December 15, 2005 – By the time the men’s free-style 15 km race commenced at the Canmore Nordic Centre, most of the course was in mountain shade, making it even colder than the women’s event. Still, despite the cold snow, Pietro Cottrer Piller of Italy flew to a golden finish in 35:06:8, just under fifteen seconds ahead of Vincent Vittoz of France, in 35:21:7 and Tobias Angerer of Germany, who finished in 35:31:3. With this result, Angerer regains his status as World Cup leader.

But perhaps the most impressive performance of the day came from Canada’s George Grey, who finished an astonishing 16th in 36:05:1, less than a minute behind the leader. As Beckie Scott noted earlier, it’s not just Renner and she who are moving up the international ladder. Grey and the other relatively young skiers on the men’s team are steadily improving on international results amongst the worlds best here competing at the Canadian World Cup races.

Ivan Babikov, still not a Canadian citizen despite his 2-year residency in Canmore, raced for his native Russia and placed an incredible 4th, 29.9 seconds behind Piller with a time of 35:36.7.

USA’s Kris Freeman skied well placing 18th (36:09:4) with teammates Carl Swenson (36:16:7) in 22nd and James Southam (36:37:8) in 31st. The rest of Americans and Canadians were at back of pack.

Angerer, the World Cup yellow jersey leader, has had three top three finishes in Europe this year. Piller was fourth at the Kuusamo World Cup in Finland this November, and won the 15K at the Nordic World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany last year. Vittoz was also a gold medalist in the 30K Pursuit at Oberstdorf.

The hills, said Piller, weren’t “…the typical hills I like, but our technicians had my skis well-prepared. We spent a lot of time in the summer season training at altitudes, so to compete here today was not a big problem. For the Olympics I am focused on the 50K skate and the pursuit.”

He had an interesting observation as to why the Canadian men’s Nordic team isn’t yet on the podium. “Perhaps the reason why the Canadian men’s team isn’t as strong as the women is because the men are more interested playing hockey.”

Results

1 PILLER COTTRER Pietro ITA 35:06.8
2 VITTOZ Vincent FRA 35:21.7
3 ANGERER Tobias GER 35:31.3
4 BABIKOV Ivan RUS 35:36.7
5 ANDRESEN Jan Egil NOR 35:48.9
6 ALYPOV Ivan RUS 35:49.7
7 SANTUS Fabio ITA 35:54.1
8 CHECCHI Valerio ITA 35:55.1
9 GAUSTAD John Anders NOR 35:57.6
9 HOFFMANN Christian AUT 35:57.6
11 SOEDERGREN Anders SWE 36:00.1
11 GOERING Franz GER 36:00.1
13 GJERDALEN Tord Asle NOR 36:02.9
14 DI CENTA Giorgio ITA 36:04.2
15 AASEN Geir Ludvig NOR 36:04.5
16 GREY George CAN 36:05.1
17 JONNIER Emmanuel FRA 36:07.9
18 FREEMAN Kris USA 36:09.4
19 SCHWIENBACHER Freddy ITA 36:10.6
20 MAGAL Jiri CZE 36:11.1
21 ROUSSELET Alexandre FRA 36:12.4
22 SWENSON Carl USA 36:16.7
23 HASLER Markus LIE 36:16.8
24 LARSSON Mats SWE 36:18.4
25 TEICHMANN Axel GER 36:19.3
26 FILBRICH Jens GER 36:21.9
27 SOMMERFELDT Rene GER 36:28.4
28 SKJELDAL Kristen NOR 36:29.7
29 GAILLARD Jean Marc FRA 36:35.2
30 ESTIL Frode NOR 36:36.8
31 SOUTHAM James USA 36:37.8
32 BUNDI Gion Andrea SUI 36:38.3
33 HOFSTAD Tore Ruud NOR 36:39.4
34 FREDRIKSSON Mathias SWE 36:41.5
35 KREZELOK Janusz POL 36:46.0
36 ZORZI Cristian ITA 36:46.1
37 SCHLUETTER Andreas GER 36:52.5
38 KOUKAL Martin CZE 36:53.3
39 BURGERMEISTER Reto SUI 36:53.5
40 RUIZ Diego SPA 36:54.2
41 JOHNSON Andrew USA 36:58.2
42 BRINK Joergen SWE 37:08.8
43 VILARRUBLA Vicente SPA 37:10.1
44 JEWETT Gordon CAN 37:13.3
45 NOVIKOV Serguei RUS 37:19.2
46 NISHIKAWA Graham CAN 37:20.9
47 ZIMMERMANN Leif-Orin USA 37:21.1
48 KRIANINE Serguei RUS 37:24.5
49 CLARA Roland ITA 37:24.7
50 JEFFRIES Chris CAN 37:35.3
51 BOLCHAKOV Nikolai RUS 37:36.0
52 TICHKINE Dmitri RUS 37:42.8
53 KATES Adam CAN 37:46.7
54 FISCHER Remo SUI 37:46.8
54 KRECZMER Maciej POL 37:46.8
56 IMAI Hiroyuki JPN 37:52.6
57 ROYCROFT Dan CAN 38:05.0
58 EDER Johannes AUT 38:06.2
59 FLORA Lars USA 38:11.7
60 GOLDSACK Drew CAN 38:20.5
61 EGOSHIN Dmitriy RUS 38:29.6
62 NIGHBOR David CAN 38:30.9
63 ENMAN Eli USA 38:36.3
64 KANAMARU Tomio JPN 38:51.1
65 RICHMOND Kit CAN 39:30.8
66 STEWART David USA 39:42.2
67 SAIDLA Karl CAN 39:52.7
68 CROOKS Sean CAN 39:52.8
69 MCMURTRY Brent CAN 40:20.7
70 KUHN Stefan CAN 40:58.0
71 KOONS Benjamin NZE 42:49.8

DNF ONDA Yuichi (JPN)