Continental Cup in Ramsau, Austria

Cross Country Stadium in Ramsau, Austria

This past weekend was another weekend of Continental Cup (COC) competitions, located in the town of Ramsau, Austria. On the first day of competition the athletes competing for the USA were myself, Ben Berend, Taylor Fletcher, and Adam Loomis. Unfortunately I was not feeling very well as I had come down with a small cold the day before. On the day of the comp I ignored it and did my best to compete without it affecting me. This COC competition was one of the harder ones of the year as most of the World Cup athletes are preparing for World Championships, however the athletes that compete on the World Cup and did not make their countries World Champ team were here to compete. On the jump hill I had a bad showing not putting my best foot forward. Ben Berend and Taylor Fletcher had good jumps putting them in the high 20s to start the race. Adam was just behind them in the high 30s and I was starting the race in 51st place. Besides the sickness and the bad jump I was still able to have a fun race which ended up being a fairly good race time as well. I was able to move up to 44th position which is not my best but ok for the position that I started in. Taylor blew away the rest of the field and took a commanding win which was very exciting for team USA. Adam had a great race skiing up to 20th place and Ben ended up in 40th place

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The next day I chose to sit out in order to get over my sickness as quick as I could. Adam and Taylor didn’t compete as well in order to properly prepare themselves for World Championships. Ben Loomis, Michael Ward, and Colin Delaney stepped in to compete on the second day with Ben Berend. Ben Berend had a better jump putting him into 20th place to start the race, Ben Loomis had a solid jump putting him in 43rd to start the race. Colin and Michael started the race in the high 50s. Ben Berend had a great race and stayed in points finishing in 30th place, Ben Loomis ended up in the low 40s and Colin ended up in the high 50s. 

The K90 meter hill in Ramsau

I was very bummed to leave Ramsau as it is one of my favorite towns to ski and train in. After the competition on Sunday we then drove to Planica, Slovenia my home away from home to train for several days before the next weekend of COC competitions. We split from the World Champ boys as they started their journey to Falun. We were able to get two solid days of training on the big hill in Planica which helped my jumping a large amount as I made some great improvements. I also was able to get lots of sleep and get over my sickness completely. Ben Loomis, Michael Ward, and Colin Delany and I are now headed to Klingenthal, Germany for our last weekend of COC competitions. If you would like to see how we do in GER this weekend you can click here to look at results. 

Team USA skiing down the valley of Ramsau