February 20, 2010 (Whistler, BC) – Another day of brilliant sunshine and temperatures up to +12C made for slow conditions, yet you could not tell this from the blistering pace that Sweden’s Daniel Richardsson, Marcus Hellner and Johan Olsson, Norway’s Petter Northug, Switzerland’s Dario Cologna, Germany’s Tobia Angerer and Jens Filbrich, Italy’s Giorgio de Centa, and Czech Republic’s Luka Bauer set from the gun. The usual suspects set trails on fire, but the big story of the day was the fire in the Canadian camp as Ivan Babikov, George Grey, Alex Harvey and Devon Kershaw stayed with and challenged the top guns in the lead pack.

Just after 5km a group of six skiers – Bauer, Jean-Marc Gaillard of France, Cologna, and Alexander Legkov and Maxim Vylegzhanin of Russia, established a slight lead on a tiring pack – which included Northug, who soon made up the distance, accompanied by Canada’s Devon Kershaw, who sat 5.9 seconds back going into the feed zone at 7.5km. Right on his heels were teammates George Grey, Ivan Babikov, and just behind him was Alex Harvey. Soon after Grey took the aggressive position of skiing right behind Northug and Bauer, and eventually took the lead.

At the 15km transition zone Grey, Kershaw, and Harvey were in the mix with the leaders while Babikov came in at 25th place, 35 seconds behind Lukas, who entered the transition zone first. But Babikov had the second fastest ski exchange at 22.1 seconds and would soon deliver the fastest 15km skate leg of the entire field at 34:49:5.

This combination allowed him to not only catch up to the lead pack, but place 5th overall in 1:15:20:5, at 9.1 seconds behind Marcus Hellner of Sweden who won the gold in 1:15:11:4 hours. Angerer grabbed silver, 2.1 seconds back, sandwiched between another Swede, Johan Olsson, who took bronze. Legkov of Russia was in fourth place, 4:0 seconds back.

All four Canadians finished in the top 20 with George Grey in 8th place, 20:6 seconds back, Alex Harvey in 9th position, 31:6 seconds back and Devon Kershaw in 1:12:2 minutes back.

“It was excellent. The perfect race and I was very happy,” said Hellner, after the race as he discussed how the pack caught teammate John Olsson, who had a lead of over 20 seconds at one point. “I felt we could catch him, but we are trying to keep the pace down a little so he could get more seconds and go for gold.” Once the rest of the members of the chase pack did catch his teammate within the last kilometre of the race, Hellner decided he would try for the gold. “Once he [Olsson] was caught I did my own race. When I felt the power in my arms and strength in my legs, it was pretty easy at the end.”

Angerer said he “kept feeling better” in the race, and in terms of the Swedish team results, “The tactic was really good because in the end they have two medals so they did everything right. For me in the end it was OK because I won the silver medal. I feel in very good shape” he added, referring to his chances in future races.

Besides Babikov, who had the fastest second leg and pulled himself up from 25th to 5th, Johan Olsson had to have worked the hardest in this race. He was aggressive in the pack and felt he had the “best skis in the whole bunch” and broke away at the 22.5 km mark. “I’ve done a lot of mass start races and I know that when the bunch gets going, in the end they’re really, really fast. I tried to have some energy left for the last hill. When they came up behind me I thought, ‘I’m not going to bend down now.’

“I went through the whole race knowing they were going to catch me. I heard that there was going to be four people who were chasing me so I knew that I at least got a fifth place. I didn’t really expect a medal when they caught up with me. I didn’t want to be the first one in the final stretch because I went the wrong way in the 15 kilometres so I wanted to have others in front of me.”

Despite his 5th place finish, which is the a new Canadian record for male cross-country skiers at the Olympics, Babikov first congratulated the rest of the team, saying it was a great day for Canada, but was openly disappointed. “It’s weird. Right now I’ve finished fifth in the world. But when you realize it would be one of your chances to get a medal, then…” He agreed when a journalist suggested, “so close, yet so far?’ “Yes” Babikov said. “I really struggled in the classic and had to close a 30-second gap. Had to fought really hard to catch up to their gap. Maybe that took too much effort.”

He said there was nothing going on in his mind except pain. “I saw those guys ahead of me and I did the best I could. There was a little gap between me and them. Maybe if the race had been another 500 metres the results could have been different.”

Teammate George Grey was far more excited. “What we did is probably going to stay in the history books for some time -three in the top ten. I’m ecstatic. If anyone is crying today it will be tears of joy. It feels great. I didn’t ask for more. Today shows it’s not one guy – it’s a team.”

In terms of his own race he “had a little trouble at the 7.5km mark. But I know that’s my weakest point so I worked through it. It seemed like people were skiing  a bit slow, and I didn’t want to ski on people’s tails, so I went to the front. In the skate race I felt I had a solid skate and I got some draft and saved some energy for the last five kilometres sitting back a bit.

“I said [this morning] forget about strategy. Let’s just go race in front of a home crowd. It helps to have your own team around you. You can relax mentally. This is the highlight of my career. I was seeded 41st and finished 8th. There was a lot of jostling for position and physical give and take – pretty rough for the first 5 to 10 kilometres.”

Alex Harvey, at only twenty-one, showed he is a skier to be reckoned with in any international competition. “The plan is to get stronger as the days go by,” he said about races yet to come. “People have to know that Petter [Northug – who’s pole broke with 5km to go and finished eleventh] is beatable. You have to start early with him – take his legs out before the last 500 metres.”

In terms of benefiting from the work others have done, he said, “It’s just started. I’ve come to these Olympics at the peak of the program. I’ve been lucky too feed off the experiences of the others like George and Ivan. They’re not just athletes, they’re married and have kids. I’ve learned a lot.

“My emotions were on the first day. Today, it was accumulative. All the days I trained – it’s a dream coming true. But I couldn’t have gone harder.” Kershaw was disappointed with 16th and said, “today is not about me. It’s about Canada.”

For the two Americans it was a tougher day on the trails. James Southam was 34th, 5:34 mintues behind while his team mate Kris Freeman(Andover, NH), who is a diabetic, suffered blood sugar problems but was able to finish placing 45th, at 7:51 behind.

“The classic didn’t go as planned,” said Southam. “I never quite felt the rhythm but started feeling pretty good on the second leg of the skate and was able to get with a group of guys and relax a little bit and then drop those guys.”

Freeman miscalculated his blood sugar and hit the snow on the fourth lap of the classic race. “All of a sudden, my body wasn’t working,” he commented. “I thought that was going to be it. If the coach hadn’t come over, I thought I was going to have to walk back to the finish line.” A German coach gave Freeman a bottle of Gatorade and goo, and soon Freeman was back on track and able to finish.

Full results here. –

Results (brief)
1. Marcus Hellner (SWE), 1:15.11.4

2. Tobias Angerer (GER), 1:15:13.4

3. Johan Olsson (SWE), 1:15:14.2

4. Alexander Legkov (RUS)

5. Ivan Babikov (CAN), 1:15:20.5
8. George Grey (CAN) ,1:15:32.0
9. Alex Harvey (CAN) , 1:1:15:43.0
34. James Southam (USA) 1:20:46.2
45. Kris Freeman (USA) , 1:23:02.6