December 01, 2014 (Kuusamo, Finland) – Following yesterday’s 10/15km CL events at the FIS XC World Cup Ruka opener we caught up with Canada’s Emily Nishikawa, Alex Harvey, and NST coach Justin Wadsworth. We also checked in with the Team USA camp and got the scoop from Jessie Diggins and coach Chris Grover for their take on the racing and their results.

Emily Nishikawa (CAN) ©Nordic Focus

Emily Nishikawa (Can)
I am really happy with this result to start off the season.  I had a good race, and got some good rides out there. [Justyna] Kowalczyk caught me at around 6km and I was able to stay with her till just about the end. She dropped me by a few seconds on the climb before the finish. I was really pumped to stay with her for so long! My skis were great.  I had good grip, and they were also really fast.  Our techs did a great job today. I’m feeling good, and really looking forward to next weekend.

Alex Harvey (CAN) © Nordic Focus

Alex Harvey (Can)
I felt good in the race for sure. The course in Kuusamo is far from my favourite so I’m very pleased with the result. It was about -5 deg celcius and it snowed a bit overnight. The course is the same as usual, 3 major long/steep climbs every lap. Some of the corners were icy too.

I started fast for myself, which was a goal for the race. I have a hard time beeing in the top 20-30 in the first few kms of individual races so I’m working on this these days. After a good start,  I knew I was going to have a good race. I was able to gain positions for most of the way but starting from 15th place was better than 45th place!

Good to see my buddy Devon [Kershaw] back in the top 15 with me, it’s gonna be a good season!

Jessie Diggins © Angus Cockney file photo

Jessie Diggins (USA)
I wasn’t very sore from yesterday, and my race was ok but not great – about how I thought I’d be feeling right about now! I’m putting in a fairly large training week because a goal of mine is to be skiing faster later in the season and not coming into the races too hot.

I definitely didn’t pace it right today… I got excited and caught the starter in front of me about 2.5km into it, and I paid for it later! Good lesson to learn. But my skis were good and I didn’t fall on the sketchy corner, so with my track record that’s actually a pretty awesome thing! Haha. As Matt joked, with my rate of falling down during the sprint yesterday I should have fallen 9 times out there today, but I improved a lot with no falls at all!

I think on the more gradual climbs my technique was much better than last year but I made a lot of errors when it came to the steep climbs.

Everyone was hopping out of the tracks and herringboning, and I tried to stay in the tracks too long because I have a pretty inefficient herringbone. So I was kind of stalling out and wasting energy out there! But overall, it was a great “training race” and good to get the first distance race out of the way, learn some things about pacing again and get in a really hard effort.

If I can race hard and push hard and cross the finish line feeling like I gave it everything, then I can be satisfied, and I did that today! It was a good place to start for the year.

Justin Wadsworth © skitrax.com

Justin Wadsworth – Head Coach Cross Country Canada
Mixed bag yesterday in the sprint, but good for Alex [Harvey] to have that result in a sprint straight away at the start of the year. Today was really good from Devon [Kershaw] and Alex, and solid from Emily [Nishikawa]. Nice to see her ski a smart well paced and strong race. Overall a good start to the season.

Chris Grover © USSA

Chris Grover – Head Coach U.S. XC Ski Team
Yes… it was a nice start for Sadie [Bjornsen] today and obviously for Ida [Sargent] yesterday. Ruka has been an excellent course for both of them. Our strategy as a team has been to have a softer start to the World Cup this fall.  In the past, we’ve tended to be somewhat sharp in the opening weekends of World Cup, but we’ve often struggled to find top form in February.  We purposefully didn’t race last weekend and focused on training, on-snow technique adjustment, and acclimating to the time zone. I would look for the US Team to build momentum through Period 1 of World Cup and the Tour de Ski, and be coming into top form by mid-Winter.