Can-What? Canmore!

Now THAT’s what I’m talking about! Thursday’s mass start 10/15 km racing had to be some of the most exciting skiing I’ve seen this season at minimum, and in the last year or so.

When fans tell FIS that they want more mass-start racing, for my money we’re talking about action specifically like the men’s 15 km and women’s 10 km classic.

Why am I so stoked? There’s a pile of reasons!

-         -  It had lead changes like no other. What other race can you see Ivan Babikov, Noah Hoffman, Mattia Pellegrin (that’s not a typo – the kid was in his first World Cup race ever, and picked up some bonus points), Tobias Angerer, Giorgio di Centa, and Daniel Huen in the lead – and actually making a difference?

-          Bonus preems actually being bonus. Without the big guns controlling the race, it spread it wide open, and 15 different men picked up bonus points, including some unlikely heros. Fabio Pasini? Not usually a front-runner in distance races. Noah Hoffman? He normally couldn’t get a World Cup sprint point with rocket boosters.

-          - Spills. I hate to be the guy promoting accidents, as I hate it when a crash determines a race outcome (see: Quebec team sprint), but it does make it exciting. Whether it’s Alexander Bessmertnyk needing a harness and a top rope to climb back onto the course, or Martin Johnsrud Sundby tangling with Andy Newell  and taking out a sizeable chunk of the pack, it definitely keeps you on edge. Nothing hurts more than seeing your favourite guy take a nose-dive, or pumps you up watching a rival go ass-over-teakettle. Un-classy? Absolutely. But entire sports are made on a lack of class. Just ask anyone who likes UFC or NASCAR.

-         - Come-backs. I know I just said that falls are epic, and make the race happen. But even better was watching Masako Ishida drive through the field after popping a squat on the first lap, dropping herself out of the top 30. I was looking out for the Japanese classic specialist every time check, and not just because I predicted her to win…

-          - Gaps and explosions. Anyone see aging Ukrainian veteran Valentina Shevchenko go charging after Kowalczyk, only to spectacularly pop in the middle of the steep uphill, almost coming to a dead stop? Or Evgeniy Belov blow a silver medal in the final stretch by skiing outside the tracks? How about the three-wide Italian assault on preem number one? There was always a race within the race worth watching, for once without the constant nattering of the brilliant 'never-count-out-Northug' Eurosport announcers. Although I could have used an Andrew Musgrave reference or two.

-         - The absolute randomness of the podium. On WhoWins, 172 podium predictions were made for Thursday’s race. One person picked Tim Tscharnke, and they only thought he could come 5^th. A mere two people thought Tobi Angerer could get a medal. Fifth place finisher Giorgio di Centa? Two people thought he would crack the top 5. As for the Norwegians, 87% of people picked Eldar Roenning and Johnsrud Sundby to at least place 5^th, and they ended up 12^th and DNF respectively.  On the women’s side, Anne Kylloeenen won her first-ever medal. Meanwhile Maiken Caspersen-Falla out-dueled sprint superstar Kikkan Randall (sorry Americans) as well as proved herself the best in the strong Norwegian quartet of Vibeke Skofterud, Ingvild Oestberg, and Kristin Stoermer Steira (who shattered everyone’s predictions by coming 7^th rather than her usual 4^th)

To paraphrase one of my favourite writers, if the mass-start 50 km is a game of chess, then the mass-start 15 km is strip poker.  No one wants to watch 40 guys ski in a tight pack for 2 hrs (or 49 km) and then see it determined by a 30 second sprint. I might as well go watch an over-distance workout over my Junior ski team.

No, what I want is the unexpected. The surprising. The epic, dare I say it. The kind of action that makes you hate the commercial breaks, lean forward in your chair, and wear an adult diaper lest you miss a move on a pee break. And for me, nothing does it better than the 10/15 km classic mass start.

Coming up shortly – my predictions for tomorrow’s sprint, and a review of the weekend of World Cuppage Quebec. (Hint – I don’t get nearly as orgasmic as my American co-bloggers.)

Waiting for Hoffman

From the AP today:

VIENNA — Prosecutors in Austria are investigating possible blood doping by 2002 Olympic cross-country ski champion Christian Hoffmann.

Austrian Criminal Intelligence Service spokesman Gerald Tatzgern told the Austria Press Agency on Sunday that prosecutors have "reasonable suspicion" that the 34-year-old Hoffmann was involved in illegal blood enrichment.

