AB Cup 1 & 2.

Well my first weekend of racing is in the bag. It had its ups and downs just like I expected but overall I think I can call it a success. We started off with a mass start skate race. I was pretty nervous about this one as I normally have a terrible start in mass start races and I wasn’t comfortable that I had the fitness to catch back up. Luckily this didn’t eventuate and I found myself up near the front early in the race. After one of the 4x 3.5km laps I found myself pushing the pace, eventually breaking away from the pack with an old Augustana teammate and good friend Andrew Brisbin.

[Leading the pack at the end of the first lap].

[Breaking away with Brisbin during the second lap.]

Once Brisbin and I secured the break it became a very tactical race, leaving it up to the final sprint to decide the outcome. I felt like my legs were good an was able to contest the finish but missed out on the top spot by 0.8sec.

Sunday was a totally different story. The race format was an individual start classic race. Normally this sort of event is my speciality however I was waxing my own skis for this race. Surprisingly for Canmroe the temperature hovered close to zero (the hardest waxing conditions). While I didn’t totally miss the wax my skis were slippery and I struggled to ski well on Canmore's tough climbs. I finished in 8th spot about 1.5mins behind the winner.

[All smiles after the Skate race]

As in all types of racing I never seem to have much time to dwell on poor performances and I set it my goal to master the classic stride this week. I feel as if I have improved a lot since the weekend and hopefully I will be able to test it in two classic races in Rossland this comming weekend. That is if it stops raining!! It is pouring rain at the moment, warm wet Dunedin like rain, not something I am used to during ski season. With falling temps and water logged snow I suspect the race course will end up fast and icy. A scary combination with flimsy classic boots and long skis. Hopefully the race organisers here can pull off a miracle and make the race happen.

Fingers crossed,

Andy Pohl