Cali

Post #58

Berkeley, California - Two weeks have already flown by since the last World Cup of the 2011 season. Although I'm all adjusted to US living now, it was a bit of a culture shock during the first few days. The biggest thing for me was being able to understand what everyone here is saying and easily communicate with them. No more games of charades to try to get them to understand what you are talking about! Beyond that, Julie and I joked about how grocery shopping takes about a third of the time here as it did in Europe. We know where everything in the store is and can read all the labels, so it's a cinch.

So we are training in California again. It's a little strange to be back. Last time we were here (in March), things were different. We were in singles, training alongside each other and racing each other every day in preparation for the first NSR. Now it's a whole different story. With a good handful of domestic and international racing under our belts, we're now focused 100% on Worlds. It's still five weeks away, which is actually kind of nice. The World Cups were so close together: by the time we recovered from one, we essentially only had a week and a half of solid work before we started our race prep for the next. Now we've got time to get in good training and be ready to go for the big one in August.

Sunset from the plane. Time to go back to the USA.

Wrapping it up in Lucerne

Post #57

Lucerne, Switzerland - Julie and I raced to a third place finish in yesterday's A final behind the reigning World Champion Canadians and the British crew that beat us back at World Cup I. It was a close race all the way down the course, with us and Great Britain constantly trying to inch ahead of each other. Despite the fact that they nicked us in the final strokes, we were happy to earn ourselves a bronze medal.

Even more exciting, though, is the fact that this bronze, along with our medals from the other World Cups, made us the overall points winners for the 2011 World Cup season. We are the first U.S. crew to ever win a points trophy, and we couldn't be happier about it.

Video of the race (under "Video Archive" and then LW2x)

USRowing press release

We've got a long few days of travel ahead of us as we finally head back to the US. It has been over seven weeks of training and racing in Europe and as much as I love it here, I'm ready to get back to the good ole US of A!

Yellow Jerseys and Points Trophy!

Great Britain, Canada, and USA

World Cup III

Post #56

Lucerne, Switzerland - Yup, it's back to racing again, and this time we're at the last stage of the 2011 World Cup series. Ask any international rower and what their favorite racecourse is and chances are they'll say Lucerne. When I was in college, I remember hearing Erik and other former national team rowers talk about this place like it was a magical. When I came here for the first time in 2009, I finally understood why. The course is on the Rotsee, a body of water framed by green hillsides high enough to keep the wind from churning up the water. It's also just wide enough and long enough for a standard course, so the water stays flat almost all the time. This makes for fair and fast racing. Every so often, you'll see a train go by along the water or hear cowbells clanging on the hillsides, so you really feel like you're having a classic Swiss rowing experience. Even though I've raced here before, it's just as amazing the second time around.

This morning on the Rotsee. Getting ready for early practice!

As if the rowing venue wasn't perfect enough, the Rotsee is just up the hill from Lucerne, which is an incredible place. It has cobblestone streets, old buildings, castles on the hillsides, gorgeous Lake Lucerne (with plenty of swimmers, paddle boaters, and swans) and a canal winding through the city.

Lake Lucerne in the background and the canal through the city.

Canal

Ok, on to the rowing stuff. This event is huge. There are over 900 athletes racing this weekend from fifty nations so you can imagine how packed the boatyard and course (during practice times) are. We've been out for a few practices in the last few days and since I'm sitting in the bow seat, I'm responsible for steering our double. In normal training (i.e. places with not much boat traffic at 6 am), you can turn around to see where you're going every couple minutes. Here, it's often every couple strokes. There's a posted traffic pattern but different countries have different interpretations of it so I have to be ready for anything and everything. Add in the fact that everyone speaks different languages and you get some "interesting" situations. It's a challenge, but always fun to get out there.

Entries are in for our event and this looks to be the most competitive of the World Cups so far, with several notable additions: Canada (reigning World Champs), Australia, and New Zealand, among others. Based on the 24 boats entered, we will have this schedule and progression:

Friday AM: Heats. Winner (out of 6 boats) advances to the semifinal. All other boats to the repechage.

Friday PM: Repechages. Top 2 boats (out of 5) advance to the A/B semifinal, bottom 3 to the C/D semifinal.

Saturday: Semifinals. In the A/B semi, top 3 boats (out of 6) advance to the A final, bottom 3 boats to the B final. Same goes for the C/D semi.

Sunday: Finals.

As with the other World Cups, it's a pretty compressed schedule, but that gives us lots of times down the course. We've gotten so much great international experience this summer and this will be our last test before Worlds in August. Results will be posted here, and there will likely be live video feed on Sunday (link will be posted there).

Go USA!