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The Devon Kershaw Show: The 2021 World Championship 50 k Classic and 10 meters of Critical Real Estate with Alex Harvey

  We are catching our breath here with Alex Harvey with the 50 k classic rundown on the podcast. On another planet where the perceived forces of good and evil do not wear Lycra, this race is simply catalogued as another classic, not a mega-classic. Such is life and such is racing. This 50 k classic monster came down to the wire as Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov and Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo flowed into the final...

The Devon Kershaw Show: 2021 World Championships Women’s 30 k Classic

  Here’s Therese Johaug after her dominant 30 k classic performance at the 2021 World Championship: “I never have been in such good shape. I am so happy. I’m 33 years and I know I’m getting older and older and I know that this time ends soon, so I am just so happy.” What the World Cup field has historically known is a Johaug in shape. Outright, she’s likely the best distance skier of all-time....

The Devon Kershaw Show: 2021 World Championships 4 x 10 k Relay

One can expect some tactics during a 4 x 10 k relay in heavy snowfall for world championship glory. To summarize nearly two hours of racing in three sentences there was this: Russia off the front, then in the middle. Norway in the middle, then off the front. Then Klæbo becoming the king of coy as he tempts Bolshunov and pounces for the win. This 4 x 10 k relay provided a wealth of storyline...

The Devon Kershaw Show: 2021 World Championship 4 x 5 k Relay – A Nail Biter for Bronze

The facts are this: with Johaug in the 4 x 5 k relay mix Norway remains a force late in the race when the skate legs ensue. Today in Oberstdorf, Johaug took over the race and made it a relative yawner up-front. The real action was for third place where the U.S. and Finland threw down. Over 20 k of racing came down to the final straight when Krista Pärmäkoski and Jessie Diggins drag raced....

The Devon Kershaw Show: 2021 World Championships 15 k Skate with Kris Freeman

  For what it is worth, and it is worth something, the 15 k interval start skate at the 2021 World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany lived up to the hype as the race of truth. Coming in, we would have expected Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov to search, seek, and destroy every centimeter of this salted and then melting course. It was a grind for all. And throughout the laps on a brutal course, the Russian was...

The Devon Kershaw Show: 2021 World Championships 10 K Skate – A Johaug Win and a Diggins Near Miss

  In today’s 10 k story on FasterSkier, here’s how it began: “The high pressure continued at the 2021 World Championships on Tuesday in more ways than one. Oberstdorf, Germany’s temps hovered around 50 degrees Fahrenheit for the start of the women’s 10-kilometer individual freestyle, and a rarefied number of skiers poised to step on the podium. The pressure cooker that is the individual start, with skiers setting off at 30-second intervals was on display...

The Devon Kershaw Show: Race Waxing and Skis in Warm Conditions with Zach Caldwell

In this episode, we speak with Zach Caldwell — Putney, Vermont ski whisperer, and wax nerd at Caldwell Sport. We’ve received questions from listeners asking about the difficulty of waxing (for both skate and classic) as well as ski selection when the temperatures spike beyond the melting point for snow. That has been the case in Oberstdorf, Germany the last week, site of the 2021 Nordic Ski World Championships. That said, it’s a “rest day”...

Uniforms Addenda: More 2020/2021 World Cup Uniforms

There have been, by FasterSkier’s calculation, 37 distinct nations that have seen at least one athlete start a World Cup race this season. The first 22 of them were surveyed following the opening weekend of racing in Ruka, in what now seems like a dispatch from another era in which all Scandinavian countries competed and Jessie Diggins was still rounding into form. This article surveys the next 15 who competed on subsequent World Cup weekends,...

The Devon Kershaw Show: 2021 World Championship Team Sprint with Alex Harvey (And a 10th Anniversary Celebration Concerning Oslo 2011)

In this Sunday, World Championship team sprint episode of the Devon Kershaw Show, we have a special guest from Québec , the actual Prince of Québec … Alex Harvey. It has been ten short or long years since he and Kershaw won the classic team sprint at the 2011 Oslo World Championships. First off, before listening to the episode today…check out the videos posted below.   To set the scene, this win goes down at...

The Devon Kershaw Show: The 2021 World Championship Skiathlon with the Boss – Kristin Størmer Steira

The most special of special guest on the podcast today, Kristin Størmer Steira. Størmer Steira, a retired Norwegian ski star, chats it up with Devon from Lillehammer, where the two are busy raising two young daughters. According to a 2014 FasterSkier article on the couple, evidently, Kershaw’s “great smile”, a legacy of his youth in Sudbury, won Størmer Steira over. In her own right, Størmer Steira was a Norwegian ski star. Back in 2005, Størmer...

