December 31, 2012 – Oberhof Does Disappoint – The weather was just what you expect when you hit this part of Germany – wet and soggy. I remember it well – get the klister out – but, why not get the snow cement out also? Why should a skier’s whole TdS go down the drain when the conditions can be rectified. A lot of training hours over the year only to have them now a sorry second. This makes two times this year that the FIS TDs made a big mistake (Quebec was a messy track as well). With all the close group skiing that takes place in the TdS, track conditions have to be as close to perfect as they can be. When the skiers complain you know a wrong decision was made. Come on you TDs – pull the trigger. Crowds seemed small as well…?

Where Is Ida Sargent? – Not on the TdS, but in northern Vermont skiing in the Mt.Hor Hop skate race – that she won by 2 minutes and 43 seconds. After two events of the TdS she is still ranked in 25th place in the overall World Cup standings – can anyone tell me what in hell Ida is doing racing in Northern VT and not at the TdS in middle Europe? Someone has the money to pay her way and also… and just as another thought – Sadie Bjornson scored WC points in her last three races WC races in Canada. What do these ladies have to do to get to Europe??? There have been so many years that unqualified skiers went to Europe it now makes you want to tear your hair out thinking of these ladies sitting at home.

Canadian Team – Alex skied really well yesterday and got the lactate monkey off his back, as it looks like Kershaw and Valjas did yesterday also – all three had great races – it’s just that Kershaw and Valjas were racing from the cheap seats – that means way back. Watch them tomorrow.

A piece of advice for Harvey and his racing tactics and he did this in Norway a couple of years ago when he took control of a 30km and broke up the lead group way early in the race. He’s had a lot of races where he can’t close the door in the last KM or few hundred meters – so,start at 2km – lift the pace. Your Dad did this in a 30 km skate race in Castlerotto with 5km to go (many years ago). He broke up a group of 10-15 skiers as he new he could podium if he pared the group down to three skiers. It’s worth a try – take the race away from them – you be in control.

Oh, yes, it is hard to look at the women’s results and not see any Canadian Women there – this is not the way to build a program. Justin and Eric should go talk to Kikkan about how she did it – you are relegating these women to being just sprinters and it won’t work. They’ll never have the racing fitness to make it through the qualifying and heats. When they race next – it will have been better than three weeks since they  last raced – that is not an international program!

Talk to you Soon.