December 01, 2012 (Kuusamo, Finland) – We caught up with American Kikkan Randall who landed her second consecutive distance podium grabbing the silver in the women’s 5km FR Individual Start at Kuusamo where only Marit Bjoergen (NOR) could beat her. We also chatted with Jessie Diggins, a solid 12th today, along with Holly Brooks and Liz Stephen as the four women made the top 20.
Then it was over to the Canadian camp to chat with Alex Harvey who lead the North Americans in 17th… find out why this was a super result from Quebec’s hero as the world will soon descend on Harvey’s home town for round #3 of the FIS XC WCup.

USST’s Elizabeth Stephen
Yeah, great day here in Ruka! Four women in the top 20 and Noah getting his best ever finish in 19th for the guys, quite a day for sure! Three PR’s on the day, actually, with Noah’s race and Kikkan’s best distance result ever, and mine being the best World Cup stage, with the exception of the final climb on the Tour de Ski last year, so we are all fired up tonight.

The course is mighty hard here in Kuusamo, but a 5k is so short that the strategy was to go out hard, ski the tops of the climbs hard and recover as much as possible on the fast downhills. We were taking risks out there today, blowing up is not out of the question in a 5k, but going to easy is not a good option either because there is never an extra second to blow in such a short race (unless you are Bjoergen, of course, and then you have 22 seconds to play with!). My skis were great, I’m fired up for tomorrow’s cat and mouse game out there!

USST’s Holly Brooks
Today was a great day for the team – once again we had a host of “best-evers” including Liz’s race (minus the TdS Hill Climb) Kikkan’s SILVER in a distance event and Noah’s first top 20!!!! Plus, we had four girls in the top 18 which shows the depth of the USA!
As for my race, I felt like I was never able to get up to full race-speed. Considering I didn’t feel awesome I’m pretty pumped that equated an 18th place race! Standards have definitely changed for me personally and for the USA – as a ski nation! Just a couple of years ago one in the top twenty in a distance race would be news. Now it almost seems like no one is that surprised? I’m really excited to see what we can do in the “Nation’s Cup Race” this year!!!!
As for the cold, you would think that AK would prepare me for this but I don’t feel that I’m at an advantage here. At the finish line today I was told that I had white checks. I will surely be sporting the full-face physio tape look tomorrow! I DO feel better prepared than others for the darkness though 🙂
Good races today should make for a really exciting, action-packed pursuit race tomorrow! I can’t wait!
Thanks,
Holly