February 22, 2011 (Drammen, Norway) – Here’s a selection of additional photos from the FIS XC World Cup competitions held this past weekend in Drammen, Norway, the final stop before the 2011 Nordic World Championships get underway in Oslo from Feb. 24-March 6. The USA’s Kikkan Randall won gold in the women’s 1.2km freestyle sprint and Canada’s Alex Harvey claimed the silver in the men’s 1.6km sprint…Canada’s Len Valjas also had a stellar day placing 4th in the men’s qualifications. read about the women’s race HERE and the men’s race HERE.

February 21, 2011 (Drammen, Norway) – I get it now…why people work so hard, train for so many years, push themselves right to the edge in races. It’s just so exciting to be a part of the World Cup! When thousands of people are screaming, waving flags, cheering, singing, and even camping on the side of the race trail, it’s impossible not to get psyched up and want to do your very best.

Today, I got to experience the excitement and energy of the World Cup for the first time – in Drammen, Norway, of all places! It was a beautiful, sunny day and not too cold; pretty much ideal, in fact. I was very excited and more than a little nervous. My stomach was in such a tight knot I’m surprised I was able to breathe at all. The sprint course was fast and short, but I loved it and soaked up the noise of the crowd for my entire race – all 2:26.35 seconds of it! I ended up finishing 46th, Sadie finished 42nd, Holly finished 57th… and Kikkan?

KIKKAN WON THE WORLD CUP!!!

She qualified in 6th and went on to impress the world as she skied smoothly with a blistering finishing kick that propelled her right past the other girls. Which other girls? Only a bunch of Olympians and Norwegian favorites. And yes, Kikkan kicked their ass. Alex Harvey from Canada got the silver in the men’s sprint, and it was awesome to watch since he also had a good finishing stretch that made the race very exciting.

It was simply amazing to be out on the side of the trail, watching it live (and on the huge screen behind us when the girls went over the hill). Being at a World Cup is such an incredible experience – the noise, the signs and flags, the people running around half naked, the live band…. I could go on for a long time.

There was a snowmobile that kept pace with the racers and filmed it for Eurosport, and the part of the US team that wasn’t racing watched the TV at the hotel. And they provided excellent coverage! That’s something I love about Europe. They follow Nordic skiing more religiously than deranged football fans at the Superbowl back home.

Another cool thing going on in Drammen this weekend was the fact that the World Cup races were on the ski trails for the first time. Usually, the sprints are held in the city around this sweet church, and they’d move the distance races to the venue in Oslo. But this year is the big 200th anniversary celebration for the city of Drammen, and the World Cup races were part of the celebration – which might help explain the 15,000 fans that showed up this weekend.

After the race we packed our things for the short 40-minute drive to Oslo, where we’re staying at a Radisson Blu hotel for the World Championships. I’m really excited to be back in Oslo and tomorrow I will get to train on the Holmenkollen venue for the first time. I will post pictures as soon as I can!

February 20, 2011 (Drammen, Norway) – Canada’s Alex Harvey showed his other side on Sunday demonstrating a powerful sprint kick winning both his quarter and semi final heats to land in the men’s 1.6km freestyle sprint final against some of the world’s best sprinters including Sweden’s Emil Joensson and Norway’s Petter Northug.

The day began without much fanfare for Harvey as he qualified 22nd while teammate and World Cup rookie, Len Valjas of Toronto, turned heads again with a 4th place qualifying time behind US veteran speedster Andy Newell. Joensson topped the field followed by Italian fast man Federico Pellegrino.

“This great day actually didn’t start so great. I felt tired in the warm up and was pretty sluggish in the qualifier,” Harvey confided in a post race interview with SkiTrax. “Kinda like yesterday. I didn’t expect to feel good anyway so I was happy with 22nd in the qualification.”

In the quarter final heats Valjas played his cards well placing second behind Northug to advance to the semis. The young Canadian kept his cool and bided his time before unleashing his massive kick at the finish holding off all challengers.

Harvey executed superb tactics as well grabbing the victory in his heat with Loris Frasnelli (ITA) in second. Pellegrino was not so lucky breaking a pole at the start, and while he received a replacement pole and recovered, his rhythm was off.

American Newell took the lead early in his quarter final – not often the preferred position – and looked very strong but didn’t have the gas to close it down at the finish ending up 4th behind surprise winner Yuichi Onda from Japan, and did not advance as a lucky loser.

“Today wasn’t my best day, but I’m feeling strong and healthy so I’m not worried too much,” said Newell. “It was a very tactical race and you definitely had to save something for the long uphill finish. I chose to get out in front which probably hurt me in the end. I feel like the course in Oslo suits me much better so I’m still feeling confident going into Thursday.”

The Swedes continued to look strong with Joensson, Marcus Hellner and Mats Larsson all advancing to the semis. Northug and Joensson manhandled everyone in their heat as Valjas came fifth and was out – still a fine day for the rising Canadian sprint star finishing 9th, his best WCup result to date.

Valjas’ was the fastest heat and with a little more gas he might have made the final as both Larsson (4th) and Finland’s Martti Jylhae (3rd) advanced as the lucky losers.

Harvey delivered another strong result in his semi winning with Hellner in second as they eliminated both of the Italians Frasnelli and Pasini. The final match up included three Swedes, Northug from Norway, Jylhae from Finland and Canada’s Harvey.

“In the heats, the body was feeling better and better – kind of the goal of the weekend for me, race the body into racing mode,” said Harvey, “I had the same tactics throughout the day, chill at the back for the first 2/3 of the course and then start making some moves.”

In the final Harvey executed his race strategy again hanging back as Larsson did the work up front for Hellner and Joensson. Northug kept them in check and as Larsson faded at the half way point suddenly Jylhae attacked and took over the lead as Harvey watched from behind in 5th.

Over the final hill heading to the last turn before long finishing straight, Harvey positioned himself well on the inside and moved up into third behind Joensson in second with Jylhae still leading while Northug was breathing down his neck.

Then it was game on as they all dropped Jylhae and Joensson went to the front putting on the after burners while behind Harvey and Northug went head-to-head for second. Joensson could not be caught but Harvey was on fire and out-skied Northug for the silver and his third WCup career podium. Northug settled for third, Hellner finished 4th, Jylhae was fifth and Larsson was 6th.

Harvey’s first WCup podium came with George Grey in the team sprint at the Whistler WCup in Jan. 2009 and then later in March 2009 he won bronze again in the men’s 50km classic in Trondheim, Norway.

The Quebec skier, son of the legendary Pierre Harvey, demonstrated that like his teammate Devon Kershaw, he’s a top level all round athlete having also just won gold in the U23 men’s 30km pursuit recently in Otepaa, Estonia.

“I have a lot of speed and power in the final stretch every time so it was good to gain 1-2 spot in each heat,” concluded Harvey. “In the final, I did the same and really fought hard in the last 300m to go from 5th to second. I was very happy with the result and I’m excited for the World Championships.”

For Canada Stefan Kuhn finished 32nd, Phil Widmer placed 39th, and Devon Kershaw, of Sudbury, Ont., was 48th. The USA’s Simi Hamilton was 53rd and Lars Flora was 75th.

“It was a great day for both Alex and Lenny,” commented Canadian head coach Justin Wadsworth. “They know how to handle the pressure and we’ve had some amazing training camps leading up to this point. Stefan made the cut for our 4th sprint skier and all bodes well for the upcoming Worlds.”

Qualifications HERE.
Final results HERE.

February 20, 2011 (Drammen, Norway) – US sprint star Kikkan Randall was hoping for a final sprint match up against Norwegian queen Marit Bjoergen before Oslo and she got it. Bjoergen, seemingly invincible this season, resumed her winning ways in Drammen taking the 10km classic yesterday and without question is the target on everyone’s radar.

Randall has been gaining both confidence and experience, including endurance as she put it, and hoped to test the freestyle sprint waters with Bjoergen in Liberec in mid-Jan. but the Norwegian superstar got tangled up in her semi and was out of the final.

The American sailed to victory in Liberec earning her second WCup victory over many top level rivals but without Bjoergen in the mix questions lingered for Randall as to how the chips would fall with the xc ski queen on the start line.

Now she knows.

“I had good energy in Liberec and that course has been good to me. Anything can happen in sprinting and while I hoped we’d meet then I knew our time was coming,” said Randall in a phone interview with SkiTrax.

Winning her quarter and semi final rounds Randall was unstoppable today skiing smooth as silk with a finishing kick that no one could touch as she nailed her second WCup victory of the season in Drammen (3rd in her career) scoring the women’s 1.2km freestyle final. With her victory Randall has regained the overall WCup sprint lead followed by Arianna Follis (ITA) in second with Petra Majdic (SLO) in third.

“I previewed the course so I felt confident each round. In the final I expected Bjoergen to challenge on the inside lane in the finishing straight but she wasn’t there in the shadows when I glanced over,” Randall continued.

Bjoergen won her quarter final handily – altho she had a slight bobble during the finishing sprint that could have spelled disaster – with fellow Norwegian Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg in tow. Randall countered taking the win in her quarter final heat with Finnish sensation Krista Lahteenmaki in second.

Reigning WCup leader Justyna Kowalcyzk (POL) was stymied from the get-go as she slipped right at the start of her 1/4 final heat and was out in the bat of an eye. Regardless Kowalcyzk, 28th on the today, has lots to smile about a she’s locked up her third consecutive World Cup overall title. Finnish star Aino-Kaisa Saarinen was also an early victim today as was Slovanian star Majdic.

But Sweden’s top speedsters Charlotte Kalla, Hanna Falk and Ida Ingemarsdotter were eager to challenge for the podium including Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla and Italy’s Follis, the reigning freestyle sprint world champ. Follis advanced as the lucky loser coming third in the fastest of the day behind Falla and Kalla.

Also in that speedy quarter final was Canada’s Daria Gaiazova, who just made the qualifying cut placing 30th, but was 4th behind Follis in their quarter final. Still for Gaiazova it was an improvement over Saturday’s 10km classic.

“Finished in 20th – close to the lucky looser spot again (4th in the fastest heat of the day),” Gaiazova told Trax by email. “In my qualifier I did not ski superbly well, not maximizing my height and amplitude and I struggled to find a good tempo.

“That’s why I am extra happy that in the quarter I was able to find the determination to ski aggressively and to fight for it. A great quarter and so close to advancing. It’s a solid feeling going into the World Champs.”

Gaiazova’s teammate Chandra Crawford, who qualified 9th, skied a strong quarter final as well placing third, but did not advance as a lucky loser as her heat was not one of the fastest and she ended up 14th.

“I felt pretty good and I’m definitely happy with my racing both days to prepare for Worlds even if it left me lacking a tiny bit at the very end of my quarter,” said Crawford post-race. “Today was a beautiful day for racing with great tracks and the sunshine making it feel like Canmore for me. Our wax men were outstanding and the boards were really fast.”

Crawford’s no stranger to the top of the podium as the 2006 Olympic sprint gold medalist and is feeding off Randall’s high energy and her teammate Alex Harvey who claimed the silver in the men’s race.

“I was totally overjoyed to see Kikkan dominating without missing a beat even after being off the world cup for several weeks. Her form in the finish was truly a thing of beauty to watch. It was a fantastic day for North America with Alex on the podium as well and a huge breakthrough for Lenny to qualify 4th makes me proud to be part of such a successful team.  On to Worlds – I’m stoked for Thursday!”

Canadian head coach Justin Wadsworth agreed. “Chandra and Dasha both skied well today. Chandra skied the distance race yesterday which will help build her threshold, and the course in Oslo also suits them better as well.”

In the semis it was Falla and Bjoergen in charge with the fastest heat as Randall countered again taking the win in her semi with Ingemarsdotter in second. Follis and Kalla benefited from being in the fast semi and now the final line up was complete.

Randall played it cool in the final staying mid-field through the first half and then moved up over the final uphill tucking in behind Falla who was leading. As they came around the final corner into the finishing straight Randall torqued it up and caught Falla.

The two raced neck and neck until Randall added her second kick to pull ahead for a solid win and her third WCup victory. Bjoergen who looked like she might threaten did not have the gas to compete and finished in 5th as Sweden’s Kalla grabbed the bronze. Follis was 4th and Ingemarsdotter was 6th.

“It feels pretty good,” said Randall. “I’ve been away from racing for a month so I was definitely a bit nervous but I felt good about my training and it was great to put down a good result today.

“My confidence and endurance are there and it’s important to keep relaxed but alert – that comes with experience. Sure there’s pressure but it’s in perspective now.”

Randall told us her husband Jeff Ellis (a Canadian from Orangeville, ON) is her good luck charm and we caught up with him to get his thoughts on his better half’s performance.

“It’s a great day for sure. She was really challenged on the homestretch for this win. She has racing gears this year and is able to move through them as needed,” said Ellis by email.

And what about his being her lucky charm?

“It’s funny she mentioned a good luck charm. I have actually been wearing a good luck charm for her the past two World Cup wins.  It’s a red arm band that I got as a hand out walking around the hockey arena in Davos, Switzerland at Christmas.  It was during the Spengler Cup trying to find tickets to the semi-final game with Canada vs Davos.  For some reason I threw it on my wrist in Liberec and she won, so I brought it with me for the World Championships but decided to put it on again today.  Hopefully the third time really is the charm!”

So how important was this win for Randall?

“It’s important for sure as a confidence booster going into the Worlds but anything can happen in a sprint so you have to stay relaxed and alert. The Olso course is longer – today’s time was 2:15 and got the Olso course it will closer to 3:15 with more climbing.”

“The fans here are super,” she concluded. “It’s what every racer dreams of, emptying the tank and have everyone push you on with their cheering.”

Naturally US head coach Chris Gover was ecstatic. “We had a rough day yesterday so today was a great turn around for the team heading to the Worlds. Kikkan is in control with great fitness and keeps impressing with her confidence and ability. She ran her game plan perfectly today and when she does she’s tough to beat by anyone.”

The road to the Oslo Worlds is now shining that much brighter for Randall and the US team – and the Canucks as well.

Qualifications HERE.
Final results HERE.

February 19, 2011 (Drammen, Norway) – Sweden’s tough Daniel Rickardsson had both power and magic in his skiing on Saturday taking his first-ever World Cup win at the Konnerud ski stadium just six kilometers from this well known Nordic community, famed for it’s city centre sprints.

Rickardsson scored the win in the men’s 15km classic with a time of 37:19.1 on the tough trails over Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sunby winning by 29 seconds. Norwegian stud, Petter Northug, took third. More than 15,000 cheering fans came out to watch this final tune up just a week before the World Championships get underway in Oslo.

Fourth place went to Davos’ Switzerland’s Dario Cologna, who continues to lead the overall world cup standings with 1,247 points followed by Northug in second with 834 points.

While Rickkkardsson has been on the podium three times today was his first taste of the world cup nectar. He was thrilled following the race. “I had a good feeling the whole race, and I hoped to be on the podium. I will not start in Sunday’s sprint, as I will go home to Sweden and take it easy. I want to relax and will probably do all of the distance races at the World Champs.”

While the Canadian women struggled in their classic race earlier in the day, the men put in a reasonable showing. Devon Kershaw was 26th in 39:00.1, while Alex Harvey was 30th in 39:04.0, and prompted Head Coach and former Olympian Justin Wadsworth to tell SkiTrax following the race.

“For Devon it’s been since Jan. 9th without a race and he said he had a hard time getting into a rhythm. Alex has not raced a lot since the Tour de Ski as well and didn’t feel amazing, so it was a good tune up for both of them. I have 100% confidence they’re in good shape and it will show at the Worlds.”

Harvey weighed in with skitrax.com following the competition and said that his race went pretty much as he expected. “It was a good course for me, long uphills where you can stride it out and glide a lot. The course was really hard – the first 2km are basically all uphill – then you get 1km of downhill, and more uphill. Conditions were nice, a little on the cold side, especially on the last lap when it was close to -10.”

Ivan Babikov was 44th while George Grey was 68th for the Canadian National team.

The top American men was Kris Freeman who placed 57th with a time of 40:03.7. Freeman was quick to praise his skis but called it a frustrating day.

“My body just wasn’t there. I am not freaking out, but it’s not a confidence builder leading into Oslo.” The New Hampshire native said his blood sugar was ok, but just felt flat on the skis for no apparent reason but suggested that he may have over trained in the week prior to Drammen.

Freeman also said the US squad was very pleased by the strong Beitostolen results adding that he would skip Sunday’s sprint and would now head to Oslo for his final preparations for the Worlds.

“We had a rough one for sure today,” said US head coach Chris Grover. “I think Kris was a bit rusty from four weeks without racing. He will get going in Oslo for sure.”

Other American finishes included Noah Hoffman in 71st place, followed by teammates Lars Flora in 72nd and Tadd Elliott who was 77th.

