December 19, 2011 (Rogla, Slovenia) – North Americans wrapped up a successful weekend of World Cup racing in Rogla, Slovenia with a slew of personal bests in Sunday’s skate sprint events. Canada’s Chandra Crawford scored her first ever World Cup silver medal in the women’s final, while her teammate, Dasha Gaiazova, placed 9th, a personal best in a skate sprint.

While heavy favourite Kikkan Randall (USA) fell victim to a crash and a broken pole in the sprint final (ending up 6th), she and her US teammates still had something to celebrate. Randall scored her best classic distance result in the women’s 10k classic placing 11th on Saturday while Holly Brooks did the same placing a solid 19th, and Liz Stephen also celebrated a personal best finishing 22nd. Meanwhile Ida Sargent qualified for the sprint heats for her first time on the World Cup while earning her first WCup points.

The USA’s Simi Hamilton led the North American men, finishing 10th in the freestyle sprint, also a personal best World Cup result.  Overall, Canada and the US placed five men in the top 21, with Devon Kershaw, Len Valjas, Alex Harvey and Andy Newell placing 15th, 18th, 19th and 21st respectively. Newell also notched his first ever World Cup points in a distance race after finishing 24th in the men’s 15km classic on Saturday.

Read additional comments on the Rogla weekend from Simi Hamilton, Ivan Babikov, Noah Hoffman, Holly Brooks, Liz Stephen, Lenny Valjas and Kris Freeman below.

Simi Hamilton on his sprint top-10
A great day for sure… I’m pretty fired up. The course seemed to suit me really well. A lot of tight, technical corners that you really had work as well as a pretty short length and firm conditions.

My training was really quality this summer and fall, and even though I’ve been battling some bouts of illness recently, I knew that my preparation was good… it was just a matter of getting the energy and confidence back. My coach Pete and I designed a training plan that really focused on improvement of my weaknesses. I’m feeling a lot more comfortable in the last 200 meters of the race and I’m much better at calling on the flat-out speed that I have during that crucial time in the race.

I had a really good start in my quarter- another thing that Pete and I worked on a lot on this summer- and I found myself about 1 meter ahead of everyone at the 30 meter point. I knew that with the nature of the course it was good to go into the corners section in the lead, so I decided to ski hard and stay ahead. It basically came down to drag race in the last 200 meters, and a good lunge got me into that lucky loser spot.

In the semi I wanted to go with a different strategy… there was a long slingshot downhill pretty early in the course that Gloersson passed me on in the quarters, so I wanted to be in 2nd or 3rd on that section. After that long downhill and the corners section, I tried to make a move over the steep climb but got boxed out by Gloersson on the right and got pinballed by Morilov on the right.

Eventually I found a lane on the climb, but I would have liked to have entered the lanes with a little more of an advantage over the other guys in my heat. Unfortunately, the lunge in the quarters didn’t get me as far in my semi, I think by about a centimetre or so. Oh well, it was still a great heat to have been a part of.

I’m definitely satisfied with today. I’ve known all fall that this is where my fitness and speed are at, but just haven’t gotten a chance to prove that. I’m really looking forward to the Tour de Ski and the rest of the winter. Of course I’ll be most looking forward to the sprints, but I’m really excited to see how some of the distance races turn out, especially the ones on the shorter side.

Holly Brooks on her 19th place in Saturday’s classic distance race
It was a solid day.  Matt Whitcomb pointed out that it’s phenomenal to come in 19th and feel “luke warm” about the race.  That said, I believe the entire women’s team has World Cup best classic distance races today!  Plus, it was wonderful to see Andy Newell score his first distance points!  Newell and Freeman have had a long going bet (maybe many years) about who will score points in the other person’s discipline first.  I suppose it’s Freeman’s turn to score tomorrow in the sprint!

The conditions today were a LOT nicer than they were yesterday. Friday’s training day featured thick fog and snow that was constantly changing between hard wax, klister covered, and klister. We woke up this morning to snow down low and received an email that the venue got 20cm last night! That said, it wasn’t nearly as soft as it could have been.

The men’s race was first this morning which is extremely rare for the World Cup. Therefore, the tracks were even sloppier than they otherwise would have been due to the wind. They were washed out in places and there were big troughs for poling in the two middle tracks. The top of the course featured an out and back SUPER windy section where the snow was dirty, there were big chunks of ice and a strong headwind/cross wind to fight against.  The skiing, in this section specifically, was ugly. I felt ugly and I’m sure it looked horrendous on TV. Luckily I wasn’t the only one fighting with it.

For the first two laps I was skiing a bit stronger – 13th and 10th and two of the respective intermediate check points. I felt strong for 2-3 laps and then fatigue set in like a load of bricks. I skied the entire second half of the race with Marthe Kristoffersen and my skis were slightly better but I couldn’t get around her, no matter what I did.  I was hoping to have some energy left for the last herringbone hill into the long, gradual uphill finish but I was toast.  There were certainly more girls collapsed in the finish line than usual – a testament to the tricky conditions, altitude, and mass start format.

