The Races:

I have a lot to tell, it has been a lot of racing for our team and an overall good week for the USA. All the results are kind of bitter sweet as we had many crashes in just about every race that cost many of us the result that we are capable of. It is too bad when we have so much talent on the team and we get unlucky at the wrong times.

I put a few of my favorite pictures here...(click here) check them out and see where some sweet racing pics.

Race summary's below...

Race 1: SPRINTS

Juniors...I forget exact results all I know is that the girls had a very solid day with many top 30's (3 I think). Then on to the guys, Kevin Cutts had an outstanding qualifier and was 6th or something then in his quarterfinal crashed on the last turn costing him moving on to the semifinals. soooo close.

U23's...We did not have any women in the sprint race. For us guys we had Mike Sinnot, Simi Hamilton, Karl Nygren, and Me. Once again falls were not good to us. In my race I was feeling very solid and I am sure I was having a good race then it all went down. Near the end of the course you do a long gradual downhill that ends with a sharp steep little climb that you can glide up most of the way and cruise down into the stadium. Well at the bottom of that final hill I somehow hit a small bit of ice or something, I still don't know what I hit, but before I knew it I was on the ground and at a dead stop. It was not good, I now had to get up and V1 up this hill that normally takes like three V2 strides to get over the top. So my race was over very quickly which is a bit of a bummer as I think I could have done well that day. It is all part of racing and you just have to go on and race again so that is my plan and I will have a good sprint race one of these days.

Simi also ended up crashing just up the hill from where I crashed but I think he was able to get up a bit faster and was near the top, so he was able to qualify for the quarterfinals. Mike also make the quarterfinals. The first round of heats was very exciting and Simi was looking very good and near the top of the course got a little tangled up and went down again, he was able to finish 5th in his head due to a couple others going down in the stadium. Mikey was in the only heat that nobody crashed in, he was just a little out of it due to where he was positioned coming into the stadium. It seems as though the day could have been much better without the crashing.

And some other trivia: Robin Bryntinson of Sweden was the winner with Cyril Miranda of France taking the silver medal. Both of them left immediately to get up to Stockholm Sweden to take part in the World Cup sprint around the palace. Cyril was able to get 5th and Robin was in 7th in Stockholm, it was cool to race those guys and then see them do well a couple days later on the World Cup.

Race 2: INDIVIDUAL CLASSIC

Juniors...I am not to sure again, check out the FIS site for results, I do believe the girls had a solid day with a few more top 30's which is sweet. In the guys race, I think Noah had a great race, he was 12th, very cool. Then Reid had a solid race with about 34th or so. It is good to see the juniors having some good races.

U23's...Liz, Taz, and Morgan finally got a chance to race. I don't think they were exceptionally happy with there result, but I thought it was a good solid day for them they were all around 20th place I think. As for the guys, none of us were happy with the way we raced. Mike was our top finisher in 50 something and then Ben, Simi, and I brought up the end. Martin Jaks of the Czech skid a very solid race and won by 30 seconds. Jaks is a solid World Cup racer, he has had a few top 10 placing's on the World Cup.

For my race I was pretty excited to do a 15k classic, I had been feeling good about it all week, it seemed as though my body was all ready. Then I started racing and my body was feeling great for the first 4k, I felt like I was not working too hard and my skis were very good with great kick and glide that was among the fastest out there. I was able to ski with people easily. Then all of a sudden it was like my upper body was not recovering from the climbs and I was just getting more and more tired and going slower on every downhill. My breathing was also not very nice to me, everything seemed to hurt. So I was 4k into a 15k and dyeing very hard and fast. It made for a tough race, I did not walk the hills, although I wanted to like nothing else. I felt I was skiing faster in my warm up than was I was able to put forth in the race. The worst part was on the biggest climb of the day, there were tons of fans cheering people on and that is where I was hurting the most, and with all the people their, it was not fun. I was able to beat a few other guys. It was by no means how fast I am capable of racing. It was really bad timing for a rough race. I would rather be feeling good for World Championship races. But I guess that is the same for everyone, you always want to be able to put your best race forward in a big event. I have been having a hard time racing distance races well in Europe. I seem to loose everything I have when I am in Alaska. I can still sprint well, just the longer races kill me. I need to raise my fitness level enough so that if I have a bad day I can still go very fast. That is one of the goals for the next years training.

