Thanks for being patient on this one, I was busy enough during the tour to not write anything down, and just started school again, so it’s taken a bit to get on top of the blog. However, I know how cool of an experience the tour is (and seems to be from the outside) so I want to do it justice here. I’m just going to start with pictures and a run through of the week, kinda journal style, then put some better thoughts at the end. :)

Welcome to the show. Val Mustair, Switzerland. 2 days before the first race.

View from the room. Watching some old World Cup racing.

Pre-skate sprint testing. Sunny and cold!

Video screenshot from the first race (skate sprint)

Ended up 31st in this qualifier, less than half a second behind my teammate/roomate Kevin Bolger. Had to let him have it, poor guy is used to being in sprint finals now. Wasn’t bummed with it, I think I did a good job in my race execution. Also I may have been a little bit excited to not race again, because I got to save that much energy for the rest of the tour. Whoopsie!

Dr. Greg came! (as team doctor for the tour)

Walking the streets of our little village

Video screenshot from the final 1km of the skate pursuit in Val Mustair

Didn’t get many pictures from the race days, they tend to feel like there’s not much time to waste. Especially early in the tour, when our team is extra focused on limiting time on skis/outside/at the venue. A big part of success in the tour is not spending energy where you don’t need to, so we tried hard to spend as much time as possible chilling.

The first weekend of races didn’t go super well for me. The sprint started fine, then I really blew up on the 3rd of 4 laps in the classic mass start. The pack stayed together for the first half, and I started accelerating when everyone else did, but I just didn’t have enough to hold the pace. I also was too focused on the action around me, and not focused enough on my own effort, and realized I was over my limit a few seconds too late. I was able to fight through that last lap for 36th, but it felt bad to drop through the field. In the pursuit, I was able to move up to 32nd in the tour with a 28th time of day, so I salvaged it a little bit. The difference was a stronger attention to my physical red flags (heart rate and muscle feelings). Overall, the grinding courses at 5,500ft in Val Mustair seemed to not serve me that well, but I was happy to have only 2 days before another fresh start!

Classic testing on a perfect day with Karel!

Feeling really lucky to be able to see all these amazing places, even if I have to ski as hard as I can for most of my stay at some of them.

FIRING. Helped along by big yells out of Dr. Greg

The first day in Toblach (stage 4) was a skate 15km individual start. My focus for the race to was to start easier than I thought I should (up the first main climb) and then try to sustain and build pace at the end. It went well, and I neared the top of the climb feeling relaxed, but got a split that I was tied for first, so I knew it was a good day! I kept it steady through the next 5km, and then the eventual 2nd place finisher, Denis Spitsov (Russia), caught me and the other guy I was leading, so I got a good ride from him to finish the second lap. On his second lap (my last lap), he skied very fast up the hills, and really helped me push into the finish. I crossed the line in 2nd (no leader’s chair…yet), feeling like I had done a great job using my energy where I could and finishing feeling perfectly spent! I started my cool down before the race was over, so I didn’t know how I was doing at all, except that it was at least a solid race. When I came back to the wax truck, Matt Whitcomb was stoked and gave me a big hug, but I still didn’t know exactly how I did. Fun to hear my time held up well!

This race was big for me because it was a good support to my confidence, showing I could at least scrape the window of the top guys.

From the skate race cool down, knowing I did well but not my final place (sorry about the boogers and pro bar crumbs, gotta get that food in ya know!)

Part of the fun of the tour is that you always have another race to focus on, no matter how you did. I rode the fun feeling of 14th through the night, got a massage, and started visualizing for the next day.

Skiing in the second chase pack in the classic pursuit

The classic pursuit was extra fun because I got to start in a position with some really good skiers. I was able to work well with them just holding a pace. Helped push us along a little bit, maybe a little too much near the end. I didn’t have much energy to finish with and drifted towards the back of the group for the finish. Another fun race to ski tactically in a group!

Thankfully I had my trusty team doctor to keep me company

The only annoying part about anti-doping was that I had to wait for 2 hours after my cool down to get my blood drawn. The race was at 3:30pm, so that meant a later departure than was planned. It all worked out because I got to eat nutella/banana sandwiches all the way to Val di Fiemme, and talk about how to cook leftovers with our team nutritionist, Alan. (Thanks Alan, if you’re reading. The sandwiches and tips on old noodles were perfect.)

Always fun to see an iconic venue for the first time (Val di Fiemme, World Champs 2013)

Really capitalizing on a much needed rest day. Sunny and perfect skiing!

