Faraway emotions for the third stage of the 2017 ISMF world Cup. Welcome to Turkey, the host of the next bunch of competitions – an Individual on saturday and a sprint on sunday – which will take the skimo family to the final rush before the world Championship, in agenda at the end of the month back to Italy.
February marks the month of records, because racing in Turkey has been an achievement of the International Federation and a most longed-for target for many of the athletes, willing to discover new horizons, other then the Alps, the Pyreness and the “core” of the old continent. «I already visited the country with my father to ski, but it’s good to be here as an athlete – says Laetitia Roux from the French team – , I’m very happy. It’s important for the world Cup to move out of its more traditional destinations». The ISMF echoed the statement of the ladies overall leader: «Turkey, an historical bridge between Europe and Asia, has a special meaning in a very delicate period of the entire globe history», said Marco Mosso ISMF Vp Marketing and Communications, «The world Cup is growing in and beyond Europe. This year we have five different countries hosting the races and ISMF is determined to work in two directions: from the one hand, we wish to have well known resorts and mountains as a stage for our athletes; on the other hand, we believe in the importance of enlarging the frame of the circuit to those countries, like Turkey and asian nations, where the interest in ski moutaineering is increasing». The Loc – local organizing commette has put down a great display of struggle and committment to fulfil the expectations. The location of the races is some 20 minutes drive from Erzincan, in the eastern anatolian plateau. The city, with ancient origins and a modern structure, is covered with banners for the event and is less than 200 kilometres far from Erzurum, the other famous skiing spot of this area of the country, where the Eyof – European youth olympic Festival is on stage this week. So this is a real winter sport “centre” for the country and the skimo races will take place at the feet of the Ergan Dagi ridge in the Munzur Vadisi national park. Some 30 champions will compose the pack of the happy few who joined the turkish stage: they come also from Andorra, France, Iran, Italy and Spain.
Ismf technical team has been working with the Loc on the mountain for the past four days dealing with particular snow conditions to create a good terrain: the snow is not much off piste, but there have been some avlanches in the last days and the wind has played a crucial role in the last hours. The final tracks will be set today: for the Individaul the two section on foot will probably make the difference, being steep and technical between cliffs ad trees.
For more info on the ski resort www.ergan.org.tr and @ErganWorldCup
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