Monday, March 10, 2014

Scando 2014 - the rest of the pictures

I'm sitting in the SAS lounge in Heathrow right now with about 40 minutes until I have to head to my gate to come home. It seemed like a good time to post a few pictures. Here is what happened on the rest of the trip.

As a disclaimer, I didn't take a lot of these pictures.

The Rest of Drammen:

When we went outside the morning of the Drammen race, it was raining. Grim conditions for ski racing.
Me and Jason putting on a brave face in the shuttle to the race. As it turned out, the rain stopped just around the time we needed to be outside testing. That was very good news.

Oslo:

The first few days in Oslo consisted of a lot of fog.

Despite the fog, everyone kept their spirits up in the wax cabin.
The athletes were allowed to exchange skis each lap. That means a lot of work for the techs in a 50km race as we would then have to race to remake the skis. These are the pits for each athlete where their exchange skis are stored.
With a field of ~80 men, it was important to know which pits belonged to our athletes. It would be a disaster to put the skis in the wrong place.

As luck would have it, the sun came out on the day of the race! What a nice surprise.
This is the main ski depot where we operate out of during testing.

The weather seemed almost too good to be true.
The Oslo World Cups are a big deal. People camp out for several days in the woods to get their preferred spot on the course. Crowds (like in the picture) line the entire race course.
Cory, me, and Randy in the stadium.
Packing the van to come home. We roll with a LOT of skis and gear.


Thursday, March 6, 2014

Drammen - short update

Drammen was a lot of fun. Kikkan clinched her third consecutive World Cup Sprint Championship.

Kikkan lunging for the line. Cool shot that shows the massive crowds lining the course

You can see a very cool GoPro video shot by one of our USA athletes on a lap of the course in the video below. The direct link is also here - http://youtu.be/13K30CkJDe8

This is for sure worth checking out!

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Lahti - PodiumS!!!

Saturday was a big day for us here in Lahti. For the first time ever two American ladies were on the podium at a Nordic World Cup. This was a BIG deal.

The crowds were awesome and really loud. Having tons of people out makes ski racing a lot of fun.
First we waxed some skis. I left my favourite scraper and brush behind accidentally after the last trip. Then the team left for Sochi. But as soon as we got to Lahti, Matt found all my stuff. This was a great start to what would soon be an even better day!

Skate sprint finish. Sophie (#25) on the far left and Kikkan (#11) second from the left.

Then this happened. Sophie is at the top of the picture and the red line is the finish. It couldn't get much closer than that.

Wait, what?!?

Isn't Lahti a nice place to put two ladies on the podium?



Flower ceremony!

Friday, February 21, 2014

Czech Republic (belated)

In January I was in the Czech Republic. I didn't take many pictures, but luckily Barbara did! It was fun to meet up with her in Nove Mesto at the races.

Next week I head to Lahti, Finland so it seem like it was time to post a few of these.

It was pretty green around the ski trails. You can see the ribbon of snow in the background.

Our hotel was right at the venue. That almost never happens. This was standing on my balcony surveying the scene early one more.

This is Kikkan. She won the skate sprint this weekend in Nove Mesto. As of today she has 19 World Cup podiums (including 10 victories) and 2 World Championship podiums (including 1 victory). She skis fast.

Wax trucks.

Testing, hours before race time.

Our hotel. A 90 second walk from the wax cabin to my room.

Nove Mesto drew one of the biggest crowds I have ever seen. And they were LOUD!

On course.

Saying something important on the radio.

At one point the giant inflatable banner fell down... MID RACE! Someone had to take charge.


Wheeew.....

Where's Waldo?



Cheering for Sophie.
Later we went to Prague. That was pretty neat. This is Cory (one of the other waxers) and me in the main square.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Davos

Davos might be my new best place. Needless to say, it has been pretty pretty awesome here.



Amazing tracks, sun, and the entire valley to ourselves. Thanks Simi and Andy for bringing me along!

Sun, bomber tracks, and striding on Rode Super Extra.

Hands down the best day of classic skiing of my life. No question..

Yeah... this was fun!
It's not all striding in the sun. There is still work to be done.

Even more sun today! What a classic ski.

A cool picture that Sophie put together. Seriously... how cool is this place.



Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Tour de Ski - 2014

My time at the Tour de Ski 2014 has come to a close. Tomorrow I head to Davos, Switzerland with Chris Grover (USST Head Coach) and most of the athletes for a pre-Olympics camp. Here is what happened so far.

The Tour venues for this year. I was in Oberhof and Lenzerheide.

Some new technology coming to light, invented by Oleg.
Wax truck central. Also, mud central.


Oleg, mating irons to obtain the most desirable characteristics of each.

One Way poles - useful for propping up the low end of a wax truck. At least they are good for something.


Not the most snow in Oberhof. But the rain stopped a while.

Ready to make a test.

Oberhof, back to normal. Where is the stadium?

It's a blockade of Leningrad. You can have only 200 grams of bread.

Cory and me. He's a good dude and great waxer - watch for some more pictures of him down the page. He has had an amazing Tour.

Oleg and me. Love this guy.

Classic Oberhof. All the wrong weather at all the wrong times. Now it snows. Awesome.... on the road to Swiss.

It was dark when we arrived last night. Opened the curtains this morning to find this. I love Switzerland.

This morning I test with Sophie.

The testing went well. Sophie had a big day and made her first appearance in a World Cup sprint final! A huge accomplishment. She is bib #9 (the middle skier) in this photo.

Cory and me enjoying some sun.

This is Simi Hamilton. He also made his first appearance in a World Cup sprint final. As it turns out, he WON the race. It's hard to overstate how big of a deal this is.
You can watch the video of Simi's race here - http://youtu.be/TH2dTchUxqs - I highly, highly, recommend that you take two minutes and check this out.


Post race. World Cup gold medalist.

So proud of this guy!

Enjoying some downtime with Cory.

Jessie is a World Champion (2013, team sprint). She wanted to see what it was like to be a waxer.
Tomorrow morning is going to be awesome. Our departure isn't until 10:00, so we get to sleep in and leisurely pack.