Squad in the tunnel (photo: Brinkema Brothers)

I just finished up a camp with the US Ski Team in Sweden. I went a week early to Trondheim, Norway to get my feet under me training a bit with my teammate Zak Ketterson.

Running in the bog, Norwegian tourist trap

5x4.5km classic intervals at the Granasen rollerski track in Trondheim. Really fun stuff!

Lots of fun chill training happened that week!

It was nice to have a few days of lying low to adjust to the time change, and then also come into the first part of camp in Torsby, Sweden with a small travel day. I really wanted to take advantage of the time in Torsby because a big chunk of that training was in a ski tunnel! It’s exactly what it sounds like: a refrigerated tunnel with snow that they groom for cross country skiing. We also did a few rollerski races during our time together.

Rossi boys in the tunnel! I didn’t get many pictures in there, but you can get most of the idea from the two tunnel pictures in this blog…

It’s a big endeavor for all of us to travel to Europe, so adding a trip in the middle of our training season might seem silly when we all have great places to train at home. The camps we do in the U.S. are super high-quality too, but the difference for this one is the timing to hit on-snow time and high-level specific races in the middle of summer, basically the farthest from snow and racing we get throughout the year. Southern Sweden had just what we needed for that, with the snow tunnel only 3 hours bus ride from the location of an elite-level rollerski race series in Trollhattan. We spent 9 days in the tunnel doing one session a day on skis, and another session dryland. We really emphasized good technique work in the fridge, and then opted to do some intensity in the tunnel and some rollerskiing.

Chill rollerskiing, because who wants to be underground skiing on a day like this!!

The first race we did was 40km away in a town called Sunne. A skate sprint at about 5pm through the middle of town. It was pretty flat, but had tons of fun corners that really made it feel spicy! The boys did well there, going 1-3-4-6 in the final, with everyone qualifying. (Also our Swedish guest Emma Ribbon won the women’s race!) That field was weaker than in Trollhattan, but still had the German national team and some other big names like Calle Halfvarsson!

The next races were a bigger production: a skate sprint, 48km classic mass start, and 15km classic individual start. We had another good day in the sprint, with Ben winning the qualifier, 3 guys in a semi, Rosie 3rd, and Emma winning again! The next day was tougher for a lot of the guys, with a bunch of broken pole parts, and lots of grinding alone, but Rosie held it together for us in 3rd. We were all pretty beat up the third day, but Luke pulled together a sick 9th place, and Rosie winning.

Previewing the long distance course in MUCH nicer weather than we had mid race. It was absolutely pouring the whole time for us!

Cool bridge along the canal in Trollhattan

Now we’re tired and ready to go home. Parting ways for a bit until our October camp in Park City. But now we have a little more insight on what we need to work on before winter hits in a few short months! Excited to recover a bit then get back to working on getting better. But I think we’re in a good place to crush it when the snow falls.