All eyes will be now trained on Sunday’s free technique sprints in Drammen, the final world cup event before the start of the VM in Oslo next week.

Full results HERE.

February 19, 2011 (Drammen, Norway) – Norwegian xc ski star fired the final salvo today that she is ready for the start of next week’s FIS Nordic World Championships by winning the women’s 10km classic event at the World Cup in Drammen.

Coming directly there from a two-week training high altitude camp in Italy, Bjoergen demonstrated her training is right on track for the upcoming Worlds in Oslo. And there on home turf, she will carry the hopes of a nation as she has all season.

Bjoergen was in the lead almost the entire race and took the 10km classic victory with a time of 27:31.9, on a day filled with blue sky  and sunshine, by some 17 seconds over current World Cup leader Justyna Kowalczyk (POL). In third was Finish star Aino-Kaisa Saarinen. Norway’s Therese Johaug was fourth, while Ida Ingemarsdotter of Sweden was fifth. Many commented about the steep climbs on the course.

After the race Bjoergen said, “it was a good win for me today – it is very good to win a World Cup at home. There were a lot of people along the course. My shape is very good and I am looking forward to Holmenkollen.”

The top North American woman, Sadie Bjornsen of Winthrop, WA, was 51st in 30:50.6 at her first-ever World Cup race. SkiTrax caught up with neo-World Cup skier to get her thoughts on her debut.

“Today I was not looking for a result, but more of an experience, so I was happy with how I felt. The weather was perfect with hard tracks and clear skis. The super steep course was a grinder, which I love and I had good skis…

“I missed my start a bit… the green light didn’t go on the starter – nor did it count down. So I stood there for a bit before I asked the starting guy if I could go losing about 8 seconds. I went out like a bat out of hell before I came into a rhythm later on in the race.

Other USA skiers finished as follows: Liz Stephen was 55th, Ida Sargent placed 59th, while Holly Brooks was 60th and Morgan Arritola finished 62nd.

“It feels great to be back on the World Cup for sure,” Stephen told SkiTrax in an email. “It’s been a long break, and being on the road again is awesome.  We have a big team over here for Worlds now, which is really fun, and it was awesome to see a first ever world cup start with Sadie Bjornsen today, and Jessie Diggins tomorrow. Really cool to have some new, young faces around.

“The course conditions were very near perfect today and there was tons of snow. My fitness feels very close to where I want it to be, and all of my focus now is on Worlds, so I will be training accordingly going into my first race on Saturday in the pursuit.

The mind is the biggest thing at this stage, as the body is basically where it’s going to be. I’m really excited about the Championships, we have a great team, and being in Norway is pretty amazing with all the enthusiasm and fans.”

The top Canadian skier was Daria Gaiazova who finished in 61st with a time of 31:37.3. Following the race she told skitrax.com it wasn’t one of her better days. “Well today was not the kind of day we came here for in terms of results. Speaking for myself, I’m refocusing on Sunday’s skate sprint and hoping to ski faster than I did today.”

Olympic gold medalist Chandra Crawford was 64th, while Perianne Jones was 66th, and Brooke Gosling came in 68th. Following the races Crawford told SkiTrax that she raced today because, “Distance racing for me is going to help my top end form for next week’s sprints, so I went into it with a good attitude and no expectations. It’s actually the first time I’ve ever done the distance race the day before the sprint at the World Cup, and I’m glad to have the opportunity.”

Crawford also mentioned that the racing in Norway was “totally incredible” as many who have competed in Norway have remarked for decades.

Bjornsen echoed Crawford’s comments on racing in Norway. “With it being a Norwegian World Cup everyone was going super fast. There were so many fans out there – and once some of them discovered my last name is Norwegian they were going nuts!

“It would be great to do more races, because racing with so many fast girls is going to eventually rub off on you. You are inevitably going to get faster. I can’t wait for tomorrow’s sprint and the many more races to come! This World Cup stuff is sooo fun!”

Full results HERE.

February 19, 2011 (Halifax, Nova Scotia) – Scott Gow put his name in the Canada Winter Games history books as the first athlete ever to win four gold medals while leading Alberta to the top of the podium in the men’s 3×7.5-kilometre relay on Friday in Halifax. The 20-year-old Gow, who stomped the field in each of the first three individual competitions, needed his best performance to secure his place in history.

Gow took a marginal lead out on the Ski Martock course after his Calgary-based teammates, Stuart Harden and Aaron Gillmor, fought off a Quebec team determined to prevent an Alberta sweep of the medals this week.

Gow was first to enter the range, but missed two shots in prone position, while Quebec ace – Vincent Blais – shot clean. With Gow heading to ski two penalty loops, Blais took over the lead until he made a costly error entering the wrong shooting lane in his second trip to the range. Gow capitalized, shot clean in standing, and darted out on his final trip around the 2.5-kilometre track to complete the Alberta sweep of all 10 medals in men’s competition with a time of 59 minutes, 33.0 seconds.

“That was definitely interesting. The fun didn’t last long and that became serious pretty quick,” said Gow, who recently finished ninth at the World Junior Biathlon Championships last week. “This was a great week. To be able to sweep the medals and then get to the top of the podium with each of my teammates together on the final day is awesome.”

Quebec held on for the silver medal after clocking-in at 1:00:01.4, while British Columbia won the race for the bronze after posting a time of 1:04:48.7.

While Gow and Alberta swept the medal podium all week in men’s racing, Quebec athletes captured their fourth gold medal of the week. The relay trio of Audrey Vaillancourt, Yolaine Oddou and Rose-Marie Cote teamed up to handily win the women’s 3×6-kilometre relay with a time of 1:01:22.00.

Alberta’s women’s athletes reached the podium for the first time this week, finishing second at 1:04:53.1. British Columbia won the race for the bronze, crossing the finish line at 1:05:34.8.

February 18, 2011 (Minneapolis, MN & Hayward WI) – Amateur cross-country ski racers are now having their skis prepared for ski races like the American Birkebeiner buy professional waxing technicians just like racers at the Olympics.  Mobile waxing vehicles are now on site with a crew of technicians testing and applying the latest and fastest high tech waxes.  Properly waxes skis using the latest in high tech Fluorinated waxes can decrease a skier’s time by over ten minutes over the length of the 52 km American Birkebeiner.

GearWest Mobile Wax Station
The most advanced waxing vehicle this side of the WorldCup. Swix & GearWest techs will be testing wax and structure on the Birkie trails up to the last moment and applying it on-site to provide anyone the fastest skis possible.

Gear West, America’s largest cross country ski retailer has teamed up with Swix the world’s leading wax brand to provide any Birkie skier the same quality wax job traditionally reserved for the winners of the American Birkebeiner. For only $79.99 a racers skis will be precision glide waxed with the ideal Swix LF under-layer, Swix HF race-layer, and the perfect Swix Cera F top-coat & finished with race ready Swix hand structure and delivered to you at the Starting Line. This service is common in Europe but is only now becoming available to American Skiers.  Any skier can now: Sleep well confident that their skis will be fast, Enjoy their friends while avoiding make-shift hotel wax rooms, Leave the heavy iron and wax box at home, Have no need to purchase new waxes (exceeding $79.99) for 1 event, Not worry about unfamiliar snow conditions, Pick up their skis at the race start Sponsor Parking Lot race morning, Enjoy their fastest skis and the race.

Swix Gear West Birkie Waxing Service HERE.

Gear West owner, and multiple time top 10 Birkie racer Jan Guenther states, “We are excited to be able to provide any skier the same wax job that the winners will most likely be using stress free. People prepare for the Birkie for 364 days and we want to guarantee them a great experience with fast skis at a great price given to them at the starting line.”

Swix Marketing Director Andy Canniff states “Swix has a perfect wax for each snow condition and skiers can get our wax rec for most any race in the US online here – Birkie skiers can even purchase the waxes and tools we recommendation right here at the Birkie expo. But while applying the waxes is easily done in comfort of your own home it is not ever easy to travel with a waxing iron and wax bench and wax box nor is finding a good waxing location when staying at a hotel easy at a huge event like the Birkie. In Europe, Swix has for years teamed up with retailers to provide this service. We are pleased to be able to now bring the same service to America’s premier races. Now everyone can have fast skis and no stress.”

February 18, 2011 – Today we left Beitostolen and drove down some really windy roads to Drammen. We totally got short-changed by the GPS, which took us off the main road early on, and I thought I was going to get carsick.

But we made it, and I’ve totally been re-charged with excitement and energy (so look out, Norway!) because we’re staying in a hotel with all the other teams here for the World Cup races! Saturday is a 10km classic, and Sunday will be the skate sprint, which I’m totally excited to be racing in. It’ll be my first World Cup start ever!

Meanwhile, I needed something to keep me busy in our last days in Beitostolen, so I decided on a project. I bought some nutty bread mix at the store, had Pete translate the instructions for me, and decided to bake bread. But somehow the yeast got lost in the translation!

We also had some really over-ripe bananas that we needed to get rid of, so I mushed them up with a little peanut butter and a hint of nutella, and threw it all into the bread mix. So even if I HAD remembered the yeast, it probably had no hope of rising anyways. And you know what? I actually thought it tasted okay! It was really moist and thick as a brick, but it tasted really nutty and banana-y and it made for a fun afternoon project.

Also, Sadie and I have been crocheting a lot lately! Sadie has been making some seriously cool headbands, and I made a USA hat after Heather Mooney showed me how to change colors and made a design pattern for me. I’m pretty stoked on it.

February 16, 2011 – At Beito #1 and I was very impressed with Chandra Crawford’s 5km race and also impressed with all the American’s great results the whole weekend. What a way to go into Oslo and the World Champs – I know there is still Drammen to go!!!

Chandra left from Canada on Wednesday for Europe and then on to Oslo and then one more leg to Beito. She may have had Friday to get over the jet lag and then into the start gate for the 5km classic – her “not so good technique” has gotten way better – I’m sure she knows. She represented herself very well in 18th place, but only 51 seconds off the pace. The placing I don’t care about, it is the time back that impresses me! Dehydration, no sleep, screwed up eating schedule for 3 days and standing on the start line feeling like sh_t does not bode well for a good race. Way to go Chandra!!!!

When have you seen this! At one of the SuperTour races in Aspen – 98 men in the start list and 107 women??? Women’s field bigger than the men’s?!

Beito #2 and I think we have some unfair point manipulations going on by the Norwegians and maybe some other countries in Europe. Here is an e-mail I sent to Jurg Capol, Mr. Nordic Director for FIS, on Sunday:

Hello Jurg – the races this weekend in Beitostolen are on the FIS calendar and I have a question about their procedure or manipulation of the results and if it is allowed. This may have also happened yesterday I just haven’t taken the time to check it out.

The race today was run in age groups – starting order had the first 70 senior ladies starting together followed by the 19-20 year-old junior girls and so on. But the results reported to FIS had the juniors combined with the seniors which I question if this is following the intent of fair competition. There could be an advantage or disadvantage depending on starting position – this has always been the consideration.

But more importantly, I think it is an effort to manipulate the points for the Norwegian juniors. I’m sure the points in the senior race are way better than the points for the junior race – so this builds the junior points illegally. So the Norwegian juniors when racing internationally such as at the World Juniors or U23s are being seeded with points that have been manufactured – this is not right.

Hope you will look in to this and will let me know your outcome.

Marty

All of the races for the weekend were done like this – Seniors started first, followed by the 19/20 year olds, and the 18 year olds. Each group had its own results, but the results sent to FIS were the three groups as a class in order of time. You just know this is a manipulation as the points for the senior race are going to be higher then for each individual class. Like I say above, this helps the younger Nowegian juniors have better points that they did not earn legally at the World Juniors and other international races – meaning better seeding positions in the mass start races especially.

I could go on about this, but I hope the Canadian and US leaders pick-up on this and start the same process to help our junior skiers get onto a more level playing field when it comes to being seeded in these important races and not having to fight their way through the masses at the beginning of races.

This is cool, the new Toko hard wax tubes! Found a couple of the new Toko wax tubes at the local ski shop and they are just like a round deodorant tube – screw off cap and then a screw mechanism at the bottom of the tube to turn the cylinder of wax out and back in with just a quick twist. A revolution in the waxing world – WOW!

Nakkertok racing venue has to be fun to race at – 5km loop and four times through the stadium and a very technical loop. You won’t go to sleep on this loop.

I got to see a lot of racers on Sunday, a number of times, and was super impressed with how well Graham Nishikawa was skiing – very, very smooth, but moving quite fast – he was the class of the field. Would like to see his lap times.
In watching the race officials, here is an aid I think you all should look into. My wife has these re-chargeable insoles for her boots, that she has had for over two years that she swears by – here is the web site www.thermosoles.com I think your lives are going to become a lot more enjoyable.

Jessie Diggins has been so impressive, but she has raced a lot in this past month, hope she has gas left in the gas tank, as I think she and Ida can make a showing in both sprints.

Drammen this weekend and FIS has done it again, screwed up the scheduling of the events. I think it is a conspiracy against the sprinters by running the distances races first and the sprints the 2nd day, just like they did in Rybinsk two weeks ago. The sprinters won’t go near the distance race when it’s run first, but would opt into it if it is the Sunday or second day’s race. No, you don’t have to worry about the sprinters winning the distance race, but a lot of them sure as hell can earn points in the distance races. Am I the only one to see this. Kikkan, please put this one on your list for the FIS meetings this spring.

Talk to you soon!

February 15, 2011 – Sure I’ve raced in the States and I did race the classic sprint at last year’s Canmore World Cup, but Estonia was my first real taste of international racing. It marked my first trip overseas for racing and I’m thrilled to report it was everything I dreamed it to be.

Only three days after arriving in Vierumaki, Finland it was on to Otepaa, Estonia. Two days skiing on the race courses and on my sixth day in Europe I was racing a Classic 15km Individual Start World Cup on what is touted as one of, if not the, hardest race courses on the World Cup circuit. That distance course was the hardest race course I have ever done. The majority of the course was very flowing, with challenging climbs but nothing ridiculous aside from one monstrous climb. This particular climb started at the base of the Otepaa ski jump hill and ended right at the top. It was so steep even the best World Cup athletes were forced to step out of the track and herringbone. The boisterous crowd and TV cameras lining the side of the entire climb were intimidating and acted as motivators to get up that mountain of a climb as fast as possible. With 3 laps of the 5km course my lower back was left aching for 6 days afterwards. Even that didn’t stop me from smiling once I cross the finish line. In my mind, I just conquered the hardest World Cup course; what else do I have to be afraid of now? I finished 62nd out of 75 competitors. Not exactly a note worthy result, but hey, I’ve got to start somewhere right?

The next day I managed to climb out of bed and race the Classic Sprint World Cup. The race course was much tamer and had some cool elements with bridges and laps through the stadium (which by the way is massive). My race again was nothing spectacular, finishing 66th out of 77 competitors. At least I wasn’t last! It was impressive watching Daria Gaiazova race to a personal best 8th place, huge props to her for an awesome race. Daria on the big screen duking it out in her semi-final.

With only 4 days until my next race and the major focus of my trip, the World U23 Championships 15km Skate Individual Start, it was time to utilize all the recovery techniques available to me, the cold tub, sauna, stretching, foam roller, and Normatech and rest up.

Thursday was the big day, the Skate 15km. My lower back was still aching however I did my best to forget about it and focus on racing. Thankfully the race organizers did not include the monstrous ski jump climb in the Junior/U23 race courses so the 3.75km race course for Thursday was much more manageable. I started strong up the first climb out of the stadium then settled into my race pace. The individual start format made it easier for me to dissociate from where and who I was racing and focus on myself. By the 3rd lap I was struggling to maintain a high pace. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, Kevin Sandau blew by me at the start of the final 3.75km lap. I knew this was a decisive moment in my race and my competitive instincts kicked in, go with Kevin. It was exciting skiing behind Kevin who was getting splits that he was challenging for a medal. I was careful not to step on his skis or poles because every second counted for him. We came into the finish with the cameras trained in on us. I crossed the line and was surprised to see 7th place beside my name. I knew 15 fast guys were still coming behind me… how many would beat my time?

When all was said and done, I finished 14th place! Big props to Kevin for a very impressive performance finishing 5th. It was a bittersweet result for me as the Cross-Country Canada selection criteria states you need to place top twelve to qualify for the National Team and I was only 10 seconds from 12th. Initially I was somewhat disappointed. Afterwards I took as step back and I realized I have to be satisfied with all I have accomplished this season. 14th in the world isn’t too shabby. I mean I was super pumped just to qualify to race here. I had never really given much thought to what my goals would be if I happened to actually make Canada’s U23 Team.

