St Johann, Austria

A long and eventful 12 months later and we’re back in St. Johann, Austria. This is where the ski cross World Cup circuit began to get interesting last season! A bulletproof, ice-injected hill held at night under lights with a crowd of over 5,000 people. Not your normal World Cup!

We arrived on Tuesday night after training in Lienz. Official training was held on Wednesday afternoon, with an official welcome dinner on Wednesday night. The athletes had an opening ceremony march followed by a traditional Austrian dinner. The entertainment provided on the night was quite amusing. Austrian men in short shorts dancing the traditional Austrian “Holtzhacker”.

(Traditional Austrian summer house in Zettersfeld) 

(Team Australia)

(Austrian men dancing in Lederhosen)

Qualifications were on Thursday. I qualified 23rd, so again, not enough for finals which was disappointing. I was just over half a second from 16th position (cut-off for finals), which shows how tight it is! I feel that I am skiing well at the moment, but I just haven’t been able to translate it to racing. I made a mistake on the flat at the bottom which was enough to cost me a spot in the finals. The competition amongst the girls is fierce this year, so you can’t afford to make any mistakes.

(Qualifications at St. Johann World Cup)

To make up for my disappointment, I took a ride with a rally car driver in the new Mercedes. They had a track where they took public for a wild ride on the ice. They drive how I ski!

(Bea and I (Marcos, our Spanish ski technicians' daughter) ready to go for a ride) 

(The final jump into the finish) 

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(Anton and I watching finals)

Yesterday, the morning after finals, we made the epic journey from Austria, right through Italy and finally to France. 13 hours in total! The only thing positive from the long journey was a quick pit stop in Oulx, Italy, where I have spent a lot of time living and training over the past 5 years. We stopped for what is, in my opinion, the world’s best crepe!

 

(Yum! Apple and cinnamon crepe) 

We are now in Alpes D’Huez, France, which is most famous for the Tour de France hill climb. Tomorrow is official training, followed by qualifications on Tuesday and finals on Wednesday. Until then, au revoir!

Video Blog - Part 1

Check out my first video blog of the season...

 

Katya Crema - 2010-11 Season- Video Blog Part 1 

Back to Europe and into the New Year!

After a short but sweet break at home, we returned back to Lienz, Austria where we have spent a fair amount of time over the past 4 weeks. 

(Sunrise in Lienz)

(View from our farmhouse above Lienz)

 

A ski cross track has been built at Zettersfeld, so we have been training there with the German Ski Cross Team. The "Himmelfahrt" (meaning 'to the heavens' in German) was a table jump with a massive 25m+ clearance. It was intimidating at first due to the fact that you have to tuck down a steep pitch directly into the jump without turning in order to get enough speed to clear it. If you stood up out of your tuck or put in a speed check, then you would definitely not make it and land on the flat. Ouch! Straight after the jump was a large double which came quickly, so you had to be ready for it!


After I hit the jump once, I loved it and wanted to go back for more! There's something about overcoming your fears that gives me such a sense of satisfaction in this sport.


Over the past two days we have been training at Hinter Reit / Maria Alm, which is a 1.5 hours drive away, in Salzburg region, the racing capital of Austria. We have been training on ice-injected snow to get used to what is to be expected in St Johann later this week. St Johann World Cup is renowned for being double-injected and super icy, almost to the point where just standing up during course inspection becomes extremely difficult! My skis are tuned to 85 degrees (as opposed to the regular 88 degrees), meaning that they're absolute razors. It's the only way to get a grip on the blue ice, which is basically like a sheet of glass.

We have two more days of training here in Lienz, then we head to St. Johann for the World Cup.

Will keep you posted! Plus I have a video blog on it's way shortly, just need better internet to upload it!

(Sam and I at New Years Eve dinner)

(Chopper Reid and I)

(Packing the van once again)

(What my December 2010 looked like... A photo from each day)

 

Italian Christmas at home

After the very familiar Munich-Singapore-Melbourne flight (over 24 hours), I finally made it home for Christmas. I have had only one Christmas at home in the past 10 years, so as you can imagine I was pretty excited to come home for the occasion! Awaiting me in Australia was beautiful 25-degree sunny weather. A big difference to being in the freezer of Europe!

True to Crema tradition, we had a big Italian family lunch with 25 family members. On this year’s menu was lobster, oysters, prawns (Australian tradition) as well as suckling pig, a smoked leg of ham, home-made lasagne (grazie Nonna), vitello tornato, tiramisu, grappa, panettone etc etc… the list goes on!

 (The dogs awaiting their gifts, Diesel and Mya)

(Preparing the enormous smoked ham-on-the-bone)

(Mum with the suckling pig)

(My family)

(The Crema kids; Giulia, Nick and I)

(Big family lunch)

(Crema girls; Olivia, Giulia, Jessica and I)

(Jess and I)

It was a great Christmas and definitely worth the long trip home to spend time with family and friends.

I am now heading back to Munich this afternoon where we will start the second block of the season. The first block was mostly training with one Europa Cup and two World Cup’s in the final week. The second block is basically all racing. It means travelling every few days from mountain to mountain, country to country, and basically living straight out of a suitcase for the next two and a half months. Let’s just say after years of doing this, we ski racers have become some of the world’s best packers!

