On Dec 15, 8:47*pm, Terje Mathisen wrote:


Since Terje is mysteriously silent despite Petter Northug having the
best distance race of his life in Davos, I'll take this opportunity to

"Best distance race of his life", after winning the previous world cup
race in Finland?
What do you mean?

"The best distance race of his life in Davos." Do you say "en hund
begraven" in Norwegian, too?

His previous best in Davos was a 34th and last year he finished 55th.
It could be that he doesn't really thrive in such mid-season, non-
championship altitude races and that the course in Davos doesn't suit
him because its potentially lethal "first up until you're dead after
the first loop if you're not careful, then down but without any real
recovery" nature hits his physique, physiology and psyche harder than
some others.





Heikkinen was _very_ impressive, I got to watch just the last parts of
his race after skiing the longest round so far this season.

His lap times were within 10 s and his last lap was the fastest.
Reportedly he kept his HR to about 170 (when his HRmax is 190) for the
first three kilometers. His technique during the third lap was
certainly much nicer to watch than that of some other skiers.

It probably also helped that he knew from last year that Davos suited
him. It remains to be seen, though, how well he will be able to do in
Whistler where the course and the conditions may not play to his
strengths - but our hopes certainly didn't take a nosedive!


Rauland has 1m snow depth, and beautifully set tracks on pretty much all
the trails. :-)

For a little bit of Schadenfreude of sorts, view http://www.fmi.fi/?map=lumi

Until Monday we in the south hadn't had any sub-zero (C) temperatures
to speak of, either, and the snow cannons that are used to make the
two pre-natural snow tracks in the greater Helsinki area have stood
idle. Now that they are working full time, skiing enthusiasts know to
begin expecting warming temperatures and rain...

The tracks in the "Arctic Sport Center" that opened in August have
been a bit of a disappointment and quite frankly I don't enjoy skiing
there so much that I could do it more than once a week and my
competitive instincts have grown so weak that I really don't see the
point of going there more often.

(BTW although the "ski hall" seems to be popular - there are 30-60
cars parked outside during all opening hours - the company is already
in need of refinancing its loans due to higher than planned building
costs. The "ski tunnel" in Torslanda, Sweden, has similar
difficulties.)


Seems like one of those "one country hit the wax, the others didn't"
races, and most of those have indeed been in favor of Norway.

It also took some unexpected depth of field to get a result like that,
IMHO.


Anders