The transition to Europe went really smoothly for me. The 7 hour time difference from Minneapolis can mess with your body, but I seem to have handled it easily. I met up with a large group of Americans coming from the World Junior/U23 Championships in Ezerum, Turkey. My good friend, climbing partner, and college teammate Casey Fagerquist is the wax technician for the trip. Plus my former Coach, Bryan Fish is the head coach for the trip so it is great to be working with familiar friends.
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Tad (Birkie Champion) and I out for a classic ski on our first day in Europe. We are fierce competitors but also good friends
Our first set of races were Swiss Cups in Feutersoey, SUI. The field were small but there were a few very fast guys. Remo Fischer the World Cup veteran from Switzerland won both races. Remo and Tad caught me in the skate race but I was able to hang on to them for a short while to finish 4th. The weather was pretty unreal with highs near 60 degrees all week. Thankfully there was over three feet of snow throughout the valley.
After our week in Switzerland we drove 9 hours to Rogla, Slovenia. This weekend we will race the OPA cup. These races are very competitive and are just a small step below the World Cup.
Tad and I are in bunkbeds in what is described as a bungalow. The room is tiny, but we have everything we need. The rooms have a kitchen, table, shower and bathroom and are not much larger than 10′ x 16.’
Temperatures are just below freezing and we had great skiing this morning. We had a relaxed start to let things soften up a bit. It is cool to ski many of the same hills that I have seen on televison watching the annual World Cups in Rogla.
Fish and Casey are taking extremely good care of us over here. This morning they wouldn’t even let me scrape or wax my own skis. It is serious business over here.
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Tomorrow we race 10km Freestyle, this is a great race for me and my focus for the weekend.
