The final few weeks of the ski racing season are mostly racing with not much training. With 8 races over 16 days the goal is to rest and recover. Usually we don’t get much opportunity to explore the places we travel to for races but with a bit more down time this week I enjoyed exploring a bit of beautiful northern Italy. Toblach, Italy has been an annual host to World Cups for the past few years. I remember checking the place out in 2009 when my teamate Garrott came over to compete in the World Cup Finals.
The stadium, note the hill created by going over the race builting. Pretty awesome and that hill is legit. Also pretty nice to have carpet laid over the mud for the 2 minute walk from the hotel to the venue.
Clarke Sullivan has joined the wax crew here for the Finals. We had to wax outside and without power for the first days but these guys are on top of it. It wasn’t too rough considering temperatures were in the sixties.
Race course for the weekend.
Tad and I testing out our Salomon skis.
Most of the racing in the US is on cold dry snow so it has been fun to test out my warmer skis.
The mountains are amazing here, but the most beautiful thing just arrived in Toblach.
Caitlin has had a tough trip to Europe. Chipping a tooth her first day to Switzerland and suffering a concussion in the Engadin. She is playing it safe and will not be racing this weekend. We are both sad that she won’t be racing but it is great to have her here. She has done a fantastic job supporting the group taking video of the races for technique analysis, giving splits, and cheering everyone on.
