A Month In Lake Garda
One of the most exciting things about campaigning for the Olympics is the constant traveling. There is no doubt that it can be exhausting at times but getting to travel around the globe and represent my country at an international level is something I am always pinching myself about. With all my traveling experience one of the most common questions I get is “where is my favourite place I’ve been?”. And while there are plenty of places that land high up on that list my answer is always the same. Lake Garda.
Nestled between two 2000-meter peaks in the Northern Italian region of Trentino the small town of Riva del Garda can only be described as paradise on earth. Riva sits on the northern edge of Lake Garda, the largest lake in Italy, only 75km south of the Swiss and Austrian borders the area is host to world class sailing, cycling, and hiking. It also provides one of the most consistent winds in the world. The mountains on either side create a funnel so just about every morning the wind comes down from the mountains in the north at 15-20 knots, then as the sun heats up the land the wind slowly dies and by 1pm flips around to a steady 15-20 knots from the south. It is amazing, like clockwork. It is so predictable that often what teams will do is launch at 8am, sail downwind for three hours. Stop to have some lunch in one of the towns further south and once the southerly has filled in sail downwind again all the way home. Then on the rare days the wind doesn’t behave (usually due to cloud cover or rain) you are surrounded by some of the world’s best cycling in every direction. It is truly the perfect location for a training camp.
After a week in Belgium training with the Australian and Belgian teams I had a month to fill. We weren’t going to have a coach as Andrew was supporting Fillah at the World Sailing test event in the Hauge so Luke, Ben and I decided that our best bet was to head to Garda and join in with the German, Finnish and Israeli teams who were there. The focus of our camp was going to be fitness. Being two months out from the European championships in November it was the perfect time to overload, get as many hours in as possible and really push ourselves before having some time to recover and train the finer points heading into the competition phase. This freedom to have complete control of our day to day training is something that takes lots of discipline as laziness can sneak in however with the proper motivation can be lots of fun as it gives the flexibility to have some adventures and really enjoy your surroundings.
Our biggest adventure of the trip came in week one. The Stelvio national park is a few hours north of Riva on the Swiss-Italian boarder. In the winter months it is a ski resort, and in the summer is host to one of the most famous roads in the world. The road from Prato up to Stelvio Pass has 48 switch back turns leading to a peak of 2800 meters and has been host to many stages of the Giro d’Italia over the years as well as an episode of Top Gear where they search for the best road in Europe. Then on the Swiss side the road from Santa Maria through the Umbrail Pass and up to Stelvio is equally grueling. Finally, the third side of the mountain leads down to the Italian town of Bormio. Our plan was to park at the top of the mountain and attempt to cycle all three sides in one day!
Though only about 75 km straight line distance away from Garda the drive through twisting mountain roads was about three hours. We packed up the car the night before and set off at 6am. I fell asleep in the back seat and when I woke up, we were starting to wind out way up the 48 hairpin turns for the first time of the day. At the peak we were surrounded by snow, but the roads were dry as we had planned the drip during a “warm” spell. We quickly put our bikes together, filled our bottles, grabed an espresso and made our way down into Switzerland. The first descent was unbearably cold. We stopped two or three times in the sunny spots to warm up our fingers and toes but once we reached the bottom and started to head back up the cold was no longer an issue. Two hours of climbing back and forth, back and forth as the road twisted through the mountain side, past the grazing cattle with ringing bells around their necks and finally up past the tree line into the high Alpes. The views were breathtaking and so early in the morning the roads were practically empty. At least that was until we were a few turns away from the peak, out of nowhere there was a big traffic back up. As we cycled up past the parked cars and came to the final turn, we saw what was causing the delay. It was a three-car pile-up. A Porsche 911 had gotten a little out of shape around the bend and a Jaguar F type, and Aston Martin Vantage had apparently come around and crashed into it. Not quite the way you would want to start your day I could imagine, but nonetheless a good reminded to keep our wits about us as the roads could be very dangerous.
Once we were at the top it was around lunch time, so we racked our bikes and had some apple strudel, coffee, and schnitzel sandwiches while taking in the view. Time was tight though if we were going to get all three climbs done before sunset, so we were quickly back on our bikes and headed down the main climb into Prato. The sun was shining as we turned around at the bottom and we were all feeling good but there was about 1800 meters of climbing now to get back to the summit. With any extended exertion one of the most important factors is fueling. It is the same for a long day of sailing, when you are burning so many calories it is easy to forget that your body needs food to keep going. If you don’t fuel properly your body can easily go into a state that athletes call “bonk”. To simplify this is basically when your body runs out of energy stores and begins to shut down. To avoid this, you need to be constantly eating bars, energy gels and drinking water with ISO mix in it to keep your body full of the carbohydrates it needs to function. As the climb dragged on and on it began to get ever steeper. We were now about 5 hours of moving time into our ride, getting more and more tired. As you ascended each hairpin is numbered from 48 at the bottom all the way to 1 at the top. They slowly counted down, almost teasing us as we grinded past each one. Finally with about 20 turns to go to the top I developed a bad cramp. This is one of the first signs of bonking, I finished the last of the food I had with me and stopped for a few minutes to stretch it out before continuing. All three of us were clearly starting to struggle. We had underestimated the effects the altitude would have on our strength and with about ten turns to go to the top we were out of food, water and we were in serious pain. As we stopped at the number ten hairpin a saviour arrived. A lovely French gentleman in a VW van who had stopped to admire the view was there and saw the state we were in. He offered us water, bananas, and all sorts of other snacks which he had stowed away. It was a god send. Growing up my mum always told me not to take food from strangers in vans but looking back Luke, Ben and I all agreed that we don’t know if we would have made it to the top if it hadn’t been for him.
