Email from Tad - U23 Worlds

Things here are going well here in France. I feel like I did before Owl Creek Super Tour Race.  I am now resting and trying to stay healthy and get ready for the races on Thursday and Friday.  Thursday is the 15km freestyle race and Saturday is the 30km Ski-Athon.  The race is a mass start and the15km classic technique is first and then 15km freestyle technique.  I am happy the juniors are here now for the Junior World Championships. 

 

The race organizers groomed the skate course today.  Holly cow is it hard.  The course is either going up or going down.  It is pretty sick. I really like it. The start is way steeper than the last hill into the Nordic Center.   Got to keep it chill going up there.  One hill on the course is like going from Boyce Lake up to the top of the North Loop but the climb is 300 meter longer. 

 

Getting to know the Canadian Team. The guys team is cool.  The girls team is really nice and they are fast.   

 

Good luck in the Super Qualifier in Soldier Hollow.   I kind of wish I was there.  Well I am off the eat now. They fed us steak for lunch. It was awesome. I will talk to you soon. 

TAD

First Race in Norway

So we had our first race of the trip yesterday, which was really eventful. It is really something to be at the start and not having any clue to what is going on, and what people were saying to me. I was the first older skier out so I had nobody to follow. I arrived in the starting area and got to hear the whole race instructions in Norwegian. If there was not a clock telling me when to go I would have had a much delayed start.

The course was in a unusual layout. We first skied a 3km loop and then came through the start and finish and skied a 2km loop, there were a lot of really big hills.

During the awards ceremony the announcer tried to call up all of the Americans and get us all on to the podium. This took about 5 minutes because his English vocab consisted of only a few words. Once we were all up there he gave all of us these small glass bowls and a thanks for coming to the race, and welcomed us to Norway.

Today we went and watched ski jumping that was really, really cool. Here are some pictures.

Hi guys here are some pictures of Norway.

An email from Tad

So great flight over. Watched the new Kevin Costner movie on the big touch screen in front of me. It sucked. I ate dinner slept for 5 hours straight then ate breakfast. Very Nice. Staying in a room with Noah Hoffman. Its a nice room small with a kitchenette. It has bunk beds and they are so narrow a sleeping bag zipped up would hang over the edges. I might just sleep on the floor. 
The hotel is crazy good food. Four course meals and at the end of the first night six different cheeses, around a pound each, with bread to go with them. It was awesome. Coffee is not so good. Good thing I have my French press. Pat Casey (US Ski Team Coach) already hit it up with me. He hates bad coffee but likes mine. So that means I Should have some fast skate skis. He also looked at my training plan and liked it.

The town is small but we are stayin thirty meters from the stadium. So that is nice. Salomon International is here so new boots and skis coming my way once they get here, just got the email about it. Very Nice. "Rocket Skate skis" they said they are fast, but I will use my white ones. Reminds me of skiing in CO here. Cold snow and mountains surrounding us on every side. The skate course is really hard. There is a climb that would be like skiing from Boyce lake up to the top of the North Loop but this climp is about 300 meters longer. Awesome for me. Snow should stay pretty consistent too. The Russians are staying with us and so are the Finns, Canadians, and maybe the Swedes. Russians not so friendly, Finns crazy friendly. The area really is like Durango. Hard hills and downhills not really flat ever. Pat Casey and I get along great and he even skied WITH ME today, he commented on how I was the only one he has skied with lately that has gone the proper speed. Every one else way to hard. Even US skiers. Feeling good and ready. Everyone else is doing these long day trips. They would be fun but I have been keeping it chill. I will email you later with how my training is going. Should be a good time.

Norway

After over 24 hours of traveling and hardly any sleep, I finally arrived in Norway. My trip here was interesting. From New Jersey to Norway about two thirds of the passengers did not show up leaving 99% of the people with a whole row to themselves. It was better than first class! We were able to lay down completely, that was really comfortable.  

