Well, it wasn’t a good day at the races for Kris. His fitness appeared to be right where we expected, but the combination of an average (not better) fitness day a raging blizzard, and a crash in the first 200 meters made for some frustration.
Kris crossed skis with somebody early and went down on his way out of the stadium. Once he was situated and under way he was in the back of the pack. Normally that wouldn’t be a big deal – there’s plenty of time to move in a 30K. Today, however, it was dumping down snow, and passing was really difficult. Some guys had the legs to rage through the soft snow and make a go of it, but Kris wasn’t one of them. Passing on downhills was impossible – you step out of line into the soft snow and go backwards. Kris found himself standing still at the bottoms of the uphills, surrounded by people with nowhere to go – watching the race happen just ahead.
All things told it was a frustrating day. Kris was under no illusions – he didn’t have what it took to make more of the race today. But he knows that if he hadn’t fallen at the start he would have been in the points. Blood sugar control was good – he may have taken his first feed a bit early at about 8K because he felt a bit bad for a couple of K after that. But then he felt much better and the second half of the race was better than the first. Fitness was, as I mentioned, pretty much exactly what we expected. Next weekend in Davos has the potential to be a really good one for Kris, and the focus is no turned in that direction.
