Tour_2008

I am now involved with a joint project from salomon and nokia together trying a gps phone and using sports tracker software to overlay on maps and satellite imagery where you have been, how fast, and how high. the unique aspect as that you can take photos and upload them together and they appear on the route exactly where they were taken. its working very well with the best aspect of it being the simplicity and ease of use of both the device and the software. after the training day in annecy, france in december last year 6 athletes from around the world were given the nokia n95 8gb phone to use and told to go for it! link below to check out some of my workouts, just click on the workout and you can switch from normal map view to a satellite view and then click on photos as well as high and low points of the route. You can zoom in or out as far as you want to the limit of the aerial photographic resolution

a little bit of winter in the val di fiemme, this pic taken with the phone while on one of my cross country ski adventures click on the image for a full size version

left is a shot high on passo lavazze, fresh snow means a new longer 'giro' of 45km!

antonella shows some italian style in front of the mesner castle in bolzano, to the left is our new, very dirty, audi

this is malga costa, not open in the winter - so no stops for coffee here until the summer!

the german trainer giving 'em beans at the nordic combined world cup event in lago de tesero - val di fiemme

well we had plenty of good days skiing on the nordic ski trails high above the val di fiemme in italy. january has been utilized to complete the consent drawings on an apartment design for italy ziano, italy. it's coming together with a start date for building in april. antonella has competed in several world cup races and is now getting into the business end of the season. she has had two times 13th placings and a 14th so its shaping up as a solid season and just needs that elusive top 10 result

in the middle of a european winter i then took off down to the south of france for some warmth in the sun. a great spot and we had a week together with salomon's pr and product team with workshops and testing of latest and future product. while there we got a few shots trying for press, trying for a bit of drama like running along a cliff edges and jumping trees and rocks.

audi training day on the ice near to auronzo and cortina north east italy..........about to get a TT sideways................the work horse wagon near to cortina, famous for its world cup womens downhill - dicesa libera...................looking out toward cortina d'ampezzo

after a final ski in the val di fiemme its off back to nz, flying through london means losing your bag so i had to wait 1 week for it to arrive this time. there was the nz sportsperson of the year awards and this time i made the finals and it was fantastic to hear from sir murray halberg, john landy and legends of an era of running gone by. having a ride in leyton's (crm racing) tvr was an eye opener - how a car made in the late '70's can hold on to two well ridden sports bikes over the twisties near akaroa...phew! great sights on top of the port hills looking down to akaroa

photos above show the beautiful wanaka landscape, bmw world, janie seddon in motueka, southern alps mountains, chilly bin on lake tekapo, historic church and a photo from mt iron

so while i have been swanning around new zealand from christchurch to motueka to queenstown to wellington to national park to auckland, antonella has been racing world cup cross country skiing and doing it pretty well too. a seasons best 12th in oslo plus 2x14th places in canada and a 13th in czech republic were great results that pushed her well and truly into the top 30 red group.

march has been a bit intense with the training trying to get fit in time to have a crack at a qualifying marathon for the olympics. i will head to zurich as its a flat course and pretty nice race. i am starting to feel a bit fitter now after a torn hamstring last december stuffed any earlier marathon attempts.

i have been out doing a few long runs in some places i have never visited including the routeburn track up to the main pass near queenstown. its a great driving road out to glenorchy with one quite tricky corner that will have you heading into lake wakatipu if you get it wrong! then it was a few nice runs near motueka on the able tasman tracks (zoom in on the new zealand map at: http://sportstracker.nokia.com to check out the runs there inc bridge to nowhere in the central north island)

Another new run was the epic bridge to nowhere track. we jet boated into the bridge to nowhere (the only way in). the bridge to nowhere was built to open up farmland in the '20's but the area was too difficult and rugged so the bridge remains deep in the forest as a reminder of a failed pioneering attempt. the run followed the old road which is now a great track in forest and hill country. with views out to mt taranaki and then also the mountains on the central plateau, it was pretty impressive.

a couple of weddings have been a great way to catch up with all the old crew from back in my early running days. its a good opportunity to train in our great '08 new zealand summer - one of the best yet (although the farmers needing rain wouldn't agree with that!). finishing off this good training period were the nz mountain running champs and was a good catch up time with the mountain running community which, it has to be said was a bit smaller than in the past. the great thing is the enthusiasm for the sport and the nelson club put on a great show. the summit of the race was up on mt campbell and a true gritty mountain running test. for me a last workout on nz shores before trying my luck again in europe...............