On Monday I will head to Ramsau, Austria with the rest of the crew competing in the Tour. I’m excited for a bit of downtime and some easy skiing.  Conditions in Ramsau as of a couple of days ago were really good – 30k groomed and I’m really hoping that’s held up! I’m over the gerbil loops for a while and long for some big tours where you cover a significant amount of terrain on the natural stuff!

As for confidence, I’m feeling good right now… I think I’ve scored points 6 times in period one which has exceeded my expectations.  Although I’m not ecstatic about today, it was still a personal best which goes to show that my expectations are changing. I feel like I’ve established my baseline and I’m already looking forward to the next level!

Ivan Babikov on Saturday’s classic race, in which he placed 22nd
I’m very happy with my race today, I have struggled with my classic in the past two seasons. I didn’t plan any early attacks, I just tried to stay at the front of the pack as long as possible, and there was an opportunity for bonus points, so I was very happy about that. Our skis worked very good today, and it was very exiting to ski with Devon and Alex at the front.
I got a bit tired on the last lap and couldn’t go with the leaders but still satisfied with the overall.

We all looking forward to the Tour now, just have to stay healthy, that’s the goal for now.

Noah Hoffman on Saturday’s race, plus plans going forward
The course today was much better than what we skied yesterday. We got a significant amount of snow last night. The organizers were able to spread some more manmade snow to add a hill to the course. The organizers did a great job.

My skis were fantastic. The techs did a great job. I also have a lot of confidence in the pair of skis I was on. It is the same pair I raced on in the 15km at World Championships last year.

Today was a little disappointing [51st], but I feel I am set up for some success in the second half of the season.

I love being on the World Cup and the whole scene. It is much less of a spectacle this year than last year for me. I still enjoy watching the logistics and everything that goes into putting on one of these races. It is a really cool series of races.

I’m headed to Vermont on Monday to work on technique with Zach Caldwell. I’ll be in the East until US Nationals.

Liz Stephen on her best ever finish (22nd) in a classic World Cup distance race
It was a PB Saturday and I was really excited, for sure.  The race on Saturday went really well for me.  After previewing the course the day before, I set my sights to a top 35 goal, as I thought getting into the top 30 would be pretty tough for me on a relatively flat course with tough snow.

However, we woke up the next morning to fresh snow which helped the tracks a lot and the added part of the loop that had not been open the day before had another short climb in it, which all helped, for sure.

However, I think most of what happened Saturday was me deciding to go for it. Courses are never all going to be perfect for any athlete, but the ones that can learn how to just go for it every time, have a much better chance to have a great race than the ones who only think they can ski to their potential on courses that were made for them.  And on Friday night, I decided that was not going to be me.

So, I went for it, and every lap felt better than the one before it.  I kept skiing up, tried to ski smart by tucking in behind girls where I could to block the gusting wind, rest where I could, hammer where I could, and just never count myself out.  And it worked.

Lenny Valjas on battling sickness in the days before Sunday’s sprint race
On Friday I woke up achy with a sore throat. Not the feeling you want the day before a race. I knew starting the 15km race would be a mistake so I told Justin [Wadsworth] to take me out of the race. I didn’t feel any better on Saturday. I sat in bed all day and watched 4 movies. I really liked the course. It suited me very well with the gradual climbs and the tough finish. It would have been a fun course to try if I was feeling 100%. I told myself that I would race the sprint no matter how I felt. I kept telling myself that the cold would not affect me in the race.

This morning [Sunday] I woke up and was still congested, but my sore throat was much better. I didn’t feel nearly as crappy as the morning before. I can’t be any happier with how my day ended up. It felt surreal to be in the heats, considering that I was lying in bed for the past two days.

This year I will spend Christmas in Davos with the Tour de Ski boys. I will not be racing the Tour this year, the coaches and I agreed that it might be too much for me to handle with all the sprints coming up in the weeks following.

Kris Freeman reveals how a personal loss is affecting his racing
This has been a very disappointing period of racing for me. I have been dealing with a major loss in my personal life and it has a very negative impact. I haven’t slept like I normally do and my stress levels have been through the roof. When it has been time to push in races there has been nothing there. Stress always makes my sugar less predicable but I have had no major issues.

The course [on Saturday] was easy, the pace was on the slow side and my skis were good. The snow was an odd mix of natural and man-mae snow but I generally like snow that you have to finesse. Everything pointed to a good race for me except that I have let myself get exhausted from external factors.

Andy’s race [on Saturday] was exciting. This is the first time since the 2002 season that three American men have scored World Cup points in distance racing. I have been suffering but my teammates are picking up the slack.