New Zealand Race

We woke up to some fresh snow!

Yesterday, the groomer didn’t go out because it was too wet. They were worried about losing the snow if they tried to groom it. They were able to get out today though.

Kris Freeman and I joined the Canadian team for a 10 kilometer individual start skate race this morning. Kris had a good day, winning the race. I struggled. I started 30 seconds in front of Canadian Ivan Babikov and a minute in front of Kris. They both caught me after three laps of the five lap race. I was able to stay with them until one kilometer to go when I fell and broke one of my poles. I’m not too worried about the fall and pole, but I am disappointed to be caught from a minute down. It is not a big deal. It’s early September; I wrote about how unimportant summer racing is in a post about the race in Oberhof last month, but it’s still hard not to worry about it.

Kris skied really well; I think he would have had a good result if today had been a World Cup Race. Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey (who finished second and fourth toady) finished second and sixth respectively in the overall World Cup standings last season, and Babikov has had several World Cup top-10 finishes. The race results are at

http://webscorer.com/race.aspx?raceid=3675

On a completely different note, today was NFL fantasy draft day for the Canadians. It was a loud, passion-filled afternoon in front of their computers:

From left to right, Devon, Len Valjas, and Alex.

Lastly, here’s a picture of Kris warming up for the time trial today (nobody got any pictures of the race):