frenchfry said:
.... And since I am French and Canadian, the Harvey result is great news! His father was one of the greatest Canadian cyclists and X-country skiers of all time.
i am almost a fan of harvey...
that info about his dad i did not know. thanks. there is a group of 5-7 xc skiers whose results i follow closely. alex is in that group. this start of the season is excellent, perhaps, best in several years. he's going to be
at least in the top 5 in this mini-tour. I like his skating technique and i always seek his post-race comments on fasterskier.com...
btw, if you have time and interest, fasterskier.com is easily the best english language xc hub to follow the sport with. i think they are canada-based and usually focus on n. americans. anyway, their race analysis imo are frequently superior to the scandinavian portals. if one cares to the extent i do about waxing, race tactic, athlete perceptions of each other etc, they are a must...
here is the last article about the yesterday's sprints...alex offered there some some valuable insight into his form, his competition, the conditions....
http://fasterskier.com/article/golb...win-harvey-fifth-in-lillehammer-skate-sprint/
...about the just finished lady's 5k skate.... One word - boring. but less so than the sprint yesterday. had i been less of a fanatic of the sport, i's stay away from watching. thankfully, the were noticeable spicy observations: the muscle woman failing to beat johaug...the horrible sight of justyna's skating style, reaaaally ugly !...the uneven fight of kalla...that niskanen sister is quite fast (and pretty)...
..some other impressions from man's sprint yesterday.
i played 5 times the semi were northug was dq-ed 5...well, he was clearly wrong. what stood out for me was that he still managed to lose the face-to face final sprint to both ustiugov and the eventual winner...he did. and it was not the 1st time this season, which is is a bit surprising...what does it mean ?
too early to say, but he may be losing some of the sharpness to his unparalleled weapon ? either way, his accelerations up longish hills were most impressive, meaning he's in excellent aerobic shape. could go into top 3 after the today's 10k skate...