Toblach Mini-Tour
We arrived in Toblach, Italy last Monday to some of the first full-winter I’ve seen all season. It was dumping snow on the drive in and we had already had some reports from Emily, who was in nearby Antholz training for IBU Cups in biathlon, that the skiing was epic. We saw the two foot high snowbanks, but it wasn’t until the next day that we got to play in the winter wonderland.
Lago Dobbiaco just up the pass from Toblach, on a distance ski during one of our first days
Heather loving the sunshine and schnee
Craftsbury General Store hats making their way across the pond! (Photo Heather)
A perfect day for a long classic cool-down (Photo Heather)
Toblach (also known by its Italian name Dobbiaco) is nestled in the northern Dolomites right on the Austrian-Italian border. Known for their sharp protruding peaks, the Dolomites fit into a postcard perfect view of ski vacations in Europe, and with the new snow we were in skier heaven! Add to that all the pizza, pasta, prosciutto, and gelato we could stomach, and we were definitely living the dolce vita.
They don’t mess around with food in Italy- here’s a typical family style dinner with 5 course: “greetings from the kitchen”, soup, pasta, a main course (salad in this case, usually some sort of meat and starch), and of course, dessert!
The barnyard in the middle of Toblach, complete with sheep, chickens, and ducks. These two little lambs had energy for days
However, we were there to race, and although we got the trails to ourselves for the first few days eventually the European teams started trickling in. The trails in Toblach definitely get a lot of use- first and foremost for World Cups and also as a perennial stop on the Tour de Ski. Although the Tour didn’t use this section in 2016, the pursuit start from Cortina d’Ampezzo to Toblach up and over the mountain pass has got to be one of the more unique World Cup stage events.
Advertisement for the Tour de Ski, which passed through Toblach in early January
Anyways, back to our races! The last weekend of OPA Cups is run as a mini-tour, meaning that all the times from all the events are added together for an overall tour standing at the end of the weekend. The first race of the weekend was a 2.5k skate prologue, which is a strange in between distance that we rarely race but can be either fun or disastrous, depending on pacing. I’m sure the rowers could give us some tips on that one. The next day we raced a 10k classic individual, and then the following day a 10k skate pursuit, where our start order was based off our time back from the previous two races combined. In that format, whoever crosses the line first wins the overall tour.Overall, the Americans held their own in the mini-tour, especially in the junior women’s field where Julia Kern powered her way to 2nd overall in the tour. The junior men were also strong, and the senior women, including Heather and I, had some solid results and some that left a little to be desired, but still ended up in the top 30. To see a write-up of results and link to FIS, check out our news section here.
Ski testing in the stadium prior to the prologue and couldn’t be happier! (Photo Julia Kern)
Heather cruising into the stadium on pursuit day (Photo Julia Kern)
Packing skis is an art form (Photo Julia Kern)
New friends on the Austrian team courtesy of a little uniform exchange, love that they’re now repping National Nordic Foundation!
We tried to get our fill of winter because it sounds like the East is ready to move on to spring. We still have 4 more races in the season and Craftsbury is determined to pull them off. Stay tuned for updates from SuperTour Finals, where we’ll have the entire team back together after World Cups and OPA Cups and we’ll be looking to end the season on a high note!