December 07, 2010 – Dusseldorf #1 – The difference in the size of the sprint fields in Kuusamo and Dusseldorf was quite dramatic – in the women’s sprints there were 44 fewer skiers in Dusseldorf and 55 in the men’s sprints. That’s quantity. The quality showed as well in that nine out of the top 17 women and nine out of the top 17 men were not interested in sprinting in the rain in Dusseldorf. Draw your own conclusions on the strength of the fields.

Dusseldorf #2 – Excellent weekend by the ladies, while the men essentially flopped! [Andy] Newell was the only man out of eight that qualified (he was 3rd) but he still has it in reverse when it comes to the heats. The three women – Kikkan [Randall], Chandra [Crawford] and Dasha [Gaiazova] – were all qualifiers and hit the podiums twice. Can’t ask for more. One thing is sure about the women’s races – because the courses were so short you could not afford to have a pole slip in the start and not be penalized at the other end of the course. It’s a good mentality to have when sprinting – NO MISTAKES!

A bit too much is being made of the Slovenian skier falling on her own about 100 meters from the finish and letting the Canadian women podium. I think the Slovenians felt the pressure of the Canadians and that’s the reason they goofed – maybe a look over the shoulder or under the armpit and a pole went between the skis. Chandra had the 2nd fastest lap on the last leg, only two tenths out. A good sign for her to have her fastest lap last. A sign that her conditioning is there or getting better.

FIS and Prize Money for the Team Sprints – Why should the prize money for the team sprints be less then the money for the individual sprints? It looks like it’s more of a battle to make the podium in the team sprints with 10 teams on course in the finals. Way more bashing and gashing going on in the team sprints. Use the same schedule as in all the races $15,000 to the winners, split evenly between the two racers, and then $10,000 for 2nd and $5000 for 3rd place and on down and each level split evenly between the 2 racers. Makes sense to me. How about it FIS?

West Yellowstone (WY) Sprints – here is an item that has been being discussed for a couple of weeks since these sprint races were held in WY (read HERE) and I have commented, but I have some additional comments I would like to make.

Sometimes we get into trying to emulate what FIS is promoting at the top level all the way through our system and I think it holds us back especially at the development level. If I was running a club and was holding a sprint race I would have the qualifier and then have heats for all the qualifiers – yes, all the qualifiers – and then have a losers bracket and winners bracket (set the heat size and top half go to winners bracket and the other half to the losers). This way you get the heat racing experience you want these skiers to have.

Bring it higher up in the system if you want – say like at WY, instead of 30 advancing, have 60 advance, this gives you one more round of heats. The skiers and our programs are the big winners – more skiers getting the heat experience, more people getting more racing for the money they spend. This could be done in all local club programs. At the end of the racing you could bring the top three from the winners bracket and let the top three from the losers bracket get another crack at the winners. This would be a lot more fun for the kids and a great workout and think of the excitement for the kids watching. Let me know if you try it.

CCCTA – This stands for Cross Country Canada Travel Agency, a new entity that the Canadian National Team is under writing. It’s in it’s beginning stages and we’ll be watching for more activity as the winter goes on.

First trial did not go well and the second trial is on the table. The 1st go round was when Ivan Babikov and George Gray arrived in Sweden just a couple of days before the World Cup event in Gallivare. Not the accepted protocol for dealing with jet lag and the sometimes complications of international travel. Did it work – NOPE! These two were seeing finishing numbers the likes of what they haven’t see in a while – numbers like 78th, 54th, last on their leg in the relay, 84th, 79th, 109th, 83rd I think you get the drift. This isn’t the total picture as to the bad results as their training has also been suspect.

There is another trial coming up this next week as Babikov is home and so is [Alex] Harvey. Babikov is making it for Davos and Harvey not until La Clusaz. If they do ski well I applaud them, but these are dollars not going in the right direction. Also, what is the impact of this going to be later in the year. Each trip costs you training days – let’s say up to two each way, if there are flight or travel complications maybe more, health risks are increased.

As a Canadian those finishing numbers are not interesting to me – I like reading about those skiers that are making the podiums and placing in the top 20 or better. I guess I’m getting spoiled.

Rookie for The Year – As of now it’s Andy Newell for leaving his passport in the van that was driving to middle Europe while he was flying down – he couldn’t advance past go–meaning he couldn’t get out of Helsinki. You never let that passport out of your hand. We had one lady leave Canada with out her passport and she was very sheepish when she approached me in the hall as we were heading into the customs area in Zurich. This Rookie title stands until some other veteran pulls a rookie trick.

Andy is still operating on the same formula he has been using the past few years – qualifying in the top 5 regularly in both techniques and then going backwards in the heats. I still think Andy is the fastest sprinter in the world when considering both techniques and just needs to race the heats like he’s pissed off – a don’t get near me or you’re going down dude attitude!