December 02, 2011 – Harvey’s Goof-up – After storming out of the start gate in the Sjusjoen 15km free to his best ever 1st World Cup (WC) race of the season in 5th place, Alex was fast to make the decision to sidestep the next day’s WC relay for Canada. Thinking that he was in form and would bring this best ever form to the Kuusamo mini-tour he got slam dunked in the first two races there – 24th place finish in the sprint and a 27th place finish in the 10km. He was able to recover from this train wreck and was back on track in the 15km classic with a 7th place finish.

In the early season, especially since the NA skiers have been so isolated all summer and fall, those first races are so important to catch the tempo and get into racing shape. Out of the 1st 40 skiers in the 15km free only 4 skiers passed up the relay – 2 because their team didn’t have a team, 1 Norwegian who should have been on one of Norway’s three teams (but wasn’t), and Alex.

He let himself and his teammates down by making the decision to skip the relay. I know this is the 2nd time he has done this – he did it last year at the World Championships to save himself for the 50km. He was 5th there but running on low octane the whole race and skied maybe one of his smartest races ever to get that placing.

This relay team, with the way the four skiers (Kershaw, Harvey, Babikov, Valjas) are performing now, has a huge upside to it and it is time for them to be putting the running order together or shaking it out as to what it will be by the time Sochi rolls around! Experience reduces the chances for mistakes.

Alex threw away lots of WC points and some prize money with this decision – too bad for him and the team.

Dasha Gaiazova just made the same mistake in Kussamo, after having a good open sprint race and placing a very credible 14th, she then decided to by pass both distance races. I believe she will pay for this. It’s early in the season and time to race – way too many start chances being passed up by the Canadians.

Canadian Women’s Team – hasn’t placed a women skier in the top 30 in a WC distance race since Feb 5th, 2010 when Sara Renner placed 25th in the WC in Canmore in a 10km, and it was a soft field. Dasha was the only one of the four ladies now in Europe that was also in that race and she was 41st. Which lady is going to stop this slide.

Norwegians – they sent a message at the World Championships last year that they were going to raise the bar and they have not let themselves down in delivering the goods so far this year. These first two WC weekends have been kind of repetitive when it comes to the podium and how many of their skiers they can crowd on each level. WOW!

US Women’s Team – Kikkan Randall – It’s becoming very apparent that Kikkan Randall is the whole show now – she can sprint in the top 5 in both techniques and it’s same in both techniques in the distance races. STAY HEALTHY – that’s the secret for her now. Holly Brooks has got to be starting to believe she belongs over there. Both Liz and Ida shot up the results list (10-12 places) in the 10km Pursuit. Hope to see Ida and Sadie in Duesseldorf with Kikkan fighting to team up with Kikkan in the team sprint.

Snow – yes, it’s early winter, but I’d be willing to bet that in those areas of the N. Hemisphere that have the possibility of snow, that there is more bare ground then snow covered ground. Satellite shot I was looking at was pretty desperate—anyone for “GLOBAL WARMING”.

Duesseldorf Team Sprint – two weeks ago everyone would be betting that Alex Harvey and Devon Kershaw, the World Champs in the event, would be the team representing Canada. It now looks like they’ll be fighting it out to see who is skiing with Len Valjas, Canada’s hot young skier. There’s some extra excitement for these guys and Valjas has had some pretty astounding results this last year and a half.

US Men’s Team – needs some help from the young guys! Freeman and Newell can’t be called on year after year to hold the fort, some of the young guys who do have some experience on the WC need to come forward. Tad Elliott had a great relay leg in Sjusjoen and was only 19 secs out of the top 30 in the 10km in Kuusamo and Noah Hoffman, the other young gun, was 40th in the 15km in Kuusamo. They need to get themslves more into the races earlier – you don’t close at the end of a race on the WC circuit. Lars Flora has had his chances and Simi Hamilton has a hard time just getting to the start gate.

Having said all that – this is not a bad start for Team North America, as there are some new levels of results occurring that are eye opening. With both teams having skiers stay in Europe for the whole winter (yes, 5 months) and goals of doing well on the whole World Cup (top 10) and doing the TdS with podiums part of the focus there is sure some exciting racing a head. If you’re a real early riser here is the viewing address for seeing all the races on your computer HERE.

Good racing in Dusseldorf this weekend and watch out for flying elbows!!

See You Next Time!