Race 3: MASS START SKATE

Junior...The girls were not super happy with there results, I think they were solid but no one really good. In the guys race Noah had a very good race, but just a rough mechanical issue about 100 meters into the race. With the mass start format it was very congested for the first bit and Noah got a bit tangled up in a crash and broke a binding right off his ski. He was in last place by a long ways leaving the stadium and was able to catch back up to the lead pack and ski well the whole way, I did not see the race, but it sounds like he could have had a top 10 which could have been great. Max had a solid race, he finished in 31st I think.

U23's...Liz, Taz, and Morgan each had an outstanding race. They all skid very well throughout the race and with 1 k to go were placed 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. It was amazing to watch. Then on one of the final downhill corners there was a crash and Taz and Morgan went down and got passed by a couple others. In the end Liz was able to sprint for 3rd, and I think Taz and Morgen were top 10. It was a race that went so well til the end when it could have ended up so much better. It is too bad when crashes are what determines where you finish... As for the men, Mike had the bad luck this time with a crash just out of the start which put him at the very back of the pack. So he ended up passing half the field in order to ski a strong race, but he could have been much better I think. Ben had a good solid race, he skid well the whole way. It was sweet to watch Dario Calogna of the Swiss team took the lead, the Swiss fans were out in force and every time Dario would be within sight, which was pretty much the whole race they would start clanging bells and screaming his name. I decided not to race due to how my classic race ended up and how I was feeling. I am glad I did not race, I did not really feel like that was the race for me. I always struggle a little at altitude and just when I was training between races and watching I could tell I would have suffered big time and not been where I would want to be.

Race 4: JUNIOR RELAY

The final event of the championships is the relay. The relay is a lot of fun for everyone to watch and compete in. In recent years they have shortened the races to a 4x3.3k for women and a 4x5k for men, with the shorter races it gets very exciting and this year was no exception.

For the girls, Ida started us off in a hectic busy start and had a very solid leg to be just behind the lead pack. Then Sadie took control and passed several teams and made up a huge amount of time on the rest of the field while also skiing to the 3rd fastest time of her leg. It was sweet watching our team move up so much. Then in 3rd leg, the first skating leg was Sophie. Sophie skid a great leg as well and held the team pretty steady. I think they were in about 8th or 9th place. The final leg went to Alexa who held on to a couple of hard charging teams. It was a fun race to watch.

The dudes all had great races as well. Leading out was Reid who was leading after about 1km and then got a little tired but still was able to hold strong to some very fast juniors. Then Max did about the same and looked great, the classic skiing was getting soft and tracks were getting wet. Next came Noah and Noah skied like a champion, he passed several teams, maybe four I think, he is a machine, if there were more climbs he could have moved the team up higher be he was able to deliver the team into 7th place which is two places higher than last year. The final leg went to Kevin. Keven did not give anything up, he even gained a little time on the skier in front of him. So to finish 7th in the relay is one more step that we have made and it was sweet to watch.

All in all it was a good week for the USA, although many of us had some issues with crashing and broken equipment, we also had some very positive results. It was fun to watch. It was my last U23 trip, I have now been on 3 of them and 2 world junior trips, so next year I do not know what I will do. I am really loving my yearly trips to Europe, there is talk that a few of us may go over for some OPA cups next year to beat up on some euros.

The travel on the way back got a little interesting due to a storm that hit Munich about the time it was time to leave. We had to sit in the plane on the ground for 2 hours before we could leave on our 11 hour flight to Atlanta. Since we got into Atlanta 2 hours late I missed my other flights so I had to get a hotel and continue the journey one more day, oh well, at least I was able to get out of Munich when I did, I hear that others may not have been so lucky.

UP NEXT:

The next stop for me is Canadian Nationals, we leave on the 14th for those, I will get a team sprint, 10k classic, 15k skate, and a skate sprint. It should be a fun week. Then from Canada we go straight on to Fairbanks for US Distance Nationals where I will get a sprint, 10k, 30k pursuit, and a 50k mass start classic race. Then my season is over and I will begin training for next season...