CCC JUNIOR B-TOUR

The Junior B Tour wrapped up on Sunday at the OPA (European Continental Cup) races in Campra Switzerland. A happy and tired group of skiers then headed back to Canada, after an exciting European adventure.

Campra Results

Wed. Feb. 3rd.

"Today was one of the most relaxing days of the trip so far, we skied in the morning at the Campra Nordic Centre before heading down into the valley for groceries. On the way back to the hotel we managed to get a tour of the KV+ ski pole factory, where all their products are made on site. Tomorrow there should be more teams arriving for the official training day, we’re all excited to race!” - Gareth Williams

Thurs. Feb. 4th.

"We're down to our last 4 days of the trip with one more day before the OPA Cup. After a good breakfast we all did some race prep intensity to get us feeling good before our races. Now on to a nice afternoon of relaxing and stretching to reset and get ready to give it all we've got for our 3 final races here in Switzerland." - Mia Serratore

Fri. Feb. 5th.

"Friday was our classic sprint day. It was about a 700m race course that we had to do twice in order to do 1,4km. The race course was particular since there was 5 big uphills but none of them were "strideable" we had to run and duck walk all of them. There was some up and downs for the results but I think we all agree that it was a difficult sprint but also very fun! To finish the day some of us watched The Martian to relax a bit!" - Laura Leclair

Sat. Feb. 6th.

"The forecast was calling for anywhere from 30cm to 0cm of snow during Friday night so most athletes were pleased to wake up to crisp and crunchy corduroy, albeit slightly sugary hills for Saturday's race. The women were first to start with a 7.5/10km skate interval start for junior and senior respectively and the men second with a 10/15km. This was now the fifth race of the B-tour for us and we were starting to see some familiar faces and get to know the competition. There were some speedy quick Europeans, hardcore efforts by our team and tough lessons learnt today. All in all, another day well spent developing ourselves as elite cross country skiers gaining experience in Europe." - Julian Smith

Sun. Feb. 7th.

"Aujourd'hui c'était la dernière course de notre expérience européenne. On s'élançait pour une poursuite classique basée sur les temps de la courte distance skate d'hier. Les précipitations prévues depuis quelques jours nous ont finalement atteintes.... Les conditions étaient donc molles et difficiles pour le fartage avec toute cette fraiche neige et le thermomètre indiquant autour de 0 celcius. Les filles s'élançaient en premières et avec le peu de temps que les farteurs ont eu pour tester étant donné la grosse bordée de neige, les skis n'étaient malheureusement pas optimals. Cependant les farteurs se sont bien repris pour les gars qui ont en général eu une bonne journée.

Mentionnons Étienne Hébert de Montériski qui remonta 13 positions pour terminer premier Canadien, au 22e rang chez les Juniors. Nous sommes tous très content d'avoir eu l'opportunité de participer au Tour B. Il y a un petit pincement au coeur en pensant au retour au Canada qui nous attend, mais ce n'est qu'un aurevoir!" - Delphine