Good Result at Rossland NorAms

Qualifying in the 1.4km Sprint race. (photo cred: Jesse Winter)

I have just returned to Whistler after my 3rd weekend in a row of racing in the pre-Christmas campaign, and have accomplished my top result in over a year.  On Friday I was 12th in the 1.4 km Skate sprint event that saw the best of Canadian and American skiers currently not on the World Cup (and I was 8th Canadian in an event where the podium was swept by members of our 2010 Olympic Team).  More importantly, I was 3rd Canadian U-23 - an indication that I am indeed in the mix of U-23 athletes attempting to qualify for a sprint spot for the 2011 World U-23 Championships in Estonia.  With the trials for U-23s taking place in good old Tbay in just over 2 weeks' time, I have some work to do over the holidays.  Luckily, I was able to convince my family to come to Whis for Christmas so as to reduce travel and stress for me in the lead up to my main objective for the year (thanks mom and dad).  With amazing ski conditions in Whistler, I am looking forward to a productive and relaxing holiday in my home training environment. 

Quarter-final action in Rossland (I am on the right of the shot).  I was stoked to move on to the semis.  Unfortunately, I was a little too burnt from my quarter in order to be any kind of threat to move on to the A-final.  (cred: Jesse Winter)

 I am #113.  The course this year was much more difficult than the previous Rossland sprint course and featured a hard climb off the start and a high-speed doozie of a corner mid-course. (cred: Julien Locke)

 (cred: Julien Locke)

 (cred: Julien Locke)

(cred: Jesse Winter) The NorAm in Rossland was the much-anticipated and first ever mini-tour format race in Canada.  I was in good standing after day 1 having been granted 30 bonus seconds in the overall with my result of 12th place.  Regretfully, I threw it all away in the 10km skate on day #2, when a poor race was compounded by difficulties of staying on my feet.  Being a few minutes off the pace, I was nowhere near being in any sort of contention for a decent cumulative result for the final and deciding 15km pursuit start classic.

 The classic race was a good race for me.  I paced it well, conserving energy when possible, and battled it out at the end with a few others.  I also achieved my best distance CPL result of my career, attaining just shy of 90.  

In closing, I would like to thank our wax crew for preparing awesome boards each and every day of racing thus far this year.  It makes it easy to perform my best when the skis are doing half the work.

Happy holidays,

T