Podium in Lahti!
This has been a season of ups and downs but the past two World Cup’s have been a true roller coaster ride. The last time I wrote in we were on our way to Stockholm for the annual World Cup sprint around the Royal Palace. Each year they truck in snow and lay it down over the beautiful cobblestone streets of old town Stockholm. It’s a classic city sprint with tight corners, narrow tracks, and it always has tight finishes.
In the days leading up to the Stockholm sprint I was feeling really strong. Each workout felt faster and quicker than the last. Even during the hectic warm up before the sprint I felt calm and ready to go despite the pouring rain and dirty wax conditions. During a city sprint race like this we sometimes only have 20 or 30 minutes to test skis, adjust wax, and memorize the course before they close down the tracks. This makes for a very rushed and frantic scene with wax techs and skiers running all over the place rushing to prepare within the small time window. Even during all this chaos I felt confident, calm, and ready to attach the course.
Even though it’s a pretty flat course there is still a solid uphill climb to the finish line so most skiers were going with klister skis. I started hard out of the gate double-poling into the first 90-degree corner around the Palace. I’m not sure if it was the sticking of the klister or just patch of ice but I went down quickly sliding onto my butt into the first uphill. It was one of those things that took me by surprise. I could hardly believe it was happening to me. I picked myself up off the ground pretty quickly, but my momentum into the hill had already been killed. I skied the rest of the loop as hard as I could crossing the finish line in 20th place. In the end I was knocked down to 35th place .6 second out of qualification. Crashing in the qualification was a very frustrating thing… but it might have been just what I needed to fire me up for Saturday’s sprint in Lahti Finland.
It was a short flight from Stockholm to Helsinki and we arrived in Lahti with only one day to test skis before the world cup. The morning of the race I was feeling good but there was still a little bit of apprehension. I had felt great in Stockholm just a few days ago and had my worst World Cup finish in two years. I knew one thing though… I was going to push it as hard as I could in qualification to redeem myself from the fall.
It ended up being my best qualification of the year posting the fastest time, 1.8 seconds ahead of second place. It felt really good to put together a fast qualification. At 1.4 k the course was one of the longest of the year but still pretty flat with a lot of V2. There were also a few sharp up hill corners where it was very important to carry a lot of speed out of them. Warming down after the qualification I continued to feel better and better and somehow I knew it was going to be a good day for me.
The quarterfinal heats had a lot of close finishes making it important to use some kind of tactics early on in the race. In my first heat I pulled a classic stop and go on the uphill, where I slowed a little bit at the top of the hill in order to accelerate faster over the top of the hill than the skiers behind me. I moved onto the semi-final and had another close finish but edged out some other racers to advance to the finals.
This was only my second final of the season so I was feeling a little nervous, but at the same time knew I was skiing as fast as anyone else out on the course. After one false start by the Swedish skier we were out of the gate and jostling for position into the first corner. The trail was pretty narrow and there was some lose snow so being in the front was definitely an advantage. I slipped into third and held my position over the bridge and up the first hill. Around the sweeping corner at the top of the hill I tried to make a risky pass on the inside but was stopped by Swedish skier Bjorn Lind. He didn’t think it was very cool and gave me a stare down and a hip check before chasing after the leaders. (check it out in the video it’s pretty funny). After a little contact with Lind and some other skiers I was forced into last position going into the final hill. I picked my line and stuck with it moving into third position just as some skiers to my left got tangled up with each other. Off the downhill into the stadium I was third place position and able to get a good sling shot into second just before the finishing lanes. This was the closest had ever been to a win and for a second I though I was going to overtake the Norwegian but ended up crossing the finish line in second.
To be back on the podium after a season of ups and downs felt amazing. This was my best World Cup finish ever and gives me a lot of motivation for the remaining races of the year. We’re heading right back into the World Cup action tomorrow with the annual Sprint in down town Drammen Norway. This is one of the biggest sprints of the year both in the size of the crowd and the competition. It’s going to be an exciting day!