B-Tour News: BC Ski Team in Europe 2019
Six members of the BC Ski Team are currently taking part in a 20-day competitive tour in Europe (Switzerland, France, Italy).
January 4th:
Our weekend of races started off with race prep on Friday morning which consisted of skiing the course mixed with a little bit of intensity. To get our muscles ready and working for tomorrow’s race, we did intervals mixed with a few sprints.
Saturday, January 5th:
Our first racer of the day, Marielle Ackermann, brought her A game as she fought her way to the front pack in the skate mass start. Marielle managed to finish in 6th place. The race day continued on with our older athletes racing in the late afternoon. Many of us were quite shocked to show up to a flat warm up loop around a small pond that took about 2 minutes to complete, although this was a small hurdle to overcome for our Canadian athletes. The races began with the girls heading out a mere 3 minutes before the boys. Unfortunately, Benita Peiffer lost her ski in the first lap of the race but managed to grind it out and earn herself a solid second place finish. The rest of our Canadian athletes managed top ten finishes. All in all, it was a great race day with fast skis, speedy skiers, and effective cheering.
Sunday, January 6th:
Sunday morning was a relaxing one for all but one. Marielle took a tumble early during her qualifier but still managed to qualify in 8th place. Just as heats were beginning, the rest of the team showed up with voices rested and ready to cheer! With the added support of wax techs and personal cheer squad, Marielle finished in 4th place.
To finish our first French experience, the team headed to the home of a former French exchange student/athlete (Lucie Colin*) where her family had prepared us a traditional French meal. The meal consisted of cheese, potatoes, bread, assorted meats, salad, and ended with a gateau des roi (kings cake). This was a great way to wrap up the first week of the trip. Many of us will take away from this town a few new words accompanied by amazing memories. (*Lucie trained with the local ski club and attended school in Whistler, BC for one school year.)
Paige Latta and Benita Peiffer
Link to results from the weekend races: https://www.csrpontarlier.fr/tour-de-ski-1/résultats-2019/
B -Tour News: BC Ski Team in Europe 2019 (Jan 4)
Photo #1 Town-time in Les Rousses with the BC Ski Team
Day 1:
The three week Europe trip started off with five of our athletes meeting at the Vancouver airport. The first of our two big flights began with a five-hour flight to Montreal, where we met up with our final athlete. We then had a short layover, where we were able to work on our sprinting abilities and quick navigation skills to locate our terminal on the far end of the airport. The last flight (Montreal to Geneva) was a seven-hour butt cramping, melatonin popping, movie watching experience. But the midnight awakening of a new years celebration did help ease the pain. With a nine-hour time difference, we had plenty of time to tour around the city of Geneva (Switzerland) with the help of our tour guide/ex BC club coach/one year french local, Paul Shipley, who knows all the right places. Our final leg of the journey was a short and foggy drive to our destination, Les Rousses (France).
Day 2:
We had an amazing welcoming to our European experience, as we woke up to the smell of some warm croissants and an assortment of cheeses that even the least uncultured of us couldn’t help but admire. As we finished up our delightful breakfast, we strapped on our boots and headed to the ski trails. If you took a look around it was almost impossible to imagine that there was enough snow to be able to ski but with only a five-minute drive and a quick shuttle we hit 30km of hard packed trails that passed through the light forest and open farm fields. Although the plan was to go for an afternoon ski, it was too difficult for us athletes to resist the urge to sleep from the altered time change.
Day 3:
Day 3 was our first chance of hitting the race trails for this weekend. With minimal snow, Les Rousses’ race trails are situated on the side of their downhill ski mountain. Although mostly made up of man-made snow, the trails were truly an incredible sight to see. We had an amazing classic ski with some intervals to get our bodies going before this weekends races. With our sleeping schedule a little bit more adjusted, we were really able to go searching for the good lunch spots, finding a delicious pizzeria right in the center of town. After we filled our stomachs it was time for our afternoon workout. We headed back up to the trails we visited on our second day for an easy sunset ski.
Looking forward to the races this week and excited to see what experiences the rest of this trip will offer us. Till next time!
Michael Murdoch
Photo #2 Cheese fondu with the Team
Photo #3 Marielle Ackermann on an evening ski
Photo #4 Skiing at race site with all the snow guns going
Report to January 2nd
The team arrived in Geneva (Switzerland) bleary-eyed from travel, and were met by coach Paul Shipley who was already in Europe. The first day was spent exploring Geneva and finding Swiss chocolate, then traveling to Les Rousses for a quick activation run and chicken dinner (a specialty of this region of France) at the hotel.
The snow situation in Europe is pretty dodgy this year, so there have been several last minute changes to the schedule as races have been moved and cancelled (the last accommodations were booked from Les Rousses yesterday, January 1st!).
Chris Manhard & Paul Shipley
Schedule Overview
January 1 Arrive in Geneva (Switzerland) and drive to Les Rousses (France)
January 2 – 4 Training at Prémanom and Les Rousses
January 5 – 6 U17 Championnats de France and Tour de Ski at Prémanom
January 7 – 9 Training in Riale, Val di Formazza (Italy)
January 10 – 11 Training in Bessans (France)
January 12 – 13 Bessans Marathon du Ski
January 15 – 18 Training in Sparenmoos (Switzerland)
January 19 – 20 FIS race in Sparenmoos (Switzerland)
January 21 Travel to Geneva to fly back home
Athletes
Benita Peiffer (Whistler Nordic Ski Club)
Joe Davies (Whistler Nordic Ski Club)
Marielle Ackermann (Kimberly Nordic Ski Club)
Michael Murdoch (Whistler Nordic Ski Club)
Mila Wittenberg (Whistler Nordic Ski Club)
Paige Latta (Sovereign Lake Nordic Club, Vernon)
Coaches
Chris Manhard (Cross Country BC)
Paul Shipley (Telemark Nordic Club, Kelowna)