I was exhausted after the race. Completely wiped. Though I desperately wanted to race the classic sprints, I knew one day off wouldn’t be enough to recover and race fast again. So I made the decision to skip the classic sprint and focus on the 30km Pursuit. It was exciting watching the U23 guys and gals duke it out in the sprints. Congrats to Jess, Lenny and Allyson on their awesome races, finishing 6th, 7th, and 12th respectively.

After 3 training days I was feeling very good again and ready to race fast Monday. I hopped on my warm-up skis and headed out on the Tartu Loppet trails to start warming up. The tracks were rock hard. The day before the classic tracks were soft and dry with no moisture. How did they firm up so much in one night? Surely I thought with how little moisture was in the snow on Sunday the track would still break down on race day. I was wrong. I had picked the wrong skis. I should have picked a soft, easy kicking ski to race on, not a stiffer, soft track ski. After testing my race skis and confirming I had no grip, my next plan was to load up on grip wax. Surely with enough grip wax I would still be able to kick them and at least get by in the classic portion of the pursuit. Nope. After plenty of layers of kick wax my grip was only slightly improved and to make matters worse the sun came out and the classic tracks started to marginally glaze over.

I’m not going to go into detail about the race [30k Pursuit]. Let’s just say it was a long day and I would rather remember my 14th place result in the skate than my 40th place in the pursuit. I crossed the finish line pale white and feeling sick with disappointment. It seems for every high moment in racing a low moment emerges to bring you back to reality.

Besides the pursuit race my European racing experience was phenomenal. The team was great and the coaches were very helpful. My first taste of international racing was a delicious one and I’m craving more.

After a brief training period here in Thunder Bay I’m off to race the Eastern Canadian Championships on Feb. 11th – 13th.

Until next time,

Michael

February 14, 2011 (Cantley, QC) – The Eastern Canadian Championships, hosted by Nakkertok, wrapped up on Sunday with familiar faces on the podium. With temperatures rising throughout the day, peaking just below zero, the weather was more settled than it had been for the previous races.

Emily Nishikawa (Whitehorse/AWCA) took the top step on the podium for the 3rd time this weekend as she won the 15km classic Pursuit. Leading from the word go, Nishikawa kept ahead of her rivals as she led from start to finish.

Sarah Daitch (Rocky Mountain Racers) narrowly beat out Alysson Marshall (AWCA/BCST) for 2nd place, just 15 seconds back. Heidi Widmer (Foothills Nordic/AWCA) and Alana Thomas (Nakkertok) rounded out the top 5.

“I’m so happy with how this weekend went. I felt strong in all three races and was skiing well,” said Emily Nishikawa “The pursuit yesterday was a good race for me, I didn’t know how far back the other girls were so I just focused on my race and pushed as hard as I could. I’m pretty pumped about winning the overall, and very happy for my brother as well.”

Graham Nishikawa (Whitehorse/AWCA) took home his second gold medal, and third medal of the weekend, as he won the men’s 30km classic pursuit. Nishikawa powered away from the rest of the field from the gun and by the half way mark, had nearly a minute on the rest of the field.

“I had a perfect race today,” he told SkiTrax. “It was nerve racking being chased down by the field, but I just tried to focus on my own race and was able to ski away from the guys.”

“Thirty kilometers was a long distance to ski solo. It took a lot of mental focus. I am very happy to have won the mini tour. The organizers did a great job with the event,” added Nishikawa.

Kevin Sandau (Foothills Nordic/NST) was 1:22 back in second place, and Michael Somppi (Lappe Nordic/NDC T-Bay) took the bronze. Pate Neumann (Canmore Nordic/AWCA) and Karl Saidla (XC Ottawa) finished fourth and fifth, with Saidla posting the 2nd fastest men’s time of the day.

Both Graham and Emily Nishikawa easily led the overall standings after the weekend of racing, Emily by more than a minute, and Graham by more than two minutes over their closest rivals.

“I am not sure about the future, but I hope to head to the World Cups in the spring, after some much needed rest,” commented Graham Nishikawa.

This weekend’s racing was the final NorAm event in Canada this season.

Women’s results HERE.
Men’s results HERE.

February 14, 2011 – February 12, 2011 will marked one year to the day of the Opening Ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. The Ceremony, which was dedicated to the memory of the Georgian luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili, who had tragically died in a training accident that morning, introduced the world to a city and a country ready to open their arms and welcome the world and the best winter athletes for 16 days of top-level sporting competition and a party that would go down in the annals of Canadian history. This weekend, events will be held across the country to commemorate the start of those Games, including a special breakfast event for the fabulous “blue jacket” volunteers.

With a record 82 National Olympic Committees (NOC) taking part in the Vancouver Games, the 16 days of sport that followed the Opening Ceremony were always going to be competitive and draw world-wide interest. So it was no surprise that 26 different NOCs ended-up winning medals and that the Games drew in record-breaking audience numbers. Perhaps for the home crowd, the greatest exploit of the Games was Team Canada’s record 14 gold medals, including Canada’s first on home soil and in ice hockey. This had been made possible in part thanks to the “Own The Podium” programme, which provided funding to Canadian athletes striving for victory and is being continued and expanded due to its success last year.

Looking After The Environment
The Vancouver Games were about more than just great sport, however. They were also about leaving a sustainable legacy to the city, region and country. Environmental sustainability was a key element of the Vancouver 2010 Organising Committee’s (VANOC) strategy, with an ambitious carbon management programme put in place; sporting venues that were all built to according to Canada’s green-building standards; new public transport infrastructure created to take people out of their cars; and a successful Games-time drive to get people onto public transport that continues to bear its fruits even now. From its award-winning venues to its effect on people’s transport habits, the Vancouver Games undoubtedly set new global standards for environmental sustainability at a sporting event.

Creating Better Futures
The Games also played an inspirational role for more than just those watching on TV or who were in the stadium. VANOC worked with their partners to ensure that disadvantaged sectors of society also profited from the Games, with initiatives like the Vancouver 2010 Fabrication Shop providing carpentry training and work experience for disadvantaged young people, indigenous people, single mothers and immigrants. A separate programme saw local philanthropic florists June Strandberg and Margitta Schulz lead a group of 23 women in producing the 1,750 Victory Ceremony bouquets for the Games. Many of the women had experienced violence in their lives, were single parents, or were recovering from drug and alcohol abuse. Today, these trainees have a stronger skill set, greater confidence and the opportunity to gain further employment as a result of their experience while working on the Games. But the social legacy of the Games was more than just training: the temporary accommodation from the Whistler Olympic Village was sent to six communities in British Columbia to provide 156 permanent, affordable homes for elderly, homeless, and low-income residents.

Investments For Today And Tomorrow
As a catalyst for development, the Games have also played a role in the Canadian economy, with Games venues that will be used by local communities and elite sport for years to come, and a new notoriety that has allowed greater investment in the region. The Metro Vancouver Commerce Olympic Business Program, for example, has generated CAD 306 million in economic impacts in under a year, well over the CAD 50 million that was expected by February 2012. This initiative has also led to the creation of 2,500 jobs in the lower mainland of British Columbia. On the back of the Games, Canada has also moved to the number one spot in the FutureBrands’ Country Brand Index and seen a 10 percent jump in visitors to the country. With even just these few points in mind, there is no doubt that the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games were a great success both on and off the field of play.

February 13, 2011 (Aspen Colorado) – The second day of high altitude SuperTour racing at the Aspen Nordic Festival had skiers lined up for mass wave starts of the 21km Owl Creek Chase freestyle race. Sylvan Ellefson (Fischer/Vail) bagged his second win of the weekend, crossing the finish line at 57:03.4, a decisive 53.2 seconds ahead of second place finisher Glenn Randall (BSF/Madshus).

Randall’s team mate Leif Zimmerman (BSF/Madshus) rounded out the podium in third place at 1:21.2 behind the winner. Brayton Osgood (XC Oregon) won the sprint for fourth place, edging out Miles Havlick (USA) by three tenths of a second; the pair were 2:20 down from Ellefson.

SkiTrax caught up with Ellefson post race. “Conditions were great again today – 43 degrees at the finish but snow temps stayed cold all day,” said the winner by email. “The race separated pretty quickly. It was Glenn Randall, Leif Zimmerman, Brian Gregg, and myself after 5k.

“Gregg, Randall and I after 10k and then Randall and I took off for the remaining 8k. Glenn was definitely King of the Mountain today. I had better skis which gave me an advantage on the long downhill into the last 5k. I felt great going into the last 5k so ramped it up so there were no questions. Glenn skied one hell of a race though. Had a hard time keeping up with him on the steep ups.”

In the women’s race, it was Utah skier Maria Graefnings who scored the win, posting a time of 1:05:44.3 for the 21km. Chelsea Holmes (Sugar Bowl/Far West) trailed a close 2.7 seconds behind, picking up second, and Eliska Hajkova (UC) rounded out the podium, crossing the finish line 16.3 down from the leader.

Morgan Smyth (Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Club) won the sprint for fourth, three tenths of a second ahead of fifth placed Evelyn Dong (Rossignol/XC Oregon) just under two minutes behind Greafnings.

Men’s results HERE.
Women’s results HERE.

February 13, 2011 (Fort Kent, Maine) – Magdalena Neuner of Germany moved up from second in yesterday’s pursuit to take the women’s 12.5km mass start in 39:30.6. The legendary Neuner as well as second place Andrea Henkel of Germany and Darya Domracheva of Belarus all had a single penalty. Henkel was 23.6 seconds back, with Domracheva 28.7 seconds back. Henkel’s second place gave her enough World Cup points to take control of the Yellow Bib and the event leader’s Red Bib going into the World Championships next month.

Neuner commented on finally winning here after previously being second and third. “Yesterday I thought I could win today and I did it. It was a near perfect race for me. I used some tactics today. I went a little bit slower on the first two loops. Then after being perfect there, I pushed just before the first standing.”

The conditions for the women’s mass start matched that of the men; clear, cold and with little wind. The first seventeen women, led by Neuner cleaned the first prone stage. Kathrin Hitzer, Henkel, and Kaisa Mäkäräinen were hot on Neuner’s tail. Those four came to the second prone all together.

Neuner and Henkel were clean and got away first, while Mäkäräinen and Hitzer had a single penalty but stayed third and fourth position, 32 seconds back, just ahead of Miriam Gössner.

Over the next 2.5K, Neuner took off and opened up a gap on the rest of the field. That gamble paid off when she shot clean and extended her lead. Henkel missed one shot, but was solidly in second position as Domracheva moved up after a clean stage. Mäkäräinen had a penalty and fell back to fifth, 22 seconds behind the Belarusian.

Neuner continued to extend her lead building up over 50 seconds over Henkel and Domracheva by the final standing stage. Even though she had a penalty, Neuner left over 20 seconds ahead of Henkel who was just a bit ahead of Domracheva. Tora Berger, another 30 seconds back would not challenge the top three at that point. The battle was for second, with Domracheva getting a small edge over Henkel with 800 meters to go, but Henkel pulled out all stops and got back to second by the finish.

Henkel was all smiles despite finishing second. “I like winning, but being second to Magdalena today is fine. I am happy any time I am on the podium.”

With two first places, one second and now being in Yellow and Red Bibs; this was a big week for her. “I did not know until after the finish that I was in Yellow and Red. This is one of the best weeks in career, but I am not sure, because I have had a long career!”

After Neuner called the big hill just out of the stadium “the Mount Everest of biathlon” yesterday, Domracheva confirmed just how hard it was on their legs after tackling it 13 times in competition this week. “For the girls all of these times up this big hill so many times were very hard. My legs are very tired.”

Sara Studebaker of the USA, in the first mass start of her career performed commendably, with a 23rd place finish, 3:38.6 back. She had only two penalties, but they came in the crucial second prone stage. The general rule of thumb in the mass start is that you need to clean the prone stages or you lose contact before standing and cannot catch up.

Yet after missing the two prone shots and falling out of contention for a top 20 finish, Studebaker came back with two clean standing stages – a positive experience against all of the top women. Her recent performances should give her good momentum going into the World Championships next month.

Fourth went to Tora Berger of Norway, with one penalty, 51.7 seconds back, just 2.8 seconds ahead of Mäkäräinen, with three penalties.

Today’s Mass Start competitions wrap up the IBU World Cup events in Maine. The series resumes later in March following the  2011 IBU World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia from March 3-13.

Full results HERE.

February 13, 2011 (Beitostølen, Norway) – US rising star Jessie Diggins pulled out all the stops to take the win in the Junior women’s 10km Freestyle race in Beitostølen today while in the senior women’s race Morgan Arritola and Liz Stephen landed on the podium in second and third behind winner Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen from Norway with a time of 28:20.1. Arritola was 37.7s off the pace and Stephen was 1:12.4 behind.

Diggins time of 29:29.9 was 2.6s faster than her teammate Stephen meaning she had the 3rd fastest time in the senior field theoretically putting her on both podiums.

“We had the final race of our “mini-tour” today; a 10km skate for the women and a 15km for the men,” writes Diggins in her blog. “I was hoping they’d keep it 15/30km, but since it was predicted to be miserably cold out, and the Norwegians are much more careful to preserve their athletes lungs than we are in the US, they shortened the races and they didn’t start until later in the day.

“The race was awesome for the US team. I started with the 19/20 age group. This made for some fun chasing and passing during the race. At the end of the day, Morgan finished 2nd, I finished 3rd and Liz finished 4th. And Tad came in 11th, which is totally awesome in such a tough men’s field. I’m very proud of the US – top 11 for everyone who raced!”

Arritola was also pleased with her day and shared her thoughts with SkiTrax by email…

“Yeah it was a good race here in Beito,” said Arritola. “I got off to a slow start and Astrid caught me a few K in and I just skied with her until the end. It was really fun to ski with her and I realize where I need to make the most improvement is in the first few K. Now we have a few days here in Beitostollen before we head to Drammen so I’m excited to get a little rest before next weekend’s race.”

Tad Elliott (CXC) also had a strong day just out of the top 10 in the men’s 15km race finishing 11th a little over a minute off the winner Thomas Vestbø (Nor) in 37:44.7. Noah Hoffman, Simi Hamilton and Andy Newell did not start.

It was a good day at the office for Stephen who commented to SkiTrax by email…”Good day for the USA with Jessie Diggins winning the junior field which is stacked and I haven’t seen results, but I’m sure she measured up quite well in the senior category as well. Morgan was 2nd and was able to ski with Astrid for about 7km of the race, which she said was really cool.

“Tad was 11th which is awesome! So it was a really solid day here. I am happy with my result on the day. My body was a bit tired today, but I was able to have a good effort out there and I think I am in line with achieving my goals in the coming weeks.”

Junior women’s results HERE.
Senior women’s results HERE.
Senior men’s results HERE.

Combined women’s results HERE.
Combined men’s results HERE.

February 13, 2011 (Fort Kent, Maine) – Martin Fourcade from France took control of the men’s 15km mass start in the final 3 kilometers and won in 39:48.9. Second went to Tomasz Sikora of Poland who shot clean, 3.1 seconds back. Tarjei Boe of Norway added to his lead in the overall World Cup standings with his third place, 4.7 seconds back with two penalties.

Fourcade, who was fourth in the sprint, second in the pursuit and first in mass start, commented on his last loop. “I left the shooting range in third position and quickly got close to Tomasz. On the big uphill I came up on him and went by. I did not realize until that moment that he was the leader . . . when I saw him on the last loop, I told myself that I had to do it; that I did not want to be second again.”

Minus sixteen degree Celsius temperatures greeted the thirty men in the mass start. Jakov Fak of Slovenia led the parade for the first loop and was among the nineteen who shot clean in the first prone stage. All of the top men including Emil Hegle Svendsen, Boe, Fourcade and Carl Johan Bergman remained in the top group for the second loop.

Little changed until the second prone stage, when Svendsen had a single penalty, falling back to the middle of the pack. The pack though was reduced to 12 heading to the first standing stage. Bergman shot clean as did Svendsen while Boe had a single penalty and fell back to sixth position.

In the final standing stage, Sikora who had been among the leaders, shot another clean stage and took the lead. He was followed by Andreas Birnbacher, Fourcade and Boe. It looked like a battle for second and third as Sikora had an 11.9 second lead. However Fourcade had cut the lead in half by the12.7K mark with Boe passing Birnbacher and moving into third. Before the final split, Fourcade had moved into the lead, with Boe and Birnbacher just seven seconds back. He continued to pull away for the victory, with Sikora second and Boe third.

The 38 year-old Sikora, who was recently appointed athlete/coach for the Polish team had his first podium result of the season.

“I was sick early in the season and have been getting better. . . I was not planning to come to the US early in the year, but realized that I needed more races to prepare for the World Championships and made the trip which was quite hard, due to the six-hour time change. I shot well today, but on the last loop my power was gone.”