vignetttes on (l2r) punakaiki (west coast near to westport), routeburn track (queenstown), mt manganui, oriental bay (wellington), whakahoro forest, able tasman national park (motueka)

(bottom row) able tasman national park (motueka)x2, belmont regional park (lower hutt), wellington city, the bridge to no where (no where! but near wanganui), able tasman national park (motueka)

bugger.......after a good although too short preparation i just couldn't pull it off. so no beijing olympics for me, no challenges of conscience or decisions on whether sport and politics should mix.

i will be cheering on the team but from the mountain tops of europe. my qualifying attempt at the zurich marathon went south when i started to cramp up after 15km. i missed a longer period of training and also some hard racing but the worst was i havent been able to really rely on the hamstring that i busted in december to hold up under pressure. well i gave it a crack!

the consolation was the mountain running champs in motueka before leaving. mountain running new zealand style means a couple of road cones to mark the finish and involves getting down by 4wd from an uphill only race. a home made feast with a cup of tea back a the club rooms afterwards is a welcome reminder of the harrier runs and interclub exchanges we used to take part in as a young fella. article below:

I am undergoing some medical treatment including the use of a tecar machine to stimulate cell repair in the hamstring. i will now get underway with some mountain running work and see if its possible to get some results!

in the meantime if i am getting slack with my website you can check out the latest from me on the salomon moblog blog web blog thingy and either click or copy into your web browser:

we recently found out also that our bridge to no-where run i did with mates callum and paul features on the salomon running international site so that was pretty cool. i wrote up some history about the area which gives it a nice bit of context.

images of the val di fiemme - typical forest runs - antonella, imke, daniella, paul, kim and rs6 on top of passo valles - fontana, ziano di fiemme - suunto training

i am on the road in this period and the first races are now under my belt. it kicked off in italy at a very small race only 40mins drive from where we are staying in val di fiemme. its a kind of a club race so i thought it would be a good way to ease back into mountain running with a distance of only 6km and a climb of 900m it oughtt to be a good hard training effort. however with the arrival of marco gaiardo, gerd frick and hannes runneger at this tiny race it was a lot more challenging than i was thinking and i had to haul ass to get my first win of the season. it had been raining and some of the wooden bridges were like running on soap so i had a nice tumble and a few bruises to show for my efforts - and not much else! (given that it was only a small club event). however having photos with the miss south tirol beauty contestant and a good pasta meal at the top were obvious highlights!

we kept on driving after the race and finished up in annecy, france at the home of salomon to do some product work and also present the range - 2009, to all the country subsidiaries. i took the chance to do some testing for mountain shoes and will be working some more with them in this programme.

cool fashion show for salomon presenting the new range - there is a role reversal here because the people watching walk around the catwalk checking it out. there was food, drink and no dirty clothes afterwards!

annecy (france) is a really nice city with an historic old fortified part and the mountains looming up behind the lake. we also dropped in on chamonix and trained on some of the valley trails. it was 1997 when i last passed through there with callum in the mighty twingo and my how the glacier has receded some hundreds of metres from where i remembered it to be. you can't say global warming isn't happening when you see these things first hand.

time to get serious, and so i have been in switzerland (ovrannaz) for one of the gp races in mountain running. being a sucker for punishment, i ran 2 races in one weekend - with a cross switzerland drive of 4.5 hours to arrive at the second, grabbing 5.5 hours sleep before slogging up in 29 degree heat in grabs (switzerland).

i am trying to run in more new races this year - i always do about 4 or 5 new events per year but will aim for a few more now that i am not on the olympic team. with this in mind i ran from cortina to dobbiaco over an old train line, across ravines and through old tunnels which climbed to a small pass before dropping down again. it was 30km and a point to point race with some great scenery. i ran solidly and the long gradual downhill on the second half really let you stretch out so while it was more training than racing i was for sure a bit stiff and sore the next day! i actually cross country skied part of the course in the winter. it's a lot easier going down on the ski's than running!

the following weekend i headed first to a press conference in merrano (italy) and then over to bludenz (austria) to race the muttersberglauf. this was the course used for the world masters last year and had plenty of good wraps. i hadnt been there before so i decided to head over and take a look. other new races for me this year will be in liechtenstein, skaala op in norway. i am certainly giving the audi a good workout over the passes and autobahns, superstradas and hochalpin strasse!

