Easterns Sprints

This new sprint course had the biggest hill we've encountered this year, and the top part of it was quite steep. It snowed a lot the day and the night before the race, but by morning it was clear and the wind had died down. The snow that fell was mostly ice pellets that don't stick together well, and despite the best efforts of the groomers, the course was very soft on the uphills. In qualifying, I picked my new soft NIS2 Rossi's, but it seemed the soft flex didn't help because I was sinking to the bottom on the uphills anyway. My legs were fried after the first uphill, and I couldn't really put the power down on the rest of the course. I was relieved when I heard I finished 24th in Open Men, but I ended up 13.2 seconds back in 2:53.8. After they separated the juniors out, my position for the heats was #19.

I knew I had my work cut out for me since I was up against #2 Fred Touchette, #9 Ian and #12 Poirier. The other 2 guys in my heat I didn't recognize, but I knew I had been ahead of them in qualifying. Not surprisingly, Ian and Fred got the best start and I settled into 4th behind Poirier. Up the first hill we went two in each lane, but I don't think anybody moved up. At the top of the hill, you have to accelerate from almost a stop and a small gap opened in front of me. I made sure to tuck low on the dropoff known as Dirk's Dive, and I got back on. In the next whiskers section I got up side by side with Poirier, but my 1-skate wasn't working in the soft, narrow corridor. I switched to offset but that didn't help and Poirier had half step on me and moved over. I stalled, but still accelerated as hard as I could over the top of the last hill. I tuck skated the whole way down, but I didn't seem to have the glide to get back on. The first three were in a photo finish and I was close fourth, but not challenging. In hindsight I probably needed some structure for the descent. In all, I skied much better than qualifying and I felt like I had done what I could given the conditions and the smaller, quicker competition. My final position was likely 19th, but I was listed as 15th on the results.

Canmore World Cup 15km skate

It was a beautiful day and the conditions were perfect. Some were saying the snow was slow, but compared to most other skate races this year, I found the glide suited my technique. I started #6, and was glad to hear that my relatives in Sweden were able to see me start. My skis felt like they were gliding really well right away. Unfortunately, I didn't feel as good as I had the day before. I couldn't ski explosively, and on the Olympic 5km you lose time the whole way if you are not pushing. My first split I was 3 seconds out of the lead and then 9 seconds. Nothing to worry about yet as I was skiing relaxed. As I lapped Koukal was just starting and Zimmerman (#7) went by me and followed Koukal (#32). I couldn't go this pace and it was becoming clear I was not moving nearly fast enough. Berger (#33) was the next one to go by and I couldn't hold his pace for more than a few strides. Eventually Robin (#8) caught me and helped me to push a bit. I was passed by Chernousov (#34) at some point but I forget where. On the 3rd lap, Devon (#35) passed Robin and I soon after the red group athletes on their first lap. Piller Cottrer (#60) and then Checchi (#61) went by early in the lap and Robin pulled away from me by a few seconds. On the whale tail, Perl (#36) went by looking strong. Then on the very last uphill Teichmann (#62) and Brian (#10) passed me and I followed them to the top. Then it was just a matter of pushing to the finish. Butler (#9) came in not long after. It was a bad day and on a good day I would have been reporting which guys I skied with rather which guys went flying by.

Sovereign Noram 15k skate

It felt good that the first race was finally upon us. On the plate was a 15km individual start skate race. We couldn't warm up on the course, so I ended up going back and forth along what was available while dodging recreational skiers. They didn't have a lot of snow, but the organizers along with others spent a lot of time picking rocks off the course. We would be skiing 2 laps of 7.5k, including the upper 5k loop, which had never been used before.
I had a good start and my skis felt good as I left the stadium. Then my left ski grabbed on the first downhill and I knew I had hit a rock. My ski seemed to squeak as it landed after that, or it might have been something with the binding that I hadn't noticed before. The snow seemed slow on the uphills, but I tried to just ski technically well and take whatever glide I could get. Butler caught me (for 30 seconds) at 11k and opted to draft for a couple ks before launching past with about 2k to go. I fought hard but he had that extra spring you get when you are going for the podium. He ended up 3rd and me 13th in 40:26.5, 2:07.9 back. Full results.