Hi everyone, Lauren here. Logan and I earned starts in Lahti, Finland, from our SuperTour results for those who might not have heard. We hoped over across the pond last Monday, February 21st. After a very long travel day (28 hours), Andy, Logan, and I joined the Olympic crew. Because of the Olympic crew's travel from China, the crew was a bit tired and dealing with jet lag. It was nice not being the only people dealing with those midday naps urges. It was cool to hear about the Olympic team's experience in China, and I recommend reading Hailey Swirbul's blog about her experience, which you can find here. Hailey gives a refreshingly honest take on the experience in a covid-19 Olympics complied with the pressure and stress Olympic athletes face. We tend only to remember/see the few moments of glory at home watching on TV. In those moments of glory, there is an immense amount of hard work, sacrifice and pressure behind them. Only a tiny percentage leave with medals, making it seem to some (primarily spectators) as a failure if you leave without one.
Back to the World Cup! We landed Monday afternoon in Helsinki, and we made our way to Lahti that evening. It was a short bus ride up to Lahti, where we settled in for the week. The following day, Tuesday, was a slow morning as we were all catching up on many missed hours of sleep. To wake our bodies up, Julia, Hailey, and I went for a light jog through Lahti. We found some single track running in a park right above the city. And later that day, we skied on the tourist trails above the venue; the race trails are incredibly challenging and not conducive to a nice, easy ski. However, the tourist trails are SO NICE! I'm not sure how many kilometers of skiing the tourist trails have, but it seems like you can ski forever, going from town to town. The tourist trails were the team's go-to on the easy training days to ensure skiing well but maintaining an easy pace.
The next day we checked out the venue, and there's simply no other way to describe how felt than starstruck. Three massive ski jumps sit to your left as you rip down a screaming fast downhill into what seems to be a medium-sized fútbol/soccer stadium, but for cross-country skiing? It's safe to say none of our ski venues in the states look like it. When you're dealing with international travel, it is often better to air on the lighter side of things for intensity, but on Wednesday, I jumped in behind Julia Kern for some speed intervals (some shorter intervals to wake the body up but not break it down). In the past I found myself a little flat if I completely forgo midweek intervals.
On to the exciting part, the teams filed in as the weekend crept upon us. The racecourse was packed with people I've only ever seen on TV; it turns out they're just ordinary people who are even more impressive in person. Friday rolled around, and I jumped in the pre-race workout with the rest of the girls' team. We did one lap L3 and one lap L4 of the sprint course. Then we did around six speeds in different areas of the racecourse. It was just below freezing and dumping snow, so it was very slow and mushy. I felt okay, but my legs felt a little heavy while skiing through the slush, so I kept the workout short. Later that day, the start list came out, and wow, I've never felt so nervous in my life! However, I feel super lucky because the girls' team went out of their way to make me feel welcome, walk me through anything new, and hype me up!
I pulled back the blinds after a fairly restless night due to nerves, and it was a classic Colorado (Montana, I guess, too) type of bluebird day. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, the sun was shining, and the trees were covered in snow. Somehow, I got my pre-race oatmeal breakfast down, Jessie braided my hair, and we were off to the venue. Andy helped me test skis, and I did my usual sprint warm-up. The snow was completely different from yesterday's slushy snowstorm; the course had a lot of variability of snow because of all the fresh snow that fell the day before. It made ski choice interesting because I liked one ski in some spots, but it was not as good in others. Thankfully Andy has immense experience in ski selection, and I let him make the decision. Lining up into the COOP race banners with the TV right infront of me was a surreal moment! I smiled and was ready to execute. The course starts in the stadium, heads out over a bridge, up a big climb, 180s back down the bridge, passing the stadium to skiers' left and the jumps to skiers' right, hangs a right up a huge climb, 180s back down to the stadium and into the finish. The Finnish fans were so loud it was surreal. The race itself went by so fast, a lot faster than I thought it would. With the combination of yesterday's slow snow and the very long sprints on the SuperTour, it was a little bit of a shock to the system to only race for three minutes and thirty seconds. Overall I'm really happy with how I felt, and I think I skied the course well. I could have skied a little bit gutsier, but I learned a lot about what it takes to take it to ski in the heats.
The men quickly followed the women's race, and my teammate, Logan, skied incredibly well! He finished 34th, just .6 of a second outside the top 30. This was no surprise to me, but it is really impressive for his World Cup debut! He skied so well that he was offered a spot to start the next World Cup sprint in Drammen, Norway. Logan and Andy traveled to Drammen with the rest of the US Ski Team on Monday to prepare for the race. Unfortunately, I don't have a start in Drammen so I went straight from Lahti to Falun. I will start in the classic sprint in Falun on March 11th, so I'm doing a little training camp here in Falun. Falun has surpassed all of my expectations. I'm excited to spend some extra time exploring Falun!
You might be wondering, where the heck is everyone else? Good question; everyone on the team (except for Logan and I) crushed the American Birkiebiner last week in Cable, Wisconsin. Stay tuned for a blog with a full race report. But after the Birkie, part of the team headed back to Bozeman while Hannah, Mariah, and Finn headed over to Italy for OPA Cup Finals in Sappada. They are currently doing a pre-camp in Toblach. Expect lots of pictures from them! Thanks for following along on our adventures this winter!