Regarding his coaching, he added, “I am working with all of the younger athletes on our team. The federation felt that I could communicate with and help them with all of my experience. It is both good and bad. I like being able to help them. But at the same time, it makes it hard to concentrate on my own races; I find myself frequently thinking about them.”

Boe could almost be called the “Ironman” since he has not missed a competition all season and this week had three third places. He commented on today’s near-miss of first place. “Today I thought my shape was good enough to win, but then you have one extra mistake too much and you are third.” Boe retains the Yellow Bib going into the World Championships.

The biggest splash of the week for North Americans was Lowell Bailey’s ninth place today, a career best. Bailey had two penalties, one in the first prone and another in the first standing stages, yet managed to finish only 38.3 seconds out of first place. He was a late addition to the field after being in the group of reserve athletes, who are added only when one of the original top thirty decides not to start.

After struggling in yesterday’s pursuit competition, when he arrived at the shooting range minus one of his magazines, he was determined to get back on track today if given a chance.

“I went over that mistake a hundred times in my mind in the last 24 hours,” he commented. “I have never done that before. However, I had shot a lot of extra rounds yesterday trying to get a good zero and just failed to reload after that.”

On getting a personal best in Fort Kent, he added, “I have to say that I would have not been up here if not for the Maine Winter Sports Center and the people here in Fort Kent. I trained up here for a year after getting out of college and that experience helped me get to where I am today.”

Birnbacher finished fourth, with two penalties, 5.5 seconds back. Boe’s teammate Alexander Os finished fifth, also with two penalties, 28.6 seconds back. Svendsen was sixth after three penalties, 30.6 seconds back.

Today’s Mass Start competitions wrap up the IBU World Cup events in Maine. The series resumes later in March following the  2011 IBU World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia from March 3-13.

Full results HERE.

February 13, 2011 (Fort Kent, Maine) – NBA legend and Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen made his first trip to Maine this past weekend as a spectator and special guest for the current World Cup in Fort Kent. Pippen, who attended following a invite by his friend IBU Vice President Sergey Kushchenko, said that he was wary of accepting the invitation at first.

“I had a bit of trepidation, but I googled it and learned a bit about the sport. I did not know what to expect,” said Pippen according to an IBU release. “It was a chance to be introduced to another sport and meet some world class athletes as well.”

The 6-time NBA Champion, who watched both the men’s and women’s Pursuits, expressed his astonishment with the athletes’ fitness levels after the races. “The competitions were very exciting. The athletes are superb. It is amazing to watch them go through the obstacles that they face and to achieve their goal in such stringent weather. Just being here today, I saw the excitement – I think that America will embrace this sport.”

After the competitions Pippen tried his hand on the shooting range. The self-proclaimed avid hunter shot well for his first time, knocking down three targets. “I am a hunter so I know something about shooting. But I would prefer not to have anyone look when I am shooting.”US Biathlon CEO Max Cobb commented on Pippen’s visit and remarks. “Having foreign athletes and famous people say how much they enjoyed this area validates the efforts and the hard work of the Maine Winter Sports Center and local organizers, who helped bring the World Cups here.”

Andy Shepard, the President and CEO of the MWSC said he could not have been happier with Pippen’s visit. “Scotty Pippen Came to Fort Kent without knowing much about biathlon, but quickly ingratiated himself with the community by being a most gracious and accommodating superstar.”

February 13, 2011 (Cantley QC) – Skiers lined up in highly variable conditions that included everything from blue sky to a heavy snow storm on Saturday for the 1.4km freestyle sprints on day two of the Eastern Canadian Championships and Haywood NorAm mini-tour in Cantley Quebec.

Amidst the heaviest snow of the day, U23 Whitehorse skier Emily Nishikawa emerged with her second win of the mini-tour, while in the men’s race, Jesse Cockney (Foothills Nordic), who was 6th in the sprint at the U23 Worlds, nabbed his first NorAm victory breaking Graham Nishikawa’s (Whitehorse) stronghold on the top spot of the podium.

“The sprint today went really well, it was a narrow course making it difficult to pass so I got to the front right off the start in all my heats, and that worked pretty well for me. I’m looking forward to Sunday’s pursuit, should be exciting,” Nishikawa told SkiTrax. With back to back wins she’s leading the mini-tour.

It was a sweep by U23 skiers in the women’s sprints with Heidi Widmer (Foothills Nordic) in second place and Erin Tribe (Team Hardwood) rounding out the podium in third.

Videos courtesy of Ottawa XC…

Cockney, 6th in the qualifying round, took the win over series leader Nishikawa, yesterday’s prologue winner who topped the qualifications. The Whitehorse skier is man to beat on the circuit as he has been untouchable so far and continues to lead the mini series and the overall. American Tim Reynolds (Craftsbury Green Racing Project), who qualified second, picked up 3rd spot on the podium.

“I felt pretty strong today and thought I would post a better qualifying time than I did. I really have a lot of work to do figuring out my “qualifying speed” over the summer time, but saying that I am really happy take my first NorAm victory,” said Cockney by email in a post-race interview with SkiTrax.

“It’s my first time racing Easterns and also my first time skiing these trails. They ski really well and had some really hard climbs on narrow trails. It’s always fun to race these smaller venues for a change of pace from the well-manicured runways of the Canmore Nordic Centre.”

Nishikawa commented as well saying, “The prologue on Friday went very well. I was surprised that my body was still moving well, being that this is the third weekend of mini-tours. The course on Friday was very tough with two major climbs.”

As for coming second in the sprint Nishikawa said, “The sprint course was very narrow making passing difficult which set up exciting finishes. I was pleased to be back on the podium. Tomorrow’s 30km will be very hard. I am looking forward to a rest after tomorrow.”

Men’s results HERE.
Women’s results HERE.

February 12, 2011 (Aspen, Colorado) – Fresh off his recent BMT victory, Sylvan Ellefson of the Vail Ski and Snowboard Club who skis for Fischer, along with surprise women’s winner Joanne Reid, a junior from the University of Colorado, won the 5/10km classic races today as the USSA SuperTour touched down in Aspen, Colorado for the Owl Creek Chase, round #6 of the series.

Skiers raced into thin air as Aspen’s high altitude put the hurt to athletes while spectators cheered under sunny skies. “It was a classic, blue bird Colorado day. Everybody was sunburned by the end of the day,” Ellefson told us post race.

Reid, in Aspen for the first time, echoed Ellefson on the conditions. “The weather was absolutely gorgeous- it was warm and sunny but somehow the snow was still cold enough for hardwax (which is, of course, ESPECIALLY cool when you go to clean your skis),” Reid told SkiTrax.

Ellefsson, a Colorado native, posted a time of 27:15.6 to win the men’s 10km classic race. Glenn Randall (BSF) came in second 8.3 seconds behind while Reid Pletcher (CU) rounded out the podium, 26.7 seconds back. Fourth and fifth place finishers Miles Havlich (UU) and Tor-haakon Hellebostad (UNM) followed closely at 32.3 seconds and 36.5 seconds respectively.

“It would be a difficult course at sea level but to add in the 8,000ft factor placed the burn right in the lungs,” Ellefson told SkiTrax. “Going into the race I had a main goal of staying technically strong, and maintain a big, long glide through the entirety of the first lap. Depending on where I was sitting, I was either going to ramp it up or keep it the same for the next lap.

“This was definitely a course that required you to stay a little conservative on the first lap. But don’t tell that to Glenn Randall who claims he “put the pedal to the metal,” right out of the start for the whole race.”

In the women’s 5km classic, junior skier Reid stormed the course in a time of 15:35.3, edging out Terese Andersson (UNM) to take the win by 3.1 seconds. Morgan Smyth (APU) claimed the final step of the podium at 9.5 seconds behind Reid. Chelsea Holmes, Eliska Hajkova (CU), and Sofie Jonsson (UNM) placed 4th, 5th, and 6th, and were all within one second of each other, down some 21 seconds from Reid.

“The course was awesome, it had hills that were steep enough to be difficult, but at the same time you could stride up them without doing a running herringbone,” the winner explained as she described her race. “I’ve never been to Aspen, so it was really sweet for me to see the courses and the town.  I think it was amazing, what with everyone there for all the races, the JOQ, the Supertour, the college race, and the citizen races. They even had a live DJ rocking out on his table. Epically cool.

So how did the junior Reid take the win over the strong field with the likes of Smyth and Hajkova…?

“I just raced the way I usually do, which is basically to just start out strong and then see how I feel.  Of course, when you’re at this high of altitude, you just feel tired. But it was pretty similar to the skiing in Truckee, so I just tried to relax and ski fast and accept the fact that there was a very limited supply of oxygen going in and out of my lungs,” said Reid.

Vail’s Ellefsson had nothing but praise for the organizers….”The conditions were great and AVSC did a great job organizing the whole race. Always a good time when I come to Aspen even though I am from rival town, Vail, and probably not supposed to say that.”

Women’s results HERE.
Men’s results HERE.

February 12, 2011 (Hanover, NH) – Day two of the 101st Dartmouth Winter Carnival saw the hosts earn the team victory as Dartmouth’s Sam Tarling won the men’s 20km mass start classic race while UVM’s Caitlin Patterson outclassed the women’s field again in their 15km mass start classic competition.

The men contested two laps of a twisting 10km loop at the Dartmouth Cross Country Ski Center with a total elevation gain of 359m, while the women completed one lap of the men’s course and one lap of the 5km Storrs Pond loop from yesterday’s freestyle race.

Series leader Patterson proved to be unbeatable again scoring yet another convincing win finishing in a time of 51:45.6 with a 34.2 second margin over second place finisher Rosie Brennan from Dartmouth. Close behind was Brennan’s teammate Annie Hart  another 3s back in third edging out Clare Egan (UNH) by 2.3 seconds for the final step of the podium. Dartmouth’s green took 5th with Steph Crocker at 46.3 seconds behind Patterson.

Dartmouth’s Tarling and team mate Eric Packer repeated their respective 1-2 punch performances from Friday as the 20km classic race came down to a sprint with a thrilling photo finish with only a tenth of a second separating them at the line – 1:00:31.3 vs 1:00:31.4 respectively.

Franz Bernstein (UVM) was also in the running but couldn’t match the final push of the two leaders and crossed the line 1.4 seconds behind the winner to round out the podium.

Fourth place finisher Nils Koons (DAR) came in at 32.1 seconds down, and Scott Patterson (UVM) sprinted for fifth, crossing at 1:01:08.0, a tenth of a second over Chase Marston (MID) and 0.8 seconds ahead of seventh placed David Sinclair (DAR). Series leader Alexander Howe was 9th at 1:02:08.5.

Dartmouth now sits with 528 points while University of Vermont has 476 in second while Middlebury is in third with 318.

EISA Nordic action continues February 18-19 with the Middlebury Carnival in Ripton, VT.

Women’s results HERE.
Men’s results HERE.

February 12, 2011 (Fort Kent, Maine) – Emile Hegle Svendsen of Norway took the men’s 12.5km pursuit competition today after a thrilling final lap duel with Martin Fourcade (Fra) than ended in a photo finish. Both men had a single penalty and were timed at 35:46. Third went to Tarjei Boe of Norway, with three penalties, 1:00.3 back.

From the outset, the battle was between Svendsen and Fourcade. Although both shot clean in the first prone stage, Svendsen held a 9-second lead leaving the stadium. Fourcade quickly closed the gap and was locked on the Norwegian’s shoulder for the next two loops. They both shot clean simultaneously in the second prone. Their initial tight battle ended when Fourcade had a penalty in the first standing stage, while Svendsen shot clean and got a gap.

The tables reversed in the final standing stage, when Svendsen had to tour the penalty loop and Fourcade was perfect. They went back into the Maine woods separated by just 2 seconds. Fourcade quickly closed the gap and they were elbow-to-elbow for the next 2.2km. They entered the stadium in a full sprint side-by-side. Fourcade seemed to have the edge until the final five meters when Svendsen pulled up just a bit and out-leaned Fourcade who tumbled to the ground.

Svendsen almost seemed relieved that he won the competition after the battle with Fourcade. “I saw Martin shoot clean as I was on the penalty loop and thought, ‘Oh my god’. We were not actually skiing that fast in the first part of the final loop. I knew he was a very strong skier and I knew he was there with me.

“I tried to save some energy for one last attempt. I tried to do that over by the wax cabins and hold it until the finish. But he was super strong and stayed with me. It came to a sprint and I was sure he was before me at some point. But I think I was stronger in the final meters. I managed to pull it off and am very happy about that.”

Fourcade had similar feelings to Svendsen as they approached the final loop. “I saw Emil on the penalty loop and had to make a decision, take it easy and go on the final loop by myself or try to catch him. I decided to go after him and hit all five.”

He was philosophical about second place. “This is a strange weekend. In the sprint I missed the podium by a half second and today miss the win. I hope tomorrow to reverse that trend.”

Boe retained the yellow Jersey, but said he let down a bit in the final standing stage, missing two shots while knowing he could not move up. “I saw Martin hitting all of the targets and knew Emil was away. I thought ‘no chance to take the top two.’ I knew there was a big gap and I had no chance so I took it too easy.”

Lowell Bailey of the US continued his run of strong performances with a move from 31st at the start to 25th at the finish despite a rookie move as he came into his third shooting stage two clips short losing about 40 seconds. Despite the blunder, which likely cost him a top-20 result, he maintained his composure shooting clean and missed only two shots – one in the first prone stage and the second in the final standing stage – to finish 3:23.7 behind Svendsen.

“That was such a stupid mistake. I can’t blame anyone but myself,” said Bailey in a US Biathlon release. “I just took two out of the four needed clips with me. I had some troubles zeroing and focused more on the wind and my problems in prone. I simply forgot to take the two other clips with me. I waved at the coach but I probably lost more than 40 seconds waiting for some extra clips. Of course it’s not their fault. Something like that shouldn’t happen in the first place.”

American Jay Hakkinen also had another solid day, as he got away with just three penalties to finish 34th at 4:35.5 back. Beyond those two men, it was another less-than-stellar day for North Americans.

Canada’s Brendan Green had three penalties in 39th place at 4:51.1 back, just ahead of the USA’s Leif Nordgren, with five penalties. Canuck JP Le Guellec finished 44th, while Scott Perras was 48th, one place ahead of Tim Burke of the USA.

Michal Slesingr of the Czech Republic after falling back in the middle of the competition had a brilliant last 2.5km to move into fourth, with three penalties, at 1:19.6 back, just ahead of Sweden’s clean-shooting Carl Johan Bergman, 1:20.1 back. Sixth went to Christoph Sumann of Austria, with three penalties, 1:56.2 back.

Full results HERE.

February 12, 2011 (Cantley, QC) – Whitehorse skiers Emily and Graham Nishikawa, who ski with the Alberta WCup Academy, made their mark at the opening Prologue on Friday, stage 1 of the weekend’s mini-tour, as the Eastern Canadian Championships and Haywood NorAm got underway in Cantley, Quebec.

Emily Nishikawa (Whitehorse/AWCA) lead the women’s field with a time of 8:32.6 over the the 3km classic course with junior Heidi Widmer (Foothills Nordic/AWCA) her nearest rival 12.3s behind in second with Larch Hills U23 skier, Alysson Marshall (AWCA/BCST) in third at 17.9s behind the winner.

“The prologue was really fun – short and sweet,” Emily told us post-race by email. “It was my first time racing that distance so I wasn’t totally sure what to expect. I started pretty relaxed, but got stronger towards the end of the race.

“The course was great, it had some good climbs and fast downhills.  Overall it was a great day, pretty cool that both my brother and I were on top of the podium!”

In the men’s race Graham Nishikawa (Whitehorse/AWCA) continues to dominate as he cruised to a decisive victory in 7:07.3 over Foothills Nordic U23 skier Kevin Sandau in second just under 10 seconds back with American Tim Reynolds from Vermont (Craftsbury Green Racing Project) in third at 3s behind Sandau.

Drew Goldsack (Rocky Mountain/NST), who is battling with Nishikawa for a trip to the Scandinavian World Cups as series leader, didn’t gain or lose any ground with his 5th place result – both skiers use their best eight races from the season to date. Canadian World Junior Championship skier, Andy Shields was the top junior in 7th.

Women’s results HERE.
Men’s results HERE.

February 11, 2011 (Fort Kent, Maine) – Andrea Henkel led two German teammates across the finish line today, as she won the women’s 7.5km sprint in Fort Kent, followed by Miriam Gössner and Magdalena Neuner. Henkel, finishing in 23:20 shot clean while her teammates each had two penalties and were 10.9 and 15 seconds back respectively. This was the first podium sweep by any country this season in E.ON. IBU World Cup Biathlon competitions.

