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First Race - Fairbanks of Europe
The Fairbanks of Europe
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\r\nMuonio Race Number one
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\r\nThe season is here. While the first World cup is still two weeks away, today was our first real race of the season.
\r\nThese races are important to Finnish skiing as they are qualifiers for the World Cup in Kuusamo (taking place in three weeks). They are also the first opportunity for the many national team skiers training here to test themselves against the rest. Since there is no better skiing in Europe right now there are a lot of national team athletes from different countries here and so the field sizes were big.
\r\nMuonio is a popular spot for early season skiing in Europe. There are a few other pockets of early snow, but Muonio is dependable. In this way it is the Fairbanks of Europe. However Muonio makes Fairbanks seem highly accessible and down right cosmopolitan.
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\r\nOur aim going into these races was simply to race well. We had no result goals as we have just come here from altitude and from the US so we have some adjusting to do. Last year it took 21 days for us to have a good result. That puts us in Ostersund, Sweden – just in time for the first world cup. On this day our only goal was to ski as well as possible, which is a combination of technique, pacing/strategy, and attitude. In reality this is always the goal, to perform at our best on that day. This is not to say our goals are never outcome oriented (we are aiming for the podium this year) only that to achieve a great outcome the real goal must be performance rather than outcome oriented.
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\r\nConditions were good. We raced on a 5km course with one killer hill and two other good climbs. Temps were around freezing with new snow last night, but no snowfall during the race.
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Kris with Trond yelling splits.
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\r\nHere are some abbreviated results…
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\r\nWomen 10km classical
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\r\n1. Natalia Baranova-Masolkina RUS 27:29
\r\n2. Kirsi Vaelimaa FIN 27:30
\r\n3. Virpi Kuitunen FIN 27:45
\r\n4. Justyna Kowalczyk POL 27:47
\r\n5. Evi Sachenbacher GER 27:58
\r\n31. Sigrid Aas NOR 30:08
\r\n38. Wendy Wagner USA 30:35
\r\n53 finishers
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\r\nMen 15km classical
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\r\n1. Axel Teichmann GER 36:55
\r\n2. Tobias Angerer GER 37:05
\r\n3. Andreas Schluetter GER 37:22
\r\n4. Jens Filbrich GER 37:35
\r\n5. Karl Gunnar Skjoensfjell NOR 37:37
\r\n18. Kris Freeman USA 38:36
\r\n30. Justin Freeman USA 39:27
\r\n39. Carl Swenson USA 39:49
\r\n52. Andrew Johnson USA 40:10
\r\n87 finishers
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\r\nAs a coaching staff we are pleased with how our racers raced. They did not look as snappy as they can be but this is what we expected. Technique wise, fitness wise we are very confident. We have two more weeks to acclimatize and train before the first world cup.
\r\nTomorrow we have a 5 and 10km skate. Andrew Johnson (back permitting), Carl Swenson and Wendy Wagner are registered to race.
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\r\nCheck in again for further reports from Europe.
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Andrew on the killer hill with the pine, swamp and lake filled plains of Northern Finland in the background.
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Written By: petevDate Posted: 11/6/2004Number of Views: 267
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