March 13, 2009 (Trondheim, Norway) – Here is a inside look at the 1.4km XC World Cup classic sprints held in Trondheim, Norway on March 12 by US Ski Team member Kikkan Randall. Randall qualified 29th in the event and ended up 30th after being eliminated after the quarterfinal rounds.

Cliff Notes:
1.4km classic sprint. The longest sprint of the season so far. I skied a solid qualification round in 29th place. Just enough to sneak into the heats. Ended up in the 2nd fastest quarterfinal. It was a hammer fest from the start!! I skied all out to hang in there. Was within a few meters of the leaders until the final 100m drag strip. I got out double-poled again. No medals today, but more good experience and motivation.

Got to see my former coach, Frode Lillefjell, definitely a highlight. No 30km for me on Saturday, next on to the World Cup finals in Falun, Sweden beginning Wednesday.

The Full Story:
The tour travels on to Norway! This week we raced a 1.4km classic sprint in the city of Trondheim, host of the 1997 World Championships. After an unfortunate salting incident in 2004 (they accidently used road salt that melted the course), the World Cup has been absent from this northern city, stopping each year in Oslo instead. With Oslo’s Homenkollen venue under construction for the 2011 World Championships however, Trondheim got another chance to showcase their stuff. And they did not disappoint!

We arrived in Trondheim on Monday afternoon and settled in to our hotel in downtown. Tuesday was our first chance to visit the trails and it was a beautiful day. The grooming was flawless, the sun was shining, the snow was cold and yet the air temperature was perfect. I cruised around the trails at distance pace and enjoyed one of my best skis of the year. Later in the day I got a chance to walk around town.

Unfortunately the window of good weather was short and by Wednesday’s race prep workout, we were now under clouds and the trails were back to spring conditions. We tested a variety of klister and hairies skis. New snow had fallen early in the day, making the course quite slow. I did a couple laps just below race pace, each in about four minutes. I was happy to find that my body was responding well, and seemed to be recovered from my sickness the week before. German star Klaudia Nystad joined me for a couple tune-up sprints as well.

The highlight of the day was seeing my former coach, Frode Lillefjell, who now coaches a team here in Norway. It was great to catch up with him after such a wild season!

Thursday’s sprint race was scheduled to start at 2pm. The weather was mostly overcast for my morning run but by the time we arrived at GrÃ¥nsen, snow was beginning to fall. (That makes classic waxing extra difficult). Thankfully, our team of wax techs were fully prepared and we were able to find skis that were both kicking well and gliding free. I chose to go on my klister skis for the qualification round. My warm-up went well.

With 10 minutes to go until start, I grabbed my race skis at the wax cabin and ran down to the start. It was a solid two-minute route, down an icy chute, and my adrenaline was pumping. I got to the start area with just enough time to get my transponders put on, run a couple sprints and strip off my warm-ups. I took off from the gate as bib #11.

I carried good speed across the stadium and hammered up the big climb. My skis worked well and I carried good momentum over the top. There was not much rest however. I double-poled aggressively across the flat and really worked a tight hairpin turn. There was one more short uphill, another flat, and then down into the stadium. I was still feeling good energy-wise but I couldn’t seem to get everything out of my double-pole motion. I was repeating technique cues in my head, “hips forward, whip the hands.” Then I crossed the finish line- 6th place, 10 seconds out. It might be good enough.

I put on my warm-ups and then lingered in the finish area to watch the results list. I had already slipped down a few spots as more racers came in. As the host nation, Norway was able to enter an additional 10 skiers to their already large WC quota. So, as many of the non-national team (but still super fast) Norwegian girls came in, I slipped more and more. Finally, with three skiers remaining on course, I was sitting in 28th. Then 29th. Finally the last girl finished and I stayed at 29. I let out a little cheer, whew, that was close!!

Happy to get another shot at the course, I zipped back to the warm-up track and worked the hard effort out of my muscles. It had been snowing pretty hard the whole time and I was starting to get soaked. After my cool down, I changed into dry clothes and relaxed for a short period until it was time to warm-up again.

Twenty-ninth placed me in the fourth women’s quarterfinal. I had changed my race skis to hairies to accommodate for the falling snow. When I lined up, I took a quick glance down the start corridor. There were definitely some good classic skiers in my heat and I knew it was going to be tough! The gun went off and we shot onto the course at full speed.

I had a good start and came out of the start lanes pretty even with the group. I was stuck to the outside, and I had to put in a little extra burst to get a track as we went from six lanes to four. I strided hard up the climb, still pretty close to the pack. As we went over the top, I tucked myself into fourth. Not a moment to relax however, I had to double-pole all out to try and hang with the pack ahead. Going into the first hairpin turn, I stood up while the others in front of me snow-plowed. I took a slightly outside line and then worked the turn and came up on them with more speed. I took to the outside again and scurried up the short steep.

I was still keeping good contact with the group, but barely hanging on. Their double-pole speed was so strong and more efficient than mine. I worked the corner in the stadium really well and carried good momentum up and over the tunnel before the last 150m. I was a few meters back from the leaders as we all fanned out into the finishing lanes. I double-poled as hard as I knew how, but couldn’t keep up. Two girls behind me were able to sneak by and I ended up finishing sixth in my heat. That was hard!!! For me, it was an all-out effort the whole way!! Our quarterfinal ended up being the second fastest and my time would have actually won three other heats. Because of my high qualifying bib, I ended up 30th overall.

A friend of mine, Sigrid Aas, had also been in my heat. We headed out for a cool-down together, skiing back and forth across a section of trail that allowed us to watch the rest of the races. I was surprisingly tired for only two rounds! The finals were super exciting to watch, especially on the finish stretch and I gained even more motivation to work on my double-pole!!

There is a 30km mass-start classic race on Saturday, but I’m not racing it. I am going to ski the World Cup finals next week in Sweden, that will include four races in five days and I want to be fully ready for that challenge. Someday I hope to be super woman, racing every race that comes along. Until then, I still have some experience and durability to gain.

See you again next week!

Cheers,
Kikkan 🙂