tour 2010

. . . welcome to the new decade!  after a quiet start to the new year i had some time on the snow shoes - after a bit of experimentation and adjusting i raced the ciaspolada.  it's a snow shoe race and probably one of the biggest of its kind in the world with 5800 people participating in this the 37th edition.  it reminded me of cross country running with the soft snow like a good muddy paddock out the back of the wairarapa.  good fun.  i learnt pretty quick that running behind someone meant getting pelted in the face from balls of snow flicked up from the snow shoes.  therefore i elected to go for it, and got into the front whereby i didn't look back and settled into a steady clompy rhythm.  the organisers bring snow right into the towns that we run through you finish in the main square of the larger town of fondo. . . . . . only in italy!

reliving my younger days i tackled a regional cross country race in italy - on a day that seemed to be direct from wellington's windy south coast i tried to use that experience to my advantage by surging into it and it must have done the trick as i managed a win with more than 30s advantage over a fairly handy field.  cross country running is great fun and snow shoe running is a chance to relive the feeling of soft ground running and rolling hills.  on a magic day at 1400m on monte bondone above the italian city of trento i raced my second ever event and the course looped up and down on cross country ski trails.  it was a day for the (older) mountain runners since between the top three of us we had 9 world mountain titles between us.  with me on the top step there was antonio mollinari in second and then third was lucio fregona (a legend for descending at top speed in mountain running).

after a weeks training in the snow and on the snow in leutasch austria and catching up with friends kim and imke i made the trip to vancouver to check out all the fuss in vancouver.  making history for itself as an olympic city and changing the way the world will see it forever.  first impressions - very good, friendly people and well organised with all the transport and events working smoothly.

fast and furious the men's 15km skating and images from vancouver below

some of the action below from vancouver, with biathlon, cross country skiing and short track speed skating.  going downtown was like an event in itself with thousands of happy fans out and about.  also a chance to catch up with friends from the last time i was there - 6 years ago (has it really been that long?) and the city itself with plenty of lively bars and restaurants reminded me a lot of a bigger version of wellington.  staying over on north vancouver was great with a seabus getting you into down town in 15minutes (except when the line up for it was 800m long) plus the olympic bus network was just down the road and it was straight forward getting up to whistler which was a 1hr45 bus ride.  antonella raced great with a 17th position in the 30k and proved a point.    i ran in a snow shoe event up on grouse mountain, sliding up and down on single track and powder snow.  short track speed skating was a highlight and with 3 medals for canada it was full on.  all in all a great experience.

back to the italian winter and it has warmed up a bit so the workers are keen to get back into our house before summer to do some of the smaller work.  success with the council means we can make a garage in the cellar under our house - if we can get a car to fit - we will have to get a smaller car!  now it's full on with travel and work - straight down to liguria after getting back from vancouver, then a week in beduoin (france) for salomon's advance week and not long till flying on back to nz.  antonella too was home for less than 36 hours before flying to lahti in finland for her last races of the world cup season.  she has a pursuit (7.5k + 7.5k) as well as a 30k in norway - normally her best events - vai vai vai!

with the winter season all done and dusted and me feeling a bit tired from house work and winter training it seems like a good time to go back to new zealand.  the training has been up and down lately both in terms of terrain and fitness. antonella finishes off her season (below) with a 2nd position at the italian championships and me - with the skiing where we live (also below) - it's been fantastico!

(above) italian championships in madona di campiglio.  (top) the cross country skiing on passo lavaze in italy in april

the salomon athletes had a week together again and this year we were back once again in bedoin (france) at the base of the mt ventoux.  it was another intense time and we covered a lot of ground with our product testing and training runs.  some nice country too.

after a quick 3 weeks back in new zealand it is time to get back to the mountains - or actually - not quite the mountains but to what was the formerly the worlds tallest building for a run up its steps.  the taipei 101 building has 101 floors of which we ran 91 of them.  incidentally it also has 111 elevators, apparently.  it's a massive building not just in height but also in floor area.  i finished 2nd behind marco de gaspari from italy and then i stayed on till the following weekend where i helped promote and ran a work shop for a salomon trail race in taipei.  it was raining hard and the trail run a lot of fun slipping and sliding through a thick layer of mud - just like some of the cross country races i did as a junior boy and colt at the tauherinikau race course or at the solway park national champs in masterton.  good fun!

