Westerns

Westerns: I was in Canmore once again. It was a relief to have the trials over with and now it is time to prepare myself for World Junior's in Turkey this February. Raph and I decided to race senior as to have better competition and experience.

The first couple days in Canmore were cold. 10 to 15 degrees warmer than home but still a good minus 30. The forecast had Friday pegged at just above minus 20 (the cut-off for races). I put on my warmest long underwear; 260 merino wool Icebreaker. The first race was a 10km classic, individual start. I went out nice and easy because I know what those hills in Canmore can do to a man. Right off the start I felt my skis were hard to kick. In testing the day before I decided to go with Brent's second pair because they were faster than my first... rookie mistake. I should have known that Brent not only out-weighs me, but is also able to kick just about any ski out there. The wax was great, but the skis were too stiff. I had to work a lot harder than I should have to stride up the hills. "Steeper than a cows face" they would say in Alberta. To make thing worse, there was a drastic change in the weather, where it warmed up 10 degrees in a little over an hour. There I was in my wool shirt and long johns, desperately trying to climb the hills as I gasped for air. When it was all over, I was two and a half minutes off Brent's winning time. My first not good race of the season.

The next day was the Sprints. It was my first sprint in the senior devision. It was another hard sprint course, with gradual uphill leading up to a steep pitch before you go back down into the stadium. My qualifier was good. I was 14th. In the quarter final I was paired up with Jesse Cockney, Colin Abbott, Steffan Lloyd, Patrick Stewart-Jones, and Etienne Richard. We were all evenly matched throughout the whole race, skiing side by side and cutting each other off the whole time. It was a mad sprint to the finish where I ended up third behind Jesse and Steffan. There was five of us within one second of each other. Unfortunately I just missed out for the "lucky loser" and finished the day in 14th, same as the qualifier. A satisfying race.

Now it was the 15km skate. It was a pursuit start where we start in accordance to where we finished in the previous two races. I had some ground to make up from the classic race. I bolted out of the start to catch Etienne, Andy, and Patrick who started just ahead of me. Before long we were skiing as a pack and reeling people in. On the last lap we had lost Etienne and Patrick and picked up Steffan and Harry. We all had Raph and John in our sites leading up to the finish. with about 500m to go I found my self with a pole between my legs and flat on my face. I got up quickly as I could but I was clearly out of the sprint by that time. It was a disappointing way to finish the race but I was happy with how I skied leading up to the fall so it was a good race all the same.

Back in rainy Quebec now. Next on my list is Easterns but right now I'm focusing on the snow fort Etienne and I are building in Camille Pepin's front yard.