Freeman! (and Randall)

A very good result.

And Kikkan Randall was featured on National Public Radio this morning...

More Fantasy Nordic Updates

Due to some ridiculous overcommitments, certain Fantasy Nordic administrators are playing catch-up on their duties. The schedule for the first 5 weeks just went up tonight; We'll get results from week 1 taken care of tomorrow morning.

Auctions for public league #3 will start next Monday, because I remembered that last time we tried to do auctions over Thanksgiving week it ended up being messy, with 50% of bidders too preoccupied with turkey or getting on actual snow to place bids. There's 3 spots still left in it, in case you want to head over and sign up.

Stay tuned, and leave a comment if you're confused about anything.

Fantasy Nordic Update #2

I promised I wouldn't spam any more emails, so I have to post this here! There was a bug keeping people from getting into public league #3, so if you tried to sign up in the last three days and couldn't get into a league, try again!

PS - Marthe Kristoffersen is criminally underrated this year. You heard it here first.

Fantasy Nordic Update

Fantasy season is upon us. The World Cup starts in four days. I have no idea what's going on!

You think I'm joking? Kershaw won a damned FIS race this past weekend, ahead of some non-scrub competition, like some "Soedergren" and "Hellner" guys. I had no idea. Neither did Fasterskier. If you're looking for a year to interrupt my Fantasy Nordic domination, this might be it, because I'm about to bid waaaay to much for Devon.

It gets worse. The women's race was taken by Kalla (shocking), but then Anna Haag, Anna Olsson and Ivana Janeckova (who?) managed to beat Kowalczyk, who finished a paltry 5th. Kowalczyk's done! Olsson is no longer a sprinter! There are women in the Czech republic!

I don't know what to think anymore, but I'm ready to overreact to early November performances. $1000 on Kalla!

In all seriousness, though, we just opened a 3rd public league over at Fantasy Nordic, and we'll start auctions next Monday. If you're looking for instant commenting credibility, you should join it and kick our asses.

Which, as should be abundantly clear, may not be that hard.

Fantasy: It's Real

It's time for ski racing. For those of us with unreal VO2 capacities, unbelievable webs of fast- and slow-twitch muscles, fantastical abilities to handle lactic acid, superhuman willpower, and/or the finest pharmaceuticals in the world, there's the 2009-2010 World Cup, including once again the Tour de Ski (January 1-10, 2010) but punctuated by the Winter Olympic Games (February 12-28) in our hemisphere, on the west side of the Atlantic east side of the Pacific. Can you say "home-snow advantage"? If you can, you'd better be a member of the Canadian team.

On the other hand, for those of us with lesser physical and psychological qualities but unlimited internet access and time to burn like so much overheated glide wax, there's Fantasy Nordic, back for a third triumphant season. And by "triumphant" I mean that someone won the leagues last year. It wasn't me, largely because my draft strategy was "draft every cute Norwegian woman I can afford."

But no matter! As I write - wearing four-year old Alpina skate boots, a waxing apron, and some windbriefs - we are merely 18 days away from the World Cup season opener: freestyle interval start races on November 21-22 at good old Beitostolen, Norway. (Who's on track to be a Christmas star?) We're only 59 days away from the first event of this season's Tour de Ski at Oberhof, Germany: those funky prologues. (Are they long sprint races? short distance races? who knows! who cares! watch for the oddball podiums!). And just 103 days separate us from the first cross-country skiing event at the Olys: the women's 10k and men's 15k freestyle races. (Who's got the best line on figuring out the Callaghan Valley's crazy snow?)

So what does this mean for you - one of the very, very few people who are fans of nordic skiing? If you've ever played FN, go check airfares to Vancouver and wait for an email from the league's impresario. If you haven't played FN before but want to play this year (or if you can't remember whether you've played before, or if you've changed your email address), you should get yourself over to the Fantasy Nordic homepage rightfreakingnow to register and get yourself on the list for that email. If you're on the fence, register! It's a blast.

The draft for skiers will probably start on Tuesday, November 16, giving you just a few more days to ponder the mysteries of the nordic-skiing world: Has Astrid Jacobsen recovered from her training crash? Does Virpi Kuitunen have another good season in her legs (veins?)? Did the American and Canadian athletes train hard enough? Can Dario Cologna repeat? How many races does Petter Northug, Jr., have to win before I stop thinking he's a jerk? Do any Russian skiers not dope?

What are you waiting for - your own blog on Fasterskier? Move it!