Well my hopes were dashed.
It seems that Aukland won decisively.

These FIS marathon races are interesting as the factors that come into play
get amplified over time. I assume that as they are always head to head and
flatter than 50 km WC courses, strategy and psychological gamesmanship is a
bigger issue than in say the Hollenkollen 50.

I find it interesting that a WC skier like Anders can do well in such a wide
variety of events, like "short" pursuits and the 90km. Vasaloppet. Makes me
wonder if other WC skiers could just jump into FIS marathon cup races and
dominate them. Maybe across the board their physiological adaptations and
training are specific enough for these "easy and long" races. I wonder what
skier has had good results in a single year or two in both sprint and
marathon distances.

The idea of the FIS Marathon Cup was, I believe, to offer older WC skiers,
and skiers not able to truly compete in WC events a venue to show their
strengths.

BTW, my buddy who is just about to finished his 31st (or 32nd) Vasaloppet, a
nonSwede, is Jan Vadlejch who happens to be the manager of Rezac.

I must say that there is something about the skiers from former Soviet
dominated countries, like Olle and Rezac that gets me to root for them.

Gary Jacobson
Rosendale, NY

"Terje Mathisen" wrote in message
...
Greg Fangel wrote:
1 Anders Aukland 177 Norway Vasaloppet 03:48:42
2 Raul Olle 6 Estonia Vasaloppet 03:48:54
3 Jörgen Aukland 2 Norway Vasaloppet 03:50:43
4 Oskar Svärd 1 Sollefteå SK Vasaloppet 03:50:58
5 Marco Cattaneo 199 Italy Vasaloppet 03:50:59
6 Daniel Tynell 7 Falun/Borlänge SK Vasaloppet 03:51:01
7 Peter Edén 239 IFK Umeå Vasaloppet 03:51:27
8 Lars Carlsson 238 IFK Umeå Vasaloppet 03:51:31
9 Stanislav Rezac 3 Czech Republic Vasaloppet 03:52:03
10 Karl-Gunnar Skjönsfjell 186 Norway Vasaloppet 03:52:12

May I remind you all what I predicted/hoped for a few days ago:

Terje Mathisen wrote:

Anders Lustig wrote:

"Gary Jacobson" wrote in
message .. .

May I boldly predict a win for Stanislav Rezac this year. That's my
hope, and it is surely a possibility.

Seconded.

I'm hoping for one of the Aukland brothers, Jørgen has been very close
a few times, and Anders did win Marcialonga.

1971: First Norwegian victory

All together now: "...and the last Norwegian victory!":-)
Well, in any case, the *only* Norwegian victory. So far...

I know!!! :-(

I've already twisted somthing in my shoulder, otherwise I'd do a Jay T
and dislocate it patting my own back. :-)

Terje

--
-
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"