November 05, 2012 – WinSport Frozen Thunder Classic – What a great name for the race, and what a great idea for getting the ski season underway in a novel news media attention-getting format. Now to make it an even bigger attention drawing event – list it on the FIS calendar as the first ski race of the winter.

I was surprised at the number of top athletes that by passed this race – it has been a known quantity and on the schedule for a couple of  months, so any coach can plan or adjust a training program to fit into any skiers’ program. What a shame to miss this opportunity to get in a first race, start that lung-blood taste feeling (we all love) and find out where you are or aren’t! Nothing beats racing – too bad if you missed it.

You Tube and Other Videos – these are the best learning tools, but they need commentary with them as only half the potential is being realized. Music is the easy way out and is for other social situations, as the people making most of the videos are the learning leaders in our communities, the coaches. We need to hear them comment on what we are seeing and make this a 100% learning experience.

Here is a new video format – with variable speeds – with music…can you believe what a learning tool this is going to be – add the commentary – PLEASE.

See here.

CCC Women’s Team – there has been a lot of rhetoric these past few months about team building within the women’s national Team and program, with comments especially from Coach deNys. It is also apparent that this has to be one of a communications break through as about 90% of the time Dasha Gaiazova is in the “la belle” province training when her teammates are in Bend, Canmore, Park City, Alaska, Whitefish and St George.

I have written about the tail wagging the dog and here is another incident that is confusing and continues to the show me this is not a coordinated team effort – as Crawford and Jones leave Frozen Thunder after skiing for the past two weeks and head for the World Cup circuit and training in Sweden. They leave while Dasha is just arriving in Canmore to get in some skiing by herself and head off to Sweden a week later than her so-called teammates.

She’ll be joined on the late departure by Ivan Babikov from the men’s team so he can be with his family longer. Ivan is playing with fire – his second half of last winter was quite weak and it would be interesting to know if he made the team selection criteria. He has spent the last month at least with his family – these are considerations of the sport that you should be accommodating like a professional.

Drug Free Sport – not that we can ever expect to reach this goal, but we are damn sure getting closer and need to pass the 4-year sanction to close the door tighter. I’ve been beating this drum for a lot of years and I know that our North American skiers have benefited from the gains as part of all that they have accomplished since the start of this decade. Is the avalanche in motion(?)…I know I like what I see from all the NA skiers.

Lance Armstrong…My Thoughts – I was asked in one of my comments what I thought of the Lance Armstrong debacle. My party line over the years has not changed – he is a cheater and a liar as all PED users that get caught ARE! I have no sympathy for him – not a speck.

I think there are a lot of contributors to the situation because they were de0linquent from the beginning at trying to squash these cheaters – the IOC, WADA, USADA, UCI and all the other international federations and associations that had their heads in the sand back in the 70s and 80s when the athletes were really running amuck. So many “big wig” leaders were hiding, not admitting or just reluctant to take the action that all the honest athletes deserved.

There are a lot of hypocrites in all that has taken place – Lance is a cheater. I’m sure we all can agree to this, but wasn’t Tiger Woods? What was good for the goose (Lancie boy) should be good for the gander (Tiger) and have his neck (sponsorship) cut off as well. The way I look at it – cheating is cheating – and he was cheating – COME’ON Nike!!??

Kershaw – I think he has a legitimate chance to win the overall WC not just place 2nd like he did this past year, and for years to come. He just has to figure out how to get to his top RPM racing level going for the 1st half of the season. In the first half of the season this last year he scored 377 WC points and missed 4 races for assorted reasons. In the 2nd half of the season he scored 1,094 WC points and only missed two races. That’s a big enough differential to give it some thought – I’m sure he realizes this happened and will make program adjustments to try to be more race-ready early in the year.

Talk to You Soon.
misterxc@aol.com