Ground Travel

June 29, 2009

Story on Vasaloppet 2006 contributed by Boris Petroff (FRA)

Mora, 5.05 AM: the town is dead! Not a living soul in view. I had never seen that. It’s almost disquieting. I am trying to find the buses that are not waiting in the same place as the previous years. Nothing, nobody. Or rather yes: two other skiers, haggard as we who circle around without understanding what’s going on. When I say we I mean me and my friend Joseph Luce who in this matter has a blind confidence in me. I am here for my 18th Vasaloppet and am considered by my friends as a reliable reference.
The two other skiers are Russians. They explain (having Russian forebears I understand Russian) that the buses left at the prescribed time; the last at 5.00 AM.
No taxi in the surroundings. I run to the parking lot where I parked my car. By the time I am back in Mora it is 6.00 AM. I load Joseph and the two Russians in the car and drive at more than 100 km/h on the snowy roads towards Sälen. We reach the parking area at 7.30 (after overtaking inelegantly the late spectators who were clogging the road).
 At 7.45 we are on the start line. No doubt those were not ideal conditions for the psychic preparation, but the essential was that we were in time. Except Joseph, who needs at least half an hour of preparation before the race and who started just after the last skiers of the last group (he was shown on the Swedish TV).
Well, after the race I was of course obliged to take the bus back to Sälen and drive back to Mora. In round numbers: 100 km on skis, 200 km by car and 100 km by bus, that was quite a busy day of ground travel!

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