Austrian team opens training season at Kalterer See

The Austrian Nordic Combined team has kicked off their training season with their customary training camp in South Tyrol. Seven athletes, Bernhard Gruber, Mario Seidl, Wilhelm Denifl, Lukas Greiderer, David Pommer, Philipp Orter and Franz-Josef Rehrl have come to Kaltern and will continue to work on their basic endurance levels until Saturday afternoon. Missing is Lukas Klapfer, who is currently in an education course to become a customs officer in Vienna.

For cross-country coach Jochen Strobl, who comes from Toblach, the camp is a home game. “We have ideal training conditions here in Kaltern. As we have training durations up to eight hours, it’s important to design a programme that exciting varied. We have had training sessions on the bikes, mountain tours, endurance training, stand-up paddling and one inline skating session that was held by speed skating Olympian Nicola Mayr. I am sure some of the athletes will be sore from this at it is quite a different movement. But it was tremendous fun and a great balance to other training sessions.”

2015 World Champion Bernhard Gruber: “I can call myself a water lover and so I especially enjoy all the options we have at the lake here, be it swimming or stand-up paddling. A regenerative blackroll session with the view of the lake is double the fun as well. The inline skating was very interesting and offered glimpses into a new sport for us.”