November 13, 2011 (Bruksvallarna, Sweden) – The FIS cross country ski race season kicked off this weekend with two days of racing in Bruksvallarna, Sweden, that featured many of the top World Cup skiers from Scandinavia, Europe and Canada. Event organizers were forced to reduce the number of races to a single men’s and women’s freestyle race on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, due to the lack of snow. Both events were interval start races run on a 2.5k loop of artificial snow.

France’s Maurice Manificat (FRA) triumphed in the men’s 15k on Saturday. Sweden’s Johan Olsson finished in 2nd, shaking off a shoulder injury suffered earlier in the fall. Norway’s Petter Northug set the early pace but could not hold on, eventually finishing 18 seconds back of Manificat in 3rd place.

The race featured a huge field of 179 men racing six laps of the 2.5k loop that organizers worked hard all week to get in shape for the race. Despite fears of congestion and deteriorating snow, the course held up well and athletes contacted by SkiTrax had no complaints.

The top Canadians in Bruksvallarna were Alex Harvey (10th), followed by Len Valjas (18th) and Devon Kershaw (28th). Harvey skied a strong race and was consistently in or near the top 10 through the splits after the first few kilometres, but slowly lost ground to the leaders, eventually finishing 48 seconds behind Manificat. “It is a satisfying result for me, especially since it’s a 15km skate individual, arguably my ”worst” event but I feel like I’m better than this,” Harvey told SkiTrax by email.

Valjas notched another excellent distance result with an 18th place finish. Starting in bib number 121, Valjas crossed the line as the fastest racer up to that point, but, with another 60 competitors still on course, he had a long wait before knowing how well his time would stand up.

“I started really slow, way too slow actually. My first split at 1km had me in 54th!” Valjas confided, “I slowly picked up the pace throughout the race and by the last lap I was feeling really strong trying to make up as much lost time as possible.

As soon as Justin [Wadsworth] was giving me the splits that I was the current leader I knew it was hammer time.  I had a really strong finishing lap. I actually skied the last 1.5kms the same speed as Northug. I was pretty proud of that, since he is know as the king of finishing strong.”

“I was pretty pumped to cross the line in first, its not an easy feat with 120 Europeans starting before you,” Valjas added. “I knew there was around 60 world cup skiers still to finish after me, so I expected a bunch of them to beat my time … I didn’t expect to be in the top 20 with this tough of a field, it was a nice surprise.”

Something about the Bruksvallarna course certainly seems to suit Valjas, who is known as a sprint specialist – Valjas was a surprise fourth place finisher in this race last year. He will now make the trip to Sjusjoen next weekend for the World Cup opener, which features a 15km FR race and a 4x10k relay, suggesting that Valjas is earning some recognition as a distance skier as well.

Kershaw, meanwhile, was clearly disappointed with his race, calling it a “career worst start” on Twitter after the race. “It started out okay,” he later told SkiTrax via email. “My first lap I was way too slow, but then I settled into an okay rhythm until 10km. From there, my legs became really heavy/bad and I started to lose my ability to accelerate out of corners/over the tops of the hills. I lost over 50 seconds to the lead in the last 5km, which is a horrendous stat …I just lost power and muscularly my legs failed me today.”

Kershaw also felt that the course didn’t suit his shape, given how his legs were feeling. “There were a lot of corners to accelerate out of – to carry your speed well into the short/punchy climbs. Also, on the soft uphills it was important to have the legs to attack over each small climb to carry your speed well on the short, turny descents.”

Also skiing for Canada were Graham Nishikawa, Kevin Sandau, and Drew Goldsack. Nishikawa, who started in bib 152, skied a strong and consistent race, crossing the line just outside the top 20 among racers to that point, but eventually fell to 45th place.

Sandau, a member of the so-called “convergence group” of development skiers, finished 52nd. “It was a pretty tough field and I thought it was a good race to start off the season,” he commented. Known to be a strong distance skier, Sandau conceded that the course in Bruksvallarna didn’t play to his strength. “The 2.5km course for the 15km wasn’t exactly my type of terrain; not much in the way of long climbs,” he added.

Another convergence group skier, Drew Goldsack, finished 82nd. Goldsack started out strong but quickly fell off the pace. “Today was a rough day for me,” he admitted in an email interview, “The 15km skate is one of my weaker disciplines but I was expecting to do much better than I did. I started well but had really bad cramping in my legs after only 3-4kms. It was a real suffer-fest for me for the rest of the race”.

Women’s Race

Sunday was the women’s turn with a 10km event. A total of 94 women from Scandinavia and Europe, as well as a handful of Canadians were on the start line. Local favourite Charlotte Kalla took the win over Russia’s Irina Khazova by an 18.3 second margin. Norway’s Hanna Brodin was third. Perianne Jones was the fastest Canadian in 20th. Chandra Crawford was 36th and Alysson Marshall skied to a 51st place finish.

Reached via email after the race, Crawford was excited to get back to racing and seemed satisfied with her result: “Feels great to have a race bib on and I feel really privileged because the races from now until Dusseldorf seem so sketchy! The race was a solid good hard day for me and the snow coverage was impressive considering the heat wave we are living with here in Scandinavia.”

Crawford also pointed out that she still has some fatigue to unload from a recent hard training block and that she is looking forward to showing better form once she is better recovered. “Body wise I have done a big block at the end of October and also the past 14 days here in Ostersund have been some of the most training I’ve done since I was in Alaska in August, so I was happy to get out there and push and know I have a good load to taper off into December’s skate sprints.”

Overall, despite a few disappointments, the Canadian performance in Bruksvallarna bodes well for the World Cup season, which kicks off next weekend in Sjusjoen, Norway. As Wadsworth and athletes like Crawford indicated, many team members are coming off a big block of training that is masking their underlying fitness. Each will be looking to taper at the right time in order to be at their best for key races.

In Kershaw’s case, Wadsworth points out that “…he needs to keep the hours up through the beginning of the year as he’s been training quite a lot – he’ll be there when it counts this year for sure. Both he and Alex have shown tremendous fitness in training, so I know it will show more when the load is down a bit.”

More photos by Erik Wickström HERE.
Women’s final results HERE.
Men’s final results HERE.