The Canadian and American men's relays fell short of their goals on Sunday, placing 14th and 17th, respectively, in the 4 x 7.5 k Lillehammer World Cup, but both are optimistic about the future.
The Canadian men showed signs of recovery and an upswing in their second weekend of racing, with Alex Harvey leading the team in 16th in Saturday's 15 k classic individual start at the World Cup in Lillehammer, Norway.
The high hopes for today’s final stage of the Ruka Triple, in Kuusamo, Finland failed to materialize for the Canadian National Team, as they were unable to place anyone in scoring position. The Canadian men fell short of their expectations with Ivan Babikov, a traditionally strong distance skate skier, giving the team it’s best result in the 15k pursuit, with 37th place overall.
The North American men made a solid showing at the second stage of this year’s Ruka Triple in Kuusamo, Finland. The men’s individual 10k classic was what each team described as a productive start to the season - headlined by Ivan Babikov of Canada, who tied for 21st and American Noah Hoffman who placed 28th.
Moving on from last season, the Canadians are a calculated bunch and ready to get the World Cup season started -- with a goal of not overemphasizing early results in order to peak for the Olympics. For the entire team, the Tour de Ski is part of the plan.
Earlier this month, Devon Kershaw packed his bags for Europe, where he'll spend essentially six months between the World Cup, Tour de Ski and Olympic competitions. It was tough, he said, but an opportunity he couldn't pass up between seeing his girlfriend, Kristin Størmer Steira, and training with the Norwegian men's team in Val Senales, Italy.
At first glance, one might not see much of a difference on the Canadian World Cup Team: mostly the same faces looking fit as usual. But head coach Justin Wadsworth said there's a lot that's gone on behind the scenes this training season, especially in monitoring recovery and priming his athletes for what he hopes to be their best seasons yet. A new camp in Truckee was part of the plan.
Two days after arriving in New Zealand, Andy Newell romped the men's field in the opening sprint of Winter Games NZ, winning his qualifier and each heat thereafter for the overall win. That's a good indicator for one of the world's best sprinters after a summer of mostly rollerskiing, running and biking.
If you noticed the slew of photos from a ski race in the Yukon last week, you weren't dreaming. The second-annual JP Grand Prix, hosted in a backyard in Whitehorse, was held on Friday complete with live music, a barbecue, TV crew and, yes, snow. Welcome to the world's coolest ski race.
You waited long enough and probably didn't even know it was coming, but here it is: a montage of your favorite top Canadian skiers (at least the ones at Canadian Nationals) talking about their seasons in a nutshell.
The U.S. and Canadian national teams currently in Bend, Ore., for their spring camps had an unstructured training session at Mt. Bachelor this weekend. Mt. Bachelor Ski Education Foundation nordic director and 3-time Olympian Dan Simoneau snapped photos of junior skiers and World Cup athletes alike ski laps around the trails.
With the conclusion of Period IV of the 2012-2013 season we tally who's in and who's out of the coveted Red Group in the most recent World Ranking Lists, from the American and Canadian perspectives.
Seventeen weeks and 120 days after the World Cup season started in Gällivare, Sweden, it ended in Sunday in Falun. For most of the Canadians who finished outside the top 30, it could not have come soon enough. Head coach Justin Wadsworth and team veteran Devon Kershaw reflect on the season.
The Canadians missed the wax in the men's race on Saturday and ended up with Alex Harvey posting the team's top finish of 30th. "That combination of not-perfect bodies and bad skis is not so much fun," head coach Justin Wadsworth said.
For every Canadian qualifier except Dasha Gaiazova, the quarterfinals of Wednesday’s World Cup Finals 1.1-kilometer classic sprint were a second chance, an opportunity to get it right. Gaiazova had qualified in a career-best fourth, but Devon Kershaw on skate skis and Lenny Valjas on classic had narrowly made it through in 28th and 30th, respectively. All three went on to make the top 20.
Devon Kershaw was the top Canadian in the men's 50 k freestyle mass start in Holmenkollen in 29th, not quite his 10th-place result in the 50 k classic there last year, but an improvement over his recent outings. Ivan Babikov followed in 33rd, and Alex Harvey did not finish because of back pains.
Len Valjas (CAN) led the Canadian men on Saturday in Lahti, Finland, with an strong eighth place finish. His performance was just as fueled by frustration as it was fitness. Valjas toed the line today after a miserable run of sickness. “I was sick for nine days,” he said. “I had strep throat, then a chest cold, and laryngitis. It felt good to get out of bed.” The timing of the sickness couldn’t have been worse,...
Canada fell short of its expectations in Friday's 4x10 k relay, placing 12th of 18 teams and 2:39.3 behind the winners.
Ivan Babikov had one of the best races of his life on Wednesday with a career-best fourth in the World Championships 15 k freestyle. After a slow start, the man affectionately known as the Canadian "Bulldog" raced to one of the best finishing times, about 30 seconds off the podium.
Nikita Kriukov did it again at World Championships, winning gold for Russia, this time in the 6 x 1.5 k freestyle team sprint with Alexey Petukhov on Sunday. Sweden took second and Kazakhstan was third, edging Canada's defending champs by 0.03 seconds for bronze.