Henkel emphasized that winning today was so much better than her 27th place here in 2004, despite the fact that the courses are much tougher now. “I would not have been prepared in 2004 for these tracks. I am happy they changed this year and not then. That was my worst year ever and I was really out of shape. I am glad I am not in that shape anymore and better now.”

After a bright sunny day on Thursday, today dawned clear again, but quickly it turned cloudy, windy and much colder by the time the women started. The wind swept across the shooting range in gusts which affected especially the prone shooting. In standing, most of the women shot on lane 29 or 30 which are protected by a large fence.

Although the wind was a factor for many of the competitors today, Henkel was not one of them. “I like it when there is a little bit of wind and you can work with it; not when you are being blown from side-to-side.”

The ever-smiling Gössner was on the podium for the first time since her two second place finishes in Östersund. She seemed just as thrilled to be in the top three as then. “I am really happy with my race today. I felt very good on the tracks and on the shooting range, just two mistakes for me is really good.” Last season’s overall World Cup winner Neuner was on the podium for only the fourth time this season. She said, “It is okay. It is not my best season and not my worst.”

Henkel, beaming after the competition, commented on winning for the first time this season far from home, after being second four times and third once. “It is nice that it happened now. It does not matter how far I have to travel to win.” Henkel trains with the US Team when she is here several times a year. “I am happy to win here. The US team gives me a lot of support when I train over here and I am glad I could do this for them too.”

Matching the winner on the shooting range was the on-fire Sara Studebaker, who finished 17th today, several days after her personal best 14th place in Presque Isle. She finished just 1:24.6 behind Henkel. That result moved Studebaker to 40th place in the overall World Cup. “It’s been some great days here in Maine for sure, it’s home somehow,” said Studebaker. “You can feel it on the tracks with friends and family cheering for you. I actually had my first big race here in Fort Kent so it feels good to have a result like that also happening here.”

Her teammate Laura Spector fell back to 44th place, after a 47th place non-World Cup scoring result today. Spector had five penalties. Haley Johnson finished 43rd, with two penalties, 2:51.2 back. “You had to have some luck at the range today. It was really windy and hard to shoot clean”, explained Johnson.

The three Canadian women, Claude Godbout, Zina Kocher and Rosanna Crawford finished 48th, 51st, and 56th, respectively. Godbout’s clean shooting was the sole bright spot for the team, although all will get another chance in tomorrow’s 10K pursuit competition.

Fourth place today went to Berger of Norway with one penalty, 18.8 seconds back, with Teja Gregorin of Slovenia, also with one penalty, 25 seconds back in fifth. Darya Domracheva of Belarus had three penalties in sixth place, 55 seconds back.

France’s Marie Dorin had a single penalty in seventh, 57.3 seconds back, with Kaisa Mäkäräinen of Finland rounding out the top eight, with three penalties, 1:03.2 back.

Mäkäräinen reclaimed the Yellow and Red Bibs with her eighth place today from Helena Ekholm of Sweden who finished 22nd. The Finnish star now has 664 points to 656 for Ekholm. Henkel is closing in on the two other women as she now has 639 points.

Full results HERE.

February 11, 2011 (Beitostølen, Norway) – The US Ski Team had a strong showing at today’s FIS freestyle sprints in Beitostølen, Norway, with Torin Koos and Andy Newell finishing fourth and fifth, respectively, in the men’s final, which was won by Anders Gloersen (NOR). Ida Sargent took fifth in the women’s final, while Maiken Caspersen Falla (NOR) snapped up the win.

The American squad started very strongly in the qualifiers, with three in the top 10 in the men’s category: Newell 3rd, Koos 4th, and Simeon Hamilton 10th. Hamilton finished sixth in his quarterfinal heat, however, and did not advance.

In the women’s ranks, three U.S. skiers also qualified in the top 10, with Sadie Bjornsen 4th, Jessica Diggins 5th, and Sargent 6th. Bjornsen went on to take second in her quarterfinal heat, while Diggins and Sargent placed 1-2 in theirs. Sargent was the only one to advance through the semis, taking fourth in her heat, while Bjornsen and Diggins were shut out with fifth and sixth-place efforts.

Other U.S. results: Tad Elliott and Skyler Davis qualified 32nd and 47th, respectively, in the men’s event, while Liz Stephen and Morgan Arritola finished 30th and 42nd in the women’s qualifications, respectively. Stephen moved through to the quarterfinals, but was knocked out in the first heat.

Men’s Qualifications HERE.
Women’s Qualifications HERE.

Men’s Finals HERE.
Women’s Finals HERE.

February 10, 2011 (Fort Kent, Maine) – Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway missed last week’s competitions in Presque Isle, but made up for that today by winning the men’s 10km sprint in Fort Kent in 24:51.4. Svendsen had a single penalty in the standing stage, yet still finished 7.2 seconds ahead of the clean-shooting Michal Slesingr of the Czech Republic. Tarjei Boe of Norway also shot clean in third place, 9.3 seconds back.

The Svendsen who won today looked like the man who won the first two competitions of the year in Östersund, Sweden; confident, strong and in control. Last season’s overall World Cup Champion and dual Olympic gold medalist arrived in the US on Sunday evening, after skipping the first US World Cup in Presque Isle last weekend.  He showed no effects of his long travel just days ago, commenting, “It is much easier travelling west, so I had no problems. I have felt good all week and felt especially strong yesterday in training.”

He added that travelling alone to Maine was an experience, “I flew to Boston and then came up here to Maine in the smallest airplane I have ever seen; I felt like a rock star!”

Svendsen took control early with clean shooting on a day with little wind, sunny skies and cold minus sixteen Celsius temperatures. No one challenged his top spot in prone, although 20 men were within 20 seconds of him, all with clean shooting. Martin Fourcade (Fra), who had shot clean in prone slipped ahead of Svendsen after a one-penalty standing stage and some fast skiing. Germany’s Daniel Böhm, starting at bib 69 moved ahead of both of them. Yet Svendsen showed to be the strongest of the group over the arduous final 3.3km loop, as Böhm and Fourcade both slowed. Slesingr and Boe benefited from their clean shooting and steady skiing over that final loop which helped them reach the podium.

Fourth went to Martin Fourcade of France, with one penalty, just four tenths of a second out of third place. Late-starting Böhm shot clean to claim fifth, 17.6 seconds back

Today’s win was the fourth of the season for the Norwegian. He spent the last two weeks training at home. “I think the extra time helped me; it sure looks like it. After Antholz, I wanted to go home to Norway and get some training. Since I was sick during Christmas, I felt like I needed some training. I decided to pass on the first World Cup here in the US and I think that was a clever decision. I feel a lot better than I did in January. Today I felt strong and am back to a pretty good shape and looking forward to the World Championships. I am glad I made that decision to stay home.”

Slesingr had his best result since the 2007 World Championships in Antholz and his second podium of the year. He competed here in 2004 and was looking forward to the “easy” tracks. “The tracks here in 2004 were pretty different. They were much easier and I expected that they were not changed. I was looking forward to coming here after Presque IOsle for some nice easy skiing. But then I saw the climb here and they were super hard. I think it is probably one of the hardest tracks on the World Cup.”

The Yellow/Red Bib wearing Boe was 10.1 second behind his teammate after the standing stage and made a run for the top spot. “You always think you can win. I knew Emil is very strong; he has been home training. I saw him yesterday doing intervals and he looked so strong! I thought I had a fair chance in the last two kilometers. I tried on the first hill, but after that he was too strong.” He added, “Emil is always strong; you have to have your “A” game to beat him.”

The US and Canadian teams were again fairly quiet, although Canada’s Scott Perras and the USA’s Lowell Bailey had solid competitions, in 30th and 31st, respectively. Perras missed one prone shot to finish1:25.1 back, while Bailey missed one in each stage, yet was breathing down Perras’ back, just 4.4 seconds behind him. Although they will be in the middle of Saturday’s pursuit field, both are close enough to the top group to give some of the top men a good scare, if they shoot well. JP Le Guellec of Canada was just five places behind Bailey. He matched Bailey with two penalties, but was 1:45.4 back.

American Jay Hakkinen once again shot clean, but his lack of training showed as he was 45th, 2:06.9 back. Hakkinen missed time early in the season with an extended illness. Notable was the USA’s Tim Burke in 47th. He missed two of the past three weeks due to illness, but was only 2:16.3 back with three penalties; all in the standing stage.

Full results HERE.

February 10, 2011 (Vancouver, BC) – Explore the Nordic trails in British Columbia and win a prize in BC Nordic’s “Nuts for Nordic” photo contest. It’s simple: hit the trails, click, upload and vote for your favourite photos. Running all winter season until March 31st, the online “Nuts for Nordic” photo contest gives outdoor enthusiasts a chance to win “The Ultimate Nordic Winter Getaway in BC” prize package. This year’s “Best Photo” prize winner will receive a $1450 Nordic getaway in Whistler, BC. The photo that garners the “Most Votes” online will receive the “Yeti Snowshoe and Silver Star XC Weekend Warrior Combo Pack.” Over $3000 worth of prizes are up for grabs.

“British Columbia offers an abundance of outdoor Nordic recreation experiences, from backcountry skiing in Northern BC, to superb cross-country skiing and snowshoeing through old-growth cedar forests in the Callaghan Valley near Whistler,” said Rob Bernhardt, president of BC Nordic Marketing Society. “Incredible cross-country ski terrain is found throughout the province, which in total has more than 1000 km of world-class trails at designated ski areas. The unique destinations located throughout British Columbia have inspired these prize packages and are sure to inspire great photo opportunities too.”

Outdoor enthusiasts are only required to get out there and enjoy Nordic trails anywhere in British Columbia and upload their Nordic activity photos: cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, or backcountry skiing HERE. All contest entrants automatically have a chance to win weekly prize giveaways – from toques to trail passes – from top Nordic gear suppliers and retailers.

Highlights of “The Ultimate Nordic Winter Getaway in BC” package for two people, courtesy Tourism Whistler includes:

– Three nights lodging at the deluxe Aava Whistler Hotel
– Discover Cross-country Skiing package at Whistler’s Lost Lake Nordic Trails
– Discover Snowshoeing Tour at Ski Callaghan (Whistler Olympic Park)
– $100 dinner certificate at an award winning Whistler restaurant.

Contest updates and weekly prize winners will be announced on BC Nordic’s Facebook page. All entrants are eligible to win a random weekly prize from Dakota Ridge Winter Recreation Area, Deep Cove Outdoors, Fischer, icebreaker, Halti, MEC, Norona Life, Salomon, Sigge’s, SportHill, Sun Peaks Resort, The Yeti XC, SkiTrax and Swix.

The first prize, “Best Photo”, will be judged by a panel of judges, including Mountain Life photo editor and publisher Todd Lawson. The second prize, “Most Votes”, will be awarded to the photo that receives the most online votes. Photos can be taken anywhere in British Columbia. Details about Nordic ski areas can be found on the Where to Ski and Stay page on www.bcnordic.com. For complete contest details, prize information, entry and voting rules click HERE. Contest closes March 31, 2011.

February 09, 2011 (Vernon, BC) – Only six days left to register for the 2011 Sparkling Hill Masters World Cup and Join the Excitement! Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to experience a truly international Nordic Event. Come participate with skiers from over 20 countries.

Registration deadline is February 14 and no late registration can be accepted. Registration information can be found in the Registration Section. For more information on the races and their categories, see the Competition Section.

Accommodation is still available both at Silver Star and in Vernon. Information about accommodation for the event can be found in the Accommodation Section of this website. Accommodation is booked directly with the accommodator. A shuttle service beginning March 3 is provided linking accomodation in Vernon and Silver Star to the Event at Sovereign Lake.

Spectators: Spectators are encouraged but there is no parking at the site. Parking is available in Silver Star Lot E and shuttle buses connect to the race site. Shuttle buses also run from Vernon. Athletes and event staff have priority on bus loading.

For information on travelling to the area, and for additional activities and events, please see the Travel Section of this website.

Volunteers are still needed. If you are interested in Volunteering for the event, please register as a volunteer through our online database.

Check our FAQ: if you need more information than found on these web pages, try consulting our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) document or contacting info@mwc2011.com.

With the generous support of Sparkling Hill Resort, Sovereign Lake Nordic Club is hosting the 2011 Sparkling Hill Masters World Cup of Cross Country Skiing. This Event is the world championships of cross country for skiers 30 years of age and above. The event attracts 1,100 to 1,400 racers from over 20 countries. The event lasts a week with daily classic and/or free technique ski races ranging from 5 to 45km in length.We would like to thank all of our sponsors, supporters and volunteers who are helping to make this a great event for our community and our international guests.

Raffle: Four prizes (7 night houseboat vacation plus others) and an early bird prize. See the January 2011 Newsletter for details. All proceeds to help fund this event. Prize draw at the closing banquet. The early bird draw is 4 p.m. Mon, Feb 14th at SLNC. Tickets can be purchased at Sovereign, Stussi, from OC members, Board members, Valhalla and Bean to Cup at SilverStar, Bulldog, Pinnacles & other places & persons around town & on the mountain.

www.mwc2011.com

February 08, 2011 – Jessie Diggin’s follow-up from the Scando Cup races in Madonna last week, as the junior races were cancelled, because there were too few juniors to put together race fields. As a matter of fact the senior fields were very lacking in numbers, but had some quality players, thanks to Finnish and Norwegian skiers at the top end of the order. This just confirms the quality of Jessie Diggin’s results at these races as a junior and her racing for the year – it is just outstanding!

In the sprint she qualified 3rd and finished up 5th and then in the 10km was 6th and only 30 seconds out and 14 seconds off the podium.

Another thing, that I think is good, is that this group is still in Europe on the Scando Cup tour, headed to Beitostolen, Norway this weekend – it’s been weeks – now they are getting to experience the ups and downs of racing in Europe and have to recover, from over-racing (maybe), sickness while they are on the trip – this is one hell of a learning experience. Kudos to NCCSEF and the USST.

Rybinsk, World Cup or Not, were the mutterings this past weekend in Russia. There was very small representation with just 12 countries for the men and a paltry six nations for the women participating. At there largest the fields had 54 men and 34 women on the start line – with 10 teams in the men’s relay and seven in the women’s. I didn’t check real close, but there were a few missing Russians as well.

Jurg Capol, Mr. Nordic Director for FIS, says don’t even consider the idea that this event won’t be on the calendar next year, as everything they have asked Rybinsk officials at all levels to do, they have come through in a big way. So, it is game on for next year.

I do have a suggestion for how I think they can make this work better for the future, just by changing the schedule. First off throw out the relays, it requires four skiers to make a team – we all know that – but more nations are more likely to participate with 1-3 skiers/sex if the relays are gone. Which means a nation can join in with 2-6 skiers, not the eight it takes to do the relays. It means smaller numbers of racers, and smaller numbers of support people.

Make the weekend a mini-tour of three races – prologue, sprints and then a 10 and 20 km pursuit – that is the order. This year they started with the distance races and then did the sprints and then the relay – ugly!! All the sprinters, which had the largest fields, slept in on the first day. All individual point races, more dollars in prize money, and a chance to build in preems will build the field and keep everyone happier. Hope FIS will try it.

Kershaw and Harvey in comparison, here is something that is interesting. In the World Cup overall standings they are Kershaw 7th and Harvey is 14th. Now when it comes to the prize money there is a premium on being in the top 10 in the WCup. Kersahw is in 13th place with winnings of $25,563 while Harvey is in 43rd place with $2,500. Alex is so close, but so far away from the money!!

American Birkie is growing and reached it’s 8,400 entries for this year quite early and closed registration on the 18th of December. I checked in with Ned Zuelsdorff, ED for the Birkie, last week to see how many people missed getting entered. He felt there were a few 100 that didn’t make it, but feels they need to do some finish line adjustments to be able to accommodate those additional numbers. Space is at a premium in Hayward. But, it has to be a good feeling to have those kinds of problems. Loppet racing all over the world is having the same growth problems – exciting.

Haywood NorAm/ Western Championships are over and Chandra Crawford ended up going home after doing the qualifier in the sprint (3rd qualifier and 4 secs back) – upset stomach.

George Grey had an OK sprint (reputation not built on sprinting), missed the Prologue with a migraine, but came back to win the 15km Pursuit by 21 seconds, which shows his form is coming back.

Surprised that Dasha Gaiazova missed these races and she isn’t entered in the Easterns this weekend at Nakkertok. These Easterns have 582 entries – will there be any snow left on the trails at the end of the weekend!

See you next time.

February 08, 2011 (West Yellowstone, MT) – There is just under a month to go until the 32nd annual Yellowstone Rendezvous Race. Final preparations are in place and there is still time to train for the big day. Join hundreds of Nordic skiers at the start line on March 5th, 2011. Register before March 1 to avoid late fees and all registrations will be closed promptly at noon on Thursday, March 3.