According to the Kurier newspaper's Sunday edition, Hoffmann allegedly colluded with cyclists Bernhard Kohl and Michael Rasmussen and Kohl's former manager Stefan Matschiner. He was arrested in March and has admitted he helped Kohl with blood doping. Hoffmann has denied any wrongdoing.

Hoffmann won gold in the 30-kilometer race at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

Well, duh.

The Sochi Re-Shuffle

The World Cup had the weekend off for some obscure reason*, which resulted in some serious depression for ski racing fans. Especially after the last few weeks, where we have been bombarded with World Juniors, U23's, World Cup medals galore (although not in La Clusaz - I've seen more exciting paint dry), and are getting pumped for World Championships!

Here are some mid-season story lines worth paying attention to:

 - We should be concerned about Russia. The courses go straight up and straight down. The athlete accommodation is a prison. They have stolen ALL the worlds cranes. It’s like the plot of a James Bond movie.

- I think everyone should walk to Russia, based on the air travel.

- The American World Champs team was named. All the American men were promptly shredded to bits by commentators.

- The Canadian World Champs team was named. Eric Bjornsen had his boots filled with concrete by commentators.

-  Finland named it’s World Champs team, and – what the hell, how come Torin Koos didn’t make it, he won, like, two of three races at US Nationals, and he beat Eric Bjornsen in an arm wrestle, and looks way better in a headband than Tad Elliot, and did I mention that he once was second in a classic sprint qualifier? What’s that? The USST doesn’t take anonymous internet commenter’s  into consideration in selection criteria? Oh. My bad.

- Sorry, was Torin Koos involved in some sort of controversy this year?(Ed. Note - Last USST selection/Torin Koos joke of this post, I swear.) 

-  The USST made a cover music video to some Taylor Swift song. Three good reasons to watch it: 1. You actually like the song despite trying really hard to deny it. 2. Jessie Diggins is one cute blond girl. 3. You can spot Noah Hoffman a mile away with that red hat. Does he sleep with that thing on? 

- Every single Canadian made the Red Group for Period III. No, that’s not a joke. 

- Therese Johaug is really enthusiastic about her new Fischer skis. I’m actually on my way to the shop to get a pair now. Aside from that, the Norwegian women are really fast, as 5 are in the top 10 in the World Cup Overall. And Vibeke Skofterud has packed it in for the season.

- Alex Harvey dislocated his shoulder, but didn’t really give a shit. No really, it didn’t even make the FIS Cross Country news page. 

-  Justyna Kowalczyk sucked in Sochi, but didn't blame the down hills, her wax techs, or Marit Bjoergen. On second thought, maybe she just hasn't been interviewed about it yet. And yes, she is still 400 points ahead in the World Cup Overall (snooze).

- 33% of the Canadian women's World Cup Team ended their season early. The other 66% combined for a medal. Perianne Jones is now the worlds best team-sprint specialist ** Statistics are all about the presentation.

Next week, the World Cup reconvenes in Davos, Switzerland for some killer racing, killer scenery, and a gigantic inflatable... sheep? Goat? Should be good.

*The airline lost 93 pieces of baggage on the World Cup charter planes return to Europe from the Sochi World Cup. Coincidentally, it was the entire Red Groups baggage, and every single ski and pole came out broken.
** Statistics may or may not be clouded by authors bias. But probably not.

Chasing Kikkan

I keep thinking about how strange it is to be a fan of North American cross-country skiing right now. I started following the World Cup seriously in 2005, just before the Oberstdorf world championships, at a time when Kris Freeman was the only serious North American contender for a top-20 result.

The situation now is an epic contrast. On the men's side, we have Harvey and Kershaw, two men who can vie for a win in any given event. Behind them are a handful of skiers - a few at or maybe past the peaks of their careers, a few more on the ascent - who can and do pull off good races - Babikov, Valjas, Freeman, Newell, even now Hamilton and Hoffman.

The women's side is even better. Jones and Crawford ski well for Canada, but are overshadowed by a ridiculously strong American team: Diggins, Stephen, Sargent, Brooks - and of course Randall. By now I shouldn't be surprised by anything that Kikkan Randall does on skis, and yet I am. Today she won the Tour de Ski prologue in Oberhof with a very strong race, making it all the more difficult to resist picking her to finish in the top five in any race of the Tour.

A casual observer can tell that Randall has the physical skills to do very well in the Tour, but I'm impressed by her mental preparedness. As she told Fasterskier: “While it’s nice to have a good result today it’s really about having that consistency over seven events. I’m confident in my ability to do that but you can’t take too much away from today. You’ve just got to focus on tomorrow right away."

I think she's going to do well on Sunday and throughout the rest of the Tour: