In the final two days of the 2014 Blink Festival Americans Lowell Bailey and Tim Burke jumped onto the podium in the biathlon mass start and sprint races.
Liz Stephen already has the reputation as one of the best hill climbers in the world. The trend continued in Thursday's Blink Festival opener, where Stephen outpaced the rest of the field by 27 seconds.
The 5 Peaks Trail Running Series came to Canmore for the second installment of central Alberta's race series last weekend. Consistent with the usual 5 Peaks format, this event consisted of an “enduro” distance and a “sport” distance, 12 k and 8 k respectively. But unlike your average 5 Peaks race, this event featured Olympians.
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Alex Harvey rocked the 30 k skiathlon, executing a tried-and-tested strategy to a 'T' and staying out of the way of trouble. The Canadian won the penultimate race of World Cup Finals to put himself in podium contention for the overall World Cup, which would be the icing on his most successful season to date. Devon Kershaw placed 12th, and Ivan Babikov finished 23rd for Canada.
The Canadian team sprint pair of Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey was eliminated from the race without even qualifying for the final round. Head Coach Justin Wadsworth said: "This is the worst feeling I've had since I've been with the team."
Devon Kershaw said he felt better skiing Friday than previously at this Olympics, but it was hard to tell with too much grip on a klister day in extremely soft and warm conditions. Kershaw placed 35th, his teammate Ivan Babikov finished 39th, Graeme Killick was 65th and Alex Harvey did not finish.
Of the 18 North Americans that competed in Sunday’s 1.3-kilometer freestyle sprints at the Toblach World Cup, nine made the rounds. Many of them chatted with FasterSkier about the day and final race before the Olympics.
Erik Bjornsen of the U.S. Ski Team broke through in Saturday's 15 k classic individual start at the Toblach World Cup in Italy, two days after placing 17th the same event at U23 World Championships. Aside from Alex Harvey in fifth, the rest of the North American men placed outside the top 38 on a wet day marked by tricky conditions.
Fog blanketed the hillsides of Szklarska Poreba, Poland, as the men of the World Cup lined up for the start of the 15 k. In a field that lacked the esteemed Scandinavian racers, the predictions of who might win were about as unclear as the visibility on course.
Alex Harvey rocked the men's A-final in Szklarska Preba, Poland to to take his first individual World Cup win, besting Josef Wenzl of Germany and Baptiste Gros of France. Andy Newell, after finishing second in the qualification round, crashed in the A-final to finish sixth.
Alex Harvey can walk away from the 2014 Tour de Ski with his head held high. After finishing fifth in the 10 k individual classic on Saturday, Harvey ranked fourth in the overall Tour standings.
A tough wax day plagued the Canadians, but Ivan Babikov persevered and knocked off 56 places to finish 19th in Wednesday's 15 k classic mass start at Stage 4 of the Tour de Ski in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. Meanwhile, Alex Harvey and Devon Kershaw finished 40th and 47th.
Missed the start to the Tour de Ski? Find out this year's biggest winners and losers in the first two stages. Plus, read about the biathlon World Team Challenge. Catch all the action here with the Weekend Roundup.
Four Canadians made the heats on Saturday in the second stage of the Tour de Ski, with Alex Harvey placing 11th to hang onto the overall Tour lead and Devon Kershaw finishing 18th to rank third in the overall standings. Dasha Gaiazova and Perianne Jones made it to the quarterfinals, where they placed sixth for 27th and 28th on the day.
Photos from yesterday's opening to the Tour de Ski in Oberhof, Germany, where racers faced warm, wet, and slushy conditions in the prologue to the Tour, which consisted of a 3 k for the women and a 4.5 k for the men.
Alex Harvey and Devon Kershaw topped the podium Saturday in the opening prologue of the Tour de Ski. The Canadian men, dogged by slower start to their season than they would have hoped, made history and announced that they are back on form in the difficult, drizzly conditions of Oberhof, Germany.
It was a disappointing day in Asiago, Italy, for the U.S. and Canadian men in Sunday's classic team sprint, with neither team making the final. Both Canada I, with Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey, and USA I, with Simi Hamilton and Andy Newell, were in the same semifinal -- the second one, which proved disadvantageous on a balmy 41-degree day.
Dasha Gaiazova was once again Canada’s lone star in today’s World Cup in Asiago, Italy. After qualifying in 28th in the classic sprint, she was the only Canadian to move on to the heats and ended her day in 14th. Despite some improvement, the Canadians are still looking for more.
The Canadian team was locked out of the quarterfinals in Sunday's World Cup sprint, leading team members and coaches to call it a "bad day". But two team members who are recovering from health issues - Lenny Valjas and Chandra Crawford, who made her season debut at this level - looked at the sprint qualifier as a way to gain fitness on their upward trajectories, regardless of results.