Whether you are skiing for prize money or just to cross the finish line, all racers invited to the Yellowstone Rendezvous Race. True marathoners can enter the 50 kilometer race, which consists of two laps around the perimeter of the Rendezvous Ski Trail system. Skiers can choose the 25 kilometer event under classic or freestyle technique. The 10k race is open to skiers not ready for a long race, with the 5k and 2k races geared for kids.

Bring your friends and family and stay a few extra days. From skiing to sight-seeing, West Yellowstone is the home base for winter fun. There is no other place in the world where you can spend one day racing on 25 kilometers of professionally groomed trails and the next day see bison grazing next to hot springs or bald eagles soaring past geysers.

The Rendezvous Ski Trails are in great shape and the entire trail system is groomed with both a skate lane and classic track. With three feet of groomed packed powder on the ground and more on the way, there is no reason not to expect perfect corduroy for next month’s event. End your race season with a bang at the 32nd Annual Rendezvous Race.

There is still time to sign up for the Rendezvous Race. For more information, go to www.rendezvousrace.com.

February 07, 2011 (Presque Isle, Maine) – SkiTrax talked with US biathlete, Lowell Bailey, after his 16th place finish in Sunday’s Pursuit competition in Presque Isle, Maine. Bailey talked about his solid set of results this season, attributing his mental approach to his success. The two-time Olympian also discussed the hopeful return of his flu-ridden teammate, Tim Burke, in time for the IBU World Cup in Fort Kent this coming weekend.

February 07, 2011 (Barrie, ON) – What would happen if you held a World Cup and nobody came? Well, you would call it Rybinsk, Russia and there would be free world cup points for just about everyone who was there.

This past weekend there were three – yes three World Cup races on the calendar, a distance pursuit, an individual sprint and a team relay. For the distance race there were only 33 men (11 Russian) and 30 women (11 Russian). It didn’t get much better for the sprints with fields of 54 men (15 Russian) and 34 women (16 Russian). The relay for women had 7 teams (4 Russian) and 10 for men (again 4 Russian).

This is brutal. There has got to be something wrong with the schedule to have so few skiers in a World Cup in the first week of February. When there have been World Cups in Canada the last few years they have been better supported. The Ontario Masters Championship in Parry Sound had almost as many skiers! This has to be an embarrassment to the FIS Cross Country Committee.

Now, I’ve been to Rybinsk and it is not that bad there. I know that some countries were having National championships, but that should be no excuse. In fact, I don’t think that this should be allowed to happen either. We have the same problem in North America, but we still send our best skiers to compete at the World Cup.

Meanwhile, it should be no surprise that the Russian skiers dominated the result list for these races – at least for the men. Alexei Pethukov won the sprint, Ilia Chernousov won the distance race and the Russian 1 team won the relay.

It shows how far the Russian women have fallen when they cannot win a race with at home against such small fields. They couldn’t even win the relay with 4 teams out of 7 in the field – the Italian women beat them. Katja Visnar and Vesna Fabjan of Slovenia were 1st and 2nd in the sprints and Justina Kowalczyk of Poland won the distance race and was 3rd in the sprints. She has pretty well cemented the overall World Cup title for this season as the only person who could beat her, Marit Bjoergen was at home, once again, in Norway training for the World Championships in March.

In the 1990’s the Russian women were unbeatable. Of course, we now know why. A good, structured, well organized doping program will do that for you. Now they are ordinary and need to get their act together quickly in order to have a decent showing in Sochi in 2014.

There’s a two-week break in the schedule before the World Cup resumes in Drammen, Norway on February 19-20 with a short distance race and individual sprints. Hopefully we should see full fields for this event and truly have a “World Cup” race.

I can’t close this week without some commentary on the World Junior and World U23 racing from Otepaa, Estonia last week. In my opinion, a finish in the top 10 at either level is a great indication that a skier has the talent and potential to be a consistent point scorer (top 30) at the World Cup level.

A good way to look at it is to look at junior and professional hockey in North America. If a junior hockey player is drafted in the first round by a professional team then they have a good chance of becoming a National Hockey League player. Not all of them do, of course, and there are players who are not drafted in the first round who make it. I think that less than 5% of junior hockey players ever play in the NHL.

Most of these junior players who are drafted end up playing for a year or more in the AHL – kind of the equivalent of the U23 level in skiing. Not all players in the AHL make it to the NHL – again a small percentage and only the best move on. Some of the very best junior players go right to the NHL, but they are the exception.

When I look at the North American results from Otepaa I see the same thing. Alex Harvey is World Champion at U23 and finishes consistently in the top 20 on the World Cup. He was on the podium a number of times as a junior, as well. In hockey he would have been a top draft pick as a junior and would likely have been in the NHL in his first or second year as a pro.

The other skiers that finished in the top 10 – Kevin Sandau, Jesse Cockney, Len Valjas, Jessie Diggins and Noah Hoffman all have a shot at a career as a World Cup skier. Emily Nishikawa, Michael Somppi, Alysson Marshall and Sadie Bjornsen had top 20 finishes – kind of like being drafted in the 2nd round of a hockey draft. They have shown some talent, but there is still a lot of work to do.

Don’t get me wrong, there are no guarantees that any of these skiers will make it on the World Cup (except Alex Harvey – he is already there). It also doesn’t mean that the skiers who were there from North America but outside the top 10 or top 20 (or those who didn’t make the trip) will not make it eventually, but it is going to take them much more time and work.

Malcolm Gladwell in his great book “Outliers” told us that the difference most of the time between those who “make it” and those who don’t is not talent but work and opportunity. He points out that it seems to take 10,000 hours of work for someone to be the best in just about anything.

At an age of 22 or less, all of these skiers have not put in the time yet to know if they are going to make it. They also need to continue to have the opportunity to race and train with the best in the world. I hope that the USST and the Canadian NST continue to give these young skiers as many opportunities as possible to do this.

February 07, 2011 (Kelowna, BC) – Heavy snow greated the skiers on Sunday for the 3rd leg of the Haywood Multi-stage competition in Kelowna. The freestyle Handicap races got underway with the men’s competition with Drew Goldsack first out of the blocks. Stefan Kuhn followed 10 seconds later with Graham Nishikawa another 5 seconds back.

Nishikawa soon caught up to Goldsack and the two NST skiers battled the elements over the 15km course. In a sprint to the finish Goldsack finished .3 seconds infront of the Haywood NorAm leader. The race wasn’t over however as George Grey, starting in a non-seeded wave start position had the fastest time of the day with a stage time of 38:20.8.

The Canadian multi-stage format allows skiers to compete for single stage honours ever if they miss a leg. In Grey’s case, the 24-hour stomach flu kept him bed-bound during the prologue day.

SkiTrax caught up with Goldsack after his races: “It was a good weekend for me. The conditions have been excellent at the Telemark Ski Club. They’ve done a lot of improvements to the trails since the last time we raced here in 2003. The sprint course was pretty flat but a 200m+ finishing straight made it a suffer fest to the line. The Prologue and 15km (3x5km) courses were quite tough with some really short and hard steep pitches,” he commented.

“I’m finally coming back into some better shape after being sick. I was feeling pretty good this weekend but I’d say I’m not quite back to the form I had before Christmas,” added Goldsack.

The heavy snow didn’t seem to hold back National Team skier Perianne Jones as she steadily pulled away from the Women’s field finishing 2:27 in front of Junior skier Maya MacIsaac-Jones of the Rocky Mtn Racers. MacIsaac-Jones started 5th on the grid. Andrea Dupont finished 3rd with the 4th fastest time on the day while Rebecca Reid, another young Junior finished with the 3rd fastest time on the day and 5th overall.

In the Junior Girls Pursuit, Suzanne Stevenson of Foothills started beside Jill Reynolds of Black Jack and battled over the 5km course only to pull away over the last 60 meters to a 3-second victory. Susanne Fraser of Black Jack finished 3rd in the multi-stage event.

In the Junior Boys Pursuit, Julien Locke of Black Jack was the strongest on the day and won the overall multi-stage race by 50 seconds. Colin Ferrie skiing for Kimberley Nordic picked up second overall and a silver for the stage while Matt Saurett of Edmonton Nordic moved from 5th on the grid to take third on the day.

Mass start events completed the Haywood NorAm Western Canadians in Juvenile, Midget and younger age categories. Almost 450 skiers competed at Telemark, making the 2011 edition of the Western Canadians one of the largest ever.

Men’s Results HERE.
Women’s Results HERE.

February 06, 2011 (Presque Isle, Maine) – Alexis Boeuf of France moved from ninth position at the start of today’s men’s 12.5km pursuit competition to first place at the finish for the first World Cup victory of his career. His two-penalty shooting was enough to carry him to the top spot in a time of 36:02.4. Second went to Russia’s Ivan Tcherezov, with four penalties, 10.3 seconds back, while Carl Johan Bergman, with three penalties finished third, 14.3 seconds back.

Boeuf Moves Up as Peiffer Struggles
The sprint winner Arnd Peiffer of Germany controlled the competition from the start and never was seriously threatened until the final standing stage, when he slipped out of the lead for the first time with three penalties. He shot clean in both prone stages as several rivals battled for the number two and three spots.

Alexis Beouf shot clean in the first prone and missed one shot in the second prone yet was in fifth position going into the standing stages as Carl Johan Bergman of Sweden moved into second with one penalty in the prone stages. Bergman and Beouf shot clean in the first standing stage, setting up a battle in the final standing stage. Peiffer had a good lead, but struggled with the wind and picked up three penalties. Bergman looked confident, but missed two.

Then the unheralded Beouf calmly missed a single shot, when Tcherezov who had four penalties before that shot clean, but was well behind him. The young French athlete left the stadium penalty loop with an 11-second lead over Peiffer, with Tcherezov 24-plus seconds back in fourth. Boeuf cruised to victory for the first win of his career, as Tcherezov put on a spectacular push over the final loop and passed both Bergman, who ended up third and the fading Peiffer, which put the tough Russian star in second place.

Boeuf’s first World Cup win came in the same place that he was on the podium as a junior athlete, when he was part of the winning relay team at the IBU Youth and Junior World Championships in 2006. His initial comment was, “Maybe this is my place, but I like it! . . . of course, I am really happy to win here again.”

He admitted that there was little pressure before the start. “I was very calm today. I like this kind of snow and I know that anything is possible in biathlon, especially in a pursuit. This was perfect snow for me today because I am really light and can glide over soft snow. I was really strong on the skis today. For me, when I am strong on skis, everything is well and I can shoot good.”

He plans to go to the athlete’s Super Bowl Party with his teammates for a celebration. “After this win, our team may have an expensive night; we might have to buy a drink for everyone.”

Bergman had his best result of the season commenting, “I never saw Peiffer during the competition. But when I came to the final standing, I saw he had three penalties and knew there was a chance. I had three good shots and two that were not so good . . . the soft snow conditions were hard for me. I am small but heavy. I like hard fast conditions, so I was not surprised when Tcherezov passed me with 300 meters to go. I had nothing left.”

Lowell Bailey of Lake Placid, NY continued to lead the US Team. Today, he started 25th and by the finish had moved up to 16th place, with four penalties, 2:24.1 back. He has now passed teammate Tim Burke in the overall World Cup standings; Bailey is 38th, while Burke who is sick and did not compete here fell back to 42nd position.

“The conditions were quite challenging today so you just have to throw everything out of the window when it comes to technique and just try to glide somehow. The organizers did a good job but with that much snow overnight it is impossible to get a hard surface on the course,” said Bailey in a US Biathlon release.

“I made a big mistake thinking too much about the wind instead of focusing on hitting the targets,” explained Bailey regarding his three misses in his first standing shooting. “I know myself well enough to know that I get into trouble if I spend too much time on the shooting range, but that’s exactly what I did in that first standing. I hesitated and gave it too much time. Sometimes you just have to go for it and that’s what I did in the last shooting stage. I was quite happy that it worked out perfectly there.”

Bailey’s 131 World Cup points are a career high. Burke was sidelined with a cold here, but plans to be on the starting line later this week in Fort Kent. Just as Bailey is moving up, so is Jay Hakkinen. The Kasilof Alaska native had only two penalties on an extremely windy day to finish 27th, 3:10.1 back.

Leif Nordgren finished 41st, moving up six places from his sprint result. “Six penalties aren’t exactly perfect, but I think I was a little too eager at shooting. I should have taken some more time given the wind,” said Nordgren. Three-time Olympian Jeremy Teela (Heber City, UT) finished 56th with seven penalties.

Canadian JP Leguellec also moved up in the standings today going from 40th position at the start to finish 35th, with five penalties, 4:12.5 back. His teammate Brendan Green was one place and 2.7 seconds behind him with four penalties. Calgary’s Nathan Smith finished 49th at 41:57.8.

“It was a tough day. The wind on the range was very unpredictable and made shooting a challenge,” said Le Guellec. “I’m still in search of a decent ski shape. My skis didn’t feel like rockets so it was very hard getting around the course today.”

Fourth went to Peiffer, with four penalties, 24.4 seconds back, while Russia’s Maxim Tchoudov was fifth, with one penalty, 26.6 seconds back. Yellow-Bib wearing Tarjei Boe of Norway, with four penalties, 37.8 seconds back was sixth.

Full results HERE.

February 06, 2011 (Presque Isle, Maine) – US Biathlete Sara Studebaker stopped by to chat with SkiTrax about her career-best 14th place finish in Friday’s 7.5km Sprint at the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle. Studebaker expressed her excitement to post such a good result on “somewhat home soil,” noting that her team had a slight advantage having trained on the course before. The rising star biathlete said she looks forward to Sunday’s Pursuit race, adding that as long as she hits her targets, she figures to do well.

February 06, 2011 (Presque Isle, Maine) – SkiTrax caught up with Maine Winter Sports Centre (MWSC) President, Andy Shepard, during the IBU World Cup in Presque Isle, Maine on Saturday. Shepard talked about the non-profit’s journey towards hosting an event of this magnitude, saying that it was an original part of the Center’s business model when it was founded in 1999. Shepard also addressed the fact that these World Cup’s are attempt to convince the IBU that Maine is capable of hosting such events on a more regular basis.

February 06, 2011 (Rybinsk, Russia) – A strong Russia l men’s team anchored by Alexander Legkov came from behind on the final leg to sail in to victory in the men’s 4x10km Classic/Free Relay in Rybinsk with a 6.4s margin over second-placed Italy l followed by Germany another 25s back in third. Russia ll who were leading coming into the final 10km lap faded to 4th. The Norwegians were not on the start line as they skipped town for home after the individual sprints on Saturday.

In the women’s relay race Italy turned the tables on Russia l claiming the win as Arianna Follis overtook Olga Mikhailova on the anchor leg to grab the top spot on the podium by a comfortable 12.1s margin. Russia ll claimed the final third spot on the podium. Weak fields for the women meant Russia had four teams entered along with Italy, France and Slovenia who also fielded teams. No North Americans competed in Rybinsk.

Full women’s results HERE.
Full men’s results HERE.

February 05, 2011 (Kelowna, B.C.) – Canadian National Teamer Perianne Jones scored back to back wins taking the women’s 2.7km freestyle Prologue, round two of the Haywood NorAm Mini-Tour in Kelowna. Andrea Dupont of the Rocky Mountain Racers, third in Friday’s sprint moved up into second at 20s behind Jones while Sarah Daitch (Fort Smith Ski Club) who was second yesterday edged out junior skier, Maya MacIsaac-Jones (RMR), by .03s for third.

“It was a tough race out there today,” Jones told SkiTrax post race. “2.7km is something that I’m really not used to racing, so the last 4 minutes were pretty painful.

“It was a great day out at Telemark, the sun was shining which made getting grip in some spots tricky so everyone was herring-boning,” Jones continued. “I just attacked the course from the start, and tried to hang on for dear life pushing all the way to the finish. I’m feeling good, and really excited to head to Europe on Wednesday with the rest of the World Champs Team.”

The men’s 3.5km skate race was very close as Stefan Kuhn (Canmore Nordic/NST) bested yesterday’s sprint winner Drew Goldsack (RMR/NST) by 1.3s, who in turn nipped Graham Nishikawa (AWCA) for the silver by .9s.

“The win was great to get. I have been training real hard the last 2-3 weeks getting ready for the World champs in Oslo Norway. My shape is starting to come around now. It was a very tight race today as expected,” said Kuhn by email to SkiTrax.

“The course is fantastic for a prologue which has some hard hills and down hills and a super hard finishing stretch. Some of the course was in the sun today which made for some of the hills to be slick and hard to climb and some of them where in the shade which you could just hammer up.

“I knew it would be tight,” continued the winner. “I just tried to ski a very balanced race not go out to hard and have some jam for the end and i guess it worked out, i barely squeaked in front of Drew by just over 1 second.”

Women’s results HERE.
Men’s results HERE.

