FasterSkier

Two days in March has gone a long ways towards changing my opinion of Fairbanks. While it’s still ridiculously cold (below 0°F) in the mornings, the sun actually comes up in the sky a little (and stays there) to the point where we’re seeing highs around 20. Actually, the skiing the last two days has been great. The snow is still squeaky cold, but skiing with temps in the teens really isn’t bad. And it’s hard to complain about waxing when VR40 is plenty of kick and really on the slow side.

Racing starts tomorrow at the late hour of 6PM, which does make me wonder what to do with the rest of the day. Normally I’d think daylight would be an issue, but it’s a little different up here this time of year. It takes at least an hour and a half for the sun to rise, and once it does, it just sort of stays at late afternoon type sunlight all day – until 8 or 830. So it might be cold, but it won’t be dark.

The only other news of note right now is that Mt. Redoubt erupted last night. There are some issues involved in flying between Fairbanks and Anchorage right now (can’t do it), so let’s hope that clears up by Sunday…

Cologna and Kowalczyk had barely set their new crystal globes down before the doping news started emerging yesterday.In Austria, "an unnamed cyclist and former Austrian Nordic ski coach Walter Mayer, who was involved in the 2006 Turin Olympics doping scandal, have been arrested in connection with new doping allegations." Though the cyclist is being called "K" rather than being named, that letter

Reminds me of northern Maine about this time of year.  Site of JOs in 2010!

World Cup wrap up.  Surprizing numbers.  Far Banks.  Photos.  All ahead.  Click for Preview...

World Cup wrap up.  Surprizing numbers.  Far Banks.  Photos.  All ahead.  Click for Preview...

World Cup wrap up.  Surprizing numbers.  Far Banks.  Photos.  All ahead.  Click for Preview...

The CXC Elite team is currently in Fairbanks, AK getting used to being cold again.  The temperatures were rough when we got here, but 2 degrees felt pretty good today, so we must be acclimating.  Our fingers are crossed for warmer weather by the first race on Tuesday.  I will try to get my camera [...]

The double pursuits put a gel wrapper in my klister, I'll tell you what. Who expected either Majdic or Northug to fall so far off the front? Nobody who made predictions for the double pursuits, that's who. Petra finished 24th, more than a minute down, which ruins her chances to win the overall World Cup title, since she'll be starting 1:06 behind Kowalczyk in Sunday's 10k freestyle pursuit.

All is well here in Norway.  It has been nice to have some solid results again with 9th and 13th place finishes here although I was hoping for a bit more today.  Of course it was disappointing to go from 4th to 17th in one shooting stage, but this is biathlon… After being a bit [...]

Today is the first day of spring.  A time for new beginings and fresh starts.  This spring marks the begining of my new legs, new goals, and new victories.  I am fired up and ready to jump head first into this new year! I am at my halfway point between surgeries.  My right leg was fixed a week ago, [...]

While one of the four predictors had a pretty good showing with the women's prologue, no one would say that the co-bloggers and commenters had their finest hour with the men's prologue. Ain't none of us the King of Mördarbacken.Petter, pooped, puttered and disappointed everyone except ADS, who put him in fifth, two spots higher than His Sneerness's final spot. Even beyond putting Northug in first

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_swTO9gFuMfs/ScOLPIgeUPI/AAAAAAAAAC0/ia2mFiUFEFs/s1600-h/P1010440.JPG"img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: poi...