i hosted some of the salomon team while we did a photo shoot for a new shoe in our valley here in italy last week.  then it was off to france to launch the shoe.....annecy, with some the retailers from around the world who will be selling the new xr shoe from salomon.  salomon being a french company included plenty of good food and entertainment and i explained the concept to the retailers who were there and we did some running together too. long days but a lot of good vibes.

staying in the area the worlds best voted chef (2008) from sierre (switzerland) put together a great degustation while i gave a talk to the runners who will do this years sierre zinal race.  then with snow forecast (yes it is the middle of june!) we ran a shortened course version of the nerivue-molseon race.  a hard fought win in the mud and snow and then one week later its 32 degrees!

we are this time racing in the orobie mountains north of bergamo in the skyrunning relay.  with a very steep and technical climb (there were cords and chains to haul ourselves up to the 2300m pass) i couldn't get much distance in front of the skyrunning regulars and then of course i got nailed on the steep descent.  i exchanged to emanuele (lele) manzi with a 1minute deficit to the first and 20s to the second.  he ran superb to overtake the first team and then got within 5s of the second team before losing ground on the long tough descent and we fell short by 19s to settle for second place.  a stunning area of steep mountains and fun to have a run up there.  driving home we visited schilpario and then a cool road and mountain pass that was only one car wide for almost it's entire 20km length.  reversing when meeting other cars with steep drops separated by only a rusty iron guardrail was a good test of nerves!  for those looking for this on the map it's called passo vivione - this rates as the toughest european pass i have driven - not helped by the loads of sunday afternoon motorbikes we met.  sounding the horn before going round the corners was an absolute must!

salomon nokia sports tracker site below with the team relay race of tre laghi, tre rifugi photos above and below

for three weeks in a row i have raced in austria and had all three podium places over the course of those races.  there was some tough competition at the grossglockner race with the kenyan's taking advantage of the flatter nature of the course and being comfortable in the high altitude but on the steep track in mayrhofen 2 weeks after they couldn't go with me or the eventual winner from turkey.  in between was the lovely telfes race and great to catch up again with race director ernst and his wife ricky who came to our wedding last year.  there was new snow a few hundred metres above the arrival but conditions were great for running and i was able to win there.

antonella and i have made our yearly pilgrimage up to norway and this year our first race in rosendal is part of the new salomon norwegian cup so it's great to see the race progress over the years that i have been coming up to it.  we have had a good time with our norwegian friends jostein and his family who i also met last year down in new zealand when they all came down for a family holiday.  then we head up to loen and the skaala opp race - steep and tough with 1823m of uphill in 8.2k!  i hope it doesn't snow before the race this year!!

great no snow and faster conditions mean't that both john sombol from kenya and i chased the fast record from john tvedt.  the track has been made quicker in some parts and slower in others with the addition of stone steps and it also improved the navigation aspect to stay on the right course.  with thick fog it was important to have a well marked track and this was the best i have had and meant after breaking away in the final kilometre i was able to have a full sprint (or as much as you can sprint at 1800m altitiude after running for an hour up 23%!) and just made the record time by a scant 9s!  phew!  every time over the last 3 years i have had a close race.  in '08 i won by about 15s and missed the record by 3s! last year i was second only 4s behind the winner and this year i was 9s under the record time.  after more than an hour of running - it's always close.  picture right is from when we are walking down from the skaala mountain.

now after the long travel back from norway i am looking forward to a small break from racing this week and so i am going up to estonia for a salomon event.

what an interesting country, estonia might be small in size and population but it's big on history and interest.  the city of talinn has a beautiful central heart with the worlds oldest pharmacy (still running) dating back to the 1400's and the people might be quiet and more reserved than most but are very friendly and generous and much easier to talk to than in many other places i have visited.  we had ex olympic nordic combined champion Allar Levandi looking after us and we did a nice salomon event with a 42km run in 4 laps around a cross country ski centre through all sorts of terrain, hard trail, single track, moss and mud, sand and jumping trees.  i have never run a marathon before that felt so easy to just cruise around with the time flying by.

the same can't be said for the prize giving at the kitzbuehelerhornlauf race where this year there were more plastic cups than participants!  it's a nice race and unique in mountain running by being a road race but still very steep. next year the tourist office wants to invite me to race the best cyclist to the top.  but i still think at 12.5% it's the two wheels that will be quicker than 2 legs.  antonella and i both won our respective races and it was nice to be back in the famous austrian town.

