Lahti - video

Here is a youtube link to check out the video for the sprint finals:

Lahti Skate Sprint - finals


What a race!

Lahti

This morning we head back to Helsinki to fly to Oslo. Our shuttle doesn't pick us up until 11:00, so it was a pretty relaxed morning. We had a chance to sleep in and eat a leisurely breakfast, which is a luxury at the World Cup.

As per usual, I don't really have any pictures of my own from this trip... at least not yet. But here are a bunch that I stole from other people. 

Our accommodations for the week were in the village of Vierumäki. We were not housed in a hotel, but rather in a sport school. This meant that our rooms were sort of dorm style, but they were very comfortable. 

The Lahti stadium with the ski jumps in the background. Ski jumping is a big deal here.

Up close and personal with the big jump.

Skiing in general is a big deal in Europe. This cool helicopter was flying around all week with a TV camera attached.

Saturday was a skate sprint. The race was super short and super flat. The field was really stacked and Sadie and Kikkan both ended up in the same semi-final.

The final was an incredibly exciting race. Given the flat course, Marit and Kikkan basically entered the stadium together and it was a drag race to the finish. Unreal to watch two of the fastest skiers in the world battle it out.

It was a photo finish, but in the end Kikkan took the win. BOOM!

Two of the classiest ladies on the world cup.

Flower ceremony.

It turns out that March 8 is International Women's Day. This is a big deal in Europe and here two of the wax techs give flowers to all of the girls on the team. Needless to say, the girls were pretty excited about this.

Fast Trax does SWC

Fast Trax does SWC

"Or two dudes in skinny tights"

A special guest post by Paul Moore

• Saturday 0900h = A light morning run before a full day of work at Fast Trax Run & Ski Shop.
• Saturday 2400h (yes, midnight) = Arrive at CBC Edmonton to cover a late-breaking house explosion.
• Sunday 0640h = Arrive home. Fall asleep more or less instantaneously.
• Sunday 1000h = On the trails at Strathcona Wilderness Centre, banging off some 6x10min intervals and a 2h ski with Patrick Moore
• Sunday 1500h = Commence napping.
• This truly is living the dream.

The Strathcona Wilderness Centre is about 30 minutes straight east of Edmonton. And today Patrick and I went for one of the most fun ski workouts I've done in a long time. And that's saying something.

The workout itself was 6x10 minutes of intervals. Hard, but not too hard. A solid two hours of skiing - you can see the details from Patrick's Garmin here: 6x10 minutes

You could have raced on the world cup with our skis today. We got the wax exactly right.

A fact, I suppose, that isn't surprising when you consider that Patrick waxes on the world cup circuit. And that two of his athletes won a litte race today called, oh, the world championships.

So, we threw down for about 30km. The master blasters at the SWC thought we were from the Olympics. Nothing new there. (incidentally, we're not even close to being from the Olympics).

The workout done, we got it in our heads to start taking some videos. So we did (see below).

 You can find a more serious one here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qktNLxj2Zho

You can find a less serious one here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EJkil8lKHM

Sean Rickard and Will Rickard showed up. They're cool.

Then we were done. So Patrick decided to gear down in the chalet. Check his biceps.

All the ladies were impressed. So we had to go outside. Because they wouldn't quit staring at us.

So then we took this picture. Except Patrick didn't like it because "[his] legs look all janked up to high heaven."

(looking at this, I really have no idea how people get the two of us confused ...)

A good day indeed.

A Little More Birkie

Jack declaring, "Let the fun begin!" As Paul later noted, the fun had already begun several hours previous to this.

Figuring stuff out. It's never a good sign when the bench is covered in snow.

Tyla and me working the bench. Paul running defense for us in the foreground. Vern and Les bearing down on Camrose skis in the background.

Birkie

The Birkie was this weekend, which always makes for a crazy week of work leading up to the event. Wet snow, that started to fall about 90 minutes prior to the start of the race, also made for significant craziness. But that is a topic for another post.

On Thursday, CBC came to the shop to do an interview. You can see the article and video here - "Edmonton accountant moonlights as pro wax technician"

Heading out with Jack to test kick wax and glide wax the day before the race.

Contemplating kick wax options for testing at Islet Lake.

The tracks were in amazing shape the day before the race. Too bad they didn't stay like this!

Jack was the test pilot for kick. Here is our test fleet.

I was the test pilot for glide. For skate races I prefer to test by feel. But, classic races take place entirely in the track and I prefer use the speed trap.

Things get busy the day before the Birkie. So I wrote up the testing results and wax recommendation on the 40 minute drive back to the shop. You can see our final recommendation here - Fast Trax Final Birkie Recommendation

Burning powder.

Making race skis with Sean, fueled by coffee and Coke.

Duntroon - World Championship Trials

This past Friday, Reid and I flew to Toronto to do ski service at the Duntroon NorAm race. After arriving late at night, Reid and I managed to navigate all our gear through the airport and get to the hotel. We slept only a few hours before picking up the rental car and getting back on the road to for the two hour drive to the venue. The rest of the weekend looked like this:

Reid getting after the test skis. It was a massive help having Reid along for the trip, not to mention a heck of a lot of fun. I'm super glad that he was able to make it as we don't get to see each other as often these days.

Powder test skis, ready to be brushed in the morning.

Jack booked this crazy bed and breakfast for me and Reid. We were quite literally in the honeymoon suite. There was a huge jacuzzi tube in the room for our convenience. Note - we didn't make use of the tub.

Stefan Kuhn, one of the AWCA coaches, took this picture of the sun coming up the morning of the race. We were on the trails early to test and luckily the temperature was not too cold.

Burning powder for race skis.

Waiting for the medal ceremony.

Medal ceremony - Graham won and Brian was fourth! Awesome day.

The team - me, Graham, and Reid. What an amazing weekend and such a great picture!

Once it was all over, Graham won the race by more than 30 seconds and today it was announced that he is going to World Championships - WSC announcement.

As I said to Madeleine, the day she qualified for the Olympics is still probably my best skiing memory, but this past Sunday now ranks a very close second.

And... to top it all off, Graham's sister, Emily, was also selected to represent Canada at Worlds. Amazing stuff!!!

Birkie Wax Clinic

Duntroon went well... really well. Graham won the race and Reid and I had a lot of fun. I will post an update from that race with some pictures later this week.

In the meantime, last night I taught the last Fast Trax wax clinic of the season. It was a specific clinic for the Birkie to help people get ready for the marathon race.

The group was small, but they were very keen. It was fun to share some tips and stories from the World Cup.