August 04, 2012 (Val di Fiemme, Italy) – Italian Cross-Country team has been on a long cycling trip from Val di Ledro and paid a visit to the World Championships’ facilities in Lago di Tesero. More than 130km on the bike to take a look at the snow-free World Championships venues in Val di Fiemme and study all the features in a warm sunlight. It was indeed a nice training schedule for the Azzurri, who are carrying out the first important training camp of the season in Val di Ledro (TN) in these days.

Sixteen Italian skiers started early in the morning and in a steady pace arrive in Lago di Tesero by midday. After having taken a few pictures, given couple of interviews and eaten a plate of pasta, the athletes rested for a couple of hours and then started a «reconnaissance tour» of the tracks that will host the World Championships next winter.

“In 200 days we’ll be welcoming the entire world here”,  Nordic Ski Fiemme OC president Pietro De Godenz said, “the venues are ready and we successfully tested them during the pre-worlds last winter. We are preparing a fantastic two-week event and invite everybody to take part in it and enjoy.”

Italian XC National team visited Val di Fiemme yesterday, and took a close look at the stadium where they will be competing in less than seven months. Valerio Checchi, Roland Clara, Giorgio Di Centa, David Hofer, Thomas Moriggl, Fabio Pasini, Federico Pellegrino, Fulvio Scola, Debora Agreiter, Elisa Brocard, Veronica Cavallar, Virginia De Martin Topranin, Greta Laurent, Marina Piller, Silvia Rupil and Gaia Vuerich who were welcomed at the Cross-Country arena by the 2006 Olympic gold medallist Cristian Zorzi, president of the Italian Ski Federation (FISI) Flavio Roda and vice-president Alberto Piccin. The Italians took a close look at the tracks in order to better prepare their races next winter.

Success is built one good foundations and getting to know all the features of the World Championships’ venues is very important in order to carefully schedule the summer training sessions. Knowledge of where it’s important to push hard and how much time is needed for recovery, finding the best strategy and pace to attack the steepest hills and learning the character of the landscape, all these are details can make the difference in high tension and small-margin races.

Besides, training in high altitude is always important and Val di Fiemme offers a good training facilities 1000 meters above the sea level. There are also good training profiles for biking ride from Lago di Ledro to Lago di Tesero, which features a good altitude gain with the climb on the top of San Lugano-pass.

PHOTO Gallery from the training camp HERE.