December 10, 2011 (Davos, Switzerland) – The USA’s Holly Brooks scored a career-best 13th in the women’s 15km freestlye race while Canada’s Ivan Babikov earned a top-10 finish placing 7th in the men’s 30-kilometre FR competition in Davos on Saturday. Norway’s Petter Northug and Marit Bjoergen both racked up convincing victories – here’s a selection of quotes and photos…

Full women’s 15km FR results HERE.
Full men’s 30km FR results HERE.

Women’s 15km

Holly Brooks (USA) – 13th
Today was an awesome day, definitely a World Cup best for me! I was getting splits that I was leading the race but still had half of the field behind me. On my second loop I started to get some info on fast skiers that started behind me and apparently, my splits were still good. When I passed Chris Grover for the second time, he told me that I was fighting for a top-ten time for the day and that every second mattered. Apparently I was running 7th place through at least 9.5 kilometers. While I’m bummed that the top ten continues to elude me I’m ecstatic with my progress and hope that one day, if I’m patient, I’ll be able to break through!

Racing at altitude has always been one of my favorite things. Plus, today was the first race in Europe on REAL, natural snow! Coming into the race I had no idea how I’d fair against the World Cup field at a longer distance. I know that I like long races in a domestic field but you never know how that’s going to translate to European competitors and courses. I think it’s safe to say that I like it!

Racing at altitude can also be misleading in that you never really feel that good… the pace is much slower than racing at sea level and its mentally tough when you feel like you’re not moving very fast. The best thing to do is focus on technique, and keep grinding away. Today was a grind, especially at the top of the course where there were some really awkward, off-camber hills. I’m sure it didn’t look pretty and I’m crossing my fingers that that part of the race didn’t make TV!

The momentum behind our team is phenomenal right now and it’s fun to think that we had three girls score points today! That on top of a few World Cup medals last weekend makes this a good early season streak for USA!

Tomorrow’s sprint should be fun and I’m crossing my fingers that we’ll have a handful of North Americans make the heats. Like I said a couple of days ago on my blog, all we need is a bit of confidence and continued international interface and opportunities. We have a large group competing in Europe this season, many of whom are funding their own trip(s). I think that says a lot about the dedication and commitment to getting better at the sport. These racing opportunities have been critical for me and I’m incredibly thankful that I had the opportunity to compete in these World Cup races.

Thanks so much to all the coaches, wax techs, family members and teammates who provided fast skis and encouragement along the way! (Today and 365 days/year!)

Ivan Babikov (CAN) – 7th
It wasn’t anything special in terms of tactics, I was thinking to use my glide and keep calm. Maybe I started a bit to hard and paid for that on my last lap – my legs started to cramp – but sometimes you just have to go for a risk I’m very happy with the way it tuned out. Any individual start race is good for me, especially a skate race. It looks like I feel the most comfortable racing in a 30km or 15km. I wish there would be more races like today on the calendar.

Kikkan Randall (USA) – 27th
I’m actually pretty satisfied to be in the top 30 today and it was another really strong day for our team. Liz, Holly and I did some intervals together yesterday and I could tell everyone was looking strong!! It’s fun to see that our team can really mix it up in the points now!

I have struggled with distance racing here in Davos in the past so I was looking forward at the chance to go out and race a lot of km’s today and work on my altitude pacing. I wanted to start aggressive and keep a steady pace the whole race.

My race went great for the first 3km. I felt like I got into a really good rhythm early and was actually quite surprised to get the good splits because my start felt controlled. But midway up the climb on the first lap I felt the effort catch up with me a little bit and from there I kind of got stuck in a middle gear. I struggled a bit through the middle of the race. My energy actually felt pretty good through the race, but I was having a hard time keeping my power up over the 2nd half. It didn’t feel like things unraveled, I just couldn’t seem to get myself into that next gear.

I am excited for tomorrow’s sprint race. I’ve always rebounded really strong from distance racing the first day here and I know my sprinting is in a really good place. The competition is going to be tough tomorrow but I am anxious to get another head-to-head race with Bjoergen. She is the gold standard right now and it will be fun to challenge her!

Men’s 30km

Sadie Bjornsen (USA) – 53rd
Today was all about training and practice. I think the way you become a successful world cup racer is by trying it all. Even though the 15km skate is probably about as far from my strength you can handle, especially when its all uphill – and then all downhill. I went out there today for the experience and training.

The race was much harder than I was actually expecting. The constant uphill climbing was deceiving (read hard). Kikkan passed me pretty early on, which was a bit tough for my head, but I tried to pull things together on the second lap a bit more. It appears I could use a bit more practice, and a couple more years of racing.

I am anxiously waiting for tomorrow. Today was a warm up for tomorrow 🙂 I train hard enough that hopefully todays hard effort should have no effect on my race tomorrow. Plus I got two chances to ski the sprint course for tomorrow’s race within my race today, so I got it down.

It was especially exciting to see Holly and the other two girls do so well today! When you have a team like that, it makes it easy to forget about a rough race and get psyched for the following day. I think this is an improvement that the US girls are making possible. It’s really neat.

Graham Nishkawa (CAN) – 34th
It was definitely a lot better for me today than the previous efforts. It was definitely really hard course and I didn’t really know what to expect in a 30k individual. I just went out a little bit conservative in the first couple of kilometres, and then I found my groove and felt pretty good the whole way through.

Justin Wadsworth (CAN) – Head Coach
Both guys skied well and we’re pretty satisfied with it. The race today was about fitness and not so much about tactics and things like that so it just shows that both guys are fit.