Racing in Rogla

After a fairly long stint (6 weeks) in Craftsbury smack dab in the middle of the ski season, I was definitely raring to go on an adventure. Especially since I spent the last two weeks of that time fighting a gross virus, and not training or working as much as I wanted to. Needless to say, I was psyched to join the rest of the US crew racing OPA Cups! OPA Races are the SuperTour or NorAm of central Europe, except they include a lot more countries: Italy, Austria, France, Germany, Switzerland, Slovenia, etc. Because the level of racing is higher here than in US SuperTours, they're a great opportunity for US skiers to get European racing experience when they are no longer a U23, but not quite qualifying for World Cups.

Caitlin and I flew from Burlington to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, via Amsterdam. It's always a bummer to fly through a major European city and not get to explore it, but after all we're here to race, not sight-see. I got pretty excited in the Amsterdam airport though because I have Dutch heritage and a lot of childhood memories of Tulip Time and wooden shoes back in Holland, Michigan. I ran around taking pictures of everything, so I apologize for the next bit....

Want a huge chunk of
chocolate right off the block?
Schipol Airport is your place

AND...the biggest wooden
 shoes I've ever seen

TULIPS! Favorite flower
of the Netherlands

So anyways, we made it to Rogla, in Slovenia, previewed the courses, did some intensity, and fought the jet lag.

In case you're like me, and know vaguely where Slovenia is but also are a little bit like, "Ljubljana, what?", here's the quick geography lesson. Rogla, where we did our first races, is the red dot

Our races were a skate sprint and a 15k classic mass start. This first OPA race weekend was a little bit of a contradiction for me. On the one hand, I knew I would still be jet-lagged with only four days to adjust and I knew I hadn't done quality intensity for a while because I had been sick. It was gonna hurt. But on the other hand, these are also really competitive European races, so I wanted to race fast and represent the US team and Craftsbury well. Without dwelling on it too much, I had okay races, finishing 21st in the sprint and 20th in the 15k. Learning how to perform when you don't feel that great is important, and something I still need to work on. I was happy to place better at these races than I did last year, while at the same time knowing I could do better. Onward and upward! I have two more weekends in Europe to do FIS races and OPA Cups, and I hope to improve in each one. I was also pumped to see Caitlin have really solid races; she was top ten in the distance race and she is now in Lahti, Finland to race the World Cup there. WEE!

Big thanks goes out to NNF (National Nordic Foundation) for supporting this trip, and to our trip leader Bryan Fish and wax techs Pat, Mike, and Tim. These guys work incredibly hard to make sure we have the best possible skis, set-up, and transportation, and they also keep it fun and low-stress for the athletes.

I don't have many good race pictures (hopefully next weekend I'll work on that), but I do have a few that give you a sense of what it was like in Rogla. General impressions of Slovenia: friendly people, fairy-tale like countryside, tons of snow in the mountains, and a bit of quirkiness.

Exploring some nearby castle ruins with the APU team was definitely a highlight

It was spring in town where we stayed, but up at the venue it was a winter wonderland. Here's the stadium pre-sprint day 

When your selfies get photo-bombed by the Italian coach (center)... The Italians do it right at these races- mixing fast racing and professionalism with a lot of fun

Between training sessions we watched World Champs non-stop. It was so inspiring to see the US women cruising onto the podium in the 10k skate. Here's my former PC teamie Rosie in the 30k classic, live on Eurosport!

I'm so happy to be back in Ramsau now! Doing a 4 day training block/ski vacation = pure skier bliss

Thanks for reading, I'll check in after the race in Austria and once we make it to our next destination for OPA Cups- Chamonix, France.

Auf weidersehen!