Jr World Championships Day 1

I probably will not have daily update posts from the Jr World Championship but today was a great day for team USA! Maddie Phaneuf had a career best finish with 4th place in the youth women's sprint competition. Maddie had perfect shooting and skied amazingly well, she was also the only athlete all day to hit all of her targets. Also Sean Doherty was 1st place in the youth men competition with 4 misses and definitely the best skiing out of anyone.

Maddie laying it down on her final lap

Maddie at the finish 

Some news interviews 

MWSC cross country athlete in full cheering mode 

It was a great sunny day for racing 

Northern Maine

Its been a while since my last blog post and for my avid followers I am truly sorry. This happened because my computer charger broke and I was unable to use my computer, thankfully after 10 days of waiting it finally came and my technological life can return to normal.

In Nove Mesto, Czech Republic we had two races a 15 km mass start and a 20 km Individual, both races were quite hard because the snow was very warm, wet, and was filled with old classic wax, dirt, and rocks making it terribly slow. Despite the very slow conditions I managed to have some solid races, I was third both days. In the mass start I struggled with my shooting a little with 6 misses out of 20 but able to pull it together for the for the Individual the second day with only 1 miss out of 20. Overall they were good races and I am glad that we got to go to them.

On Monday after races we flew back to the US, the trip was pretty uneventful, which is always a good thing. It was a very nice feeling to be back in the USA after being gone, it is kind of a hard feeling to explain but it just feels good when customs officer says welcome home. When I stepped off the plane in Maine it was -5f which was quite a shock to the system coming from Nove Mesto where spring was in fully swing. For the last week I have been training in Fort Kent and Presque Isle where it has been full on winter with cold temperatures and fresh snow falling.

This next week in Presque Isle the Junior World Championships will be going on, I will be down there to cheer on my friends and teammates as well as I am going help out team Australia with some waxing and coaching duties. I will not be racing because I am no longer a junior.

What was one of my best skis before meeting a large rock in Nove Mesto

Czech cup podium

Flying out of New York you could see everything

We flew right over downtown 

Skiing in Presque Isle 

I found this picture the other day and and it was two awesome not to put in... I think im about 9 

A sunny day near Fort Kent 

After racing in Nove Mesto one of my teammates skis, the bases are supposed to be white.

Back in Nové Město Na Moravě

After training in Pokljuka and finding out that the races in Austria were in fact cancelled we traveled back to Nove Mesto for a Czech cup this weekend. Unfortunately it is much less wintery in Nove Mesto and there is no natural snow anywhere. Luckily there is still a solid 2.5km man made loop that is holding up against the warm temperatures to make for pretty good skiing. This weekend there will be a mass start race on Saturday and an individual on Sunday.

One of the highlights of being in the Czech Republic right now is that all of the Olympic events are being aired on live TV, unlike the US where figure skating and athletes personal story's dominate.

Digging out the car the morning we left Pokljuka, Slovenia

The snowblower making it possible for us to leave the parking lot

Some high snow bank leaving Slovenia

Which country do you want to go to??? Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungry??

A cool bridge driving through Vienna, Austria 

The stadium from the top of the grandstands in Nove Mesto

A long way down from the top of the grandstands

Our hotel in Nove Mesto 

Czech Republic countryside 

Piston Bullying

I was debating making a separate post about this or just adding it to my last post but I was so excited I figured it was worth its own post. Every morning we have been watching the groomer man go out to the Piston Bully and push all the fresh snow off the range and groom the course so when I saw him warming up the snow cat this morning I threw on my coat and snow boots and ran down stairs and asked for a ride. The groomer man did not speak any English but he got the idea when I pointed at the empty passenger seat. The groomer man definitely knew what he was doing and it was pretty fun getting to ride with him.

The groomer man driving like a boss

Grooming down the trail

Pushing snow off of the firing line 

Driving through the woods

Mother nature will you please make up your mind.

Shortly after arriving in Pokljuka we found out that the Alpen Cup races that we were supposed to race in were cancelled because of to much fresh snow. One might think that canceling a ski race because of to much snow is ridicules because you need snow to ski but in this case it actually did make sense. In the few days before we arrived it snowed over 1 meter (3 feet) of wet heavy snow and therefore trees were falling down all over the road to the venue and the road crews were having trouble keeping the road open. Also the shooting range has so much snow on it that most of the targets are buried. Luckly for us there is a World Cup here in the first week of March so the organizers are working hard at keeping  the venue in top shape.

While in Pokljuka we found out that the Austrian Nationals are probably not going to happen because there is zero snow in Roseanu, the organizers thought about moving the races to Obertilliach but they have so much snow there that the range is unusable. Since we will not be able to race in Austria we will be going back to Nove Mesto, Czech Republic for a Czech cup.

Even though we were unable to race here in Pokljuka it has still been a fun time. Since we could not race we did a time trial with the Slovenians, Australians, and some Russians that were in the same situation as us. It was a decent race for me I had 5 misses out of 20 and my skiing felt solid. I ended up in 3rd place 30 seconds back from the Russian that won, one of the Slovenians was 2nd. Now it is continuing to snow and has already snowed almost two feet this morning.

The targets snowed in on the left and shoveled on the right

The buried piston bully after only one night of snowing 

Picture update

I have recently been slacking in the picture taking department and decided to step of my game...

Waxing supplies, my gear, and five cases of wine that I ended up with after the races in Nove Mesto

McHotel and Mcrestaurant

The snow blowing tractor in Pokljuka (its not everyday you see a tractor with a PTO in the front)

Our four stars hotel

The view from our hotel

The stadium in Pokljuka

 Not a bad day to be doing biathlon in Slovenia

Post U26 Championships

I know my favorite part of reading other peoples blogs is looking at their pictures and unfortunately I don't have very many pictures for this post, so hopefully my many readers (I think that total is up to 5 or 6 now!) are not to disappointed. In Nove Mesto there were three races an individual, sprint, and pursuit and they were a success not only for me but for the entire team, it started out with Anna Kubek placing 6th in the junior women's individual. In the mens 20k individual I placed 22nd with 2 misses which both came in the final stage. This was a solid race that I am happy about but at the same time I am a little bit frustrated because it is the third race this year that I have been unable to close the door in the final shooting stage.

Next was the sprint race which I was nervous about because it was very windy and I wanted to qualify for the pursuit race. Despite the nerves and wind I stayed focused and had good shooting with only one miss in prone I felt good skiing and finished in 30th place 2:12 back from the winner. Similar to the sprint, the pursuit came with lots of wind but my shooting was not as good. I had 5 misses and felt pretty tired skiing because of this I moved back 10 places from 30th to 40th. Despite missing targets and not skiing super fast I was able to ski with people on every lap which is unheard of in any race in North America. Being around other people for the entire race makes it much easier to push myself harder and will defiantly help me racing in the future.

Overall I had lots of fun racing in Nove Mesto!

I am now in Munich where most of the athletes from U26 championships will fly home and I will meet up with some athletes arriving from the US to compete in an Alpen cup and Austrian Nationals. The Alpen cup is in Polkjuka, Slovenia I have never been to Slovenia and am excited to visit a new country.

One more highlight is my 22nd birthday is coming up on February 5th. This will be the 4th consecutive birthday that I have celebrated while racing in Europe.