Success on the OPA circuit

Success on the OPA circuit

I am back on track, all cylinders are firing again!!!!! I was happy to have rehabbed my arm as fast as I did and then put it to the test. After getting my first two races in 6 weeks under me in Germany it was time to move to Italy. We packed up and drove down which was a real interesting drive. Once we woke up the next morning I was happy to see the sunshine and great trails as per usual in northern Italy.


It was time to ski easy and let my body recover I know that I had done a lot of training last 5 weeks so I just need to chill to get ready for the three day mini tour event from Friday to Sunday. Classic sprint -10km classic-15km skate. I was excited about the classic sprint. I could feel my body come around starting to feel snappier every day I was ready to race again. The classic prologue was almost perfect qualifying in 2nd 0.24 off the leader.

(photo credit Kevin Sandau)
Through the heats and right to the final I had control and could really finish strong, winning that day meant a lot to me. After being left off the world champs team (still don’t know why) and having my fractured arm made standing on the top step feel so good. Finally I am back and fighting to win again I was super pumped.


The following day was exciting as well being the leader and heading out with everyone chasing you really get’s the nerves going. I skied with two other Italians we where racing for the podium. They had a strong day and where really pushing the pace every lap to drop me. I skied strong but the last hill got me and they managed to put a small gap on me and I could not close it before the finish. Placing 3rd was satisfying, sweet two podiums I was a happy camper. The next day 15km skate not exactly my strong suite. I fought hard staying in the top ten finishing 7th. For me the skate was the best of the year.



Coming home with those results under my belt felt good and now I can have two weeks of solid training to get ready for nationals in duntroon Ontario. It is not where I wanted to be at this time of year. But these are the cards I was dealt with, I do look forward to these races and can’t wait to race for the win.

OPA races in Germany

OPA races in Germany

After flying over and arriving in Germany ready to finally race again. We drove up and I was happy to see a lot of snow and great temps for skiing. I have never raced a day and half after arriving in Europe so It was going to be interesting to see how the body would react. Plus I have taken 5 weeks off of racing due to my injury. Waking up on Saturday morning I was excited to race (classic 15km) and was ready to get some good distance results.

I started the race fairly good I was 4th for a while then moved to 6th-8th after 8km and then my body felt the none racing and I started to loose my speed. In the end I was 13th. I was one minute off the lead which I was not excited about, but I know if I was in my normal shape the top of the podium would be possible. Sunday came rolling along quite fast. The jet lag has been pretty good; Saturday’s sleep was a little disrupted and broken up.

(photo credit Kevin Sandau)

The Skate sprint was up next and I was really pumped ready to rock it out. My body was not quite where my mind was, i seem to be missing some snap. I believe not racing for a long time and doing a lot of volume has taken the snap down a few notches. The qualifier was not what I was capable of, so I went into the heats ready to turn the day around. I had a good start and was positioned well. After a large large climb I was sitting in third getting ready to go back down and use the sling shot effect. As planned 2nd and my self blew by 1st and we started heading up a small hill then to the finish. I had one of the guys to my right not sure what he was going to do but all off a sudden my skis slide sideways and I end up scrubbing some speed . He tried to pass on the right but there was no room for him, not sure what his plan was but him hitting my skis cost me a lot of speed. I was still in second trying to build the speed back and then a fellow Canadian cruised by me, I tried to get back in the game but it was too late. The day ended up quicker then expected. Looking back it was a medium weekend; the racing will definitely help me for the following weekend in Italy. Where I plan on stepping it!
Wish me luck, till next time.

Back on track to the European racing scene

Back on track to the European racing scene




I was not expecting to head to Europe this way. I am crossing the pond once more this season, I thought I would be heading to Europe to race at the World Championships but the powers above thought other wise. My plan has since change and now I am heading overseas to race OPA’s (B-world cups). I have had a crazy month with injury and not being able to race my own Canadian world cups, and then not being selected to the World champ team, WHAT THE!!!!!

