The first race of the Tour de Ski was a skate sprint. I have never been one to excel at sprinting but with having Andy Newell as my coach the past 2.5 years, my sprinting has improved dramatically. I have gone from struggling to qualify for heat to competing in and for the final! However, world cup sprinting is a whole new ball game. I used this race as a pre race effort for the following day.
The day of excitement and chaos on the world cup is unlike anything in the US. The amount of staff, media, organization and control, is a little overwhelming at first. But, it's just a ski race at the end of the day. So I got a solid warmup in and talked with my teammate Ben after his finish and before my race, he told me to just go out hard! So that's what I did, and through the first split over halfway through the sprint, I was in 18th place. I received this news a few hundred feet up the trail, but obviously didn’t believe it. How could I be in 18th place in a world cup sprint race? With not doing pre race the day before, I didn’t know how to ski the gnarly downhill corner fast. I nearly fell, and narrowly stayed on course. I lost a few seconds there which in a sprint race turned out to be nearly 30 places. I didn’t expect to make the top 30, but to know I have the speed, I was content with my first world cup.
The following day was a 10k classic pursuit start race. The top 30 in the sprint got a time bonus, but after that it was solely based on the sprint qualifier. That means about 10 guys were starting every second. I started 1:15 behind first place but with a pack of 60 guys. It was very hectic, but I tried to keep my cool. It is a very different game mentally, when all the guys around you are equally strong and fighting for every position.
I am continually learning so much every day here on the World Cup, and there are a lot of fun races ahead. I am feeling good and hopefully with more days, I will be more acclimated to the WC environment, and be able to fully focus on my race and fitness. For now, it's off to Germany for a 10k individual classic and a 20k skate pursuit!
