The last
month has been busy. Just over a month ago I was in Thunder Bay getting ready
to race trials for the under 23 world championships. Since then I have
qualified for the trip been to Europe trained in Austria Raced in the Czech
Republic Travelled back to Canada and raced Eastern Canadian Championships at my
home club before coming back to Canmore where I am now writing this.
Thunder Bay
Trials for
me got off to a rough start. With the lack of snow in Thunder Bay the courses
were modified. The classic course which lacked significant climbs meant that a
large pack stayed together until the exchange. I was lacking something on the
day and finished a disappointing 20th.
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| 30km Pursuit Photo: Martin Kaiser |
The sprint
day was much better. Classic sprints are my best event and after a
disappointing pursuit this was by far my best chance of making it to Worlds. I
had a decent qualifier and made it without a problem into the final where I
skied to second. This was only my second Nor Am podium and being the top U23 on
the day meant that I had guaranteed myself a spot at the Under 23 world
championships in Liberec.
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| Semi-final Photo: Martin Kaiser |
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| Second Nor Am podium of the season (and my life) and a ticket to the Czech Republic Photo: Martin Kaiser |
The day
after the sprint was the 15km skate. This is generally my least favorite event,
but even so I was disappointed with the result. I started much to slow and
although I felt better than in the pursuit I finished the day a disappointing 29th.
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| Starting the 15km skate as you can tell by the way Colin is warped up it was pretty cold with the temperature only just above the legal racing limit. Photo: Martin Kaiser |
With the
last of the trial races completed I was off to Canmore for a few days of
training before heading to Austria for the pre worlds training camp. I was
confident before heading over to the Czech Republic. Although my distance
racing in Thunder Bay was not great I felt I could achieve a good result in the
sprint in Liberec.
Our pre
worlds training camp was in Ramsau, a town which hosted the World senior
Championships in 1999 and is famous for the Dachstein glacier where many of the
best skiers in the world put in hours on snow during the summer. I had actually been to Ramsau before having
been there for a training camp with the Quebec ski team two years ago.
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| This is actually from the Czech Republic. The courses were closed one day so we went skiing in the mountains around the city. We weren't the only ones. As it turns out skiing is pretty big there. Here me and Colin (taking the Picture) tried to escape the crowds by skiing on a smaller trail. Photo: Colin Abbott |
We didn't have much time to get used to our surroundings in Ramsau since we were only
there for a few days before heading to Liberec.
This was my
first time in the Czech Republic. Unlike the last two time I had been to Worlds
(Juniors) all the teams this time were staying in the same Hotel where everyone
was eating the same food from the same cafeteria. The Hotel itself (called
hotel Babylon and supposedly themed on the ancient middle eastern city) was
pretty unusual. It was in a part of the city, which although wasn't far from
downtown, was surrounded by industrial buildings. The Hotel featured an indoor
shopping Centre, water park, mini amusement park with bumper cars and palm trees as part of the décor. All these
attractions under one roof made me think of a cruise ship even though I have never
been on a cruise ship and this experience made me want even less to ever go on
one.
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| Hotel Babylon décor |
The race venue
which was built for the 2009 World Championships was somewhat anticlimactic. Here is what I
mean. When Canada was selected to host the 2010 Olympics the government spent millions
building a state of the art facility which includes a new 13km long paved two
lane road into the venue a day lodge, recreational trails through Callaghan
country as well as the over 10km of race trails which were cut through the
forest and were designed to showcase Canada’s wilderness to the world. The
Czech’s had a slightly different idea when it came to building their venue for
the World Championships. Vesec (the name of the venue) was built in a park on
the outskirts of Liberec (for those from near Ottawa think Mooney’s Bay but
with bigger hills). The venue has no recreational trails and features only one
permanent building (a race office/timing hut). The road in is only 200m long
but is single lane and unpaved. The trails essentially snake their way around
fielded areas and I would imagine they would not be distinguishable from the
surrounding landscape during the summer. When we arrived in Liberec thanks to warm weather before
we got there the organizers only had 1.5km of trails open. While we were there
they were essentially building the trail system, sometimes only opening a new
part of trail the day before we raced.
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| Russell getting his cheer on during the juniors relay |
The sprint
was the first race and the one I had been most anticipating. In fact I had been
thinking about this race for the better part of two years. Unfortunately when
it came to racing the qualifier I was flat. I tried my best but just felt like
I couldn't dig deep. I felt like I had nothing to give. I ended up 39th
and just like that the race I had been most looking forward to was done. To say
I was disappointed would be a huge understatement. I almost couldn't believe
it. Qualifiers are the weaker part of my sprinting, but here I was with a great
opportunity to get some international results on what was a perfect course for
me and I wasn't able to race the way I felt like I could.
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| Not the day I was hoping for in the sprint Photo:CCC |
The next
race was no better. In the 15km skate I never found my rhythm and felt totally
drained of energy.
All of this
meant that I wasn't exactly full of confidence heading into the 30km pursuit
(the last of our races). I hadn't had a good distance race since before
Christmas and a 30km on what was a very hard course seemed like an unlikely way
to turn things around. The pursuit, in the end would prove to be something of a
turnaround. In classic I tried to ski efficiently and stay out of trouble
and before I knew it I was changing over to skate in a position to fight for a
top 30. Unfortunately the skate leg would prove my undoing. I skied as long as
I could with the group I had been with in classic but began to suffer in the
last 5km. I ended up 47th and although this was not an amazing
result it was better than my recent distance races and at the very least was a
step in the right direction.
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| As you can tell I had lots of support out on course during the pursuit Photo:CCC |
After our
races were done we spent one night in Prague (which is pretty amazing) before travelling back to Canada.
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| View of Prague during the day |
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| Prague at night |
After
racing in the Czech coming back to Canada and racing at Nakkertok (my home
club) was a welcome change. Its always nice to be able to stay at home for racing in the middle of the season.
The first
race (we raced three days in a row in a mini tour format) was a classic sprint. I had a great
qualifier putting me in second before
the rounds. In my quarter-final and semifinal I felt great and made it to the
final without any trouble. In the final I pushed hard on the climbs trying gain
some sort of advantage before the finish. I came into the final straight in
first, but ran out of gas in the last 15 meters and had to settle for second
again. Normaly I would be really happy with second and I was but since I felt
so good on the day and since it was on my home course I couldn't help but be a
little disappointed.
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| Sprint finish. It was a pretty close race Photo: Bernard Pigeon |
The next
two races would prove to be pretty good. Although I have to say I was pretty tired from travelling and racing. I managed to not loose too much time
in the 15km skate and skied well in the 30km classic to finish 10th
overall in the minitour.
That's all for now thanks for reading
Patrick
That's all for now thanks for reading
Patrick
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| 30km pursuit start at Nakkertok is always a fun race Photo:Jo-Ann Holden http://musicianonskis.ca/blog/ |