But on the bright side I have recovered from my shoulder injury faster then most people thought I could. Now that I am not going to world champs I have had to make my own race plan and that is to race some very competitive OPA races. It will consist of two weekends of racing 5 races to be exact. One weekend in Germany and one weekend in Italy. My goal is to try hitting the top step of the podium during the weeks of racing. I have bin putting in a lot of hours since my injury, I believe that I am in good shape and I can’t wait to show how strong the Canadian contingent is. The weather here in Canmore has been pretty weird and the snow just does not want to cover the bow valley it’s a bizarre year for that. Across the pound is a different story there is no shortage of snow so the skiing will be wonderful where ever I go.




I really look forward to racing since it has been so long since I put a race bib on.

Look forward to the positives!!!!

Look forward to the positives!!!!

Last Weekend was full of racing and cold weather. We started the week with what was supposed to be a 30km pursuit on Friday which ended up being moved to Monday due to arctic temps. On Saturday we had a skate sprint which was bitter cold, you could here the snow squeak every time you poled and barely glided forward. For me those are extremely hard conditions to ski, because the snow is so slow in makes the racing even more muscular which doesn’t favour me at all. I skipped the next race on Sunday because it was a skating 15km and if anyone knows me they know that race is not for me. On Monday was the 30km pursuit which I was looking forward to because the pursuit is a fun race and it is the qualification race for the pursuit in whistler in two weeks. I had a tuff night sleep and I did not feel well at all in the morning or through out the day. I tried my best to hang in as long as I could but I could not stay with the leaders past the classic part of the race. Unfortunately that means I will be watching the 30km pursuit in whistler. Then came Tuesday the final race of the weekend and my favourite, the classic sprint. When I am on form I feel pretty confident that I can one day climb the podium on the world cup, so I used this race as my warm up to whistler and to really try dominate the qualifier. Which I managed to do quite well. In the heats I was moving through quite easily till the A final where I tried something new and it back fired, I ended up coming in 4th. But I know where I stand and I was happy to try something new because you never know if it might make the difference on that special day.

That Tuesday night was a dreadful night for me I grabbed my hockey skates to join the rest of the ski gang on the rink to play a some good old Canadian pond hockey. In the end I wish I never found my skates but that is in the past and I have to look forward. Once I lased up I was on the ice skating and passing the puck waiting for the rest of the guys to show up. I took a pass and went to make a turn, my skate hits a rut and I go down. I landed funny on my left arm and herd a weird sound. Boom I knew something was not right. I hope through the night it nothing major but only get 1 hour of sleep proved that I was in pain. After some physio and x-ray’s thing where not looking to good. Talking to our team doctor and shoulder specialist it looks like I have a tiny fracture where my tendon meets the bone in the my shoulder. It was extremely hard to take the news because this means no whistler world cups… I thought to myself this cant be happing, I have been looking forward to showing the world what I can do on our home course in whistler. My goal was to make the A final and challenge for the podium.

Now I will be staying at home and working with our medical team extremely hard to get me back in the game in time to join the team to head over to Europe and prep for the world championships in February.

Good thing i have Postive family / friends / and team behind me

I have to move forward positively and not think of what I could have done to prevent this. I have just around one month and 11 days to get myself back into race shape. Luckily I can still ski and keep my self in shape that way, I will be skiing with only one pole as the other one mends it self quickly I hope. Wish me a speedy recovery so we can rock the world champs as Canada has had the most amazing start to a season and I am sure the men and woman will prove to rock more result at the Callaghan.

Stefan

Home for the Holidays!!!!!

Home for the Holidays!!!!!

The team before we all go our own ways (davos sertig valley)

As much as i was disappointed about not being able to start the Tour De Ski due to not being healthy, i am really happy to come home and recharge the batteries and Enjoy some much needed family time. It was a good travel home other then not getting my luggage till 3 days later. We all know the airports in Canada where pretty overloaded with either snow, people or both. I was just happy to touch down in Calgary and make my way On highway 1 west to Canmore.

