22nd

FasterSkierJanuary 17, 2009

22nd in a World Cup isn’t too bad and I did get my first World Cup points. With the smaller field and a few guys in front that I normally beat it was a little frustrating. I started off a little more conservatively than I normally do and all was going well until midway thru the classic leg. The guy who I had marked since he is a typical slow starter and top 5 at the end was right in front of me. Then going thru the second feed station one of the Canadiens stepped in front of me trying to get a feed, missed it, and slowed up to get another right before the pack up front started to move and I missed my shot. The rest of the classic leg I picked off a few more people and came thru the exchange in 16th with 4 or 5 others. I had a pretty quick exchange and was feeling really good skating so I tried to drop the guys I was with catch up to the next group 10-15 seconds up and that proved a little costly and started cramping around 20k and ran out of gas.  divbr //divdivI was hoping for a little better race out there but I was still the 2nd American and I think I made World Champs after that but I won’t find out until tomorrow night. Then I make some plane reservations and fly somewhere on Monday. It is a little bit of a tough call since I could stay in the US and make a decent amount of money on the SuperTour or go to Worlds and miss all the money races. But I am a racer and the fast guys are at Worlds and that is where I want to be. Tomorrow is the team sprint and I will be racing that one. I’ve never done a World Cup team sprint before so it should be fun. br //divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/5871152313769582978-781108272064423502?l=jamessoutham.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

FasterSkier