December 26, 2011 (Davos, Switzerland) – Apparently, life’s been good the last few weeks because I’ve been too busy eating stellar food, taking saunas, drinking cappuccinos, training hard and hitting up all the World Cup stops instead of reflecting on what’s been up. My bad.

If you need to use the restroom or if you’re hungry and/or thirsty I’d suggest taking care of that now – it’s been a busy three weeks and I’ve been accused of being “wordy.” Preposterous, I know.

Let’s go through them as they happened.

Game face...Haha, I don't have one - this is me geting ready for some round action in Davos © Nordic Focus

Fact. It was hard to peel myself away from the Bivio’s antipasti.

Justin had been trying to convince me to give Dusseldorf a go for months, even booking me a plane ticket saying, “even if you don’t go, at least we have our bases covered.” So, when I describe it as a “snap decision” to go to Germany for less than 24hrs to race a sprint race – I’d be somewhat lying.

Seriously though, I wasn’t convinced – especially after my bush-league outing in Kuusamo’s classic sprint.

It’s amazing what sun on the face, great food, and good vibes can do. By Friday I was stoked to giver, so off I went to give it a go.

The major characteristic of the short trip was this: It rained. And I don’t mean, “rained” so much as I mean a deluge of biblical proportions. I single-handily soaked three sets of boots, all the clothing I traveled with and most of (our wax tech’s) Joel’s. Damn, it was nasty. Warming up, my eyes constantly drifted to the swelling Rhine where I expected to see a robed man sporting a huge beard (which is how I imagine Noah to look. Now that you mention it, that’s how I depict everyone in the Bible: robed & bearded) aboard a great wooden ship – some would say Ark-like. I saw many a ship meandering by – yet none with Llamas, Chinchillas, Snow Leopards, Platypuses, Voles, Manatees, etc… two by two.

The other thing that wasn’t two-by-two was the race. It was tight and narrow! My race itself was unspectacular. I was really happy to qualify easily in 15^th place, but in my quarterfinal I felt like a boarder-collie behind unorganized, massive, aggressive sheep. I kept going back and forth on the narrow course looking for a hole to sneak through – but found none. Therefore I was knocked out and ended my day in 18^th. I felt so much better than that –but I learnt a valuable lesson. Mainly, Dusseldorf is incredibly narrow and full of right turns – making it hard to come from 6^th around everyone. My starts need to improve.

This is what "almost not qualifying" looks like. too close fo' sho © Nordic Focus

After a few more killer days in Italy and a long session in Pontresina, SUI it was time for us to move down to Davos for the World Cups there.

At first I was psyched. They changed the planned 30km individual start race to a 15km – which was good news for guys like me that like to sprint too.

Yet, the decision didn’t stick. Babs’ repeated strange sauna snow dances seemed to have worked – and from Thursday onwards it started puking (snow) and didn’t quit. The 30km was back on, and I was back on the bench – deciding (read: Justin repeatedly telling me: “dude – we talked about this. That 30km is NOT going to happen”) to skip the 30km to have some snap left for Sunday’s sprint.

How did the sprint go? Good thanks. Yet, it almost didn’t go at all. I got into the rounds by the skin on my teeth and I brush three times a day, floss and Listerine – so I imagine there’s not a ton of skin on them. 28^th place. 0.1 seconds slower and I would have had a pretty lame weekend.

But, in is in, and thankfully the body was rocking. The heats went amazing. I made the final and aside from just embarrassingly slow starts – things were clicking well. Made the decision to skip the 30km seem pretty smart.

In the final itself I felt good but made some tactical errors late in the race – I finished 4^th. I know right?!? 4^th is just such a burn but I was 0.1sec from even getting a chance to race at all, so 4^th isn’t SO bad.

Justin and I having a quick chat in Rogla. The dude knows... © Nordic Focus

Rogla, SLO – 15km mass start classic + skate sprint

We arrived late Wednesday evening and awoke to warm temperatures and rain. Man it was depressing. The venue had a sad little ribbon of rock/dirt/snow through the fields on Thursday and I was pretty convinced that no distance race was going to go down.

Then – Petra or someone must have spoken to God – because Friday couldn’t have been any more different. It was heinous – snowing like crazy, North Shore of Maui-windy, and just an all around nasty, nasty, nasty day. I laughed up there testing skis – it was such a difference from Thursday!

Babs, Alex, myself and "Yeaaah Danny" slamming it in the 15km © Nordic Focus

First up was the classic race. The day wasn’t exactly awesome. It was still snowing a bit and windy as’ too. In the race itself, I felt good – but skied like an idiot – going for an early preem, getting it (and the 15 WC points) before paying dearly for the effort the rest of the race.

It was a waste of good feelings, and I crossed the line disappointed. I should have known better, but I was feeling so good that I just went for it. Lesson learned.

The storm blew itself out by Sunday, and we were treated to sunny skies and very little/no wind too for the sprint, which was cool. I finally got to see what Rogla looked like – pretty nice terrain.

Babs driving the bus out front © Nordic Focus

I had an ok qualifier – better speed than the week before in Davos – and moved on to the heats. The course was short with a lot of corners – which didn’t exactly play into my snail-like starts. I felt amazing again – but ran out of time in the end, finishing 3^rd in my heat – getting knocked out and finishing 15^th on the day.

So, I wasn’t super happy with the weekend (but of course seeing Chandra crack the podium on Sunday was pretty awesome!! WOO!). I felt much better than the results board read – but so it goes. I was happy to have felt good body-wise and that gives me confidence as the Tour de Ski approaches.

Rocking the quali in Rogla. The day was beautiful - what a change © Nordic Focus

Davos…

Sometimes I wake up in the night with this reoccurring nightmare. I’m in a Swiss town nestled in the Alps. It starts dumping snow – like “ski movie” dumping – and it doesn’t ever stop.

The mountains are getting blasted – sick powder is there to be ripped – but I am a cross-country ski racer and the Tour de Ski is a little over a week away. Then, I wake up feeling crappy, like I’m fighting something – not quite healthy and I’m tired from travel and a heavy race schedule.

Then I realize that’s me right now. I’m living that nightmare! I’m the guy who is a bit run down, and not out skiing big lines. Argh. Yes – Davos is beautiful, and yes it is getting hammered with snow – but I’m just chilling out trying to get my energy back and reload for the Tour, which starts in a shade over a week. No powder skiing for me it looks like, but that’s fine (is it?). Delay doesn’t mean denial – so boys get ready for the best-ever backcountry ski trip come spring. It’s so bad that I’m excited for something that is so far away – but all this powder is making crazy!!

Christmas will be spent here with Alex, his girlfriend (Sophie), Hutchy, Babs and his family and Lenny. Going to be a chill scene, but that’s ok too. It’s my sixth year spending Christmas here in Davos – so I should be an old hand at it, but I still miss friends and family back home – as well as beautiful Canmore.

That’s the news. Told ya’ it was a doozy.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Devon.