i had a nice race at the muttersberg, bludenz in austria. this is the home to the redbull bottling plant - every can of redbull is shipped from here and i met plenty of workers - so it's a big operation. interestingly it's not owned by redbull itself. they just contract exclusively to redbull which just concentrates on the marketing. then this place is also home to milka chocolate and my trophy this time was an exact to scale replica of the skiing world cup crystal globe - made from solid chocolate!! about 8kg of chocolate. if i am looking a little bigger in the coming weeks then you know why!

another new track for me which is close to where we live is a small race laivis - petralba in italy. it follows a long valley and finishes below a well know church in the area. it's sunday and bus loads of italians, austrians and germans come here for mass. the race is the oldest in the area at 52 continuous years and organized by the alpini - a club of old guys who wear funny hats and do work in the mountains on huts and tracks and also a enjoy a few ales!

the weekend following was a toughie with the LGT marathon marathon and doubling with the merran2000 wmra grand prix race the next day. the country of liectenstein is pretty small, so small in fact the lgt marathon should be called the tour de liechtenstein because the marathon course makes a tour of the entire country from the Rhine valley and the capital city (or more accurately speaking town) of vaduz to the ski area of malbun. The country measures 160 sq km. for sure it is a beautiful and scenic track, one of the nicest races i have done in fact. the main sponsor (lgt) is the bank owned by the prince and his family and he rules the country. the currency and many rules are tied to switzerland and with more than 100,000 companies registered in the country with a flat tax rate of 1000 euro per year it is quite a good little earner for a small country - and obviously pretty good for the companies also! income tax of the inhabitants is also around 20-25%. a really fascinating little place.

next day the meran gp race was a tough ask. i felt ok and when nobody contested the 4km sprint prime i thought bugger it why not give it a go so i went for that and built up a gap. i was joined a short time later by timo zeiler (germany) and marco gaiardo (italy) and timo pushed the pace all the way up the steep climb. he was going well but with only 2km to go i was still there hanging on so i went for it on a flatter section, got 20s lead and then had to grind my up the final climb (see photo below). also in the photo 2 other kiwi's; anna frost 2nd in the woman's race and scott winton trying his first ever mountain race (number 8). antonella ran very well to podium considering she runs 2 times per week for 40mins! with the cross country ski training she is now not concentrating on running at all but making good progress with the ski. the shot of the last climb near the finish is incredibly steep, up the top of a ski piste.

I am really trying to race myself into shape in this period by trying to do some longer races as part of an extended build-up and even doubling up for some weekends with some heavy workloads. so 7 races within a 3 week period is some workload! with the races being mostly uphill events the faster work is getting me in shape and with no downhill running the recovery is very quick.

another hard weekend just gone was running another couple of races with a late night drive between them. at all worked out ok although the saturday marathon was pretty hot and so tough to get down the fluids and eat. of course climbing 1400m in the final 11km also made it tough! this was the graubunden marathon and it finished at the 2890m high rothorn. i was feeling quite dizzy with the altitude and the 3 and a half hours under the sun by the finish of that, so i was into the coca cola and oranges at the top. there is also a full-on restaurant up there so its great being there surrounded by all the big mountains of switzerland.

the euro masters champs were also held there in conjunction with the marathon where they ran the final part of the marathon course from 1800 - 2890m in 6.5km - so it gives you an idea of how steep it was. after a pasta prize giving and then another superb dinner at the schweizerhof-lenzerheide we headed off to back to italy over the juliapass from davos and the forno pass from zernez and into the val venosta in sud tirol italy where after catching a few hours sleep lined up on a very hot italian day to race up another 5.5km and 500m climb. it's a superb little race this and really encapsulates a lot of the things that make mountain running a great sport and tradition. the race wound up a nice forest path, past a church before arriving outside the top station of a cable car. there was plenty of race 'war' stories at the top (in 3 or 4 different languages) with lots of drink and cake, fruit and chocolate. there were a heap of prizes - most of them involving food or alcohol with a heap of local produce which includes the austrian style speck, sausage and the superb red wine that this area is famous for. after the race we all head down in what was a pretty old and small cable car - if it was any other region of italy i would have been worried but here in south tirol (german speaking) they do look after and maintain things pretty well.

meanwhile antonella was down close to rome and racing in an entirely different sport. here she is in a ski-rol world cup race. it shows you how they do their summer training (ie when there isn't snow for cross country skiing). antonella's website

its already been a strange summer here (global warming and all that) and at the neirivue - moleson in the french part of switzerland we had a storm come through on the top part of the course and they had to stop the race. i got to the finish line along with about 80 out of the 300 strong field but all the years of battling the southerly winds in wellington's winter came in handy up there with the high winds and sleet near the top of the 2100m high mountain! it feels very french in the town where i stayed there (bulle) although the swiss don't like being associated with france. unusually for switzerland, english is not often spoken here.

