Well,
it's winter, and although we're having tornados in London, the snow isn't
where
it's supposed to be. That said, there's
still hope. 12cm of snow fell
near Lillehammer
today, and there's enough snow in Hochfilzen for the biathlon
this
weekend...
We hope
you can get in some rollerskiing in the absence of anything snow-like!
Mike
Dixon, GB's most accomplished biathlete, will be giving a talk tomorrow
afternoon
(Sat 9th) at 16.30 in the Mitre Pub near Paddington. All are invited
and entry is £5. To book, go to http://www.rollerski.co.uk/nr033.html
An
alternative tomorrow (Sat 9th) is the LRNSC's annual mulled wine and
mince pie tour of Richmond Park. This excellent adventure begins at 16.00 at
the Sheen Gate of the Park. This is easy to get to – simply catch a direct
train from Waterloo / Vauxhall / Clapham / Putney / Richmond to Mortlake
station and walk 10 minutes up Sheen Lane.
Streetmap
ref -http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=520500&y=174594&z=1&sv=520500,174594&st=4&ar=Y&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf
The
tour is free, but non-members may expect to be recruited to the club for
2007!
We have
a number of courses and classes starting in January, for anyone keen to
get a
good start to your year's skiing (and maybe lose the Christmas calories).
Highlights
include –
Saturday
6th January – 4-week skating course, Hyde Park
Sunday 7th
January – 4-week classic course, Hyde Park
Sunday
14th January – 1-day classic & skating course, Dorney Lake
Further
information on http://www.rollerski.co.uk/events.html
Regular
class sessions continue in Hyde Park, Dorney and Richmond Park – see
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/class.html
With
Waymark Holidays we are arranging a trip to the Engadin Ski marathon in
March
2007. Combining this trip with rollerskiing in the months beforehand will
help
you make the most of your time on snow, and ski faster over the 42km
course!
The
trip will include flights, transfers, accommodation, on-snow instruction,
race
entry and ski waxing help. For more information see http://www.rollerski.co.uk/cross.html - or
contact Waymark on 01753 215185.
We've
just received information on the Tirol Trophy race series. This is another
interesting
series of ski marathons taking place in the Austrian and Italian
Tirol.
Do all 3 races in the series and you get a souvenir medal – gold if you
come
close to the top of the field; silver if you're in the middle and bronze if
you
make it round!
More
information on http://www.tiroltrophy.com/
and http://www.rollerski.co.uk/nf003.html
Time to
start thinking about the British Champs for anyone interested, at least
in
terms of training. We've also been reminded that all competitors need race
insurance.
This year the main races will be classic 15k on Saturday 28th,
skating
10k on the Sunday and a 4x10k relay on the Tuesday (ladies / youth
distances
are shorter). Biathlon races follow on. More information on
http://www.britishbiathlon.com/
This
week some of GB's elite canoeists took to the rollerskis at Dorney Lake.
Each
year the squad spends a week cross-country skiing in the Pyrennees, and
coach
Shaun Cavan was telling me how impressed he was with the results of the
camp,
particularly with the VO2 max improvements noted in his athletes.
After a
fairly respectable start in November, everyone was beginning to wonder
where
all the snow's gone? The good news is that - according the Nordseter
website
in Norway - (http://www.nordseter.no/)
there has been 12cm of snow today.
Fingers
crossed for a good season.
Less
encouraging are pictures from Hochfilzen, Austria, which shows enough snow
to ski
on - just – http://www.nordicskiracer.com/cgi-bin/news/news_item.asp?NewsID=1111
This
new book on cross-country skiing looks set to become the UK's best-selling
cross-country
ski book this month. We have stocks available and you can place
your
order at – http://www.rollerski.co.uk/books.html - or buy
one at a
rollerski
session.
--
Iain
Ballentine
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Roller
ski instruction & cross-country skiing
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W: http://www.rollerski.co.uk/
M:
07968 286129
T: 020
8348 2540
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The
Rollerski Co Ltd 2006
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