A Canadian in Sweden

Hotingloppet

Well, that was a reasonably satisfying, if frustrating, return to the world of ski racing after a 5 year hiatus.

My time sucked. 2:26 for 40 km. Winning time was 1:57. So I am not terribly proud on that count. However, there are extenuating circumstances.

My skis sucked. Not the wax (Oh, I just know that this is going to spark a bunch of snarky comments from the peanut gallery), but the skis themselves. There is no way that a reasonable wax job (Yes! OK? I used wax! I admit it!) could cause such ridiculously slow skis. I even had my skis stone ground.

I know, I know, this sounds like a lame-o excuse. We have all heard it: "Ohhh, I had such a bad race today. My wax sucked..." Well, that is not what I am saying. I am saying that my skis were so unbelievably and demonstrably slow compared to the skis of those people around me, that the wax can't possibly account for it. My skis suck. Period. The whole ski. Not just the 1 micron thick layer of hydrocarbons that are attributed such magical gliding powers.

And I feel strongly enough about this that tomorrow I am going to go and purchase a brand-new pair of Fischer RCS's to ensure that this never happens to me again. Because when your fitness is very good and you are held back by equipment, it is not cool.

And my problem today was most definitely not my fitness. That is why I am actually reasonably pleased with this race. I destroyed people on the uphills. I was actually relishing the next uphill so I could crush another hapless Swedish dude. It was the same story every time: Burn up the hill like a man on fire, get to the crest and start double poling madly while all those guys I had just passed tucked and glided by me like I was standing still. The effect was dramatic enough that at around km 30, I skied up behind some dude and was about to pass him when we reached a 200 m downhill. At the bottom, he was 40 m ahead of me. Of course, exact measurements are impossible, but that is roughly correct. I would not hesitate to guess that my skis were up to 20% slower than the median.

And just to lay any speculation to rest: my grip was nothing great either. I didn't spatula on gobs of klister so I could run up hills only to have to run down the other side also. Normally if your glide sucks, your grip is OK. I wasn't so lucky. My wax was for temperatures down to -10, and at the start line it was -11 (C). Normally, that would be considered a good thing because temperatures generally warm up over ther course of a race.

There are few things I can think of that are more frustrating than passing someone on an uphill only to have them glide past you on the next downhill. It is just so damn unfair. But I guess that is the nature of skiing. But it is not something I need to accept lying down. This is one of those problems that does disappear if you throw enough money at it. You just have to pony up the dough for a new pair of skis.

I guess I am also glad I found out about this during a reasonably unimportant race. It would have been a disaster to discover this at km 10 of the 90 km Vasaloppet.

Next weekend I have another 40 km loppet, and if my new skis are not ready, I am borrowing my friend Håkon's skis. According to him, they were bombs today. Next week the course is much flatter which should, under normal circumstances favour me because I have been working on my double pole so much. So we will see how that turns out.

posted by Jeff @ 8:54 AM