January 23, 2008 (Canmore, Alberta) – SkiTrax columnist Marty Hall has been following the build-up to the 2008 Alberta World Cup at Canmore. Here are his comments after the first day of competition.

Agreed – If I’ve heard it once I can believe the consensus I’m hearing on the fact that the Canmore Nordic Center is the best international cross country facility in the world. The weather is ideal, cold and plenty of snow and if the weather was marginal it would really prove itself as the best with it’s snow making capabilities and the various loops and trails they can cover which would still provide top international courses. This is the legacy from the ’88 Olympics that continues to deliver. Big kudos to Bjorger Petterson, probably cross country’s biggest builder of the sport here in Canada, for a job well done back then. A testimony to his foresight is the reaction to the center – yes, the facility has had a face lift or two – but, the work he did is still the strength of the facility…it has his finger and foot prints all over it.

Men’s Field and Results – This men’s group of athletes has some depth in quality and numbers, but definitely some weird results. Did the Norwegians blow the wax, skis or structure – sure looks like one or all of them? Jet lag is not the problem as they spent last week at Silver Star, but Nathan Schultz writing a daily report said they looked tired. For the three NA boys in the top 22 this was definitely an international effort and one they can put in the bank to call on another day. A break through day for George Grey, way to hang in there after the past couple of years!! Devon, accolades for you, as you can’t WIN, if you don’t take chances and dare to go out front and take the lead. The more you try this the more you will be comfortable when it happens all the way to the finish line. Kris, huge effort after the last few weeks you’ve been through.

Women’s Field and Results – This is a weak field – not much quality and definitely no depth – so to be short, the NA women did not have any kind of results you’d want to write home about. They just don’t have enough international race starts to be competitive. Things can only get better! Oh, it looks like the Norwegian technicians didn’t learn anything from the women’s skis – did they put the same stuff on the men? I think Sara Renner is going to look a lot different on the last part of the World Cup Tour – I hope she does all the races this week – it’ll pay dividends for her later. She is just having a re-learning experience – it’s one hell of a fight you have to put up each and every race…she knows that.

Event Coverage – Hard to find results, and CBC’s TV coverage is a well kept secret with their release finally showing up on one web page today (SkiTrax). When you go to their site to see what they’ve got for a schedule, just dream that this event isn’t happening until Feb 16th when they will have a show for us to watch.

Race Organization and Operations – Outstanding in ’88 and even better now.

Thoughts – if you are on either of the NAs Teams and this is your first World Cup experience get as much of it as you can – race every race. Pound it into your brain as to what it is going to take to get as good as these guys are. I know you may be minutes behind, but I have a saying – “the minutes come off easy it’s the seconds behind that come off hard.” I’m surprised by the numbers of international starts that have been passed up by both teams on the early World Cups this year. The Euros aren’t playing those kinds of games; they race the distances and the sprints.

Have you ever seen such a beautiful cross country ski venue – it’s a blow away visual experience everyday!

Felt bad that Dave Nighbor left the race today – he had a great FIS Tour de Ski.

Money on the World Cup Circuit can be earned – the top three boys have made C/US $272,200, C/US $152,00 and C/US $92,000 , while the top three women’s numbers look like this, C/US $250,000, C/US $198,000, C/US $98,800 and the season has 16 more races to earn money in – that’s just the FIS prize money – suppliers and sponsors money will usually meet or be a bit more then these numbers. So, it is not such poor persons sport anymore!!

See you on day two for more from Marty!