Once we arrived in Oslo we had to wait about three hours for Dan to show up, we passed our time by having luggage cart races and listening to Norwegian music.  Once we finally stuffed ourselves and the luggage in to two vans, we where off. What should have been a 2 hour drive ended up being more like a 4 hour drive.

We did learn one thing however; there are two ways to get to Lillehammer: the scenic way and the fast way. Due to none of the signs being in English we got to experience both! At all the stops we made trying to find directions, we realized that the people here are obsessed with hot dogs. They are everywhere, in a variety of different styles!

Now that we are finally here we are trying to stay awake till 9:30 pm with no naps to make our time adjustment easier, only two more hours left! I have a good feeling that I am going to sleep like a baby. I can hardly keep my eyes open.

Our hotel is very Euro.  All of the rooms are stuffed together like sardines. The doors are about three feet wide, and so are our beds. The funny thing is that our room's bathroom is about the size of our room itself! The hotel is right next to the ski jump, at night it gets all lit up and looks really cool.   The Nordic trail passes right by the base of it, we will test that out tomorrow.

Good luck in the Tour De Ski!

 

Alicia

Well back in Durango, enjoying beautiful Colorado weather...

Wow nationals was quite an experience! We ended up racing twice out of the 4 races scheduled.
Each Day seemed to repeat the one before, temps hovered in the -10 range. It was cold!
Skiing at Kincaid Park was Awesome, great scenery, the occasional moose, and glimpses of Mount McKinley made for spectacular skiing (besides the cold weather which we all seemed to acclimate to)

COLD as you can see.



My week started off on a bad note, having my race skis and poles broke by the airlines. Bummer. Thanks to the Fischer Rep. I was able to get some extra skis.

The next few days were filled with training and figuring out how to stay warm well still being able to move. Saturday's sprint races got pushed to Sunday, and then Sunday they got put on hold till later in the week.

Monday came and the freestyle race was on! My race was not exactly what I was looking for, and it being the only race that ended up counting I was sorta bummed.... oh well
Durango had some great racing, especially by Tad taking 9th overall, and Alicia racing up as a J1 in 64th overall..... Tad ended up being named to the U-23 World Championship team, and Alicia to the J1 Scando trip


Tad Ripping it up!




The Tuesday and Wednesday races were postponed or canceled. With our flight departing Thursday at 1 a.m. it seemed our Nationals trip was over.... but as we were loading up the last of the waxing equipment, we got the call that our flight had been canceled due to no flight crew!? And it sounded like the next available flight was not till Saturday morning! So back to the hotel.
We ended up getting a flight for Friday morning, and since we were around we all started preparing for the sprint race Thursday.

Thursday morning warmed up just enough and the sprint race was on!!
I failed to make the heats but still had a decent qualifier finishing 41st in U-23 and JR field.
The wind picked up all day and by the time the heats started it was a freezing wind chill.
Alicia and Tad made the rounds, so the rest of the team and I braved the cold to cheer them on.

After everything had been repacked, we headed to Gwenny's family restaurant with $160 in airline vouchers! All you can eat ribs were the special and boy were they good! Somewhat of an eating contest followed and it seemed Tad had eaten the most ribs. Stuffed and ready for some more fun we headed over to the local lanes to try are hand at bowling.... Josh was the #1 bowler and was laying down quite a few strikes! I on the other hand, probably should have been bumper bowling! good fun.

Off to the airport, flights were on time and we made it back to Durango around 4 p.m. on Friday

This next weekend Durango Nordic will be up in Aspen for the Owl Creek Chase and JOQ events.....

Till next time

Lars

In Alaska for US Nationals

So far the major news is the weather.  It's cold.  We were all hoping that the sprint races would be a go today so the rest of the week would stay on schedule, but good old Mother Nature had second thoughts.  With the temps only rising up to -7F the race orgainizers had to postpone the race until tomorrow.  Keep your fingers crossed for warmer weather in the near future!