BC Ski Team in Europe - 2020 B-Tour (to Feb 22) »

Austrian National Championships
St Jacob in Rosental, Austria

Video of the race course:  https://vimeo.com/393525680

Ramsau, Austria, February 21st

Today we left from Ramsau and drove to Saint Jacob in Rosental. Picture a drive from more or less the middle of Austria to the southern edge, close to Slovenia, and a bit further east from the Italian border. A 2-hour drive can bring you to a totally different part of the country here, and we went from a winter wonderland, to a springtime scene, with temperatures above 10 degrees Celsius. When we arrived we first skied the race course. There was no snow in the whole valley except for the 2.5 km loop of man-made snow, and the very tops of the 1800m peaks in this area. The town only sits at around 500m above sea level, and though they apparently get a ton of snow, the warm weather has totally destroyed their season here. The strip of snow we were skiing on is reminiscent to some of the World Cup race courses these days, with green, lush grass growing on either side of the track. The track went through some farmer’s fields and up 2 decently sized hills (one of which is a small downhill resort with a rope tow).  All of the downhills were sketchy due to the fact that they were sheets of ice, and the race organizers set a slalom course down the face of the ski hill to slow down the speed of the skiers. While here, we stayed in this old farmhouse (Gasthof Rausch) that has been converted into a guesthouse (aka Gasthaus or Gasthof in Austria), and totally modernized. It’s very nice, and we are the only guests in the entire building, as this is usually their off-season. We went to dinner at an Austrian Pizzeria, overate, and went to bed early to rest up for our weekend of races.

Local observer.

 

St. Jakob im Rosental, Austria, February 22nd

Today we woke up and prepped ourselves for the first day of the Austrian National Championships with a hearty breakfast. The boys raced 15km and the girls 10km on that miserable 2.5km loop. There were pros and cons to this course.

Pros:

  1. You get to know the course really well by the end.
  2. You get to see the spectators more often.
  3. You aren’t ever far from the finish.
  4. You can lap through with others starting and get pushed by them.
  5. You can get splits more often if they would have been given to you.

Cons:

  1. It’s easy to lose count of which lap you’re on.
  2. You get the urge to stop every time you come around the finish area.
  3. Getting multiple attempts at falling on the heart stopping, high speed, icy downhills, thus increasing your fear of that part of the course with each passing lap.
  4. You get dizzy.
  5. Your coaches yell at you 6 times as often.

The coaches worked hard in the morning to put us on fast and really grippy classic skis, and as there were no warm-up trails, we had a delightful warm up of running on the highway or in the grassy fields instead. The locals were more prepared for this and had brought their roller skis!

 

 

 

 

Everyone did very well with Beth coming in 3rd in the U20 and Emma and Marielle coming in 3rd and 4th in U18.  Emma was so surprised when they were calling her name for the podium that she ignored those calls, and didn’t make it in time! Opportunity lost. The boys also did very well with Cole coming in 4th in the U20 and Fred, Torin and Gabe having some good races against the older athletes. There was a reasonable selection of bloody elbows from our team, and we had 3 of our skiers wait in line with the many other racers getting patched up by the local paramedics. As I (Gregory) descended the insanely treacherous downhill on my slightly shaky and weary legs, it wasn’t long before I found myself sailing through the air to land in a painful heap of skis and Lycra. Due to the high chance of getting plowed into by other out-of-control skiers descending the hill, the marshals grabbed and pulled me off the course like a sack of potatoes on the way to market. The hill was so icy, it would have been impossible to stand up regardless. Luckily I didn’t require the paramedic stretcher, which had been in use 10 minutes earlier for another skier on the hill. The coaches were very grateful that a visit to the local hospital was narrowly avoided this time.

Here's a link to a brief video of what the top of the course looked like (https://vimeo.com/393525680). It was super steep going up, and then went straight down. Everyone snowplowed the top (except the top 2 men)! Those guys skiing past were in the top 10 Open Men category.

By Gregory Baxter et al

 

 

Previous Reports & Photos:
1. http://www.crosscountrybc.ca/bc-ski-team-europe-2020-b-tour

Schedule Overview:
February 12                      Depart Canada
February 13                      Arrive in Frankfurt (Germany) and drive to Seefeld (Austria)
February 13-16                Training in Seefeld (Austria)
February 16                      Competition in Saltzburg (Austria)
February 16-21                Training in Ramsau (Austria)
February 21-24                FIS race in St Jakob/Rosental (Austria)
February 24-27                Training in Toblach (Italy)
February 27-March 1      FIS race in Klosters/Davos (Switzerland)
March 1-2                         Travel to Frankfurt (Germany); fly back home 

Athletes:
Beth Granstrom (Revelstoke Nordic Ski Club, Revelstoke)
Cole Turner (Telemark Nordic Club, Williams Lake)
Emma Wong (Strathcona Nordic Ski Club, Courtenay)
Fred Albrechtson (Nickel Plate Cross Country Ski Club, Penticton)
Gabe Gledhill (Strathcona Nordic Ski Club, Cumberland)
Gregory Baxter (Bulkley Valley Cross Country Ski Club, Smithers)
Marielle Ackermann (Kimberley Nordic Club, Kimberley)
Torin Andrews (Sovereign Lake Nordic Club, Vernon)

Coaches:
Chris Manhard (Cross Country BC)
Frank Ackermann (Kimberley Nordic Club)