Top US skier, Kikkan Randall ©Heinz Ruckemann file photo
Quote of the day:
“Sprint racing is the ultimate challenge. Sometimes you win, sometimes you crash and burn. Today, I crashed and burned!”
What’s coming up
– 12.12.09 World Cup 10km Skate – Davos, SUI
– 12.13.09 World Cup Sprint Skate – Davos, SUI
– 12.19.09 World Cup Sprint Classic- Rogla, SLO
– 12.20.09 World Cup 15km Classic- Rogla, SLO
The Ups and Downs in Dusseldorf
Cliff Notes:
City sprint in Dusseldorf, Germany. The snow is made in an indoor ski hall and laid on the city streets for this unique event alongside the Rhein River.
In Saturday’s individual sprint, I started off the day by advancing to the rounds in 19th position. I had a pretty stacked quarterfinal but was prepared for the challenge. Despite a good double-pole start, 15m into the race another racer stepped on my ski and I went down. Since the course is only 800m long, I was unable to make-up the deficit from my fall, and I ended up last in my heat for 28th place overall.
I didn’t have a teammate for today’s team sprint, so I cheered on our US men’s team instead. Although they were 4th here last year (partly due to half the field being taken out in a crash), I feel they skied stronger and smarter today for 6th place.
Tomorrow we will rejoin the rest of the team in Davos, Switzerland for the World Cups there next weekend.
The Full Story:
Goodbye snow, hello rain. Dusseldorf, Germany was this weekend’s World Cup stop, with an individual skate sprint and a skate team sprint.
Following the races in Kuusamo last weekend, I stayed with the other sprinters for a few more days to train on snow until traveling to Dusseldorf on Thursday. We had heard that FinnAir was having a baggage handlers strike so we packed our race day essentials in our carry-ons just in case. We ended up having no baggage issues but did managed to get delayed on the way to Helsinki, causing us to miss our connection which meant we spent the night in Helsinki and arrived in Ddorf on Friday.
The course was not laid until Friday night so I did my race prep on foot. All the countries stayed at the same hotel this year, which happened to be attached to a gigantic soccer arena. The local team was playing Friday evening, so we attended part of the game. The fans were crazy!!
Saturday was the individual skate sprint. After not qualifying last year in this event, I had high expectations to get into the rounds and fight for a podium position. During the qualification round there was a steady downpour. Thankfully I brought my rain gear! My lap around the 800m course went fairly well and I qualified in 19th position. The race goes by so fast, and the course is pretty flat, so it’s a surprisingly demanding event!
The rain tapered off just before the heats started. I was in the fourth quarterfinal with Bjorgen, Majdic, Korosteleva, Nystad and a new Estonian, Ojaste. A pretty stacked field!
Due to the narrow confines of the course, the start was double-pole only for the first 10m. I anticipated the starter’s gun well and got off to a really good start. Just as we were about to come out of the pine-boughs, marking where we were allowed to start skating, I felt that I had a slight lead. I put in one more DP push and then opened up my V to start skating, putting my weight on my left ski. A split second later, the skier to my left (the Estonian) opened up into her V onto her right ski, which immediately crossed over my left ski. As I attempted to transfer my weight to the other side and push off, my ski was trapped and I slammed down onto my face.
It took me just a second to get up, but the pack was already 20m ahead. I scrambled after them, telling myself, “they could all still crash, I can get back in this race.” I sprinted as hard as I could, making up a couple seconds perhaps, but the gap was too much to overcome and with 100m to go I was completely flooded with lactate. I challenged myself to keep sprinting all the way to the line, as practice.
Agonizingly, my race day was done again, way earlier than I wanted. I was so frustrated. Even if I had been in amongst the other girls and they had blown my doors off on the finish stretch, I would have at least had the chance to fight. To be out of contention already in the first 15m, after a good start, was just a real bummer. Unfortunately that is always the gamble with sprint racing. You can be the fastest, fittest person in the race, and if you happen to tangle up with someone, you’re day ends early. Oh well, chalk up another one up for experience! 28th place was my final result.
On a high note, my teammate Andy Newell qualified 3rd and made it through to the semi-finals, where he narrowly missed a pass to the A-final by just a few tenths of a second. He ended up 7th, for the 2nd time in a week. It’s always helps my mood to see a teammate do well!
I would have loved the opportunity to vent my frustration by racing the team sprint on Sunday. But alas, I am the sole US female representative in Ddorf this weekend, and without a partner, there was no chance to race. Instead, I went for a distance roller ski along the Rhein River. I haven’t roller skied in over a month now, so it felt a little funky at first. But once I found a good rhythm, cruising along the flats was a solid workout. Then I put my rain gear back on and watched the team sprints from the sidelines.
Our US men’s team, with Torin Koos and Andy Newell, skied very strong to qualify for the finals, and then skied to 5th place. They were fourth last year, but I think they skied even stronger today. It’s a good sign for a little competition coming up in about two months and six days from now!
Tomorrow we’ll rejoin the rest of the team in Davos, Switzerland for World Cups there next weekend. A skate sprint is on the schedule, so I’ll have another shot at my favorite event in just a few days!
Great job to all the athletes competing in the SuperTour back in the states!
Cheers,
Kikkan 🙂