Photos from the road!
Its been a very busy few days! Since I last blogged I have done a lot of travelling! I travelled from Dornbirn (see I told you I'd figure out the name!) to Poland, Slovakia and now in Germany. The weather was not great the second day of the Bodele races so we decided to drive to Poland instead of racing. 11 hours later we arrived in Poland. I think we were all a little shell shocked by Poland our first day. Our hotel turned out to by a tiny wooden house. Athletes on one floor and the coaches on the level above us. The beds were tiny with sheets that were a foot too short for the mattresses. The walls were made of wood with bits of rope in between the logs. You could say there was no privacy but that would by a bit much. As well the bathroom had a door with a opaque glass window in it! So not only could everyone hear you they could basically see you too! Not a fan! We arrived fairly famished from the drive to go straight to dinner. It was a cold plate of cheese and meat, egg salad and a petit serving of a light stew-ish soup. Needless to say we were starving!!! Breakfast the next morning was the same cold plate, the same salad, the same bread with a few breakfast food additions. We were starving as we trained the next morning. The town of Zakopane heats their homes with coal as well so that was also incredible. We couldn't place to smell in the air when we arrived. In the morning there was a dark fog over the town which decreased as the sun shone warming up the air. The hill was a great little ski slope. A steady pitch with nice injected snow on the race hill and music playing from the lift towers. It was incredibly sunny and pretty warm while we were there. After training we were so hungry we went and found (I'm embarrassed to say) a McDonalds. YES I KNOW...horrible. Why would you eat at a McDonalds in Poland? Well basically it was a quick, familiar menu where we knew we'd get food that would fill us up a little more! From this first 24 hours the food drastically improved and the sun continued to shine. Despite the weird accommodation..it did have a steady internet connection which was a saving grace...and it was right across from the hill. The race didn't go as well as I had hoped. Steady pitches arent really my forte. I ended up 25th. It was a Europa Cup so the field was really competitive...you really have to ski well to do well. That said I would like to congratulate my team mate Erin Mielzynski on her first Europa Cup Podium! She came 3rd! After the race we went out for coffee with one of the Canadian Team sponsors Hermes head honcho Darius. He took us to a beautiful hotel with incredible desserts! He told us a little more about Poland and the area. Overall, it was a lovely two hours spent in interesting company! After coffee we headed 3 hours over to Jasna in Slovakia where we were racing the next day. It was a beautiful drive through the Tatra Mountains. It reminded me of the area around Invermere...wide flat valley with white tipped mountains all around. Race day it was beautiful and sunny. The track was injected perfectly and it was a flat-ish course one of my favourites! I felt good in warm-up and was excited to really attack the course. I felt good for the first 20 gates. Then coming out a a hairpin I got a little in the back seat and injection takes no prisoners. I was not able to recover and straddled the next gate. My day was over after about 30 seconds of racing!!! It was really disappointing but I know I was going for it. After the race we headed 7 hours to Germany. Today we had a day off which has been a welcome rest. Tomorrow we race GS (exciting!!)
Hope everyone is having a great week!
Cheers
ET
