Lake Placid to Europe

Posted byjaydearbornPosted inAdventures

Date: January 24, 2022

Location: Europe

Lake Placid, US

Quick transition from the NAC races in Lake Placid, I got home around 9pm and had a flight out of Ottawa the next afternoon to Riga, Latvia to meet up with the team on the World Cup tour.

Phoebe was not much help packing.

Sigulda, Latvia / Tallinn, Estonia

I was met at the airport in Riga by a teammate (Mike) and his girlfriend (Erin) who had come to visit for Christmas!

They had a place in Riga that we went to, picked up a quick parking ticket, and then I continued on to Sigulda, Latvia to stay where the rest of the team was.

The team had a couple of days off over Christmas, so Mike, Erin and I went to Tallinn, Estonia for a couple nights (~4hrs north).

Christmas market in Tallinn
Christmas market in Tallinn
Old town area in Tallinn (Vanalinn)
Old town area in Tallinn (Vanalinn)
Old town area in Tallinn (Vanalinn)
The place we stayed was on the second floor
Drive home from Tallinn to Sigulda

Headed off to Winterberg, Germany for the next race weekend. Flew from Riga to Frankfurt, and then drove to Winterberg.

Winterberg, Germany

Flight from Riga to Frankfurt
Sled trucks we use while in Europe to transport the bobsleighs. Can fit 2 in the back, along with tools, gear, and bags!
The lower of the two slopes is the bobsleigh start (above is the luge start I believe). I like to take a peek at it when I get to the track to get a feel for the grade of the slope and begin to picture where I want to run to, and where I want to begin my load into the sled.
Raced in the 2man race in Winterberg! Those marks on the helmet are from folding forward in my seat and resting my head on the brake handles. No major impacts, just a lot of vibrations as you slide down the track.

Finished 10th in my first ever World Cup race! Drive from Winterberg to St Moritz, Switzerland.

St Moritz, Switzerland

Quite the drive as we neared the mountains in Switzerland!

Drive along the lake on the way to the hotel
Hotel Europa – my room was top left of the upper part of the hotel in this picture.
Walking near the lake just in front of the hotel. The view from my room was of this same mountain.
Went for some walks around the area with Mike
Went for some walks around the area with Mike
The Start area of the bobsleigh track. To the left is where the sleds wait, and to the right under the banner is the start line.
Better view of the area where the sleds wait, and the start can be seen below the white sheets which are used to help keep snow from blowing onto the track.
On the start line with pilot Taylor Austin.
Various things fell the right way for me, but I was given an opportunity to race with Cam, Ryan, and Justin Kripps in the 4man race!

In the 2man races, I got to go with Taylor Austin and we finished 18th! The next day I races with Team Kripps as the brakeman and we finished 5th! That was my first time ever down the track in a 4man sled, so there were definitely some nerves. As the brakeman, when I load in a 4man sled, I have to make sure the push bars on the right and left are brought in. We had 2nd and 3rd ranked starts which was super exciting for my first race. The guys I pushed with did a good job during the days leading up to the race at making me feel confident which helped a lot.

After the races we packed up the next morning and drove to Königssee, Germany for a holding period between the final race and the Olympics.

Königssee, Germany

We had some time here to relax for a couple of days and train in a nice indoor facility in Salzburg, Austria.

Training facility is Salzburg, Austria
The track in Königssee was partially washed out by a mud slide a few years ago and is no longer in use.

The Olympic Team athletes were announced during this week and I was amongst those named!

We are here until the 26th when we fly to Beijing, China for the 2022 Winter Olympics!

2 thoughts on “Lake Placid to Europe”

Leave a reply to lizshibley Cancel reply