After Kozakov we were ready for anything.
Our first stop took us to the Boneless Skate Shop in Munich. A huge amount of groms were hovering around the big Shop in the heart of the city. We got to say hello, shake hands and sign some boards before we went for a sweet freeride on the one and only hill in Munich. A good day with good people!
The rest of the time we had before Teolo, we spent in the most beautiful area in northern Italy. The Dolomites! Unfortunately, the Italian Police decided that all those “teams” were too much for them and we ended up spending half a day in Venice. Boat trip, sights every 10 meters, never ending streams of tourists and buildings that could probably tell the most incredible stories! Teolo is only one hour further north east of Venice. We were happy to finally leave historical and way too overcrowded Venice.
The first run down Teolo was…very different from the first one in Kozakov. It is a different kind of challenge in Italy. I’ll give you a quick run down the track: push as much and as far as you can and then tuck smaller than you ever have. The first left turn is the entrance to a sequence of very tight and slow haipins, the last one of these leads into a sweeping straight to the finish line. It is not the most exciting race track but it is definitely very demanding to get a fast line down this track.
Other things are becoming fun on the hill. Pack runs, video runs, chasing people through hairpins, constantly searching for the line that gives you the most exit speed. Pumping and pushing out of turns becomes very fashionable under these circumstances. I have to admit, I kept trying to convince myself to push at least out of the last turn…but I came to conclusion that I should not make myself crash and just tuck really, really small instead.
Qualifying is a little bit more comfortable in Teolo since there is a restaurant right at the start line. The heat was incredible this year with temperatures reaching 38 degrees Celsius not wanting to go down until late at night. Camping has it’s disadvantages like that but at least nobody is freezing and getting up is a lot easier when you simply have the choice between overheating or just getting up to have an Espresso. And if you’re too lazy to get out of your overheating tent, there will be really loud Italian music. Love songs too sweet to be bearable at 8 in the morning.
Teolo used to be an Inline event with longboarders as ‘guests’. The entire town seems to be active in roller skating so, during the ceremony for the fastest qualifiers there is a big roller skate dancing show on the Piazza where the dancers present what they were working on during the year. The whole party is a little bit more official and it makes you feel a little bit more like an athlete. At least until you go back to the camp site to join your own kind. We enjoyed some of the Italian goodies for dinner. Some pasta, pizza, vino and Tiramisu. Mmmmmm!
Race day. I had a pretty shabby quali time and knew that I had to do a better job racing. There were 10 ladies. I had my first heat with Rosa from Finnland and Jolanda from Switzerland. Goal for the day was to stay as cool as possible, as little in leathers as realistically achievable, moving only when urgently necessary. My second heat should be interesting as I met up with Jolanda, Marisa and Maga. Jolanda and me went on to the finals and I am stoked about getting third after the most ridiculous dup steps into the first left corner! Hydrated and with a podium my mission for the weekend was accomplished!
In open, Luke Melo showed everybody what’s up. He was racing a slalom board showing some skills. Congrats to James Kelly who finally won his first IGSA World Cup race!
The podium ceremony involved a lot of official “pabedy- boopy”, mustaches and many national anthems. One of the really nice things at this event is, that those guys actually make us feel like we do some legit racing.
I reinvested my price money in filling up my trophy and in tasty Italian food!
Grazie Mille, Bella Italian!
