Hi Everyone!
We arrived in Zurich and went to our friend's (Cornelius Brandt) place in Konstanz, Germany. We spent a day there and then went to his hometown of Giengen and did a fun local race (10 k for me, 5 for Megan) in a farmer's field. We won a couple of bottles of wine. We drank them in the evening with Cornelius' family. Today we went skiing in the same area, which was very scenic. We also had great weather. Tomorrow we are planning to head to the Black Forest to do some training (and some other fun stuff) and then possibly Pontrasinna before we head to Italy for the Marcialonga on January 29th. Attached are some pictures from Giengen and Zurich. Hi to everyone from Cornelius as well.
Karl and Cornelius
Karl in Germany.
German race course.
Karl and Megan looking frosty.
After a change in plans (actually back to our original plan) after leaving Germany last Wednesday we ended up in France for a Europe Cup race. This is a continental cup race attended by most Central European countries. It was also the first stop on the Canadian National team's World Junior and U23 tour. We arrived at a place called Le Praz de Lys on Wednesday evening and met up with some very nice race organizers who (on a days notice) had arranged our accommodation in a hotel that backed onto the race course. We enjoyed a great French meal in the hotel restaurant and headed out for a ski. The scenery was beautiful, even at night! The next few days we had perfect zero degree sunny weather for skiing (see pictures), more great French cuisine and the hassles and challenges of organizing yourself for a major race with no support! Luckily a French club from Grenoble helped us out with waxing so we weren't totally on our own.
The racing itself wasn't a huge success for either of us but was a good tune up for next week's 70km loppet! The first day was skating and we did decently (for me it was my best skating race since my knee surgery last year...I have a way to go still though!). The second day was a mass start classic race which I was really looking forward to...but as it happens in mass starts I was unlucky and broke a pole at the start. I got a replacement but it was much too short so the race was akward and I never caught back on to the pack. The Canadian team did well with many of them winning a prize of 6kg of smoked ham!!!
Canadian National Junior Team 2014 skier Chris Butler enjoying his prize.
After the races we packed up and headed to a place called Meaudre which is up the mountain from Grenoble. We are staying with Karl's friends from Nakkertok (the Roths') who live in a really old farmhouse on a hill. On Thursday we head to Italy for the Marcialonga which is on Sunday. We will let you know how that goes!
Karl racing in France.
Megan in Meaudre.
Megan in Praz de Lys.
Praz de Lys race course.
"OWL Rafting - The Mighty Ottawa River"