February 05, 2011 (Presque Isle, Maine) – The German Mixed Relay team of Kathrin Hitzer, Magdalena Neuner, Alexander Wolf and Daniel Böhm posted a strong effort to win gold, with eleven spare rounds in 1:13:31.6 at the E.ON. IBU World Cup Biathlon in Presque Isle on Saturday.

The victory was appreciated by their big fan base in Europe, who did not expect the win after some of the top stars were not part of the team.

Although the competition started at 2:25 EST, it was shown live on Saturday prime-time 8:25 PM in Europe – the only biathlon telecast in that time slot this season. Several other competitions have been shown in the dinner hour in the past two months but none in this slot. The German broadcasters in Presque Isle expected over five million televisions to be focused on the mixed relay today. Friday’s sprints had just over four million viewers in Germany. Viewership for the other nations on the live broadcast is not available yet.

On paper before the start, four teams looked like they would battle for the podium; Germany, France, Italy and Russia. Germany had Kathrin Hitzer and Magdalena Neuner; France had three Olympic medalists, Italy which has been strong all season in relays, and Russia had stars Ivan Tcherezov and Svetlana Sleptsova.

Although the German team was one of the favorites, it was not their top line-up, as Wolf struggled in yesterday’s sprint, not making the pursuit field. Hitzer commented, “We are all good biathletes and we can pick very good athletes to have a good team. Alexander had a good zero yesterday and then had some problems clicking during the race and did not make the pursuit. It’s very hard here with three races in a row here, and Alexander cannot start in the pursuit, so the coach said he would start today. I think it was a good decision.”

On a sunny Saturday afternoon, twelve teams hit the tough tracks here in Presque Isle. At the first exchange, France, Germany, Italy and Russia were closely bunched. Neuner opened up a lead for Germany, using just three spare rounds in her two shooting bouts. Her typically brilliant leg put her team well in front with a bulge of over 52 seconds at the exchange with her teammate Alexander Wolf.

Behind her, the former cross-country skier Anna Karin Strömstedt did a good job for Sweden, bringing them up to second. Italy, after strong legs by Michaela Ponza and Katja Haller put them just behind Sweden with Russia lurking just behind. Ivan Tcherezov had a typically strong leg for Russia as did Olympic Sprint Champion Vincent Jay for France.

The final leg was set up with Germany just over thirty seconds ahead of Russia and France with Italy another 30 seconds back. In the final standing stage, Böhm came in about 30 seconds up on his rivals. He used two spare rounds and was out, with Alexis Beouf just 16.8 seconds back. Russia and Italy were another 35 seconds back.

Second at the finish was France with seven penalties, 27.9 seconds behind followed by Russia with thirteen spare rounds at 1:01.6 back, just four-tenths of a second ahead of Italy, who used eleven spare rounds.

The US Team of Sara Studebaker, Haley Johnson, Jay Hakkinen, and Jeremy Teela made a strong run for the flower ceremony, but fell short finishing seventh, with one penalty and thirteen spare rounds, at 2;47.2 back. Studebaker had a strong leadoff leg, but Johnson slipped back a bit, leaving the red, white and blue team, in tenth position.

“It was a tough race, but especially today it was nice to have the crowd here supporting us,” said Studebaker.

Hakkinen had the best leg of the day, shooting clean in prone with no spares and using only one in standing. He made up considerable ground putting the team in striking distance of sixth as he tagged Teela.

Teela was brilliant in prone, shooting very fast despite using a spare round. With a chance at sixth place, the veteran needed all three spare rounds in standing, but still picked up a penalty. That mired him in seventh at the finish.

“It was a good day overall and a lot fun to race here,” commented Hakkinen. “It was my first mixed relay and I think it’s really is a great competition. Especially in front of the home crowd – it’s a lot of fun.”

The Canadian team of Rosanna Crawford, Claire Godbout, Scott Perras and Nathan Smith used only nine spare rounds, but finished out of the top-10 in 12th at 4:17.8 beind Germany.

Full results HERE.

February 05, 2011 (Nove Mesto, Czech Republic) – The final day of competition at the IBU Youth/Junior World Biathlon Championships saw Russia claim the Junior Women’s 3x6km relay while Germany came from behind to take home the gold in the Junior Men’s 4×7.5km relay contest.

The Canadian team of Audrey Vaillancourt, Yolaine Oddou, and Emma Lunder made the top ten delivering an 8th place finish at 4:05 behind the winners. The US squad of Grace Boutot, Kelly Kjorlien, and Corrine Malcolm ended up in 16th.

In the junior men’s race Canada’s Scott Gow, Vincent Blais, Aaron Neumann and David Gregoire placed 13th over 9 minutes behind Germany who took the win over Russia while the American men consisting of Eathan Dreissigacher, Raileigh Goessling, Benjamin Greenwald, and Raymond Wonders finished 19th.

In the Junior Women’s race the battle for gold was between Russia’s Aleksandra Alikina, Svetlana Perminova and Olga Galich and the Italian team of Alexia Runggaldier, Nicole Gontier, and top anchor Dorothea Wierer. While Runggaldier brought the Italians in first after the lead off leg over Alikina, the remaining two Russian skiers turned the tables to finish in one hour, two minutes and 35.9 seconds; a notable margin of 1:17.5 ahead of their Italian rivals. Germans Laura Dahlmeier, Birgit Riesle and Carolin Leunig picked up the bronze.

Gusty winds complicated things for some of the Junior Men racers, making the race exciting. The eventual winners were Germany’s Steffen Bartscher, Benedikt Doll, Johannes Kuhn, and Tom Barth. However, at the first exchange, the German team was in 10th place at 1:20 seconds down on the lead team of Russians Nikolay Yakushov, Aleksandr Pechenkin, Ivan Kryukov, and Dmitry Dyuzhev. Yet windy conditions were the downfall of the third Russian skier Kryukov who took penalties in the standing shooting range.

Germany’s Kuhn took advantage and got out to the tracks 28 seconds ahead of Kryukov. The Russian anchor Dyuzhev skied faster than Barth the German anchor, but could not quite close the gap opened by the penalties, and they settled for silver, at 17.6 seconds behind the gold medal Germans. Norway’s team of Erlend Bjoentegaard, Erling Aalvik, Kristoffer Langoeien Skjelvik, and Christiansen Velte Sjastad went home with bronze medals.

The 2011 IBU Youth and Junior World Championship has now been declared closed. Kontiolahti, Finland will host next year’s Championship.

Junior Women’s Results HERE.
Junior Men’s Results HERE.

February 05, 2011 (Kelowna, B.C.) – Canadian National Team members Drew Goldsack and Perianne Jones, topped the qualifications on their way to victory at the Teck 1.3km Freestyle Sprints on Friday as another mini-tour gets underway in Kelowna, B.C., also doubling as the Western National Championships.

Chandra Crawford (NST), who qualified third behind Andrea Dupont of the Rocky Mountain Racers in second, fell ill and opted not to continue heading home to Canmore. Jones had the fastest qualifying time in 2:55.24 and took the win over Sarah Daitch (Fort Smith Ski Club) in second and Dupont in third. Juniors Rebecca Reid (AWCA), Dahria Beatty (Yukon Ski Team) and Suzanne Stevenson (Foothills Nordic) finished 4th-6th in the A-Final.

Goldsack was back to his winning form as he grabbed the win over suprise second place finisher Matthew Wylie (Banff Ski Runners) who beat national teamer Stefan Kuhn second behind Goldsack in the qualifications, in third. Rounding out the A-Final were Graham Nishikawa (AWCA), George Grey (NST) and Brian McKeever (Foothills Nordic) of Para-Nordic fame.

Next up are the Prologue races on Saturday.

Full women’s results HERE.
Full women’s results HERE.

February 4, 2011 (Nove Mesto, Czech Republic) – The second to last day of the Youth/Junior World Biathlon Championships had Youth Men racing a 3 x 7.5Km relay. The Candian team of Stuart Harden, Christian Gow, and Macx Davies captured the top North American result of the day, placing 7th. This strong result comes on the heels of a career-best individual result of 18th in the 12.5Km individual for Harden on February 2nd. The American team of Casey Smith, Sean Doherty, and Samuel Dougherty were 12th.

“My legs didn’t feel great on the skis, but being the last race of World Championships the whole team pushed as hard as we could for our respective legs,” said Harden. “Unfortunately we didn’t perform as well as we had liked on the range and that showed in the result. We had good hopes for a better result, but Christian and I will be youths at next years championships and are looking forward to the relay as another great chance for a Canadian medal.”

Russians Alexandr Loginov, Alexander Chernyshov and Maxim Tsvetkov took the win ahead of Italians Benjamin Plaickner, Thierry Chenal, and Maikol Demetz and Austrians Alexander Jakob, Thomas Haumer, and Fabian Hoerl. No teams shot clean.

The IBU Youth/Junior World Biathlon Championships kicked off on January 27th in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, and wrap up on February 5th. On the final day of racing, Canadian Juniors Scott Gow (brother of youth racer Christian Gow), Vincent Blais, Aaron Neumann, and David Gregoire will team up to take on the Junior Men’s 4×7.5Km relay, while American Juniors Eathan Dreissigacher, Raileigh Goessling, Benjamin Greenwald, and Raymond Wonders will represent the USA in the same event.

Full results HERE.

February 04, 2011 (Presque Isle, Maine) – Helena Ekholm of Sweden won for the third time this season as she snapped Tora Berger’s winning streak in women’s competition at four. Ekholm shot clean today while covering the 7.5km course in 20:38.7, just 8.8 seconds ahead of her Norwegian rival. Berger had a single penalty today. Third went to Valj Semerenko of the Ukraine, who also shot clean, but was 19.4 seconds back.

Berger started with bib number 2 today and looked like she was well on her way to her fifth individual win in a row. She shot clean in prone, and held the lead. Then she missed a single shot in standing and opened a slight opportunity, which Ekholm seized. The Swedish star who claims that there is no secret to her shooting skill, other than “I am calm and believe in myself and maybe good genes,” was at her best and cleaned both stages with supreme confidence.

Ekholm moved ahead of Kaisa Mäkäräinen (FIN) to take the overall World Cup lead with her victory. Mäkäräinen had controlled the Yellow Bib since the first competition of the season in Ekholm’s hometown of Östersund, Sweden. Several weeks ago, Ekholm said she enjoyed pursuing Mäkäräinen rather than being pursued by everyone. Ekholm won the overall World Cup title in 2009 and finished third last season after a disastrous Olympic Games. The personable Ekholm was an overwhelming favourite to win several medals in Vancouver, but struggled with the pressure and went home empty-handed.

She commented on the win in a place far from the crowd-filled stadiums of middle Europe.  “After Antholz, I was not so satisfied, so this is really good. . . It was a little easier to concentrate here, with less people and it is more relaxed.” She is more at ease than earlier in the season as she now has recovered from a disappointing Olympic experience last February. “I am quite relaxed this year. I am sure that nothing can be that bad again. I am just relaxed when I ski and think everything is better than the Olympics.”

Get Away
With everyone preparing for the Biathlon World Championships in Russia in just over a month, Ekholm thinks the US events offer a good respite from the pressure of last month’s big high-pressure World Cups. “We are far away from home and there are no journalists here from Sweden, so it is nice to get away from all of that for a little bit.”

Thanks
Berger was not so disappointed to finish second saying, “I am happy with second. It was a good race today, but Helena was a little bit better.” She commented on the course. “I like the course here; it was a little bit hard, so it was good for me. It was not so fast, because the snow is quite cold.”

Semerenko who had a career best today only arrived in Presque Isle less than 36 hours before her start. After a series of fourth place finishes this season, the podium was quite satisfying. “This was very satisfying for me. Like any athlete, I have goals and today I reached one of them.”

There was only one highlight for the North American competitors today. Sara Studebaker of Boise Idaho had a personal best 14th place finish. Her previous best was 21st in the 15km individual competition in Pokljuka, Slovenia just before Christmas. Today, Studebaker was brilliant on the tracks and the shooting range. She shot 10-for-10 and was only 1:00.2 behind Ekholm, and less than a minute behind Berger, one of the fastest women in biathlon. Studebaker finished ahead of many biathlon luminaries including olympic gold medalists Anna Carin Zidek of Sweden and Andrea Henkel of Germany as well as Miriam Gössner of Germany who won a World Cup title earlier this season. Zidek who is married to Canadian Wax Tech Tom Zidek finished 17th.

Studebaker’s teammate Haley Johnson of Lake Placid, NY finished 43rd, with two penalties, 2:00.3 back. The top Canadian was Rosanna Crawford in 46th place, with one penalty, 2:34.6 back. Crawford is the younger sister of Olympic gold medalist Chandra Crawford.

Michaela Ponza of Italy had her best result in almost two years in fourth place, 22 seconds back with clean shooting.

Full results HERE.

February 04, 2011 (Rybinsk, Russia) – A small field of women took to the start line at the Viessmann FIS World Cup in Rybinsk, Russia today for the 10km Pursuit event, but that didn’t matter to Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) who snatched another victory, posting a time nearly 10s faster than second place skier, Italy’s Marianna Longa.Aino-Kaisa Saarinen (FIN) finished third.

With only 30 starters from eight different nations and no North Americans, it was the most poorly attended World Cup of the season so far. Kowalczyk continues to lead the overall rankings with 1,516 points as opposed to the 930 points held by Arianna Follis (ITA), who is in second spot and placed fourth in today’s Pursuit. Many big names, like Charlotte Kalla (SWE), Petra Majdic (SLO), and Marit Bjoergen (NOR) were not in attendance.

Full results HERE.
Overall Standings HERE.

February 02, 2011 (Nove Mesto, Czech Republic) – Simon Desthieux (FRA) won the 15km Individual Junior Men’s race at the Youth and Junior Biathlon World Championships in a time of 41:36.6 and with only two missed shots, while Benedikt Doll of Germany missed four shots to finish second and 27s off the pace, followed by Nikolay Yakushov (RUS) in third with only two shooting penalties and 32.4s back.

Canada’s Scott Gow continued his excellent record at this year’s Worlds finishing ninth with only three misses and 1:52.6 off the leader. “I was so happy when I crossed the finish line to see myself in ninth position. I still can’t believe it,” said Gow, who is a rookie on the Canadian Biathlon Team’s senior development squad this year. “My skiing was as strong as its been all week and my shooting was really solid so I’m very happy with my entire performance. I accomplished what I came here to do.”

Eathan Dreissigacher (USA) led Team USA in 38th, with five missed shots and a 5:14.2 deficit. Vincent Blais (CAN) finished 39th, Aaron Neumann (CAN) was 61st, Benjamin Greenwald (USA) was 79th, Raileigh Goessling (USA) took 87th, and David Gregoire (CAN) did not start.

Results HERE.

February 02, 2011 (In Transit to Alaska) – There must be something magical about Liberec, Czech Republic because I seem to be able to pull out top performances there, even if I don’t always see them coming!  Despite feeling like a zombie for most of this post-Tour week, I was able to shake off the daze and overcome some challenging snow conditions to take my second World Cup victory!

dQuote of the Day
“A couple meters before the finish line I realized that I had the race and threw my arms up in celebration.  As I slid to a halt, I couldn’t believe what had just happened.”

What’s Coming Up
– 2/19/11-2/20/11 World Cup – Drammen, NOR
– 2/24/11-3/6/11 World Championships!!

The Cliff Notes
By ignoring the heavy feelings in my legs during the warm-up, I started off the day with a third place in qualifying.  Then in my loaded quarterfinal (I drew both Majdic and Follis) I came second and advanced to the semis.

In the semis, I drafted early and then put on a strong finish to win the heat and make it to the final.  The final played out much the same way and I passed Hanna Falk of Sweden on the homestretch to take the win.

After two months on the road, I now get to head home for a short break and then training camp to prepare for the World Championships in Oslo next month.

The Full Story
After two solid months in Europe chasing World Cup races through different six countries, I was finally down to my last few days before I would get the chance to go home.  The last stop would be a skate sprint in Liberec, Czech Republic.

This post-Tour week has been a bit of a haze.  Without the stimulus of daily racing, my energy took a dive and for the first few days of the week, all I really felt like doing was sleeping and watching movies.   I managed one short ski and a couple walks.

On Wednesday, Andy and Grover and I loaded up in the cargo van and made the 8-hour journey northeast to Liberec.   Upon arriving, we found a very different scene than the one we had left two years ago at the World Championships.  Warm temperatures and rain had taken all but a little bit of the natural snow.

We had a couple days to prepare for the race and I hoped that I could wake my body out of its stupor.  The conditions on the course were challenging, reminding me of my summer training time on Eagle Glacier and we were limited to a 2km loop.

