Editor's Note: This article, from USSA, was originally published on 8/13/04
WANAKA, N.Z. (Aug. 13) – U.S. cross country skiers have hit pay dirt (again) in New Zealand, finding great snow and outstanding training conditions at The Snow Farm, according to Head Coach Trond Nystad. Development Team athletes arrive on the weekend.
“This is our third year here and it's been working out fantastic,” Nystad said Friday after another few hours of training. “Every year, the skiing has gotten better, we've had more trail, more grooming…just perfect training conditions. Really, there's no other place to ski in summer. The glaciers aren't nearly as good as being on snow, and this snow's been great every August.”
, who is in the midst of his traditional summer pro mountain bike season. He's expected to rejoin the squad next season when his season winds down after the Olympics and World Championships, and the skiers return to their residency program in Park City.</p>
<p>“We're running the same type of program as we do in Park City,” Nystad said. “We'll ski twice a day, roughly three to five hours a day. The weather's been fantastic and so far it's all been successful.</p>
<p>“Everything is planned, everyone knows what he or she is doing – two or three sets of intensity workouts, strength training twice or week, rest for an hour and a half, ski for about three hours daily. Have a rest day, do some easy distance. Things are looking good; everyone's farther along technically than when we've come down in the past, so we're starting ahead of last year and I'm seeing some good, positive things.”</p>
<p>Sue Robson from the Sports Science Department is with the group this year, continually testing and advising the athletes and coaches. “It's been a tremendous help to have Sports Science supporting us like this; we're learning a lot,” he said. “We're more aware of when we can train, when not to train. Her measurements do affect out training…</p>
<p>“Everyone's healthy and psyched to be skiing,” Nystad said, noting Olympic Wendy Wagner (Park City, UT) is healthy after a winter of illness and SuperTour champion Rebecca Dussault (Gunnison, CO), in her first year on the Ski Team, “keeps improving. Really, I see continual improvement day to day from everyone.”</p>
<p>Newly named sprint coach Vidar Loefshus, a former Norwegian club coach, will arrive on the weekend with the development group, according to Nystad, “and that'll be even better for the sprinters. He'll get them lined up and help give 'em an even better focus. It'll be good to have Vidar with us.”</p>
<p>The first races – 10K classic for women, 15K classic for men – will be held Saturday to give everyone a yardstick on where he or she is. As the men's alpine team settles in not far away at Mount Hutt, Nystad said there may be a rematch of last year's soccer game, which alpine won, 2-1. Advised that World Cup giant slalom champ Bode Miller (Franconia, NH) won't be with the group, Nystad – a gold-medal trash talker – said, “Oh, in that case, if they're not afraid to play, we'll still win but it may be tougher for us. Bode was hogging everything and if he'd passed they might've scored more…but since he won't be playing, that may make 'em harder to beat.”</p>
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