Sophie Caldwell: Liberec

January 8th was the skate sprint and final race at Nationals. It was an exciting day and I ended up 2nd behind Sadie. I felt very relaxed and fast in my qualifier and had the fastest qualifying time of the day! I felt pretty good in the heats but didn't quite have the pop I hoped to have in the final stretch and could never quite figure out the big downhill draft at the end of the course. For some reason, I would always get really flustered on that downhill and would come around the final turn in a less than ideal position, but I learned a lot and overall it was a great day!

Lunge for the line (fasterskier photo)

post lunge (fasterskier photo)

Sophie, Sadie, Jennie (fasterskier photo)

hugging it out with sadie after the classic race (fasterskier photo)

The day after the sprint race at Nationals, Sadie, Erik, Skyler, and I flew to Liberec to race in the World Cup that weekend. We arrived on Thursday and raced on Saturday so it was a quick turnaround but we were all psyched to be there! I ended up 38th in the sprint that day so I didn't make the rounds. I was a little disappointed at first but I was only about a second away from top 30 and while Sadie, Ida, and I all just missed the heats, I think we're all capable of qualifying. The course took us just over two minutes because there wasn't enough snow to use the original course so it was shortened to one 850 m lap while the men did two laps. The race was over before I knew it and I didn't have that lung burn I was getting in Utah so I'm going to work on getting my sea level speed back before the sprint at U23s on Tuesday! It was also really exciting to watch Andy finish 6th in the sprint! On Sunday I watched Sadie and Ida kick butt in the team sprint, qualifying for the finals and coming in 7th!

Onesie! (Skitrax photo)

Erik, Skyler, Gus and I stayed in Liberec this week rather than driving to Ramsau for the pre U23 camp. It would have made for two long days of driving and we thought we would have some decent skiing around here. It turns out that there is some decent skiing around here but there hasn't been decent skiing right here. One day we drove about 20 mins and went for an awesome ski with plenty of snow, lots of kms, and tons of people out enjoying themselves. The other days that we've tried to ski at the race venue haven't been as successful but we hear they are supposed to have 2.5km groomed this afternoon. Erik and I did manage to ski for 1.5 hrs on a 500m (that's being generous) out-and-back on the sprint course and yesterday I did some intervals on another section of the sprint course. We are staying in the WEIRDEST hotel I've ever been in, complete with a water park, bowling alley, casino, night club, multiple restaurants, a rain forest room, a wellness center, mini shopping mall, arcade games, and live animals. It's huge and I've gotten lost several times but I'm starting to get the hang of it and even found the most direct route to the parking garage and got to our car before the boys did. Our first lunch here was a terrible experience and Gus accidentally ordered fried cheese and had one of the least appetizing desserts I've ever seen but since discovering the meal plan it has definitely improved. Some of the US team arrived last night and the rest are arriving today and I'm especially excited for my roommate, Annie Hart, to come because I've been holding down a lonely single all week! I haven't taken many pictures and the internet isn't super speedy but here are a few from the past week. World Juniors kicks off with a classic sprint on Monday and my first race will be the U23 classic sprint on Tuesday!