The Devon Kershaw Show: 2021 World Championship Classic Sprint with Lenny Valjas

The storylines were many during Thursday’s classic sprint at the 2021 World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany. As the backdrop for the racing — the temps were high, the salted course began to breakdown in the final corner, and running uphill with skis on … at lightning speed … was mandatory.   Norway swept the men’s podium with none other than classic kingpin Johannes Høsflot Klæbo taking the win. For certain, as this was on display...

The Devon Kershaw Show: Kicking it with Kikkan -The World Champs Preview

The legend is set in stone: Kikkan Randall brought a new intensity and bottom-line results to the U.S. Ski Team. Three overall sprint globes to her name, five Olympics, a bronze at the 2017 Lahti World Champs in the skate sprint, a silver at the 2009 Liberec, Czech Republic World Champs skate sprint, a gold at the 2013 Val di Fiemme, Italy World Champs in the team sprint (with Diggins), and the 2018 Olympic Gold...

The Devon Kershaw Show: World Juniors/U23s in roughly 60 Minutes – Part 2 with Noah Hoffman

  In this episode, we chat about the weekend’s racing from World Juniors and U23s. This is part two of our coverage of Worlds for the younger folks. This episode covers the relays and mass start classic races that concluded Sunday in Vuokatti, Finland. On the show is longtime Kershaw friend Noah Hoffman, who it turns out, beyond his cross-country skiing endurance exploits, is an investment partner with Kershaw. We hear about the weekend’s racing,...

The Devon Kershaw Show: World Juniors/U23s in roughly 60 Minutes – Part 1

Devon jumps into the World Junior/U23 fray. This is part one of our coverage of Worlds for the younger folks. This episode covers the classic sprints and the individual skate races that concluded today in Vuokatti, Finland. The racing began on February 9 with the junior classic sprint. The U23 classic sprints were postponed on Wednesday due to the severe cold in Finland. Those sprints were held Thursday. Friday was a jam-packed race day with...

The Devon Kershaw Show: All Aboard the Ulricehamn, Sweden Sprint Train with Kershaw and Cockney

In this episode, Devon and former Canadian National Team member Jess Cockney discuss the intricacies of Saturday’s skate sprint and Sunday’s team sprint in Ulricehamn, Sweden. The stage has been set, the first few acts are over, yet the curtain has not closed — Jessie Diggins with a third place in Saturday’s sprint brings her closer to securing the World Cup overall as the season enters it’s last month and a half of racing. No...

The Devon Kershaw Show: Jessie Diggins Crushes and all the News From the Falun World Cup Race Series

  The second weekend with Norway back on the scene was a reveal. Therese Johaug, arguably the second greatest cross-country skier of all time, was bested by an in form and dialed in Jessie Diggins. Interval starts, for what its worth, most often do not command a television or streaming audience. This show is a must watch. It may just be Diggins’ best career race. So we chat a ton about Diggins. But we also...

Nordic Nation: Diving Into Female Athlete Specific Fueling with Maddie Alm

This podcast is part of a series on female athlete specific physiology and sports nutrition. With the help of experts and novel research in this area, this series unpacks how the menstrual cycle might influence training adaptations and provides female athletes and coaches with the information to help optimize fueling and training schedules accordingly. You can find a primer on the menstrual cycle and training here. Based in Boulder, Colorado, Maddie Alm is the face...

The Devon Kershaw Show: Bolshunov-Bolshunov-Bolshunov…and the Weekend’s Racing from Lahti

We all thought the big news would be the return of Norway. And certainly, that was the news, just not the lead. Norway swept both the men’s and women’s skiathlon podiums on Saturday and won the 4 x 5 k and 4 x 7.5 k relays on Sunday.   But…and this is a big but, Alexander Bolshunov made the headlines with his violent behavior as he crossed the finish line in Lahti on Sunday. Down the...

The Devon Kershaw Show: Listener Questions, Unexpected Outcomes, and Norway Returns

  In the big global picture, much has transpired since Jessie Diggins won the Tour de Ski. On the macro side of things, that being on the World Cup, a break has transpired. On Saturday, the cross-country World Cup returns with a skiathlon. The more notable news is the Norwegian national team will spice up the skiing as they return from a self-imposed hiatus from the World Cup since early December. We also answer some...

Stage 8 of the Tour de Ski: The Alpe Cermis with Kershaw and Ivan Babikov

The question is not where to start. That is with Jessie Diggins and her shining moment over eight stages at the Tour de Ski. Diggins secured the overall win in the Tour de Ski on Sunday, the first non-European skier, male or female to win the Tour. Ivan Babikov, former Candian National Ski Team member and master of the Alpe himself, joins Devon to discuss Diggins, the Russians, the Alpe, and the vagaries of the...