQg/Y69DO-Hsw6U/s1600-h/DSCN2549.JPG”img src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S4ESgpcG7MI/AAAAAAAAAQg/Y69DO-Hsw6U/s320/DSCN2549.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440650176929131714″ style=”display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; ” //adiv style=”text-align: center;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-weight: bold;”Looking down the finish stretch/spanbr //divdiv style=”text-align: left;”br //divdiv style=”text-align: left;”The heats were exciting and dirtier than any sprint race I have ever raced. You had to fight hard for your position. Because the track around town was so narrow, passing was limited. The best way to guarantee advancing to the next heat was to be the first one out of the start and stay wide so no one could move around you. Each heat only started four people, and top two advanced to the next heats. It was super exciting, the course was lined with cameras so that all the spectators in the finish area could watch the action all around the course. Everyone was super fired up. It made you feel like a celebrity skiing through the streets. The racing was tight from the beginning. My quarterfinal had the two girls who had previously placed 2nd and 5th at U23 championships so I knew I was going to have to fight for it. I led the entire heat and made it through. Semi-finals I secured second place and once again advanced onto A-finals. The A-final heat was a little bit dirtier. I did some serious fighting for my place with a French girl and nearly went down a couple times and at some point managed to get a pole in my lip. I fought the entire 800 meters to make it around her, but ended up crossing the line 4th- my first OPA cup podium! It wasn’t until 9:00 PM that night until we finished our racing and then got our awards. One long and exciting day in Italy! /divdiv style=”text-align: left;”br //diva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S4ETAOtNmZI/AAAAAAAAAQo/mwRA2bJypHY/s1600-h/IMG_2262.JPG”img src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S4ETAOtNmZI/AAAAAAAAAQo/mwRA2bJypHY/s320/IMG_2262.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440650719508928914″ style=”display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; ” //adiv style=”text-align: center;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-weight: bold;”Semi-finals. Following the girl that went on to win the event/spanbr //divdiv style=”text-align: center;”br //divdiv style=”text-align: center;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-weight: bold;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-weight: normal; “a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S4ETdxwPTMI/AAAAAAAAAQw/gACdLVoDHmo/s1600-h/IMG_2294.JPG”img src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S4ETdxwPTMI/AAAAAAAAAQw/gACdLVoDHmo/s320/IMG_2294.JPG” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440651227133070530″ style=”display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 296px; height: 320px; ” //a/span/span/divdiv style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S4ETAOtNmZI/AAAAAAAAAQo/mwRA2bJypHY/s1600-h/IMG_2262.JPG”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-weight: bold; “span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”color: rgb(0, 0, 0); “First OPA cup podium! 1-Swiss 2-Italian 3-French 4-USA/span/span/aa onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l4L_01UOs1s/S4ETAOtNmZI/AAAAAAAAAQo/mwRA2bJypHY/s1600-h/IMG_2262.JPG”br //a/divdivdivbr //div/divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/2910103639238326543-9163545549645249921?l=methowolympicdevelopment.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div