Toblach Mini-Tour

We arrived in Toblach, Italy last Monday to some of the first full-on winter I’ve seen all season. It was dumping snow on the drive in and we had already had some reports from Emily, who was in nearby Antholz training for IBU Cups in biathlon, that the skiing was epic. We saw the two foot high snowbanks, but it wasn’t until the next day that we got to play in the winter wonderland.

Innsbruck, Austria is in between Arber and Toblach, so on our drive
 we detoured up to nearby Seefeld for a lunch stop and to take a
picture in the stadium where American Bill Koch won a silver
medal in the 1976 Olympics- pretty sweet piece of skiing history
(Photo Bryan Fish)

Toblach (also known by its Italian name Dobbiaco) is nestled in the northern Dolomites right on the Austrian-Italian border. Because of its location, the people speak German and Italian and it's common in one conversation to hear, "Ciao" (hello in Italian), "Bitte" (please in German), "Danke schon" (thank you in German), "Prego" (you're welcome, Italian) and "Tchüss!" (informal goodbye, German). It's hard enough keeping track of one foreign language, but the good news is that both languages work equally well. Known for their sharp protruding peaks, the Dolomites fit into a postcard perfect view of ski vacations in Europe, and with the new snow we were in skier heaven. Add to that all the pizza, pasta, prosciutto, and gelato we could stomach, and we were definitely living la dolce vita.

The stadium in Toblach, about a 2 min walk from our hotel.
I love how the trail goes up and over and the comp
building on the right

Barnyard scene in town- shaggy
sheep, chickens, and ducks

The cutest little black lamb!

Lago Dobbiaco and the mighty Dolomites on a solo ski
that had me stupidly happy the whole time

A typical 5 course meal at the Hotel Dolomiten- "Greetings from
the Kitchen", soup, pasta, main course (a light one in this case), and
dessert, my favorite, tiramisu!

The church in town

However, we were there to race, and although we got the trails to ourselves for the first few days eventually the European teams started trickling in. The trails in Toblach definitely get a lot of use- first and foremost for World Cups and also as a perennial stop on the Tour de Ski. Although the Tour didn’t use this section in 2016, the pursuit start from Cortina d’Ampezzo to Toblach up and over the mountain pass has got to be one of the more unique World Cup stage events.

A Tour de Ski advertisement in town

A bit of ski testing prior to the prologue, thanks Julia Kern
for the photo!

So fun to have some younger athletes along for the trip!
Leah Lange skis for the same club I skied for in high school and
she was on her first international trip, and Julia Kern absolutely
slayed the competition this trip, finishing 2nd in the junior women's
mini-tour

Craftsbury General Store hats making the long journey to Toblach!

Anyways, back to our races. The last weekend of OPA Cups is run as a mini-tour, meaning that all the times from all the events are added together for an overall tour standing at the end of the weekend. The first race was a 2.5k (3.3k for the men) freestyle prologue, which is one of the trickier distances to race. Start like a sprint qualifier and you risk blowing up, pace it like a 5k and time leaks away from you in the early parts of the race without you knowing. I erred on the latter side and didn’t have enough pop on the flat sections out of the start, so I wasn’t surprised to see I crossed the line in 25th, not terrible, but not a great result.

Heather cruising through the stadium (Julia Kern photo)

The following day was a 10k classic individual, a distance that I’m just starting to warm up to as I figure out the pacing. I decided to go out harder than I did last weekend in Arber, figuring that my slow-starting prologue was a sign that level 3 wouldn’t get me anywhere. I got a split that I was in the top 10 after 2k or so, and then didn’t quite have the energy to maintain that, but still fought my way to 22nd place.

Ben Saxton (SMS-T2/USST) striding up the final hill (Photo
Heather Mooney)

Gorgeous day for a long cool-down (Photo
Heather Mooney)

Just like that, we only had one day left of racing and had to say goodbye to winter. The pursuit start is a really cool format, one that we rarely do in the States. I wish we had the opportunity to do it more because it can be really fun and rewarding. The way is works is like this- they add up everyone’s times from the previous races of the mini-tour. Say I was 20 seconds back in the prologue and 2 minutes out in the 10k. That means in the pursuit, whoever has the fastest combined time starts at 0:00 (In this case, 10am). Then the next person starts at their time back, and I started 2 minutes and 20 seconds behind the leader. We race a 10k course, and whoever crosses the line first wins the mini-tour and also the pursuit, regardless of how long it took them to complete the course that day. Because I started pretty close to a few people and had several right behind me, I ended up skiing in a pack of around 4- myself, a Slovenian, an Italian, a German girl, and an Austrian. We were pushing each other a lot and I actually felt the best I had since I arrived in Europe. I still finished in 22nd (the same place I started) and had the 22nd fastest time on day, but I was really happy with my effort. Racing head to head with fast Europeans gives me ideas on what I can work on. Surprisingly, it’s not the uphills where they pull away, it’s all in transitions, skiing smoothly with good technique, and skiing smart and tactically well.

Heather soaking up the mountains and snow

Erika and I psyched to be done with the mini-tour! (Photo Julia Kern)

Security was pretty tight in Toblach- luckily we made friends
with the course controllers!

Overall, the trip to Toblach was an amazing experience. We had great support from our wax techs Justin Beckwith, Dylan Watts, and John Filardo, who worked hard to give us competitive skis so that we could be in the mix. We also owe a lot to Bryan Fish and the NNF for organizing these trips and helping defray the cost. It’s impossible to leave a place like Toblach without a renewed love for skiing and the beautiful places it takes us.

Behind the scenes magic with Beckwith, Filardo,
and Watts

New friends from the Austrian team, and a sneaky way to
get the NNF repped internationally!

One last shot of winter wonderland

I’m currently on a plane from Munich back to the States where the snow situation sounds pretty dire, but I’m excited to be heading back to Craftsbury for the end of season SuperTour finals races starting March 21st. The races will definitely be held on a man-made loop of unknown length and it may rain, sleet, snow, or be sunny, be it’s the East Coast after all and we’re determined to make the most of it! First up is rest and getting over jetlag, then we’ll be hosting a Fast and Female event on March 19th, and then after that it’s game time.