The morning of the race I definitely had butterflies in my stomach, but this time for a different reason.  Having never done a Tour de Ski before, I wasn’t sure how much the high load of racing was going to affect my sprint speed.  I had confidence from my solid sprinting earlier in the season, but would that extra gear be there this week?

It was pouring rain as we headed out to the venue on a big shuttle bus.  My buddy Chandra Crawford and I shared a seat and rocked out to some new Swedish stuff she had just found.  As we pulled into the venue we could see that it was not only just raining, it was windy too.  We braced ourselves for a wild day.

The race organizers were spreading salt all over the course to keep it firm. The snow was so fast that it was hard to tell which skis out of the three pairs we were testing were actually the fastest.  So we went on the pair that just intuitively felt the best.  I made sure to get in a hard warm-up to get my body as awake and ready as possible, but it wasn’t easy.  My legs felt heavy and my balance a little awkward.

For my qualifying lap I was pleasantly surprised to find the heaviness in the legs gone, replaced by a lightness in my stride.  I made it up and over the first climb feeling good and dropped into a low tuck.  I carried good speed into the next climb and made it through the hodge-podge of hard and soft snow.  On the final climb and into the finish stretch, I still had plenty of power in the tank and charged to the line. I crossed with the third fastest time.  A nice surprise!

The sun had come out briefly during the women’s qualifier, but soon after the rain returned.  I threw on my running shoes and jogged my cool down.

The Canadians were nice enough to let Andy and I crash in their wax cabin between the rounds.  I changed into some dry clothes, downed some Powerbar Recovery drink and Gel Blasts, and drifted off into a semi-comatose state while listening to my iPod.  A little less than two hours drifted by and it was time to get going again.

The heaviness in my legs returned for my second warm-up of the day and I wondered if it was just a trick of my nerves like earlier.  I did some harder skiing and hoped for the best come race time.

Thankfully the rain stopped and the sky actually cleared a bit.

Third qualifying position put me in the fifth and last women’s quarterfinal.  As the other heats went out, there were less and less women left in the start pen.  I noticed Petra Majdic and Arianna Follis were both still around.  “Ha, wouldn’t it be funny if they were BOTH in my quarterfinal,” I thought.  Turns out, they were!

In my quarterfinal I got off to a good start and going up the first climb, I held back a little bit hoping someone else would want to lead.  As we got to the top of the hill, Hanna Kolb made a break for it and I tucked myself into second.  I made sure to stay low off the downhill and pulled up alongside her going up the gradual section and took the lead over the top.

When we hit the final climb, Majdic pulled out of my draft and put on a big surge.  I countered but she got a little ahead and then slowly drifted into my path as she made for the corner.   I didn’t panic and just slipped in behind her until we got on the home straight.   With 100m to go, I knew Follis could be attacking, so I picked the wide lane and turned up the speed.  Just before the line I could tell I was solidly in 2nd, advancing to the semis.

As we lined up for the second semi-final, the first women’s semifinal was underway.  Marit Bjoergen had handily won her quarterfinal by skiing from the front but appeared to be taking a different strategy and was hanging back in 2nd.  Midway through the course, she bumped skis with another racer and dropped back to 5th.  She tried desperately to get back up to the front but couldn’t find the space and ended up third in her heat, unbelievable!  She would now have to wait to see if she would make the final as a lucky loser.

We lined up for our semifinal next.  When the gun went off I reacted a little slowly and got out of the lanes a step behind.  Everyone seemed to drift left towards the best line, so I decided to stay right and got a clear lane up the first climb.  I was able to tuck myself into third over the top of the hill.

I made sure to stay nice and low, and came out of my tuck with good momentum.  I stayed to the right again and used clear snow to move myself up into second over the top of the hill.  I shadowed Falk of Sweden into the final climb and this time I used the slingshot to get around (like Majdic had in the quarter) and was able to get past Falk before the turn.  I put it into high gear and hammered to the line unchallenged.

Our semifinal ended being over three seconds faster than the first, meaning Bjoergen was out of the final.  I was actually bummed.  I had been looking forward to another chance to match up against the Queen!

Finally, I was down to the last race of the day.  Just three more minutes and then I could head home for a nice break.   Just three more minutes!

In the final would be myself, Falk, and Majdic, the Norwegians Brun-lie and Falla, and Barthelme of France.  The camera came by for our introductions, I gave one last smile, and then crouched for the start.

Bang!  I had a slight delayed reaction again, and as my poles slipped a bit in the soft snow, I came out of the lanes a little behind.  Falk charged to the lead with Brun-lie in tow.  I worked my way up the right side again, using a quick V1 to move up and get into 3rd over the top.

My skis were running really well and dropping down into my best alpine tuck, I came zinging up on the girls ahead and steered right into the open lane.  I could feel Majdic going for the same lane and made sure to throw in a few free skates to keep my momentum.  We V2’d madly up the next climb and I slipped in behind Falk going over the top.

I pushed hard into the downhill and got the draft.  As we came flying into the final climb and I made a mad dash on the outside and narrowly pulled even with Falk before the corner.  Once onto the homestretch I veered left into an open lane and turned on the jets.  I felt the power transfer directly into my skis and poles as I came by Falk and went into the lead.  This is where I had lost the gold medal at World Championships and I wasn’t going to lose it this time.

A couple meters before the finish line I realized that I had the race and threw my arms up in celebration.  As I slid to a halt, I couldn’t believe what had just happened.  I almost didn’t even feel tired.  I was filled with exhilaration.   After a three-year drought it felt incredible to take another World Cup win!  What a fun race!

I exchanged hugs and high fives with the rest of the racers.  Falk had held on for 2nd and Brun-lie took the bronze.  Then I got to celebrate big hugs with Joqui, Randy and Grover, whom I have to thank for my great skis!!  And most special, I got to share a big embrace with my husband, who was on site working with the Australian team.  What would a victory be without those to share it with!

While the men’s final took place, there was a whirlwind of TV interviews and chasing after some dry clothes.  Then we got to do the flower ceremony, press conference and the mandatory pee test for doping control.  All the while, I couldn’t stop smiling!

After two months, time was suddenly in hyper drive.  We came back to the hotel and had just an hour to shower, throw the wet clothes in a ski bag and grab a little dinner before catching a shuttle to Prague.  Despite my excitement to get home, I was a little sad not to have that evening to hang out and celebrate a little.  I said goodbye to my husband (luckily just for a week this time), wished Grover a safe drive and boarded the shuttle.

(Thankfully, we did manage to get in a champagne toast at the airport hotel before hitting the pillows for a short night of sleep.)

As I write this I am now on my way back to Alaska for a three-week break and training period at home.  I just heard that my win yesterday has put me in the lead of the overall Sprint World Cup, yeehaw!  It’s too bad I won’t be racing in Otepaa next weekend to actually get to wear the bib!

It will be hard for sure to miss the next two weekends of World Cup racing, but my focus now turns to the World Championships in Oslo.   The win in Liberec is a great confidence booster and I am feeling more motivated than ever.

Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful emails and posts.  It’s really special to share all these moments with you.

I’ll be back in a few weeks with the final tune-up races at the World Cup in Drammen in mid-February.  Until then, enjoy winter!

Cheers,
Kikkan

Check for more updates at www.kikkan.com

February 02, 2011 (Otepaa, Estonia) – Holy cow, today’s been an absolutely huge day! With 4 races going on I have no idea how the coaches and wax techs kept up with it all! First we had the junior women’s 4×3.3km relay, in which we finished 7th. I’m so totally excited because we moved up a place from last year!

The relay went like this: Amy Glen scrambled (classic) and tagged off to Kinsey Loan, who then tagged of to me for the skate half of the relay. I tagged Joanne and she anchored us for a solid 7th place. I’m also extremely excited about finishing second for lap splits to Heidi Wang (Norway) by 5.4 seconds. It was definitely a successful day – and we definitely had some crazy fast skis (yeah Salomon!)

After the relay, we travel waxed our skis, packed out bags and set out for a long day of spectating! And we did some HARD CORE cheering. We had numerous US flags and signs, and I do believe we also had the loudest voices on the whole course.

The junior men’s 4x5km relay went second, and they ended up finishing 10th in a close sprint with Canada. Then a short while later, the women’s 15km pursuit race set off, and Sadie led the US with a 17th place finish.

The last race of the day was the men’s 30km pursuit, and it was so much fun to cheer as the sun came out and it was an absolutely gorgeous day!

Noah led the US men with a 22nd place finish, but the coolest part of the whole day was seeing Alex Harvey crush it today and WIN THE WHOLE DARN RACE!!!! It was totally inspiring to hear an anthem other than Norway being blasted in the stadium.

I’m giving a huge shout-out to all the coaches and wax techs for all their hard work and patience in dealing with US. And thanks also to NCCSEF for all the support. It wouldn’t have happened without you!

So now I’m headed over to Madona, Latvia, with the Scando Cup team… and pretty much the only thing I know about Latvia is that car-jacking is basically a sport. The next week should be very interesting!

January 31, 2011 (Otepaa, Estonia) – It was another day for the Harvey name to be in lights. Alex Harvey brought his “A” game today when he won gold in the 30km Pursuit (15km +15km) on the final day of the 2011 Junior/U23 World Championships. Harvey captured U23 gold in a brutally tight race, just 0.7 seconds ahead of Evgeniy Belov from Russia.

Third place went to Belov’s team mate Raul Shakirzianov at 35.7 seconds behind Harvey, who hails from from St.-Ferreol-Les-Neiges, QC, while the top American was Aspen, Colorado’s Noah Hoffman in 22nd.

This is a real indication of Harvey’s fitness and readiness for the 2011 FIS World Championships coming up in 21 days in Olso, Norway. Over his career Harvey has won a record-setting three Junior World Championship medals for Canada and now has brought home its first U23 gold medal.

Two years ago Harvey’s leg held him back at the 2008 Junior Worlds. Following those championships he had an operation on his leg and soon was back in the saddle.

“This is the first gold I have won at the championships. Previously I was ranked number one as well, but my leg was bad; I couldn’t sprint and I came fourth. It’s hard to accept that you are young and in good shape, but your body doesn’t follow,” said a smiling Harvey after his win.

Pre-race Interview

For the most part today’s competition was a “2-horse race” as Harvey and Russia’s Belov fought it out for pursuit gold in Otepaa while the battle for bronze raged behind.

Conditions were near perfect as 65 racers set out on the classic leg in -8 deg. C and sunny weather. The Norwegians set the pace early on as Belov – the gold medalist in the 15km skate – and Harvey marked each other staying in the top 10.

At 5km Harvey decided it was time to stretch out the field as he picked up the pace and a lead group of 10 formed with a small gap over the rest of the field.

It wasn’t too long before the two protagonists made a break on steep uphill climb at around the 10km mark fracturing the lead group with Belov pushing the pace this time. By the skate transition Belov and Harvey had a 33-second lead with the Russian doing most of the work.

Harvey took the lead position in the skate leg but Belov was right with him as the cat-and-mouse game began with neither pushing the pace as a group of six formed behind in the race for bronze. It was clear that the silver and gold medals were out of their reach at that point.

The pace and the gap to the chasers remained steady as Harvey and Belov skied easy knowing their lead was safe. The top podium spot was likely going to come down to a sprint which favoured Harvey and with the Canadian out front it was only a matter of time before Belov attacked on a steep uphill with about 1.5 km to go.

But Harvey was ready and marked the Russian who was frustrated with his inability to escape as the Canadian was tucked in close behind.

“It was two times I accelerated and had a gap with Alex, but on the downhill Alex caught me again,” said Belov post-race. “I also didn’t shave today for that maybe it brings some luck, but it didn’t help me.”

U23 30km Pursuit Race highlights

The pace quickened again heading into the stadium, with Belov in the lead, but on the final straightaway Harvey out-sprinted the Russian for the World U23 Championship title.

Belov was full of praise for Harvey’s efforts. “Of course I wanted to win, but my opponent Alex was very strong, especially his sprint was strong. This is something that I want to improve myself also. It was important to break away from the rest of the group and we made it. I didn’t have enough power to beat Alex.”

A trio of Canadians also finished the race including Calgary’s Kevin Sandau in 24th, Graeme Killick of Banff in 31st, while 40th place went to Thunder Bay’s Michael Somppi.

“The race didn’t go exactly the way I had hoped,” Sandau told SkiTrax by email. “But I guess that’s racing. I broke my classic pole in the chaos at the start and had to play catch up from around 60th. I ended today in 24th and would have like to be a bit higher, but my body felt just as strong as it did Thursday so I’m happy overall with my performance.”

The U.S. Ski Team’s Hoffman was happy for Harvey but struggled today remarking that the race was very tough. “The classic course had lots of shorter, steep hills and some tough double pole sections. The pace went out very fast. I struggled and did not stay with the lead pack. When we switched to the skate I continued to struggle, but I had some good skiers around me.

“The skate course was the same as we skied on Thursday for the 15km. It’s tough with rolling terrain and lots of transitions. Conditions today were solid, especially considering we were the 4th race of the day. It held up very well. I want to congratulate Alex. He is very strong and put together a great race.”

Besides Hoffman there were three other USA skiers that took part – 28th position went to UAF’s David Norris, while CXC’s Tadd Elliot finished in 33rd, and Alaska Winter Stars skier, Alex Treinen, placed 40th.

Harvey, is the son of legendary Canadian skier and 1988 Holmenkollen winner, Pierre Harvey. This was his first U23 World Championships title and Harvey was elated with the win as he looks ahead to Oslo.

“Today’s race was good training for the Oslo. I was a bit tired from the training earlier, but I had good skis. I used my sprint to finish. I plan to compete at the World Championships in Oslo. We want to reach podium there with our team, but it’s the matter of having a good day. I think it is possible,” added Harvey.

Full results HERE.

U23 Men 30 km Pursuit press conference

January 31, 2011 (Otepaa, Estonia) – Norway’s Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg escaped with teammate Ingunn Britt Nydal during the skate portion in the women’s 15m pursuit for a 1-2 gold-silver punch with Finland’s Kerttu Niskanen netting bronze as American Sadie Bjornsen from Methow, WA, skied a strong race to lead the North Americans in 17th.

Canada’s Alysson Marshall was the top Canuck in 19th with the USA’s Caitlin Patterson just behind in 20th as the duo skied together through much of the competition with Marshall besting her Yankee partner by 1-second at the finish.

Canada’s Emily Nishikawa, who was 17th after the classic portion, faded a bit over the second half of the race to finish 25th.  The USA’s Rebecca Rorabaugh finished 30s later in 25th with Sara Hewitt (CAN) 28th, Jennie Bender (USA) 29th and Erin Tribe from Canada in 32nd.

As the classic portion got underway it was Niskanen and Oestberg controlling the race as the two established an early gap with the Finnish skier, who won the classic sprint title earlier in the competition, pushing the pace. Oestberg was the only one who could match her and held on knowing she’d be stronger in the skate portion. Behind the chasers were strung out with Nydal at the front but she could not bridge to the leaders.

Following the exchange at the 7.5km mark Oestberg attacked and now it was Niskanen’s turn to struggle. Soon she had more to worry about as Nydal, the second strong Norwegian in the race, was gaining on her.

“Usually I get very tired when I change the skis,” said Nydal post race. “Today I took it a bit easier and so I had power when I changed the skis.”

It wasn’t long before a trio formed and then Oestberg attacked but only Nydal could respond as Niskanen dangled off the back keeping the leaders in sight. While Oestberg looked strong her team mate could not be discounted.

On the final lap Oestberg kept the pressure on and as the stadium and finish approached she could not be denied breaking away from Nydal to solo in for the gold.

“I was hoping for a medal today. I knew it was going to be a hard race and I am very happy to be first. Kerttu (Niskanen) was skiing very fast in the classic part and I tried to hang on,” said Oestberg.

It was Patterson’s second time racing in Europe and the US skier gained valuable experience. “It was a solid day for me, though not an exceptional race,” she told SkiTrax by email. “I felt fairly good on the uphills in both legs but the flats were extremely challenging and I lost time. It was great to have other US racers out cheering for us and waving US flags. I’m still learning some of the “tricks” of international racing, and definitely will be more experienced and prepared the next time against such a strong field of skiers.”

For Canada’s Nishikawa it was a tough day at the office. “The course was really nice, and the conditions were great but today definitely wasn’t my best race. I was happy with my classic leg, but then I started to fade during the skate. I was hoping to be a lot stronger on the skate, but just didn’t have the legs today.”

A 6-time Junior World Champion today’s win was Oestberg’s first U23 World Championship victory but it was a hard-fought victory and not a sure thing for the talented skier.

“I was not sure about the win,” she said. “The skating part was quite good for me, but Britt (Ingunn Nydal) was going very fast so it was hard. I thought someone was going to ski faster than me. My next competition will be the Scandinavian Cup.”

Full results HERE.