The Australian race season has kicked into full swing the last couple of weeks with races both at Falls Creek and Perisher Valley. Just when it looked like it was going to be a dud start to the season with a warm autumn and eastern Australia gripped in a 4 year drought, suddenly the weather changed. The cold weather systems came in and most of the major resorts reported good snow falls in late June/ early July. The race calendar in Australia is a pretty full-on two months of races with competition on every weekend and often during the week. It culminates with the Kangaroo Hoppet, Australia’s world loppet race in Falls Creek on August 27th. .
For the elite skiers there is also valuable on-snow training time as they prepare themselves for the European racing season and a tilt at Olympic selection. The qualifying standards for the Australian Olympic team are very tough (top 60% of the World Cup field in over half of races before Olympics). But a number of Australian skiers are now competing on the World Cup circuit and they are going to give a good red hot go! Stay tuned to what is happening “downunder†during the season at www.hoppet.com.au/xc/ or www.nswski.com.au
