“My Name is Nicholas Iliano and I live in Switzerland, while I was born and raised in Italy on Lake Maggiore. During the past summer I was in New Zealand for 6 weeks to train and compete at the Australian New Zealand Cup and at the Winter Games (the main winter event in the southern hemisphere).
The reason for training in New Zealand is that it is summer in Europe and the glaciers are always quite busy so limiting time for training. In New Zealand, there is an opportunity to train on winter snow (similar to the snow in Europa) and to switch among the different ski resorts, hence means different hills to train on to better prepare for the upcoming European season. The bonus is having those races where we can compare our improvement with the other athletes. There are also several guys from the World Cup, which makes it possible to see our own standing in comparison to the best guys in the world. Doing well at those races help you, moreover, too improve your world ranking, providing you with a better bid for the season.
Another point for training in New Zealand is the low altitude of the mountains which helps us regenerate more rapidly so we can train more days in a row or do more runs in a day compared to glacier training which places you at over 3000 meters above sea level. The infrastructures in Nil are great. You can live down in town where there is a gym and other stuff to do, like spending time at the coffee shops, whit a cup of good coffee.
Because I really love coffee!”