on to the world championships - the first time i have run in the world championships because up till now it has been a world trophy and with official recognition by the iaaf it has taken on world championship status.  the same progress can't be said about the grand prix which has now been cancelled for 2011 due to lack of interest (or lack of involvement by the wmra).  it's a lot of fun to catch up with people at the world champs - maybe manager next time??

one week later and it's the dolomitenmann, great fun in a team situation and we did it again, this time winning by 9mins (3hr 50min 39sec team time) despite looking weaker on paper since we changed the kayaker and mtn biker to marcel and christoph from herwig and alban of last year.  it was another wet time on the podium with the champagne being sprayed everywhere.  then the next day 5 of us runners ran in the drei zinnen berglauf where finished 1,2, and 3 with me taking it out on a beautiful day.  great to be in the mountains!

still racing and running, this time a new race and that's always a good thing.  after 12 years (is it really that long?) running on the european mountain scene there are still is still a huge amount of new races and places and mountains to try.  we are in feltre, italy this time for the first running of the....trail park dolomiti run (no, i didn't think of the name).

an old military road used during world war one is the track for the new race above feltre in the italian dolomiti mountains. It's amazing the work that made these things and at least we can enjoy them now even if there original intention was not so pure.

another double weekend with two races and a big drive to get between them but it all went well even if both places were shrouded in clouds.  we had a race against a train on saturday (the train wasn't that fast - it was 114 years old).  that is a nice mountain run up the schneeberg near vienna.  then a quick dash across country to run the next day in bergen - now 8 times winning the race and running it 10 times.  it's always good to run there and it's a classic mountain race - including a table full of cakes at the top!

so another season is about finished - just the grand prix (of which this is the last due to it being cancelled next year) and so i will go back to what is not my best course but always a nice event.

and it was actually not a bad race this time - goes back to my motto 'think the worst and you are half way to the truth!' - (enzo ferrari) so i was pleasantly surprised i was fighting it out for the win but just lost too much (again!) in the downhill and the second climb also is a real mix of up, flat and downhill parts so couldn't close down the distance.  it made an exciting race and i have to say it would be a shame to end this event after 31 years but with the retirement of the restaurant owner at the summit and tomo sarf busy with many projects it might not happen again.  it will be certain to remain as a fond memory for me of mountain running and some great slovenian hospitality and nice season ending race for us all.  untill the mountain running calander starts again in 2011 i will be doing some events in germany, san francisco and italy so i won't be taking it easy but you can be sure i will be taking it to the max!

www.streetstepper.com photos from andreas panzenberger www.panzenberger.com

a day with the streetstepper on top of our favourite mountain pass near our home.  antonella and i put some time in on the streetstepper and take some photos together.  it's a great team putting this together and is a real story of a product developed from a passion and a good old get stuck in and make it happen attitude.  the result is a machine that is great fun, is a running action and zero stress impact on the body.  the upright position means no sore back as well - a good bonus!

i am starting the long journey back to new zealand and running a new event for me - the world trail masters event in dortmund germany on the way.  this time i sat at the front end of the i.c.e. trains and looking out the front window is pretty darned impressive when the sign boards are whizzing past at 295kph.  it's only 3 weeks in new zealand this time but nice to have a little piece of summer before heading back to europe and into the thick of a european winter in the mountains.  while back home i got in plenty of long bike rides so it was an easy decision to add a third merida to the wyatt stable - nice and sub 7kg for a road bike all up makes the hills fly.

have also been taking a lot enquiries about the streetstepper (photos left).  it's a good workout machine and low impact and a few people have been noticing this guy on the funny machine whipping up and down the val di fiemme on this.

the way back from new zealand to italy meant stopping for a week in san fancisco for a salomon meeting of all the community managers.  we came in from all over the world and it's been one week of revving up the team to push our love for trail running - not too hard to convince us - so we just need to keep spreading the word! 

yip, san fran was a lot of fun.  nice city and cool stores such as chrome, the home of the istore and visiting the campus of stanford, home of google, mr jobs etc in silicon valley.  adam chase demonstrated the local culture on our runs through the city and gripmaster documented all our activities through salomonrunning on facebook (no that wasn't me in the niketown store i swear!!).  will have to put together the next christmas card - it should be another white one with snow here in the valley and cold weather in forecast, minus 24 degrees no less!

wishing all out there a very merry christmas and may 2011 bring you a heap of fun times and new challenges

cheers -  jono

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