Starting with the photo dump, with little captions to hopefully make a story. Some insights into early racing at the end if you so desire.
No racing pics from Beitostolen, but it was cold! Flew Oslo-Zurich, so it was an easy travel day.
Again, no racing pics, but Davos went great! It was the first 20k individual start, and I felt like I skied smoothly, both in terms of technique and pacing. That’s pretty key on this rolling altitude course, if you go too hard at any point, it can be hard to bring it around. I also got lucky because I got a ride behind Holund and Krueger for a little bit, but still felt like I struggled to push super hard at the end without fading in terms of speed. That last bit takes a lot of sharpening!
Insights
My gut feelings about my racing this chunk of the season was that it was generally a little lackluster, but with some moments that really shined through! That’s been a little hard to deal with, mostly because it had translated to being a little on the bubble for Tour de Ski starts through Beitostolen. I’m really excited with my progression, though. I think my original plan (which I’ve had to remind myself of) is actually going well, and I’ve been feeling steadily fitter. I do still have to remind myself of that plan, or revisit my fall goals, because it’s easy to feel like I’m not getting the results I want. It’s a good exercise in patience and delayed gratification, and I still believe it’ll work out! But for now, I gotta just sit tight.
Beyond those feelings, it’s been a great start to the winter tour. We’ve had some amazing weather in some amazing places, and the team has had a great atmosphere and results to go with! It’s a really good momentum to feel a part of, and I can’t wait for all of us to really start popping big results!
I’ll have a tour review also, but for now thanks for looking at a bunch of pictures with not much thought!