i had the chance to visit leutasch (austria) where i had my home base for the '04 and '05 seasons as well as bergen (germany) where i often used to stay in my early mountain running years. nothing changes in these places, the nuns still wander around the forest paths (there is a big convent in bergen) and they still run the largest bottling plant in bavaria.

another new run (run being the operative word - in the loosest sense) since there was a fair amount of climbing up to the peak, ie using ropes and hands. its a strange thing in a race to be standing at the bottom of a rock face thinking 'ok, if i go this way i might gain some time, but i could also fall about 40m if i get it wrong!' i just ran it like a hard training effort, pushing hard the climbs but going easy on the down and tricky bits. spectacular stuff - especially with a helicopter filming and flying right next to you as you traverse the ridge. on the same theme i thought it might be nice to try a vertical k. i was a bit naive however, and with 90% of the track a walking race it really wasn't well suited either to my training or my style of running. trying to use a couple of ski poles really hindered rather than helped too!

well, its been a tough little period with feeling a bit flat - looking at the programme it's a hectic schedule but there have been some really good and interesting events i have done this year and was feeling a better in the race in telfes, austria. compared to this time last year - i have raced in 10 more events than at the same time last year so that is for sure making a difference. i was pleased to be able to go to rosendal, norway again this year and the race while being short and tough is just a small part of an interesting festival weekend in the town. this year ingrid christiansen - (norway's most successful woman's distance runner) was a guest so it was good to have a chat with her. she was a professional cross country skier before turning to running. we had plenty of time to enjoy 5 days in a hotel/spa resort further north in norway - the nights are short and daylight hours long. the sauna and spa area is pretty flash and the food choice is something to behold - like a luxury version of an olympic village. speaking of which - i have had a bit of couch potato time watching it.....time to get out training!

couple of shots from races in norway and austria - top and right, skaala opp in norway and left is the grossglocknerlauf from austria (photo courtesy of pete hartley pete@petehartley.fsnet.co.uk)

running with a 2.5kg bag is a little different and races in norway are steep from fjord to snow with a lot of technical rocks to run over - great courses and some hard racing against the local runners such as john tvedt who kept things honest.

i had a start in the tour of germany cycling race prologue as a vip - along with some nordic combined guys, former cyclists, the olympic triathlon champion and skiers. a flat out 3.7km ride down into kitzbuehel (austria). i had to launch off the starting ramp and had motorcycle escorts (no team car though!). caution prevailed and cornering was not exactly great, especilly through the cobbled street section. great fun though and hope to get a photo or two up soon. still in kitzbuehel, i stayed there and on sunday ran in the kitzbuehelerhornlauf - unusually for mountain running it's a road race with an average gradient about 12% and its a tough climb. just a beautiful day up there looking out over the austrian mountains and one of the longest prizegivings known to man! the race took me less than one hour but the prize giving was a real endurance, test going for just under 3 hours!

folowing on from this we had a

event in kitzbuehel with fritz stroebl as guest and he showed how we should race down the hannenkamm piste which they use for world cup skiing. it is frighteningly steep with a blind jump of 60m and a top speed of 140km! i will try get over to watch the race this year in january.

the business end of the season is now upon us and i have really enjoyed the team race in the dolomitenmann and so am again in lienz (austria) for this. the paragliders were not able to fly on the normal track and there was talk about changing the run because of this but in the end we went to the normal peak, a pretty steep one with a total 1900m of uphill running over about 8km since there are 4km of flat in this 12km running.

now it's the world trophy, and i am relaxed about this now. i have done plenty this year and another title would be great but its not the motivation like it used to be so i will go into it with a solid expectation and no stress........well in the end it was plenty stressful! a long hard last 2km after the steep but undulating early climbs saw me take the title for the 6th time in crans-montana, switzerland. must have been an exciting race to watch since i was 50m back in the last 2km before gaining some ground and then overhauling the leader in the last 500m. i knew it was so important to get a gap as soon as possible so i went for it and was surprised to arrive on the road with a 6-8s lead which i was able to extend to 12s at the finish. no one was more surprised than me at the finish. i was probably not the best athlete there on the day but i was able to hang in there and give one big push at the death. the irony was that with 500m to go we ran alongside the cemetery so giving it death took on a whole new perspective!

it was a well organised event, great atmosphere and good way to finish the last ever world trophy because finally from now there will be a world championship of mountain running starting next year, maybe....if a host country can be found!

