December 14, 2011 Team North America – Probably one of the better weekends by both teams on the World Cup circuit in a while. Lots of high quality finishes, new ground being broken on an individual basis and lots of depth for scoring WC points. The leader as she has been all season, was Kikkan Randall’s sprint win, which was considerable, Chandra Crawford’s 9th place, taking care of the non-qualify jinx in Davos big time, Holly Patterson’s sprint break through (23rd), and Dasha Gaiazova’s and Perianne Jone’s all scoring WC points.

In the sprints for the men, Devon Kershaw gave himself a nice surprise with a 4th place skating finish with Alex Harvey close behind in 9th place with Andy Newell-16th and Len Valjas hanging on for 28th.

In the distance races there were more break through’s as Holly was into the teens (13th) for the first time on the WC  and Tad Elliott now believes he belongs here with a very credible 27th place. Noah Hoffman (US) and Gram Nishikawa (C) just missed the points, but both having there best races yet in the early season.

Happy Teams heading to Rogala.

Tidbits from the Weekend – Kikkan is in 3rd place in the overall WC, leads the WC sprint cup and is number 2 on the money list having won 38,125 CH (Swiss francs) and she is not even a third of the way through the season. Chandra is #21 and Holly is #26 on the list. For the men Alex is NA men’s leader in 12th place, with Kershaw in 15th and Ivan Babikov at #38, Valjas at #41 and Newell standing #44. Devon in the sprint this weekend picked up 3,500 CH, his Christmas bonus and Alex and Chandra 500 CH for their 9th places. The teams in the Nation”s Cup stand US 6th and Canada 9th.

Sprinting – Here is something I believe from all the years of watching sports – SPEED WINS – all you have to do is train it. So, when a skier or their coaches brand someone a non-sprinter, these skiers stop doing the sprints – I think this is a big mistake for two reasons. Let’s take Holly Brooks as before her 23rd place on Sunday (after doing the 30km on Sat) she had WC sprint placements of  51st, 70th, 44th, 34th and 57th. Branded as a non-sprinter – but low and behold she kept trying. For that reason you all have to keep trying. The next reason to keep trying is that you will be helping your distance speed and also improving you strategic speed. SS is the speed you may need in the sprint to the finish, or in the longer races for passing or for any number of reasons. So, in my mind do not pass up the sprints – you will only be helping yourself by doing them.

NA’s Bjoergen – Jessie Diggin’s has a win streak going and the gaps in the races are getting larger – sort of like Bjoergen is doing until this weekend when Kikkan took over the top of the podium. I always like to see younger skiers learn to win, so I think Jessie made a wise choice this time in not going to Europe too early – wouldn’t Skyler Davis be better served to be here in NA?

Mini Series and Early Season Racing – I’m all for the mini-series set-up, even when there are two race in one day like in Bozeman and West Yellowstone, but feel the best set-up is the 3-day schedule.

We just don’t race enough here in NA and we are at least three weeks late in getting our ski racing season going on snow. Our programs in the summer are also very lacking in races compared to the Euros and the number of competitions they do, whether they be running, biking, roller skiing or on snow – we need more races – period.

Consternation – Both teams (a few athletes from each team) are going to stay in Europe for the whole winter – 5 months – that is one hell of a long time. It can be done especially where I hear there will be some non-snow breaks and maybe even getting to the beach for a few days. Good plan.

The rational is to cut down the travel back and forth, the jet-lag, lost training and the health complications that can occur in planes and airports. Been there, done that and it is the reality. I’m amazed at the ability of the kids to go over and be able to race right away as I had very few kids who could do that. Pierre Harvey sticks out in my mind from my time with the Canadian Team.

The idea is to win this year – where there are no World Championships or Olympics – and to really concentrate on the overall WC circuit and the Tour de Ski by not having to miss WC races and being in the right place as much as possible.

I think the Canadians have passed up quite a number of starting places in this early part of the season that you can never make up, and when you think of a normal year, there will likely be a period of sickness that will cancel these skiers out of some more races as well. The idea was to focus on the WC full bore, but in doing what they have done they have compromised this goal. The Euro heavyweights over there have not missed a race.

Also, in looking at the schedule I have a feeling they will not go to Moscow or Rybinsk in Russia, as there is a relay there and three men and maybe only one women would be on the stay-over group. More missed points.

If Alex and Devon had hit everything to this point, they most likely would be in the top 5-8 in the standings, a lot closer to the top then they are now.

I hope the Tour de Ski is as good to them as they are hoping, as it has good bonus points for the overall WC.

http://www.webscorer.com – I can’t believe that I am passing this information on to you, as I am the farthest person from this stuff of any one in the ski world – but this is one hot system – it will put a dent in Rengli’s hold on the market. This works with tablets and smartphones and I’ll leave the rest to you. Tip from Dave Wood.

Talk to You Next Time…