November 30, 2018 (Lillehammer, Norway) – Alex Harvey, 30, sprinted to his first World Cup cross-country ski podium this season, winning bronze on Friday in the men’s 1.6km Sprint FR in Lillehammer, Norway at round two of the FIS series. It was the earliest Harvey has ever reached the sprint podium in his 10-year career.

“It is always fun to be on the podium no matter when you do it, but to do it early in the season is a bit of a pressure reliever,” said Harvey. “This tells me I did the right things this summer and is a nice confidence booster to know you are still in the game because there always questions marks in cross-country skiing when you start the season.” It was the 30th World Cup medal of the three-time Olympian’s career.

“When I came out on the team, we would win one or two medals a year. None of us thought any of us could have a handful of podiums in one season like many of us have done,” added Harvey, who also has five World Championship medals to his credit.

“For me to break the 30 mark is not something I ever dreamed of – it just seemed too far out of reach. It takes a lot of people to get on a podium any week, and especially 30 times so the credit goes to a lot of people.”

After qualifying 17th, Harvey advanced to the head-to-head heats where he exercised his trademark tactic of conserving energy before darting past the pack up the final hill and into the stadium to handily win his quarter-final heat.

In his semifinal round Harvey was in an all-out war as Norway’s Sindre Skar and Emil Iverson darted ahead of the six-man pack early in the in a lightning-quick heat at the Lillehammer stadium. Crossing the finish line in fourth, it appeared the Canadian veteran’s day was done, but he advanced to the final after grabbing one of the two Lucky Loser spots.

“I’m just not fast enough off the start and the quarter-final was a bit of a scrappy heat so I decided to chill at the back and let the other guys cut each other up, save my energy until the last big climb and then make my move. It is a really big, high-speed finish. I had great skis and speed and was able to push hard in both heats,” said Harvey.

He played his tactics different in the final, staying near the front of the group for the first half of the race with Norway’s Iversen. As Italy’s Federico Pellegrino pushed the pace out front and comfortably skied to the gold medal, Harvey turned on the jets while descending off the final hill into the finish stretch of the stadium, moving up from fourth to jump onto the final step of the podium just 0.7 seconds from the win.

“I was able to be more up front and stay out of trouble in the beginning. I don’t feel like I did anything different off the start but maybe the true sprinters were a bit more tired in the final,” said Harvey. “It was great to share this podium with the whole team. The wax techs always work so hard, but today the rain was coming down and they were just drenched. They worked so hard for this one running around in the rain to make sure I had great skis so I’m really happy to be able to give them this result.” Norway’s Iversen topped Harvey for the silver medal.

Simi Hamilton was the top American in 19th and wanted more but was also happy with his performance and looks forward to the upcoming races. “It was rainy all day, but that made the snow a bit faster than yesterday which was nice. It was actually really nice skiing. The course was hard as it always is here, but in faster conditions it tends to flow pretty well. Our techs did a great job getting us fast skis, especially considering the weather and how rough of a day they had with a 9:30 qualifier (they were testing and waxing at the venue starting at 5:30am),” Hamilton told Trax.

“I feel good about my day. Obviously I would have liked to have raced in the semis and the final, but my energy and fitness felt better than it usually does this time of year and I think with some specific skate speed work in the next couple weeks I’ll be in a really good spot heading into Davos, the TdS, and the rest of the season.

“I thought I skied my quarter tactically really well until the last climb, when I just lost some pop in my legs and lost a bit of momentum right at the top when my pole got skied on a couple times. I was hoping for a good sling shot coming into the finish lanes but I think there was just a little too much space between me and the top 3 racers when we hit the last fast downhill,” shared Hamilton.

Results here.