high above the val di fiemme with lots of small lakes and views to the surrounding mountains

now it's just a slog to the end of the season. with the amount of races i have done so far i am looking forward to a break but i can keep going for a few more weeks....i think!

the tour de tirol is a tough way to finish a long season but i got to the end of it and with a 15min advantage over the 2nd place after the kaiser-mountain marathon (42.2km with 2500m+) i could relax a little on sunday's half marathon. i was pretty shattered though by the end of it.

yes, its all over now - a big long season, thanks to all the supporters, family sponsors and friends. its a great community mountain running and even with a bit of disappointment to not be ready to qualify for the olympic team it was still a great pleasure to run in the mountains this summer

run down	2008 season
date	race	result	time	distance	location
23 feb	pier to pier	1st	16min 39s	5km	christchurch, new zealand
10 mar	kaiteriteri half marathon	1st	about 70min	21.1km	kaiteriteri, new zealand
12 april	new zealand mountain running championships	1st	1hr 08 mins	14.5km 1295m+	motueka, new zealand
20 april	zurich marathon	15th	2hr23mins	42.2km	zurich, switzerland
18 may	bronzolo - aldino	1st rr	36min	6km 900m +	bronzolo, italy
24 may	Saillons - Ovronnaz WMRA GP1	1st	46min 02s	10km 800m +	saillons les bains, switzerland
25 may	gamperney berglauf	1st	45min 26s	8.8km 981m +	grabs, switzerland
1 june	cortina - dobbiaco run	2nd	1hr 42min	30km 350m +/-	cortina, italy
7 june	muttersberglauf	1st rr	36min 03s	7.8km 850m +	bludenz, austria
8 june	laivis - petralba	1st	51min 37s	10km 1250m +	laivis, italy
14 june	lgt marathon	1st rr	2hr 56min	42.2km 1800m+, 600m-	vaduz, liechtenstein
15 june	merrano2000 WMRA GP1	1st rr	1hr 15min 57s	14km 1600m+	merrano, italy
22 june	maranza berglauf	1st rr	47min 54s	10km 800m+	maranza
28 june	graubunden marathon	1st	3hr 30min 33s	42.2km 2682+, 402-	lenzerheide, switzerland
29 june	algunder berglauf	1st	33min 00s	5.65km, 517m+	lagundo, italy
6 july	neirivue - moleson	1st	59min 36s	10km, 1250m+	bulle, switzerland
13 july	otscher berglauf	2nd	1hr 48min	20km 1150m+/-	lackenhof, austria
18 july	vertical k. sky games canazei	7th	35min	3.0km 1000m +	canazei, italy
20 july	grossglocknerlauf	1st	1hr 12min 01s	12.7km 1494m +	heligenblut, austria
27 july	italian mountain running championship	3rd	44min 06s	10.4km 800m+	adrara, san martino, italy
3 aug	schlickeralmlauf WMRA GP1	1st	58min14s	11km 1310m+	telfes, austria
10 aug	nuten op, rosendal	1st	35min 25s	3.7km 897m+	rosendal, norway
16 aug	skaala uphill	1st	1hr08min42s	8.2km 1814m+	loen, norway
24 aug	memorial di partiggianni (challenge stellina)	1st	1hr18min01s	14.5km 1695m+, 235m-	susa, italy
29 aug	deustchlandrundfahrt prolog - cycling	162nd	4min 51s	3.7km	kitzbuehel, austria
31 aug	kitzbuehlerhornlauf	1st	58min 51s	12.9km 1234m+	kitzbuehel, austria
6 sept	dolomitenmann	1st	1hr 22min	12km 1950m+	lienz, austria
7 sept	achenseelauf salomon training run	8th	1hr 27min 36s	23km	pertisau, austria
14 sept	world trophy	1st	55min04s	12km 1046m+, 120m-	crans montana, switzerland
21 sept	campionato lungho distanza	5th	1hr40	24.5km 1500m+, 1400m-	civizano (tn), italy
27 sept	schneeberglauf WMRA GP2	1st	53min	9.8km 1200m+	puchberg, austria
28 sept	hochfelln berglauf	2nd	42min13s	8.9km 1001m+	bergen, germany
4 oct	smarna gora WMRA GP1 final	4th	41min 42s	9km 710m+, 350m-	lubjiana, slovenia
10,11,12 oct	tour de tirol	1st	4hr 51min 23s	10km, 42.2km, 21.1km	bad haring, austria
6 dec	kollsassberglauf - christmasfunlauf			8km, 600m+	kollsass, austria