Spring has Sprung. It's little over a month since the country was covered in
snow, but now the days are getting longer, and rollerskiing and outdoors
training suddenly makes sense again...

And as snow commitments draw to a close, our coaching team gets back to
strength. Alan Eason will be leading the Level 2 session at Dorney this Sunday
22nd March and - once the clocks go forward - a 6-week evening course in Hyde
Park. Expect some innovations here.

This is also a great time to join our rollerski club - we've welcomed several
new members recently and now have 3 training groups each Saturday morning.
We're looking forward to our spring rollerski tour from Bristol-Bath, as well as
the rollerski race season. Shortly we'll re-introduce evening strength training
on Hampstead Heath and elsewhere.

So, we hope you enjoy some part of our spring programme, and we look forward to
seeing you soon!


SPRING LEVEL 2 COURSES WITH ALAN EASON

GB cross-country skier, Alan Eason, is back this Spring with a couple of
courses, aimed at existing or returning rollerskiers -

Dorney - this Sunday, 22nd March, 10.00-16.00. This session will include video
analysis, and 1 hour will be spent doing balance and strength work off the
rollerskis. Come along if fancy a bit of a new challenge. Book at -
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/events3.html

Hyde Park, 6-Week Rollerski-Performance Course, Tuesday evenings - starts
Tuesday 7th April, 18.15-20.00. Each session will be half on rollerskis and
half in running shoes, and will alternate each week between classic and skate.
Book at - http://www.rollerski.co.uk/events6.html


COURSES COMING UP

We'll also be running beginners courses at Dorney and in Hyde Park. April marks
our first evening courses of the year. If you'd like to learn a new technique,
or really consolidate what you might have done a little of before, this is a
great time of the year to do it.

We offer the following courses -
Dorney Lake - 1-day course, with 2-hr options: Sundays 22nd March, 5th April
and 10th May
See http://www.rollerski.co.uk/events3.html or
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/class.html
Hyde Park - 4-week course, skating technique: starts Saturday 4th April, see
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/events2.html
Hyde Park - 4-week course, classic technique: starts Tuesday 7th April, see
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/events1.html


BRISTOL-BATH

Each year we organise a trip on the cycle track from Bristol-Bath along the
disused railway track. This year's date will be Saturday 18th April. This is a
good challenge and a good day out.

It's also a great way to meet members of other ski clubs, and we will hopefully
be joined by skiers from the Wessex Biathlon club and the London Region Nordic
Ski Club. More details of this trip will follow.


CLUB - GANGHOFERLAUF

Last month we ran a ski trip to Seefeld in Austria, which was a great week of
snow and skiing, finished off by racing in the 'Ganghoferlauf'. It was great to
see the progress of all skiers over the course of the week, and everyone who
entered the race completed it.

It was also a good showing for the rollerski club whose official name is the
'London Hyde Park Cross-Country Ski Club', or 'London Cross-Country Ski Club'
for short. It was very pleasing to see us listed in the race results at -
http://services.datasport.com/2009/winter/ganghofer/LANDGB.HTM and Glennis Dore
brought home some silverware by finishing second in her class.


CAIRNGORM ARTICLE

The Cairngorm Biathlon & Nordic Ski Club is going from strength to strength up
in Aviemore, Scotland. Their progress shows just what can be done when it comes
to coaching kids to take part in rollerskiing and biathlon - read more at
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/ns040.html


BIATHLON TALENT

I mentioned in the last newsletter how the British Biathlon Union were on a
search for new talent - since then I've been assured that they are serious about
getting civilian skiers involved, and they have produced the following web page
with more information -
http://www.britishbiathlon.com/TID.htm


ROLLERSKI RACE CALENDAR

The GB Rollerski Race Calendar for 2009 was published recently - here it is,
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/ns033.html


SKI MARATHON ARTICLE

It's always great to hear from rollerskiers who have set themselves challenges
on snow. Triathlete Brian Henderson decided to take up rollerskiing while based
in Paris for work during the week, and produced the following report on his ski
marathon attempts - http://www.rollerski.co.uk/nf014.html


BBC ENGADIN SKI MARATHON REPORT

The BBC sent a reporter to interview Lord Foster before he took part in this
year's Engadin Ski Marathon. The 73-year old architect did this year's race in
3 hours 28 minutes, at his 16th attempt. You can see the report at -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7929023.stm


GB & IRELAND AT LIBEREC WORLD CHAMPS

This year the GB team did very well at the World Champs in Liberec, and you can
see their full results at http://www.britnordicteam.co.uk/ They also were of
great help to a certain Irish cross-country skier, taking part for his first
time! A great experience, see picture at
http://www.zimbio.com/Iain+Ballentine/pictures/pro and results
http://www.fis-ski.com/uk/604/610.html?sector=CC&competitorid=152794&raceid=1571\
3 )


ROLLERSKI INSTRUCTORS' COURSE

Snowsport England will be running a rollerski instructors' course in London on
25th April. For more information email Alan Eason, alan_eason@...


BY THE WAY...

BIATHLON COVERAGE - until recently, biathlon coverage has been very hard to get
on Macs, which tend to lag behind the times when it comes to getting media
innovations (Mac martyrs still can't access Channel 4's iPlayer thing). But
I've been enjoying very good coverage at http://www.biathlonworld.com - with
none of that annoying Eurosport commentary... (Only joking Mike!)


PETTER NORTHUG - one of this season's undisputed cross-country ski stars has
been Petter Northug of Norway. Despite a tendency to fall over last season,
this year he won 3 Gold medals at the World Championships in Liberec, numerous
World Cup races, and finished a very memorable second in the Tour de Ski,
storming up the hill. And what makes his success all the more remarkable is the
distances over which he's been winning - from sprints to 50k marathon distances.
But, as in Formula 1, the successful newcomer has been upsetting the established
order. Here's an interesting article -
http://fasterskier.com/2009/03/is-petter-northug-a-true-champion/


AND FINALLY...

BIATHLON CALENDAR - Fans of naked lady biathletes have helped the Canadian
biathlon team sell in excess of 5,000 calendards, raising much needed finance
for their Vancouver Olympic campaign. See -
http://fasterskier.com/2009/03/canadian-biathlon-women-set-to-close-successful-n\
ude-calendar-campaign-during-world-cup-at-whistler-olympic-park/


Hope you found something of interest in the newsletter this month,

Best regards,
Iain



--
Iain Ballentine
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Roller ski instruction & rollerski shop
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W: http://www.rollerski.co.uk

E: iain@...
M: 07968 286129
T: 020 8348 2540

Rollerski Club - action pictures -
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/gallery21.html

Join us on snow - Seefeld 2009 -
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/cross.html

Rollerski courses coming up -
http://www.rollerski.co.uk/events.html


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The Rollerski Co & Rollerski Instruction 2009
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