Sunny Whistler
We woke up this morning to the first sunny day in Whistler since we arrived last Friday. In the short time I’ve spent here, I’ve realized that there aren’t that many nice days in Whistler, but the days when the sun actually does come out are beautiful!
As of today, all of the American athletes are in town. Several skiers opted to stay in Anchorage for a few days after Nationals to help with the Fast & Female clinic or compete in the UAA Seawolves Invitational. Congrats to Brian Gregg for his win in the 15km mass start skate! Now that we’re all here, the wax cabins are filling with skis and flouros and the World Cup atmosphere is finally palpable in the stadium.
The Americans will be competing in different events this weekend, so everyone is out doing their own workout out here to get ready for their race.
Matt Liebsch was out hammering a combo threshold workout, doing the first half on classic skis and the second half on skate skis to prepare for the 30km pursuit.
Mikey Sinnott was out doing some double-pole over speed sprints to get his tempo up for the Classic Sprint on Friday and testing his speedy Salomon boards.
Evelyn Dong is taking a brief hiatus from her Worldloppet endeavors (of which she is the series leader) and honing her skills on the World Cup instead. Look for the reigning Birkie Champion to score some valuable World Cup points this weekend!
Dark-horse Lars Flora is ready to have a breakout race this season and show how it’s done when it matters most. Lars looks to improve upon his impressive race on the same trails last spring when he took 3rd place at Canadian National Championships by double-poling his way around the 10km classic loop.
It was impossible to catch Caitlin Compton on the course today to get a photo. Must be a sign of good things to come from the newly (re)crowned US National Champion.
Stay tuned as we close in on Vancouver 2010!
