Seventeen weeks and 120 days after the World Cup season started in Gällivare, Sweden, it ended in Sunday in Falun. For most of the Canadians who finished outside the top 30, it could not have come soon enough. Head coach Justin Wadsworth and team veteran Devon Kershaw reflect on the season.
It wouldn’t quite be accurate to call Marit Bjørgen’s World Cup Finals pursuit performance on Sunday a formality. Sure, Norway’s 12-time World Champion started the 10-kilometer freestyle race a full minute and 20 seconds ahead of the field, with teammate Therese Johaug being the only one that could potentially test her. And yes, chances were Johaug would never catch her, but there’s always several races within a race – and Bjørgen had one going from the start.
The Canadians missed the wax in the men's race on Saturday and ended up with Alex Harvey posting the team's top finish of 30th. "That combination of not-perfect bodies and bad skis is not so much fun," head coach Justin Wadsworth said.
Marit Bjørgen stuck with Justyna Kowalczyk during her typical attack on the last lap, and went on to drop Kowaczyk and the rest of the women in Saturday's 10 k classic mass start at World Cup Finals. Norway swept the podium, and a deflated Kowalczyk decided to call it quits.
A year after Alex Harvey and Devon Kershaw topped the podium in the World Cup Finals prologue, the Canadian team was looking for some positives on Friday, but would have to settle for two top 30s on a challenging day.
Just when spectators thought he might falter, Petter Northug rebounded from a nearly five-second deficit midway through Friday's 2.5 k prologue to win his second-straight race of World Cup Finals by 2.1 seconds over teammate Pal Golberg. Norway showed its strength on the modified course, putting six in the top seven.
For every Canadian qualifier except Dasha Gaiazova, the quarterfinals of Wednesday’s World Cup Finals 1.1-kilometer classic sprint were a second chance, an opportunity to get it right. Gaiazova had qualified in a career-best fourth, but Devon Kershaw on skate skis and Lenny Valjas on classic had narrowly made it through in 28th and 30th, respectively. All three went on to make the top 20.
Petter Northug sheltered himself from the wind then surged to the front when it counted, winning each of his heats and ultimately Wednesday's final for his first sprint victory in Stockholm. The win put him ahead of Alexander Legkov and Dario Cologna in the overall World Cup standings and in prime position for the rest of the World Cup Finals.