Off to Italy for the World Cup

Here we go. It's race time now. I'm sitting in the lounge at the Calgary airport on a layover waiting for the next leg of my flight to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to Milan, Italy. Our team will be spending 8 days in Italy in a little place called Erba. It is located about 1.5 hours outside of Milan and is a place that we have come many times for training camps in the past. It is important that we are able to make the 9 hour time shift from our homes in Victoria. We won't have a lot of time to get this done and the training that we do there will be paramount to our success at World Cup # 2 in Lucerne Switzerland May 30-June 1.
As I mentioned in my communicator article, this regatta will serve as our pre-Olympic race and it wil be our only chance to show our speed and measure ourselves against the rest of the world. 4 years ago we raced 3 times in the Olympic year and it was just too much. It never felt like we ever got into a groove during that summer. We were constantly in a state of racing. Since 6 of us were there, we decided this time to focus on one regatta then come home prepare for the Olympics.
The Men's Eight will be coming home after Lucerne but the rest of our heavymen's team will go back to Erba for another training camp then head to Poland for the final Olympic Qualification Regatta. They did not secure spots at the worlds last year and must now do so in Poland around June 15. If you hear about crews qualifying in the paper but don't see any mention of us....thats because we have already qualified.

This is a pretty exciting time. I love racing in Lucerne. It is a beautiful city and an amazing course. Dead straight stretch of land in the middle of town, perfect for a rowing venue. It's rarely ever windy but if it is, you're looking at a tail wind or headwind....never a cross wind.

We didn't attend the first World Cup Regatta this year in Munich where the Australian Men's Eight came in a won over Great Britain and China. They basically stormed out of the blocks throwing everything at it in the first 600m then everyone else slowing started to catch up. We'll see if they do it again in Lucerne or if they try a different approach. The Germans finished fourth which isn't a good result at all with it being on your home turf, but they always seem to suck early in the season then get better through the summer so we expect to see a much better german boat . I'm not sure if the US will be there, but you can be sure they will be contenders, they're always fast.

So the main crews will be the Aussies, British, China and the USA if they show up.

Well....I have to catch a flight, but I will try and keep the updates coming while we are on this 2 week World Cup trip.

For all your Rowing needs visit; www.row2k.com or www.worldrowing.com

Brian