Gary Jacobson wrote:

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

In retrospect, yes.

Watching it, it didn't really seem that clear-cut until shortly before
the finish, even though Vegard Ulvang commentation for NRK said that it
was a done deal almost as soon as Andres had made his second break (from
Olle) at the 7 k marker, and quickly got 3-4, then 5-6-7 seconds.

Remembering last year, I was still worried until they got onto Main
street Mora. :-)

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.

I think the real issue here, and the reason Anders could start in his
first Vasalopp ever and win it exactly as planned, was due to several
factors:

a) Anders' brothers have skied it before, and Jørgen has been very close
a couple of times, which meant that he _knew_ that it was possible.

After all, Anders has won one or two mass start world cup events due to
his immensly strong double poling.

b) With so much double poling, having world class ski preparation that
gives near-optimal glide all the way is even more crucial than in a long
distance WC event like Holmenkollen.

c) For the first time ever, Norway actually sent a team, and spent the
required time in the weeks previously to study the course, test skis,
and plan their strategy.


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.

I agree absolutely. Even after they started to beat the norwegians, the
estonian skiers have been popular.

Terje

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