November 28, 2015 (Ruka, Finland) – Canada’s Alex Harvey, 27, landed his first World Cup podium of the season, and the first ever before Christmas. The talented Canuck claim second in the men’s 10km FR competition today, stage two of the Ruka Triple in Kuusamo, Finland, that kicks off the 2015/16 FIS XC Ski World Cup series. Harvey enjoyed a stint in the hot seat for some time before Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby, the overall men’s series defending champ, posted the best time for the gold. Switzerland’s Dario Cologna was third.

Harvey’s silver puts him in good company while signaling his intentions to vie for the overall title this year. The two-time Olympian means business this year with the World Cup season finale, Ski Tour Canada, in his own backyard in March 2016. The podium performance also demonstrates that his leg operation last April was a resounding success.

“It feels great. This is my first World Cup podium before Christmas so it is a big step for me,” said Harvey. “Kuusamo has been a hard place for me to race with the steep uphills and now it is better for me in skate-skiing thanks to the surgery.”

Forced to fight through a compressed artery that restricted blood flow in both of his legs – a medical condition common in cyclists after years of the same training movement – Harvey’s potential was limited in the past while skate-skiing up steep climbs.

“Today is a good sign of my recovery following that surgery,” said Harvey. “It is nice to see the surgery paid off. My target this year is to win the Overall title. I didn’t necessarily believe that I could do that in the past, but I do believe I have a shot at that title this year. I didn’t have a good result yesterday [in the CL Sprint] but I knew my fitness was good and I was confident heading into today.”

Also having a strong day on the tough course was Harvey’s teammate, Devon Kershaw, on the comeback trail, as he finished in the points placing 24th.

“Really, really, really impressive by Alex. For an individual start skate race and before Christmas – it was scary good for him. It was his first podium before Christmas ever, so for the first distance race of the World Cup season… look out,” said Kershaw by email.

“For me, I was happy with how I skied. Like last weekend, to have two skate races (individual start) back-to-back feeling good and able to move and ski technically well – I’m proud of that. Of course, I had the ride of the day (with Sundby), and he annihilated me in the last 1.9km (where he put 14 seconds on me there), so that was not good at all, but other than that – really solid and I am quite pleased,” he added.

Simi Hamilton was top American in 49th followed by Ivan Babikov (CAN) in 52nd, Erik Bjornsen (USA) in 54th, Graeme Killick (CAN) in 57th, Noah Hoffman (USA) 58th, Andy Newell (USA) 85th, Kris Freeman (USA) 88th, Michael Somppi was 93rd, Len Valjas finished 95th and Jesse Cockney was 101st.

Today’s podium was Harvey’s 16th World Cup medal of a stellar career for the Saint Ferreol les Neiges, Que. skier – 10th on the World Cup along with six Tour de Ski podiums – to go along with his four World Championship medals.

Sundby will have a 25-second lead on Harvey on Sunday for the 15km pursuit race, as the Canuck will start sixth based on his time behind the leader following the first two legs. Many of the biggest names in the sport will be hunting down the overall title of the Ruka triple.

“It is going to be a big fight,” added Harvey. “We will have to see how we wake up in the morning… we’ve all had two days of racing. I’ll ski as hard as I can tomorrow and hopefully pull off a good race.”

Full results here.
Ruka Standings here.