First up on the race agenda is St. Johann World Cup in Austria, which is the famous night race. Every year this race attracts huge crowds and is generally one of the most anticipated races of the year. It is raced on double-injected ice, a very steep pitch and under the stadium lights. So I’ve definitely got something to look forward to!

First World Cups of the Season, San Candido

The racing season is now well on it’s way with the first two World Cup Ski Cross events held this weekend in San Candido, Italy. After an 11th place finish amongst a strong field of World Cup girls in the Europa Cup last week, I was feeling confident and ready to race.

(The ski cross start with the incredible Dolomites in the backdrop) 

(The beautiful town of San Candido)

The Dolomites course was turny and fast, with some big jumps and smooth features. On Friday we had qualifications for the first race. I finished in 23rd place, so missed out on qualifying for finals which was a bit disappointing. This year they decided to take only the top 16 girls for finals as opposed to 32 last year. It definitely makes the competition much tougher in fighting for a spot for finals. In the second race I finished 25th. I was definitely hoping for much better results at these first World Cups. I feel that I am skiing well however just didn’t manage to deliver on the day. All I can do now is put these races behind me, stay positive and look forward to the next World Cup in Austria in early January.

My teammates on other hand, Scott Kneller and Anton Grimus, definitely didn’t fail to deliver. Kneller won the second World Cup by a hands reach, beating Swiss skier Alex Fiva at the last minute over the line. We were absolutely ecstatic. I think everyone was rooting for Scotty, being the underdog in the big final. It’s Australia’s first Ski Cross World Cup victory ever, and Australia’s first World Cup win of the season. Young Grimus finished 9th which was also an incredible result, being only his second World Cup Ski Cross ever. Two great results for the Australian Team! Congratulations boys.

On another positive note, the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) annual awards night was held last Monday night in Canberra. I was awarded ‘AIS Education Athlete of the Year,’ an award which recognises athletes who have achieved academic success at the same time as balancing the demands of their sport. OWI aerial skier Lydia Lasilla won the AIS Athlete of the Year. So in total two awards for Winter Sports, which is a great achievement for winter sports.

(Members of the Australian Ski Cross Team) 

 (Scott Kneller wins gold; Australia's first ski cross World Cup victory)

(Medal winners)

(Aussie staff: Marcos, ski technician, and Nick, physio)

I am now sitting in Munich airport enjoying a bowl of coffee (literally) and a croissant. I've enjoyed the past four weeks in Europe. Training has been great, and although it was not the start to the world cup season I was hoping for, I am sure there will be good things to come this season! I’m about to fly back to Melbourne for a short 6-day Christmas break; just enough time to see family and friends and soak up some sun before heading back to winter! 

San Candido

After an 11th place on Europa Cup in Pitztal, Austria, we are now in San Candido for the first world cups of the season.

Today we had our official training day. The course runs really well... some nice jumps with smooth landings, and great hard icy snow. It is on the same hill as last year, however the course is quite different. Slightly longer and smoother running.

Tomorrow we have qualifications with finals to be held on Saturday. A second world cup on the same track will be held on Sunday.

I'm feeling confident after training today, and am looking forward to the competition tomorrow. After months of hard work it's finally time to show off what I've got!

Will update you after the race.

Here are some of the best photos from the week....

 

(Aussie ski cross team van)

(View of Lienz from Zettersfeld gondola)

(San Candido)

(Tuning room... and that's not even all of them!)

(Delisioso! Speck, rocket and parmesan pizza at the number one pizzeria in San Candido)

On the road to the first races of the season

Following two days off in Lienz, I was very ready to hit the slopes again. Although a day off is necessary to rest and recover, it does actually get a little boring! We occupied ourselves with a visit to the Christmas markets in Lienz, a gym session as well as a game of squash in the afternoon.

Yesterday, after a failed attempt at a day training day at Molltaler Glacier, we decided to go skiing at Zettersfeld. High winds and poor weather conditions closed the glacier which meant that we couldn’t train on the skier cross track as originally planned. Instead, we freeskied at Zettersfeld, a small resort 5 minutes from Lienz, Austria. The weather was warm and foggy, and the snow was soft… it actually reminded me a little of skiing in Australia. Such a change from the -25˚ C freezer days in Hintertux last week! 

 

(Not a bad view from my bedroom window!)

 

(Anton and I in the gondola)

 

Now, once again, we’re back on the road living out of our suitcases. We’re on our way to Pitztal, Austria today for the first skier cross races of the season; two Europa Cups. On the way we stopped for a free ski at San Candido, Italy, where the first two World Cup’s of the season will be held next week. It was a good opportunity to ski next to the race hill, and to get a feel for the terrain. The course is yet to be built and the race is less than a week away!  2 hours skiing and a delicious speck, rocket and parmiggiano pizza later, we’re back on the road for another 3 hours.

Tomorrow is the official training day on the track, then race Saturday and Sunday.

Will keep you posted!!