November 12, 2011 (Bruksvallarna, SWE) – The FIS cross-country season kicked off this morning with a men’s 15km Free race in Bruksvallarna, Sweden, featuring many of the top World Cup skiers from Scandinavia, Europe and Canada. France’s Maurice Manificat (FRA) was the class of the field, winning in 32:35.9.

Sweden’s Johan Olsson finished in 2nd, showing few signs of 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 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 over the course of the race, eventually finishing 48 seconds behind Manificat.

Valjas notched another excellent distance result with an 18th place finish in 33:40.4. 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, including the Red Group, he had a long wait before knowing how well his time would stand up.

Something about the Bruksvallarna course seems to suit Valjas, who is known as a sprint specialist; Valjas was a surprise fourth place finisher in this race last year. Kershaw, meanwhile, was clearly disappointed with his race, calling it a “career worst start” on Twitter after the race.

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

Kevin 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 told SkiTrax by email. 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.”

Another convergence group skier, Goldsack, finished 82nd. He started out strong but quickly fell off the pace. “Today was a rough day for me,” he confided by email, “A 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”.

The members of the U.S. men’s ski team, who are currently training in the U.S. and Sweden, did not participate in the event.

The women take to the trails tomorrow in Bruksvallarna for a 10k skate race.

Final results HERE.