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!

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