It was a big weekend for racing, we'll cover the most important ones first. The women's skiathlon kicked off the cross country ski program at the Olympics. The US had 4 skiers entered, and while none of them was realistically a medal threat they were all primed to have great races. Sadie Bjornsen had a great classic leg, getting some good camera time for the super looking US Olympic race suits. At the front of the race the leaders were turning the screws, and by the ski exchange had whittled the pack down to about 7 skiers, this is where the camera focus was during the remainder of the event. Too bad really, because the US staged a huge comeback in the second half of the race with Jessie Diggins fighting up to 8th place, and Liz right on her heels in 12th, amazing performances to kick off the next couple weeks. Jumping ahead briefly Sophie Caldwell skied out of her gourd to raise the bar even higher by making it to the sprint finals and ultimately ending up in 6th place in a race where all 4 US starters qualified for the rounds. At the front of the skiathlon race Norway reminded the world it is the true cross country powerhouse by taking 1st, 3rd, and 4th. Props to Charlotte Kalla from Sweden though who put in an incredible burst up the last climb to make her bid for the gold. It takes some real guts to drop Therese Johaug on a steep climb, and even Marit Bjorgen looked like she might not bridge the gap for a while. On the mens' side "Super" Dario Cologna showed that he hasn't lost his edge, making a big move at the same place as Kalla that nobody could respond to. Eric Olson housed Nate and I the night before the Vasaloppet, so we were able to watch the end of the skiathlon right before we headed off to our own race, talk about motivation!
On the domestic racing side Caitlin Gregg picked up where she left off, winning a supertour 5k skate race by nearly 45 seconds. A bit closer to home was the Mora Vasaloppet. After several years of doing the classic race I decided to go back to the headline event, the 58k skate. A couple pre-race notes before I dive into my race report. I didn't put a top coat on my skis, but people who had been out testing skis were saying topcoats were much faster, so I did a bit of panic waxing and threw some Solda HP-05 fairy dust on top of the Fastwax White that I had on. I had never used fluoro powder before, only blocks or pastes, so it was a bit unnerving to have only a bit of dust between my ski base and an extremely hot iron, but things worked out ok. I don't know how the skis would have run without the topcoat, Fastwax has been spot on with their recommendations all season, but I know they were fast with it on race day. The other note is that I forgot to pack gels for the race, so my race fuel was a granola bar that we got in our race pack that I pinned in my race pants to keep it warm enough to eat. This worked surprisingly well. Granola bars are tougher to get down while skiing, but there was so much no pole skate during the race that it didn't matter if my hands were tied up fiddling with the granola bar for a bit.
Mora is known for having a flat course that produces fast times, and this year was no exception. It was a cold morning, about 2F at race start, but the snow was rock hard and quite fast. I got out to a decent start and tagged on to the back of the lead pack. I was working to hold on, and in transitions around corners I was skiing stiff and would often lose a stride or two. After about 10km of this there was finally a bigger gap than I could close without a huge effort, so I resigned myself to skiing alone. A couple quick glances back didn't show anyone close behind me, but I tried to keep the mentality that I was sitting on the back of the pack to make sure my tempo stayed high on the climbs and I was squeezing all the speed I could out of my skis on the flats.
Start of Mora Vasaloppet - photo by Bruce Adelsman: Skinnyski.com
Once the race turned out of the headwind the conditions were gorgeous. The track was firm and fast, the kind of fast where even when you are skiing alone in the woods you can tell you are going FAST! I was surprised a couple times when I thought I had missed a km marker and suddenly find out that I had missed 4 or 5 km markers. Skiing alone for almost 40km gave me plenty of time to enjoy the scenery and just take in the day. There were not a lot of random thoughts as I tried to keep my focus on my technique and energy levels, and hoping to catch a glimpse of someone ahead while listening for skiers gaining from behind.
Almost to the Finish - photo by Bruce Adelsman: Skinnyski.com
With about 11 km to go I caught sight of a pack of 3 or 4 skiers crossing a meadow behind me. I knew I was sitting in 8th and didn't want to have my chance at a top 10 come down to a sprint finish, so I decided to hit it hard for a few km to hopefully stay out of sight. Chasing a skier down is much harder if you can't tell how far ahead of you they are. Shortly after this our trail merged with the 35km skiers so I was able to lose myself in the crowd a bit and just focus on finding the fastest snow and moving through the skiers from the other race. I didn't catch sight of the guys behind me again, but kept pushing hard, since the end of the race was fast approaching.
Ice beard, with extra blueberry soup coloring - photo by Bruce Adelsman: Skinnyski.com
When I got up the bell tower hill and turned onto the street into town I saw another 58km skier ahead of me. If I had known he was there a bit sooner I might have had time to chase him down, as it was I came in 5 seconds behind him. The next 3 guys came in about a minute after I finished, so I probably put some time on them in the last 10km. I was satisfied with 8th place, although kind of disappointed I didn't hold on to the lead pack longer. My best Mora finish, and probably one of my fastest paced races ever, but nothing special... until I finally got around to looking at the results sheet later in the day. That's when I noticed that I had taken 3rd in my age class, and was going to get a horse! This year was my 10th year skiing the Vasaloppet, and I had yet to win a horse, much to the amusement of pretty much every other skier I hang out with who all seem to have a stable full of the things. This really made my day, since I figured I would be way out of the running for a horse being in the most difficult age group in the most difficult race of the weekend. Here are full results from the weekend for anyone interested, and my Strava data for anyone really interested. Next up is the Minnesota Finlandia in Bemidji.
My first Dala Horse - Nikolai
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