I have finally arrived back in Marquette after my two week long trip that started at the Telemark SuperTour and ended in Canmore, Canada. The trip was really awesome and I have to thank all of my supporters who helped me make the trip up to Canmore possible.
However, the trip did start with a weekend in Hayward, racing the always great Telemark World Cup trails. There is something about the number 147, my amazing old, white Salomon classic skis, and the Telemark 10km classic course that really suit my style. The reason for mentioning these things is that I was able to win the 10km classic last year and this year wearing the same bib number 147, on the same pair of skis, and skiing the exact same course. It was especially nice being able to sweep the podium with fellow CXC Team Vertical Limit teammates Matt Liebsch and Brian Gregg for the second weekend in a row. It was also great to be back racing in my home state on a course I have skied on since I could walk. Once again the Tidd Tech grooming was great for both the 10km classic and the 15km skate that was held the very next day. I decided to sit out the mass start 15km because my asthma has been bothering me for the past couple of weeks and I did not want to chance anything heading to my first World Cup race the following Friday. My teammates did awesome though with Brian breaking away with Matt for first and second while Karl Nygren was out sprinted by quite the sprinter (Chris Cook) to end up fourth on the day. The women then managed to get a podium sweep of their own with Rebecca Dussault, Maria, and Kristina Owen skiing really well.
Last year or this year?
The very next day I was on a plane heading to Canmore for my very first 15km skate World Cup. The travel went really well with a three hour flight from Minneapolis to Calgary followed by an hour and a half shuttle ride up to Canmore. Once in Canmore, Matt and his amazing wife MaryBeth picked me up and brought me to the condo that Bryan Fish, Tad Elliot, Matt, MaryBeth, and I shared while we were there. The condo was really nice but it seemed like the housekeeper’s had some kind of marijuana addiction as it tended to smell pretty intense while they were cleaning the condos around ours.
The weather for the entire week really could not have been better. Every night it would cool off into the teens and every day it would be in the 30’s with a bright, blue sky. The course was also in perfect shape even though the Canmore Nordic Centre had to make all of the snow for the entire 5km loop. They had at least a two foot base around that loop as well as about another 10km of biathlon and other trails groomed to perfection around the Centre. Combine the great snow conditions with arguably the hardest 5km course in the World and you have a World Cup in Canmore. To see the course map and profile click HERE. The course started with about 3km of climbing to the high point before flying down some sweet hills with a couple 90 and 180 degree turns added in. I really liked the course, but it was pretty hard to keep it easy while training on the course with all the climbing.
The week flew by with mostly just easy distance training, and Friday came around with me feeling really good. I was able to pick out a really fast pair of my new Salomon skate skis the day before the race, and I was really confident that Bryan Fish and the rest of the waxing crew would have the skis dialed come race time.
To be continued…