February 05, 2015 (Almaty, Kazakhstan) – We caught up with North American skiers competing at the FIS U23 World Championships in Kazakhstan. Check out what they had to say about their experiences so far and comments after the latest event, the 10/15km FR individual start race.

Scott Patterson (USA)

What’s the atmosphere like in Almaty ?
SP: Although the real atmosphere has been quite smoggy some days, the racing environment and lodging has been great in Almaty.  For all the events we are greeted by super enthusiastic volunteers and well organized logistics. Although early on the courses were thin each day the organizers continue to impress with the amount of work done to make course improvements. Additionally, we are lodging with several other teams including the Canadians. This really enhances the environment relative to other years where we were the only team in our hotel.

Ben Saxton cheers on Scott Patterson © USSA

How do you rate the course to other Worlds you’ve done ?
SP: The Almaty course definitely skis tougher than many of the other courses I have done at World Juniors and U23s over the years.  Although other courses have had steeper or longer hills, the defining feature of this course was the lack of recovery. Every downhill either required work to maintain speed or included fast technical corners. Those features paired with a few steep kicker hills and lot of longer more gradual climbers made it a really tough course overall.

Walk us through your race – are you happy with your result ?
SP: Although I was seeded towards the back of the race, I knew there were still several really fast guys starting behind me.  With that in mind I left the start quite aggressively.  Also I figured that U23s is not a place to be timid with pacing.  This strategy placed me quite high in early splits, but even then I could feel that I was going to be struggling to maintain the pace throughout the second and third laps. As each lap came by and my standing dropped in the splits, my concern was becoming reality.  Good cheering from the US juniors and wax techs helped keep me going but I was definitely in survival mode by the finish.  After hearing initially that I was sitting in 8th, I ended up a bit disappointed to be bumped back into 13th. I would have been content with a time 7 seconds faster and a top 10, but I will be aiming even higher than top 10 for the upcoming U23 pursuit.

How’s your form and conditioning – what prep did you do for Worlds ?
SP: I think my form and conditioning are still improving for this season.  After a bad injury and quite minimal training in November, I missed most of the racing leading up to US nationals.  After nationals, I used a couple more races in Valdez to round into a little better form and put in some decent volume. I think I am definitely still on the upswing this week and luckily still have a quite a few weeks of European racing coming up.

What’s next on the schedule for you ?
SP: I will be racing in Europe through Europa Cup finals in Chamonix ending on March 15th.  This will include stops in Nova Mesto, Czech Republic; Campra, Switzerland; Rogla, Slovenia; Austria; and Chamonix, France following the Europa Cup and a few other races. After Chamonix, I will travel directly to Sun Valley in order to finish up my season with spring series.

What’s your favourite Kazahk food so far… ?
SP: Pecans from Tajikistan that we got at the Bazaar.  They come out of the shell tasting like they have been caramelized. They are pretty incredible for what we thought would be a simple nut.

Joanne Reid (USA)

Talk about the course in Almaty.
JR: I would definitely say this is a harder course than either the world’s I skied at Germany or Estonia, just because of what it’s built around and the style they built it.  The course climbs for almost 4 kilometers without any real recovery before pitching down into hills that require a lot of technique, and so make it difficult to rest.  Also, I’ve never seen a course with so many 180 degree turns, which makes for an interesting ski.

How was your preparation for this season?
JR: Currently, I train by myself, and only began serious training in late August/early September, after missing all of last year, so I can feel hat I don’t have the strong training base that I had before, but should I continue skiing I imagine that will change, and I’m trying to use this year as a building year.  I’ve only raced West Yellowstone and Nationals (my only races since March 2013) before coming here, since without a team or wax tech traveling to races is extremely difficult.  It leaves me at a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to competitions, but that’s life.  It’s been a bit interesting trying to practice the courses here, since they have a distinct lack of snow and a surplus of rocks, and keep closing parts of the course we are racing on.

How do you feel about your performances so far at the Worlds?
JR: Because I took last year off and missed half a year of training, I didn’t have a good idea of how this race was “supposed” to go. However, you can often feel if you’re having a really good or really poor day, and I would hazard a guess that today felt on the weaker side for me, like I wasn’t able to kick into top gear at all.

What’s next for you?
JR: After KZ I’m headed to Czech Republic and Switzerland with a lot of the team, and then back to school.  Hopefully Spring Series later, if I can find someone to wax my skis.

What are your impressions of Kazakhstan, what’s the atmosphere like, and what interesting things have you experienced?
JR: The craziest part of the Almaty course is the soldiers lining the edge of the course.  Not only does it make it seem like an extremely important event, but also you can see them spreading the entire course up the 180 degree turns all the way to the top, not just the few around you, which is quite an intimidating sight.

As for the actual atmosphere, because this country doesn’t have a large ski culture and the venue is extremely difficult to access (let alone park at, which I think you just can’t), there aren’t nearly the number of fans and supporters as I’ve seen at previous competitions, which is a little sad.

I tried horse meat, mare’s milk, and camel’s milk.  If you like milk (I don’t), camel’s milk is probably great, it’s pretty sweet.  Horse meat was pretty good, I only had salted, dried meat so the most distinct flavor was just plain salt. The mare’s milk has a jarring flavor.  It seemed like an odd mix of lemon flavor, cream flavor, and a kick of fish. Yum? I’m not actually overly picky about food, and I tend to eat what’s in front of me, the hotel has been doing a great job of giving us a spread of buffet food each day.

Patrick Caldwell (USA)

Tell us about the course.
PC: The course here in Kazakstan is awesome. I would say that the course is on par with any course I’ve done in Europe. Really good climbs and lots of technical downs.

Take us through today’s race.
PC: Today was a 15km Individual FS consisting of three 5km laps. My strategy was to ski smooth and try to really nail all the transitions. I am very pleased with how the race played out, great to have a solid race over here.

How was your preparation for this season?
PC: Building into the season I was really focused on trying to sharpen up and ‘peak’ for these races. I am happy with how the plan has come together and feel like I am in good racing form.

What are your plans for the rest of the season?
PC: After the Skiathlon on Saturday I am heading back to the US to finish the winter term at Dartmouth. After this week I will be focused on NCAAs and Spring Series

Tell us a bit about the atmosphere in Almaty.
PC: It has been really fun being in Almaty. Everyone here is really friendly and excited to hear about the competition. Its a bit of a culture shock staying right in downtown, right in the middle of the city but its been really fun checking out the different tourists attractions and meeting new people.

What has been your favourite Kazakh food so far?
PC: Every morning the hotel serves a pancake/crepe like entree for breakfast, add some of the fresh fruit and kefir and you’ve got a mean meal!