30k recap

Sorry this is so late. Since arriving back in the States I’ve been extremely busy catching up with school.

I ended up racing the 30k. I probably wasn’t at 100%, but I really wanted to race it. I got out and skied a warm-up and felt good enough to race. For whatever reason I ended up grabbing my skis really late. I had a choice between the Atomic Worlducp, mine being for cold and hard conditions, and the Fischer Carbonlite, for warm and soft snow. I only had ten minutes to the start, so I asked Sam what he picked, and he told me the warm/soft. So that’s what I went with. The Fischer’s are new boards and the 30k is the first time I raced on them.

After some confusion figuring out where my spot was in the chevron start, I was ready to go. Sam and I were seeded very near the back, so when the gun went off we started out fast but shortly were skiing very, very slow. An accordion effect happened when the pack reached the first little climb, about 100 yards up the trail. So we were barely skiing up the hill. Once we reached the next climb, one of the two big climbs on the course, it had spread out enough to where we could actually ski. As we skied by the television camera, it had panned to the front of the pack, and the Norwegian skier in front of me managed to jump in front of the camera and block its entire field of view with his face.

The start. Sam and I are in the upper left corner.

I stole this picture from the official Universiade gallery.

Once we had gotten settled in, Sam, an Italian guy, and myself were skiing together. There was another group not too far ahead of us, they were consistently in sight, that we were trying to catch but we never made it to them. On the third or fourth lap Sam and the Italian guy dropped me on the second big climb, and a skied alone for a bit until one of the Mongolian skiers caught up to me. I skied with him for most of the race.

When I talk about two “big climbs,” I am not trying to say they were the only climbs. Rather, there are two climbs, one about 1km in and the other around the halfway point of the lap that are particularly big climbs. Every other climb on that course, and there are a bunch of them, are incredibly steep, and long enough to make you hurt. Just not quite as long. The course in Strbske Pleso is undoubtedly the most difficult course I have ever skied. And I have skied a few homologated FIS courses in my day.

I digress. The Mongolian skier, Achbadrakh Batmunkh, and I skied together throughout most of the race. I could tell he was feeling a little better than I was, because he would slightly pull away on the climbs, and I would catch back up on the downhills. The descents on the course are fairly technical, so it is extremely important to maintain form on them. I was doing a better job of that than he was, and my skis were faster, so he wasn’t able to drop me.

Suffering. Picture is also stolen.

On the sixth lap, the lead pack lapped me. I looked back at the turn around point, where you start to head back towards the stadium, and saw them coming. It was perfect timing because when they were about 25-30 yards behind me, there was a TV camera and it was a long straightaway. So I got some nice air time there. Then they made the pass right as you come into the sprint loop, where there are cameras everywhere. Wow, those guys are fast.

At the start of the last lap, we caught Sam. He was now skiing alone. When we hit the big one at the 1k mark on the lap, we lifted the pace a little bit and were able to drop the Mongolian guy. Sam and I skied through the rest of the outer area together I think, but he started to pull away because he had one more gear that I just didn’t have in me. I had no kick at all at the finish. Sam ended up putting like 30 seconds on me in the last half k or so.

To wrap up the WUG trip, I would like to thank a few people. First off, everyone who has donated, as well as everyone who supports this team in other ways. Thank you. This team could not exist without you, and we appreciate every penny. Secondly, the coaches. Christi, Rachel, Anna, and Willie did a phenomenal job in all fronts on the trip, not only waxing, but also being out there on the trails to give us splits and feeds every lap of an eight lap course. Also, they work tirelessly behind the scenes with logistics and planning. I want to thank Jenn, from BTI, for all the work she put into this trip for us, and for being out on the trails to cheer us on, and for her kindness to me while I was sick. Tina, a Slovakian girl who volunteered to be our attaché, for assisting us with everything we needed the entirety of the trip, and for wandering around Strbske Pleso with Sindre and I in order to translate our interviews with locals about carbon offsets. I would also like to thank my teammates for their constant support for me and each other, always. 

WUG was quite the experience. I am honored to have been able to represent the United States overseas. Thanks for reading.