January 11, 2012 – The Tour de Ski – what a great 11 days for NA Nordic skiing with a plethora of top 10 results and best evers… a shortage of podiums but, c’est la vie. Lots of Swiss Francs are headed back to NA. Liz Stephen and Holly Brooks have to be on cloud 9 with their efforts at this great test of any skier’s limits. Liz’s 8th place up Alpe Cermis is like a bolt of lighting like nothing she’s done before indicating a significant international jump, along with Holly’s perseverance even though it seemed like the Nordic Gods were throwing a few extra hurdles in her way. She was a real pro at how she handled all the extra aggravations – as if there isn’t enough pain all ready. Liz sounded like a kid in the candy store when talking about this Alpe Cermis climbing experience, she loved it – give me more!! Plus this was their 1st crack at this monster – 11 days of sweat, snot and FUN as Liz calls it. The US Women will be a bigger force to deal with next year.

Devon, Kikkan and Alex are among the top ten best skiers in the Nordic world of skiing and that is every day – not just now and then. Babikov is one really tough guy – that is all I’ve got to say. To put the pedal down like he did on Alpe Cermis on the last day has me applauding this feat.

Freeman has me totally befuddled – -not sick, not injured – and no Freeman-type results.

Both teams are still fragile in depth of numbers – minor sickness in this whole group (truly amazing). Both Simi and Andy got sick and abandoned. I think Newell was dead not sick. Hamilton might have been healthy or un-injured for two days as he came to the Tour sick – so it doesn’t count. Kudos to the staff for taking good care of these people – these results would go away fast if a couple of the studs or studettes got sick.

An opportunity missed by the Canadians not having Dasha, Chandra, Perianne and Len as a rookie crew on the TdS to gain the experience it takes to try and make it through these 11 days. It was a lost 11 days for all of them, though they all spent the time in different ways. What was there to lose by putting them into these races? Nothing in my estimation – only gains would have been made and they all would be one year ahead in this TdS experience rather then a year further behind, especially for the women’s program here in Canada.

Yes, they are sprinters, but still far behind as distance skiers and this would have been a huge experience for moving the ladies program forward. This time of the year is for racing not training and they fell farther behind the rest of the racers on the WC circuit. Len, Chandra and Dasha all had excellent results on the early WC to warrant their staying.

So what if they don’t make it all the way through the TdS – 44 men and 28 women from other countries didn’t make it either this year. Also, Brooks and Stephen were rookies, only they didn’t perform like rookies. You can’t have breakthrough results if you’re not there. Well, coaches can also learn.

Disasterous New England/NY – Right now in both of these spots in the east there are the following areas that have man made loops – Farmington, ME, Craftsbury, VT, Rumford, ME, Grafton, VT and there is natural snow with skiing of some merit in Stowe, VT (within the last days) and Fort Kent, ME and the rest of all the centers are looking at a pretty skimpy ground cover, if any. So, for all of these areas to have missed the ski business at Christmas – that money is gone – most likely not to be spent in ski shops, touring centers or other related business. The Nordic business has just come out of a slump period and pre-season sales were the best in some years. The outlook for this week is a storm on Thursday/Friday all through the East – keep your fingers crossed.

More on the Tour de Ski – Like I said above, really exciting, for the most part, but the prime schedule is still is a complete mystery to the watching public be it at the stadium, on TV or all of us geeks watching it on our computers. A lot of the Tour de Ski is designed after the Tour de France but not with the best intent in mind. The TdF does prime, yes, but every day all of the bikers start every stage together, while at the TdS we have pursuit-style starts on some stages where earned time primes accumulate creating time differentials so that starts can be staggered.

For instance when I got on-line and into the women’s 15km Freestyle Skiathlon (Pursuit) race in Toblach, Italy on Jan 5th I was a minute late and the race was under way with two skiers, Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) and Marit Bjoergen (NOR) skiing across this wide open space, and it went on and on… just the two of them. Then after 2.5 minutes of this the camera went back to the start to watch Therese Johaug (NOR) do her start, and ski alone across the same open area and then another minute plus and the 4th skier was off and running. This scenario continued on where it took 5 minutes and 10 seconds to get 10 skiers on course – BORING.

The men’s race was a bit better in that it only took 2 minutes and 47 seconds to get the 10 men on course – BORING again. I went off down stairs in my cellar to work on some skis and came up later to check the results. I love watching cross-country races, but this turned me totally off. The primes have to go, or pay out money for the primes, or have them figured into the results in a different way i.e. post-race but not affecting start times. This race had no meaning to the viewing public and is bad for the sport.

US National Championships – RUMFORD, ME – What would Nordic skiing in the US do all these years with out the efforts of this rural city in mid-northern Maine? What an effort by these people decade after decade – the energy to keep pulling it off. Mother Nature can’t beat them as it tried with the torrential downpour the night before the first race. Bah, humbug – just give us 24 hours and we’ll be rolling the racers out of the start gate – course replenished with new snow were it was needed and the week’s races were underway and finished on time.

It’s only a little club . . . but we do big things.” – Chummy Broomhall (Nordic Icon). I think this says it all – you’ve got to love these guys.

US Cross Country Championships

I think this logo is the cat’s-ass – right on Rumford and the Chisholm Ski Club. Congratulations on a great week of racing.

Tryouts in Rumford – the Nationals served as the tryouts for the U-23 and World Junior Teams and creates quite the interesting selection process in picking the teams and in the skiers picking whether they will be members of the team or stay home so they can qualify for the NCCA Championships. It’s not that the actual NCCA Champs conflict with the World Jrs or the U-23s, but that you are in Europe during the qualifying period, when they have to make their points to qualify for the regional team. What a choice to have to make.

I sure get nervous when I see the words discretionary and pre-qualified – there can’t be any holes in these skier’s resumes – history will tell us what the right choice was.

All the best to you young guys going over, you first timers be sure to ask the repeaters – like Hoffman and Diggins what it is like and what you can expect. They’ve had their share of how tough it is and that might be better spelled – how ROUGH it is!

Talk to you Soon.