In the tour, you get 2 rest days, and people take a lot of different approaches to them. The most common is probably to just ski easy for a little bit and test skis for the next day or few days. Some people also do almost nothing if they are really tired, but I found that it was most helpful for me to do some light intensity both days, to “keep the engine running”. I felt like a fully off day would make me feel sluggish and flat, so I kept the pressure on, so my body didn’t have time to really enter too much of a restful state. These days were still significantly less stress than race days, but just enough to keep me “awake”. That intensity was 2x4min at 30km race pace for the first day, and just 5min gradual downhill double pole the second day.

Getting some food and warmth between classic sprint qualifier and heats

The classic sprint was good for me, it was really fun to qualify and be able to race my second World Cup heat. Sprint heats are a great place to pick up tactics and just generally how fast skiers ski. I ended up in a mediocre position going into the last downhill and didn’t have the double pole finish speed to back it up but I still had a good time.

14km into the 15km classic mass start with the leaders in reach.

Thankfully I still had a good amount of energy going into the last 2 races, which really helped me feel confident in a generally slightly more tired field. This race, the 15km classic mass start, I started in the 7th row, bib 33, so my plan was to chill back there until the field started to spread out, allowing for easier passing. This ended up taking a lot longer than I though it would, with the main stretch-out starting at a time bonus on the 4th of 6 laps. I had been skiing pretty steadily between 40th-25th before that, but that opening allowed me to move up more. This race I was also reminiscent of my Val Mustair classic distance race, and was attentive to how I was feeling. This got exciting on the start of the last lap, because I did a little self-check and I was still feeling energetic and strong, and I knew even if the pace really heated up, I’d have some energy to respond. That’s basically what happened! On the longest climb, DeFabiani (Italy) started to push and I found myself shoulder-to-shoulder with Bolshunov with under 1.5km left! That was a crazy feeling, and as I got closer to the finish in 5th, I realized I needed to look ahead to the podium, which was a crazy feeling in a World Cup, and a feeling I haven’t had in racing yet this year. I ended up losing a couple spots in the end, but the feeling I got from being so close to the front of the field was enough to make me incredibly stoked! That was the kind of race that makes me love racing, and I’m really proud with my execution.

The camera helicopter flying around before the start of the final climb

On the middle of an alpine hill (from Caitlin Patterson)

Gonna burst people’s bubble a little and say that the final climb wasn’t maybe as hard as everyone makes it out to be. This is only because you can only go so hard before your body shuts down, and I think I’m pretty good at getting there in any normal race. I will say it is a pretty absurd event though. There are some spots on that hill where you turn a corner and just look up and whimper. Ended up 19th in that one, and I was just happy to be done and to have accomplished such an iconic event in nordic skiing! If you told 12 year old me I was going to be finishing the tour this year, he would’ve absolutely believed you, but would’ve also been hyped.

I’m so thankful to and proud of this whole team in the tour. We had so many finishers, including 3 of the 10 EVER U.S. male finishers. And obviously we had an overall winner, just check the New York Times for info on that one. But it takes so much more than that— from our PTs, coaches, wax techs, nutritionist, doctor, and all of our supporters at home— our team has so much help to do our jobs, and we are incredibly thankful for everything. I hope we can return the favor now and every weekend by racing hard and doing well!

Podcast with Ian Harvey about the tour (48min)

Thanks for walking back out to cheer us on, Jessie :)

Now we’re in Seiser Alm, Italy for an 8-day recovery camp, before moving on to the next World Cups. This place is amazing, and it’s giving me good time to start school and enjoy some of the prettiest skiing I’ve ever done. Hopefully we can regain some energy before Lahti in a little over a week…

Among all of this very race-focused action, it’s easy to feel disconnected from normal life, especially back at home. For me, especially, it can feel kind if ignorant to be focusing so hard on cross country ski racing when climate change, Covid, and American political issues continue to get worse. However, I think it is still worthwhile for me to continue doing the best I can with the amazing opportunities that I’ve earned, as I think I can do more good with a sport-elevated voice than I could without it. That, combined with the vocal support I get from people I both know and don’t know, makes me really believe that I’m doing the right things. Maybe this sounds like me trying to get rid of guilt but it really comes down to an appreciation of everyone that follows and supports me through this career, it truly does mean a lot. If I can give people some fun news and distractions, I’ll count it as a win!

So thank you for reading, and I hope I can provide some entertainment the rest of the winter!