November 30, 2010 – Kuusamo Ruka Triple, is it a double thumbs up or down for its popularity with the skiers following its first appearance on the World Cup calendar? Three separate events were held over three days with a mini-tour touch and a freestyle pursuit race to finish the weekend off before announcing the overall winners. Temperatures for the weekend bordered on the low limit of -20 C which made for extremely tough racing. Comments started to arise as the skiers worked their way through the schedule and the DNSs and DNFs began to appear in large numbers starting with the 2nd race – numbers that you don’t ever see at FIS World Cup events. Between the men and women there were a total of 89 DNSs, DNFs and TLs combined when the three races were done. The Norwegians were the most outspoken about their dislike of this format and headed home in droves on the men’s side of the ledger. The women stayed around to clean up more good results (and $$).

Kikkan Randall even commented that it has given her something to contemplate and will have to give it some more thought. Of course her thoughts will be relayed back to FIS as she is one of the two skiers on the Athletes Commission. She had already told FIS at its spring meetings that the skiers were not in favor of the early mini tour. Well the skiers spoke in numbers – it will be interesting to see how FIS rationalizes these kinds of drop outs.

SuperTour in West Yellowstone, probably had it’s weakest Eastern representation in many years. Is it the economy, or did they all go to Foret Montmorancy in Quebec?

From Years Back, I’ve always wondered why the Euros very seldom quit races. So, I asked my good friend Georg Sutter, the BRD Head Trainer [Germany], and he said because they use the rest of the race, when they have hung it up, as a Zone 1 training session. You’re out there, you might as well get some training in.

Kowalczyk has been yelling this past year about the drugs Marit Bjorgen has been using to control her asthma condition as being a form of cheating and giving her an advantage over all the other ladies. With Bjorgen’s start to this season I’m waiting for another tirade. Hang in there Justyna, she won’t beat your record from last year [WCup triple] – you’ll have your day, but just not as many.

Cross Country Canada rumblings coming out of Canmore suggest that Bruce Jefferies and Rob Bernhardt, two members of the BOD [Board of Directors], have resigned attempting a coup d’etat of the ED [Executive Director] that failed in a battle at the board level. It has been kept very quiet and finding out more information is difficult right now.

Babikov Returns Home to try to and get back on track with his training. I guess the trip to Argentina for the reality show wasn’t such a hot idea. I’m surprised that George Gray didn’t join him as his training has been suspect all summer and fall – he only attended the altitude camp in Park City. The formula these guys put together to get ready for Vancouver 2010 is a known fact – why did they stray from it? Only half the men’s team showed up in Swe/Fin, too bad!