Lillehammer World Cup Mini-Tour

December 8, 2014

The first World Cup of the season is always a little heavy on the nerves. For me this year it was even worse and with an amazingly tough field here in Lillehammer for the first World Cup mini-tour of the season it only made things worse! Yesterday there were 120 starters – the largest World Cup field I have ever been a part of. For me, with the implications of this years preparations, I have done next to no sprint training what-so-ever. Both Sprint and distance courses here are arguably the toughest on World Cup, the vertical climb is torturous! To place 108th in Friday’s skate sprint in my mind was an ok result, and realistically on par with what I achieved in Sprints last year. After feeling good last weekend I was hoping to put down solid results in the two distance stages to come!

Lillehammer Stadium

Fortunately, a tough skate distance course is what I prefer so it got me a little excited to see what I could produce and how close to last year’s form I would be. Amazingly its even better. In terms of percentage and Points, it’s my best 10km result in World Cup and right up there as one of my top 3 distance results. With that I am completely shocked, but happy that the recovery plan has worked so well! In terms of position I climbed the ranks a little placing 99th which gives a little perspective on just how fierce the competition was.

For Sunday’s 15km classic, I had high aims of climbing further up the field – using the climbs to my advantage! Unfortunately it was disastrous. With snowfalls stopping just before the race, the chosen wax didn’t work. I struggled and continued slipping, each time resulting in severe jarring to my upper abdominal and chest causing the shooting nerve pains I have spoken about. The expenditure from day before along with this was too much and after one lap I began cramping in my diaphragm which hasn’t happened for almost one month. Continuing was out of the question.

Luck doesn’t always go your way, but I am satisfied knowing that I am right back up there with some of the best form I have had in a long time. Phil and I just traveled to Davos Switzerland to prepare for the next World Cup events this weekend. Looking forward to seeing a bit more of the sun here in the Swiss Alps!