Sovereign Lake NorAms 2010

This weekend was my first chance of the season to battle the rest of Canada in the 2010 Sovereign Lakes NorAm. It started off yesterday with a 1.5km classic sprint. Before yesterday, I had never done a sprint over 1.2km, so I was very curious to see how I would fare in the longer distance. Despite a small concern of going out too hard and blowing up before the finish, I decided to go for it in my qualifier right from the start, and it ended up working out fairly well. I was the 4th fastest Junior after the qualifier, which put me in a good place to start the heats a few hours later. My heats went very well, skiing the best I think I ever have in a sprint. My technique felt solid and I managed to stay nice and relaxed for the majority of the time.

I was able to make my way into the A Final, after finishing 2nd in both my quarter and my semi. I got off to a pretty good start in the Final, tucking myself into second place going up the first climb. I stayed there until the bottom of the 2nd climb, where I decided to move up and challenge for the lead. With this being the longest hill on the course, I managed to break up the group a bit and Patrick (Stewart-Jones, Quebec Ski Team) and I led the way into the final climb. Unfortunately for me he was able to surprise me with an attack on the last clmib, and after a quick slip on my part, he was gone. I continued to fight hard into the finish and held on for the Silver medal.

The final results were 1: Patrick Stewart-Jones, 2: Myself, 3: Andy Shields

Today brought a 15km Skate Interval start race. Unfortunately for me, it would seem as though having to race through that sprint course 4 times yesterday really killed my legs, as when I woke up this morning my legs were pretty fried. This, for obvious reasons, did not play into my favour, and I ended up finishing 11th in the Junior category. It was a tough race on a very demanding course, and the conditions were not helped by the foot of fresh snow that we received overnight. I was a little disappointed with my race today, but overall it has been a great weekend of racing.

I will now take the next 36 hours to rest and recover from this weekend here in Silver Star, before jumping in the vans and heading to Rossland BC on Tuesday. The second NorAm of the season will be taking place there next Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the form of a Multi-Stage mini tour. This means that our times in the sprints and the distance race on Friday and Saturday will determine the order in which we start the final race on Sunday. This creates the effect of having the entire weekend seem like one big race, but with some breaks in between. I have never done a stage race like this before, so I am very excited to see how I will make out. I have been hearing rumors that the Rossland Ski Centre has made some changes to its sprint course in order to make it one of the hardest in Canada, so I can't wait to check it out on Wednesday.

I'll do another post after next weekend to let everyone know how things go, so until then,

Cheers!