After a week of training in the beautiful mountain village of Praz de-lys we had our first race of the week, a 1.5 km classic sprint. Going into the day my goal was to place top 30 and get to know what its like to race against an international field. Turns out the course couldn't have been better for me and I was able to lay down a 13th place qualifier. In the quarter final I felt super strong but I think a few small mistakes may have cost me a position, putting me in 3rd for 14th overall.
Next for the pursuit day I was feeling good and was able to turn out a good result despite having a really rough classic leg. The layout of the course made it really tough for nailing the wax everywhere. Unfortunately we along with a few other countries missed it for all the hills in the back of the course. The whole classic became damage control, herring-boning up the slightest incline and having everyone ripping past you with perfect striding. Coming into the skate I had been redlining the whole way and managed to latch on to a group with Thomas Bing, Thomas Northug, Musgrave and a few others who dropped off. Musgrave broke from the front of our group on the first lap and we continued to lean out our group. After a lap I began to feel better and knowing I had lost any sprint in the classic, I moved to the front and led the last two laps trying to drop Bing and Northug. Unfortunately they stuck it out and dropped me going to the line landing me in 15th.
I think the race could have gone considerably better but I am still extremely happy with a top 20. Heres a video from the start of the pursuit with David Greer leading alongside the likes of Petr Sedov and Tim Tscharnke!
The 10 k skate wasn't my day. I didn't have any problems just couldn't keep a good pace going. I finished in 25th place which Im still somewhat happy with.
Day after the skate was the 4*5 km relay. Our team in order of starting was me, Jess, Ghislain and David. Off the start everyone was jostling for positions and the tracks were over capacity with people breaking equipment all round. I tried to remain calm and hung around the back for the first lap. When things had spread out a little I moved to the front and just as I got there the Russian took off. I jumped in the track behind him and we were able to make a small gap on the field. Coming in I lost a few seconds on him but was still able to tag off in 2nd place. We drifted back slowly over the next few legs but managed to pull off 9th with some good skiing by dave.
heres a video from the last lap just before the exchange.
Great striding Graeme. You even had your following in France.
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