Racing from the couch

The past few years I've entered a fantasy nordic ski contest that the magazine Ski Trax puts on.  I've steadily gotten better at picking teams that compete well under their strange scoring system, and after finishing 12th last year (prizes go to the top 10) this year I seem to have picked a winning team.  With over 1/2 of the season done I'm sitting in 1st place, but not by much.  The greatest part is that there are 2 North American skiers on my team.  Kikkan Randall has been on top of the sprint standings all years, and Alex Harvey's flashes of brilliance have brought him close to the podium several times this year.  My wildcard pick Vibeke Skofterud has picked up a great collection of 2nds and 3rds so far this season, possibly even a better wild card pick than Johaug was last year.  Hattestad was my mens wildcard again because he can always put up some good results and earn a lot of points, but as a pure sprinter he lacks the consistency to put him in the top 15 overall.  There was a seperate competition for the Tour de Ski, and I led that the whole way through except for at two points, the break where the leader gets a prize, and the finish where the top 10 get a prize and I slipped back to 16th, so despite leading almost the whole time I wound up empty handed.  A bit disappointing, but the excitement is worth almost as much as a prize anyway.