September 17, 2009 (Wanaka, NZ) – With jet lag and the long travel behind us, the team settled into our regular camp routine…training and lots of it! The only change from our ordinary camp environment would be the addition of a few races as part of the New Zealand Winter games. The races were by no means a focus for the camp but a great way to get in some hard intensity and more importantly for me, a great chance to pull the bib on again after over a year without racing.

With the whole team training hard through the races no one was really sure of what to expect. The night before the 15km Classic, Devon started spouting off about how he was feeling like crap, how tired his legs were and saying that there was no way he was going to win the next day. (For anyone who knows Devon, this is usually a good sign that he’s going to go out and throw down the next day!).

As the men’s team sat around the dinner table hearing this, it was apparent that some betting was in order. Kershaw, being one of the only people I know to actually bet against himself, said that he’d buy everyone at the table two drinks of their choice if he won the next day and as a side bet with Alex, put $100 on the line as well!

To no one’s surprise but Devon, he went out and won the next day in true Kershaw style. Surely happy to win but it must have stung a bit crossing that line knowing that he was out some 20 drinks and a hundred bucks! The race lineup was a 10/15km Classic, Skate sprint and 5/10km Skate. Canada fielded strong teams in every race and put in a very strong showing overall. I surprised myself with a win in the sprint event. Having had surgery in the spring, I was very unsure of how my shape was coming into our NZ camp but it definitely felt good to kick the comeback off with a win!

The midpoint of our camp was marked with a much needed day off and a chance to escape the Snow Farm for a night. The girls headed down to Wanaka for a day at the spa while the guys split into two groups, one heading to Dunedin in search of some surfing and the other, including me, took off for a night in Queenstown. It was great to have a mental break from the camp environment and just relax for a day. The Queenstown crew kept ourselves busy with some shopping, sightseeing, coffee shop hopping, a round of golf and some much anticipated gambling at the Queenstown Casino!

After our short vacation, it was back to ‘The Farm’ for more skiing and the final week of our camp. After a few miserable storms rolled through dumping loads of snow, we saw some spectacular conditions for the last few days of the camp.In the last week, we had three or four days of absolutely perfect skiing, the kind of days where you just don’t want to stop skiing! The bomber conditions made it hard to leave but I was definitely ready to get home and enjoy the little bit of summer left in Canmore.

In addition to my Skitrax updates, I’ll be launching my own personal website this week. I’ll have updates throughout the season, lots of photos, twitter updates etc. so check it out! drewgoldsack.ca It could just be the biggest thing to hit the internet since Google!

Overheard:
“I am never playing Poker Stars again” Graham Nishikawa contemplates his loss of $5.00 playing online poker.

In The Tape Deck: /
Major Tom by Shiny Toy Guns (Cover of David Bowie’s Space Oddity)

On the Tube:

Just Classic…