January 01, 2012 (Obertsdorf, Germany) – It was another tough day on Saturday for the classic sprints with rain and snow and slippery tracks as several top skiers took a tumble including the USA’s Kikkan Randall, Sweden’s Emil Joennson and Petter Northug (NOR). Here are more skier comments and some great photos from yesterday’s action…

Devon Kershaw (CAN)
I am feeling in great shape, and my skis were fast, but I was cut off on the second hill. Simple as that. I’m 11th and I’m not happy.

Alex Harvey (CAN)
I made a mistake on the far corner just before the last uphill where I had a bit of contact with a Russian skier that shot me wide and killed my speed. I passed one guy coming down the stretch which got me in a photofinish for third. It looks like I was only two centimetres from being the lucky loser, which is a bit of a bummer. I had to re-accelerate after that mistake in the corner and then it was too late.

Kris Freeman (USA)
My energy was good today. I wanted more but I was two seconds from qualifying which is not a bad day. The Tour has a bigger field this year with more pure sprinters competing which is making qualifying more difficult. The TdS is hard but it is hard for everyone. We have a great masseuse with us, Stephe, who is working wonders for us. In some ways my body feels better than when I started. My strategy tomorrow is to stay with the lead group in the classic and to pass it on the last lap of the skate.

Holly Brooks (USA)
The wrist was better today than yesterday. Shorter race – the hills helped. Double poling is the worst… (Double poling along with slippery skis making yesterday really, really tough).  Other than the injury, I really liked the course and the hills suit my classic sprinting strength well.

I can honestly say that today was also one of the WETTEST days of skiing I’ve ever had. Probably wetter than most in Vancouver, even.  Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer, with more precip. I’m curious to know what that will look like. We’ve been advised to bring every piece of dry clothing possible.  I wish I could have gotten a picture of Chris Grover [US Head Coach] in his trash bag dress for you….

Energy-wise I’m feeling fine and looking forward to fatigue setting in on the field. After a rough start to the Tour I’m anxious for the opportunity to move up in the field.

Our team had a small New Years celebration complete with bottle rockets. Today is also Kikkan’s birthday so it was a festive occasion!  Tomorrow’s women’s race doesn’t start until 3:45pm – it might even be getting dark towards the finish, who knows.

Happy New Year to everyone

Simi Hamilton (USA)
Yeah, today was a bit frustrating, but it seems like I’ve had a couple of days like that this year so I’m really trying to focus on things that I can improve in my training so that I can consistently ski top-ten qualifers in both skate and classic. With that said, I think my classic sprinting has improved and I’m making gains in the right direction. To me that’s really encouraging and I am psyched to keep making the improvements that need to be made.

Today was totally nuts. It rained super hard all day at about +2C and tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer and wetter. I really liked the course – very straight forward and smooth and both big uphills ski really well. I would have liked to have skied a little more relaxed and found some more speed in my glide today. I’m already looking forward to skiing this sprint course again next year. There’s a lot of racing left this week, so I am going to recover from today and hopefully string together some good racing in the next few days.

I am fairly psyched with yesterday’s Pursuit and thought I skied the challenging course smart and climbed the uphills well. I’m really bummed that I crashed on the biggest downhill on my fourth lap – there was a track that had a huge wobble in it and it just fed one ski into the other when I had my head down in my tuck. I think I lost some pretty valubale time there, but all and all, I’m happy with the gains that I’ve made in my classic skiing and recognize there’s a lot more to be made.

Happy New Year…