After taking 5 days off of training because of being sick made it impossible to ski well in the Davos which was a real downer, but as soon as the weekend is over the next weekend of racing was insight and that gives you something to smile about. I took an extra day off on Monday just to make sure the body had enough time, and energy to get rid of my head cold. Then the training started slowly, i only had time to do one hard session which was very difficult and i sure did not feel snappy like it did in Grenoble France skate sprint. So i was a Little nervous traveling to Dusseldorf on Friday. On the world cup if your not 100% healthy your going to get your but kicked. I had a good start number ( 8 ) I was still ranked in the top 30 for sprinting. I skied pretty good considering where i had come from being sick and missing a good chunk of training but it was not enough. So I packed my bags and hoped on the plan off to Canmore with a smile.

I took the Christmas time pretty chill with training and just enjoyed the festivities. and then saw off my wife at the airport she is going to go travel Costa Rica/ Belize / Nicaragua which is going to be allot of fun for here, but it was sad to see her go.

Now i am starting my ramp up of hours to get some volume for approximately 2 weeks and then taper it down for the Whistler world cups. The Canadians are going to rock house!!!!! We have some qualification races in Canmore on Jan 2-6th but i will just train through those and use them as good hard works outs, so that i am lighting fast in whistler.

see ya on the trails all bundled up!

Stefan

Davos Home away from Home.

Davos Home away from Home.


I love coming to Davos, the Kulm hotel does wonders for us, great food, beds, duvets, sauna, easy to get to the ski trails. Always great weather and lots of snow… Enough to make you want to go shred the alpine hill sometimes!!!! After arriving from Scandinavia we had a short stop here in Davos, then off to Grenoble for a city sprint.

Which is exciting it was a great prologue for me in skating. The heat’s where tight with everyone trying to position them selves for the final straight. I got in a tangle up with two other skier’s which ended not so well. I lost the group and finished 4th in heat and 17th overall. After that it was off to La Cluza which is a beautiful place and my first time there.

It was planned to raced the relay. In the end we had a team mate toss his cookies the night before so we had only 3 out of the 4 skier’s racing so we did not finish, but it was a good work out anyways.

We drove the next day back to Davos, ya ya ya. I got back into my normal routine for training. I was excited for the weekend to come along, classic 15km, and skate sprint perfect races for me to continue my great start on the world cup. I think with all the travel, my body had no stopping power against a head cold. I woke up on Wednesday morning, moved out of my room into a single room to insure not to get any of the other team mates sick. Since Wednesday I have been patient and sleeping and drinking lots of water. I made the call this morning before the race not to race. Very hard to not start a race with perfect tracks, and atmosphere. I hope to be in a better health for tomorrow the skate sprint, cross you fingers for me. It’s hard to chill and be patient but when the body says chill out you need to listen. So I hope to be back to normal health soon……

WOW what a weekend!!!!!!!


I am so happy to start the year off right with an amazing classic sprint on Sunday. I was very confident coming into the sprint race. The ski's where amazing and so was the body. In the qualifier I followed my plan perfectly leaving a little juice for the last steep hill into the finish. With a big lounge across the line I looked at the score board and was stoked to see 21 beside my bib, YES I qualified. Now onto the heats which were really exciting with a fast down hill right off the start you really had to position your self well. I had all cylinders firing and moving up slowly from 5th to 2nd on the last hill. Then around the corner to the finishing stretch to 4th, this is where I made a small error with trying to be too quick and slipping back once or twice. But in the end I was just a hair to slow to move to the next round. I was very excited to start the sprint world cup now ranked 15th.

Sunday was a new day, but instead of me concentrating on that new opportunity, I was still thinking about the last day; Whops. I learned a lesson there and will remember to move on even after a good day of racing or bad day. It’s important to start fresh every each morning. My sleep was not the greatest either I was pretty excited all night. I know I have a lot better result in me for the next 15km classic in davos. Trust me on that.
Hope the racing is going well.

Stefan