Estonia

After Antholz we flew from Munich, Germany to Tallinn, Estonia and then drove to Otepaa, Estonia for the IBU Open European Championships. While this is technically the European Championships realistically it is the championships of the IBU cup so some pretty important races. The first race was an 20km Individual, the individual is different from most races because instead of skiing penalty loops there is a 1 minute penalty added to your time for every missed shot. The day of the individual it was very windy which made the shooting difficult. I had 5 misses which is not that good of shooting for me but was about average for the field that day because of the wind. The skiing was difficult, I did not feel that bad but just did not ski that fast. I would try my best but could just not keep up with people that skied past. Our wax was off as well which did not help the ski time any. I ended up placing 61st.

Two days later was the sprint race. I thought that this race went pretty well. I shot 0,1 and my skiing felt good, the best it has since I have been in Europe. Unfortunately having a good race and what felt like fast skiing for me was just not enough to do well. I placed 68th and was 3:07 back from the winner. Not being in the top 60 means that I did not qualify for the pursuit race which is bummer because they are always really fun races and in North America we never get to do real pursuit races. 

Coming away from this set of races I am a little upset that I could not have had a better result but am also ready to train more so that I can come back next year and do some butt kicking! 

On the flight to Estonia I somehow got a gold status ticket even though I only have enough air miles to be a silver member. As a gold member I had access to the executive lounge which had lots of free hot tasty food. 

Maddie with the Otepaa, Estonia race headquarters building in the background 

Some fresh snow being plowed

The apartments where we stayed in Estonia 

The grandstands in Otepaa

A Washington state K2 license plate in Otepaa

A national geographic view point of a really old church in Otepaa

The range in Otepaa

Fireworks at the opening ceremonies 

Our team minus Russell and Leif at the opening ceremonies 

All the teams at opening ceremonies

Myself racing the sprint 

More of me racing in Otepaa

A video of myself racing in Otepaa

Antholz

I don't have much time to write lots now because I am leaving in an hour to drive to Munich, Germany and then fly to Estonia for the European/IBU cup Championships. For the past week I have been training in Antholz Italy at the World Cup. It has been super cool to see how everything works, it is defiantly a much larger scene then I have ever been around and I would like to spend a lot more time here on the World Cup. Here are a bunch of pictures from my week. 

Also while traveling from Poland to Italy the IBU followed us to see what it is like for teams to travel to and from races. They chose our team because we have to travel a lot further distances then European team.

Here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2VMZ7FkxCI&feature=youtu.be

If it does not work then youtube search:  IBU Cup 5: Team USA Life on the Road

Many of the World Cup teams travel with a semi trailer wax room for preparing the skis, here is team Swedens

Norways wax trailer

The train would pass our hotel about 6 times per hour. Not sure where everyone is going but it must be somewhere.

I did some strength one afternoon and was using this log as a squat bar, it probably weighted 50lbs and was pretty effective. 

At the venue there is a sky cam to get a full view of everything going on. There is a man with a camera in the little box at the top of the crane, he is probably 300-400 feet off the ground

Along the course with Maddie

The groomer snowcat at Antholz

Maddie racing in the Sprint race

A true mini van we found near our hotel

Some neighbor cows

While here in Antholz I met the Madshus World Cup race rep for the first time

There is an amazing ski you can do above the town of Antholz up the Staller/Stalle pass. It is one of the most beautiful skis I have done. It reminded me of the mountains at home except I was skiing up what is a paved road in the summer and at home there would maybe be a small dusty trail leading to the top.  

The top of the pass is also the boarder with Austria 

Back to Italy

At the top

The pass was a strong hold during WW1 here are some left over bunkers

Fans in Antholz for the Pursuit day

More fans with makeshift guns

Here is a video of the stadium in Antholz

Europe part 1

On January 5th I left Lake Placid to travel to Europe. I flew from Albany to Washington DC to Munich. From Munich we drove 6 hours to Duszniki-Zdrój, Poland where we raced the first weekend of IBU cups. In Poland there was supposed to be an individual, sprint, then pursuit but there was not very much snow so the individual race was changed to a sprint race. This was a good choice since there was only a 2.5km loop and the individual is a 20km race. After the first sprint race it rained a lot and most of the snow on the 2.5km loop melted, this resulted in us doing eight laps of a 1.3km loop to make up the second 10km sprint race. The rain continued after the second sprint race on Saturday and therefor Sunday's pursuit race had to be cancelled due to lack of snow. Unfortunately we woke up Monday morning to 6in of fresh snow. If only the snow could have come one day earlier we could have raced. Overall the races here did not go well for me. We raced 3 days after arriving so I was still feeling quite jet legged which made skiing more difficult then it should have been which didn't help my shooting either. Each of the two sprint days I missed 4 targets and did not ski that fast which when racing in Europe leaves you at the bottom of the results page. 

From Poland we Traveled to Ridnaun, Italy for a second weekend of IBU cup races. When we first arrived in Ridnaun there was no natural snow but good skiing on a 2.5km man made loop. Throughout the weekend there was heavy snowfall which made racing difficult but I managed to push through and still have some solid races. During all the races in Ridnaun it was snowing very hard and I was really glad to have my new Bliz proflip shields to keep the snow out of my eyes, they worked impressively well. On Friday in the sprint race I had 0 misses and placed 38th. My skiing was still feeling somewhat tired but much better then in Poland. On Saturday was a pursuit race, again it was a solid race not great but not terrible either. My skiing was still a little sluggish feeling but I hit 18/20 targets which I was happy about. On Sunday was a mixed relay, the mixed relay consists of two girls and two boys. Our team was Maddie Phaneuf, Clair Egan, Wynn Roberts, and myself. In the relay even if you do not have the fastest skiers if you can still do very well as long as you don't have to ski any penalty loops which in theory shouldn't be that difficult because you get three extra bullets for each shooting stage. Maddie started out with a good race she used one spare in prone and didnt need any spares in standing. After that things started to go downhill rather quickly. Clair had to ski one penalty loop in prone and two loops in standing, she then tagged off two Wynn who had to ski five penalty loops in total. By the time I started we had already been lapped by at least half the teams and were in last place with about two minutes to the next team. Even though we didn't have any chance I tired to do my best, I used 3 spares in prone but had no loops and hit 5 for 5 in standing. Overall as a team the race was quite bad but I thought that I did an alright job with my leg. 

After Ridnaun we drove to Toblach, Italy where I am now, with me is coach Jean, Maddie, Clair, and Russell Currier. The biathlon World Cup is going on very near by in Antholz, Italy. Some of the group I am with will be racing in some of the World Cup races and the rest of us will just be training in preparation for the European Championships in Estonia in two weeks. The European champs is essentially the championships of the IBU cup. 

If the races had gone a bit better I may have had a chance to start the World Cup here in Antholz, but they didn't. Even though I don't get to race here I still get to train at the official training for the World Cup, I am excited about that! It will be super cool to ski around all the really fast guys. Next Sunday we will travel to Estonia, I am really excited to race there!!

Flying out of Washington DC

Some building art in Poland

The Jumbotron truck in Poland

The Range in Poland, things were much to green for a ski race

The range in Ridnaun, Italy

An old church Kelsey, Wynn, and I ran to one afternoon

Racing the pursuit in Ridnaun

Maddie getting ready to shoot prone in the Relay

Racing the relay

The morning we left Italy the sun finally came out and we had to soak up some rays in front of our hotel

My first World Cup training bib

A cool tree stand I found on a run in Toblach

The mountains in Toblach

Our pink apartment building in Toblach