After a bit of a rest, we set off on the home stretch of the climb, still exhausted but at least slightly replenished. The final turns counted down slow as ever and as we rounded the last one and made our way to the summit, I cramped up worse than I ever had before. My body was giving up on me, but so close to the end I wasn’t ready to give in. The pain hit like a ton of bricks and as I finally pushed over the summit I went to unclip and put my leg down, but it completely gave out. I just barely had enough time to hand my bike over to Luke beside me as I fell over, my legs completely unable to move. I laid there on the ground in the middle of the road laughing at my predicament but also in excruciating pain. A friendly Australian man who was on a motorcycle trip walked over to me and passed me my water bottle. He helped me to my feet, and we laughed at my complete inability to move.
After that we decided that completing all three climbs in the day would not be possible. I think if we had gotten a hotel, a better night’s sleep, and a proper breakfast it would have been. But despite not reaching our goal we were still very happy with the day, it was an experience that we will certainly all remember for the rest of our lives.
Back in Riva the next day we were ready to settle into a proper routine and get some big sailing days under our belts. There is always a good group of laser sailors training in Garda this time of year and we were lucky enough to line up with a group that wanted to run some racing. Finnish, German, Swedish, and Israeli National team members were all in town and the coaches decided to organize an informal coach’s regatta. This was a great opportunity for us as we didn’t have a coach so being invited to join in with the groups added some welcome structure to our training days. Having a coach around to lay marks is a big advantage as it really increases the types of work you can do. Without marks in the water tactical and strategical training is not really possible so it can become a bit monotonous as you end up doing lots of straight-line speed training. Too much of this can also lead to a lack of awareness as you have a tendency to develop some tunnel vision. With this in mind, one of my process goals for my time in Garda was to develop some decision making loops and make a concerted effort to implement them even in the most monotonous drills. The idea being to drill them in all scenarios until they are unconscious loops playing on repeat helping me make tactical gains around the course.
The first 2 weeks in Garda were a great combination of racing with the group, speed testing on our own, and bike/gym work on land. Really pushing myself and making great fitness gains. Playing a game of chicken with the limits of exhaustion. Seeing how much load my body can take physically and mentally is something that I haven’t done for a while now, since my time in Malta really. It is far from a comfortable state, you’re always tired, often grumpy, and toward the end of the block motivation can begin to run low. However, I’m a firm believer in it. When your schedule allows for it with proper recovery time afterwards and the right planning these are the periods when massive gains can be made. In the moment it can sometimes feel the opposite, it can feel like you are banging your head against a brick call, but in my experience, it is after periods like this where you take some rest come back full of motivation and all the sudden you have punched through to a new level. In your rest time after a heavy training block your subconscious goes to work putting together all the pieces you’ve been gathering, and when you get back on the water everything is elevated.
In our final week in Garda the other nations had gone back home so we were left just the tree Canadians. This was fine with us as we had gotten in plenty of time racing and now with a smaller group, we were able to hone in on some final specific skills we wanted to address with very efficient sessions. Unfortunately, as it was getting later in the season and some autumn storms were rolling through as the weather cooled, the wind was not quite as consistent. Whereas in the beginning of September the wind would come from both directions everyday like clockwork we had to be a bit more careful with planning our sessions around when the weather was cooperating. Nonetheless we were able to finish out our block with plenty of hiking and a heavy helping of cycling as we pushed through to the end of the month.
One day we were surprised as we made our way on bike down to the yacht club. Being a lifelong Ferrari fan, my attention was caught as I saw a flash of red go by ahead of me. It looked from the quick glimpse I saw to be a vintage Ferrari or Alfa Romeo and so as we caught up, I had my eyes peeled. I looked down one of the streets we passed as we approached the club and my jaw almost hit the floor, the car I had seen was there and just peeking out from behind it I could see the unmistakable rear wing of a Ferrari F40. I slammed on my breaks and darted after it while yelling to Ben “F40! F40! F40!” as I got closer, I realized that not only had we stumbled across an F40 but, a precession of about 80 vintage Ferraris. Multiple 275 GTB’s, 250 GT Lussos, 165MM Barcherras, 288 GTO’s, F40’s, Testarossas and more. The event was called Cavalcade Classiche and is a rally put on by Ferrari every year for vintage car owners. They were stopping in Riva for lunch, and we just happened to be lucky enough to stumble upon them. We walked around taking everything in, completely gobsmacked, literally dozens of cars we had only ever seen posters of all within touching distance driving right past us. Just another day in the magical city of Riva.
On our final day in Garda, Ben and I decided we would ride or bikes around the lake. In the end it was 168Km and 1200 meters of climbing. It was a bit of a milestone for me as it was my first ride over 100 miles long, what cyclists call a century ride. I also got to see the south side of the lake for the first time which is very different. It is much flatter which means the wind never comes in the same way it does in the north, but it is also in another region of Italy and so the culture is noticeably different, having much less German and Austrian influence.
And with that our time in Riva del Garda was over. My favourite place in the world, it had delivered another amazing month of sailing, cycling and Italian charm. I already can’t wait to go back next year. I am now in Dublin spending a week with my girlfriend resting and distracting her from her thesis work before I head back across the Atlantic for some training in Canada! Next week I will be headed to Victoria BC for a National Team camp. We will be splitting our time between Royal Victoria Yacht Club and Port Renfrew BC for 3 weeks putting together our final preparations for the European Championships in November. I am looking forward to the training as I have never been out to Vancouver Island before but have heard that it is gorgeous. The last time I was on the west coast of Canada was in 2017 for the North American championships. My first regatta in a Standard rig!
As always check out my updated gallery for pictures from my month in Italy and if you would like to support me in my endeavour to represent Canada at the 2024 Olympic games donations through my website make what I do possible are tremendously appreciated.
Until next time,
James