Andresen Thinks He Can Win a World Cup Race

Before Christmas he was extra unlucky with illnesses and for this reason his placement at Nove Mesto was extra fulfilling.

– I hadn’t thought that it would go as well as it did, but I knew that I had a lot to go on. I had most of my training destroyed by illness before Christmas. Over Christmas things felt good and I started to feels things coming together again. I at least got a good training session in during Christmas, says the skier.

Over the weekend he will race in a local championship that will be a good re-charging for his next big goal.

-The local championship will just be a warmup for the 15km in the Norwegain Championships. It is important to stay in top shape up til then. I’m banking on having a good race there and just hoping my results are close to what they were last weekend, says Andresen.

The race in Nove Mesto brought up the topic of him competing in the World Championships. How well he has to do in the Norwegian Championships to be taken to Oberstdorf is something he isn’t sure about.

-It depends on the criteria’s that will be set for the spots. I should be in the top 5, and if I’m in top shape that shouldn’t be a problem but there are many fast Norwegians and it won’t take much for one to fall far down on the result list, says the 26 year old.

It isn’t only in the 15km that he wishes to do well.

-I want to do well in all the Championship races. I want to show that I can go fast in classic in the pursuit. It is a distance that I have done well in before, he says.

In the past there have been many racers that have elevated themselves from the development team to the worlds best. Two weeks ago Espen Harald Bjerke finished 4th in Otepaa.

-We have trained with the elite team all fall and it has been incredibly helpful. One learns and amazing amount by training with better skiers. We have looked at the training plans of the best racers and tried to match them so it was just a matter of time before we had a top finish in the World Cup. We have a great environment on the development team and great coach in Morten Aa Djupvik. He is a great guy at following up with racers individually and amazingly gifted at making people work well together and creating a good training environment, brags Andresen.