Campra Swiss Loppet 21km

Went to do Swiss Loppet in Campra.
Campra is a nice cross country ski area in Italien part of Switzerland.

My friend from SAS Zurich Reto shared an appartement with me before the race and gave me a ride to Campra and back to the train station. Thanks a lot, Reto!!! Without you I'd hardly make it to do this race, it is indeed difficult to get there without car.

The snow melted almost everywhere in Switzerland. Some people say it is not because of Global warming, it is natural. Whatever... In any case it is sad when in January you can ski only above 1500 meters.

Campra is about that height.
There was snow of course, but it was quite wet. Rain (and later rain/snow) was falling down.
I tried both my new atomic skis on the track, did not really feel the difference. Tried Reto's fischer.
Seemed as his skis were slightly better. Then Reto offered to put liquid wax on my skis. I agreed,
since was not very happy with the glide.

Race was 21km, 3 laps of 7km. The beginning of race is quite hilly for a Swiss Loppet, and the next 4 km are quite flat. First lap went quite well, my Atomic skis were (!) best on downhill among first 6-7 people. I was much better than guys on Fischer/Rossi/Madshus. I can't say if it was liquid wax that Reto gave me. The conditions were very wet and track was very soft, poles were sinking into snow from time to time. I had toko LF (-4 0) on my skis with no specific structure. In any case I was very satisfied with my skis.

Second lap we started four of us and two-three more guys reached us on the first uphill. On the second and longest uphill Simone Paredi (italien rollerskier) started to accelerate and created a gap. We tried to catch him and I went to red heart rate zone. I should've let them go, but I did not. I was a big mistake. My heart rate went on to 186 (while my anaerobic threshold is 177).

Afterwards there was a small downhill, a bit of flat course and long not steep but still uphill. There it was hard, I hit the wall. It became better on the flat area and by the end of the second lap I was passed by another skier. The third lap went kind of ok. But by the end of this lap two more guys almost caught me. I hardly noticed them, I thought these two guys were fighting with each other. Well it turned out, they were catching me!!! I had to work hard not to allow them to get my 6th place. My leg still was first, but they almost made it.

First mass-start in the season. I definitely overestimated my strengths. Next race will be more carefull :)
6th, 2min31 to the first (Andrea Florinett from SAS Zurich, he is strong!!)
1  Florinett Andrea 1979       53:06.22
2  Paredi Simone 1982          53:07.35 1.13
3  Joller Bruno 1980              53:24.38 18.16
4  Dieter Felix 1972              53:40.95 34.73
5  Grab Pascal 1984               54:40.26 1:34.04
6  Bogdanov Evgeny 1983    55:38.14 2:31.92
7  Bianchi Eugenio 1985       55:38.16 2:31.94
8  Graf Urs 1975                    55:38.91 2:32.69
9  Suter Thomas 1982           57:14.71 4:08.49
...

Results are here.