Head Coach Blog
Roy Young is the Head Coach. Below you will find his blog.
Reflections on Oslo 50k
The hardest 50k in the world?
The Norwegians claim it is. In training earlier this week it didn’t seem too bad. Sure, the first 3 k goes up hill with an occasional flat bit. But then you get a 1.5 k downhill to recover in (the downhill does have a couple of corners that need concentration to negotiate). Today’s Holmenkollen 50k may or may not be the hardest - it’s the first World Cup of this distance the British team has done, so I couldn’t say. What we do know is that it had 28% of the starters pull out.
Andrew Musgrave had high hopes of doing well here. He has been intrigued by the 50 k for at least a year and after the win last week and his like of hard skate courses and mass stars, we felt the omens were good. Unfortunately, he nearly had to join the 28% when a fall after only 3 k left him with a broken ski. Nothing if not determined, Andrew skied the next 5.3 k before being able to change his skis. This left him near the back of the field and totally by himself. The ideal way of skiing a long distance race is to try and tuck in behind someone else so you get an easy ride (much like someone in the peleton in a bike race). Andrew has found the hard route in both his last mass starts, the Olympic 30k pursuit and today. In the Olympics it was 27k by himself after being pushed over by an Italian, today it was 47k alone (he knew those Norwegians who thought the race ought to have stayed as a time trial were right). Andrew said the worse thing about today was realising as he was skiing the second 8.35k loop that once that was completed (16.7k) he would still have the whole of the pursuit distance to go.
As the kilometres ticked by 2 epic battles took place. Apparently there was a fantastic race at the front with 2 French skiers trying to break away from the skier of the moment Petter Northug (see http://skierpost.com/index.php?/20100313697/News/a-norwegian-day-in-holmenkollen.html). In our camp we had no idea about this as we watching the epic Andrew was having as he battled his way round. Northug won (just from the Italian Piller-Cottrer) and Andrew controlled his technique to keep in the race. On the final 4 k Andrew moved closer to the guys who had got away by skiing in a small pack and on the final climb caught Jens Arne Svartedal. He finished in 49th, further behind the winner than he would have liked. But there had been 69 starters and this had been a gutsy performance.
We can’t say this is the hardest, but we can say that the atmosphere and racing were incredible. I noted last night that the Canadian’s had around 20 support crew for their 4 skiers who all reported struggling in this race (http://fasterskier.com/2010/03/canada-struggles-in-50km-arritola-and-gregg-lead-us/), so we should very much like to thank the supporters who helped Andrew today. Andrew Young (obviously) for drinks, Peter the Luxemburger for juice, Geir-Endre Rogan for wax, Mika Polson and Frank Hegaboe from Hoveden and Per Nymonen who did drinks while directing the feed station.
Editors note: apologies no web links available at present. Please cut and paste into your browser.
A Quick View of Oslo
Preview of Oslo Cross-country World Cup
by Head Coach Roy Young
British Nordic Ski Team athletes Andrew Musgrave (20) and Andrew Young (18)
Report from Friday March 12th
Drammen sprints yesterday had 50,000 people watching - on a Thursday afternoon, this is not a bad turnout.
And now for the big one. The Holmenkollen 50k is based around the new (rebuild) of the ski jump that overlooks Oslo. For the past few days tents and encampments have been springing up along the 8.35k loop that the race will use. The over-nighters (some, no doubt ,with slight hangovers from the many parties planned for tonight) will be in the best positions for watching the race. I'm not sure that they needed to build a stadium or redesign the course to bring the skiers through the stadium 12 times before they finish, as the Norwegians will be all along the course anyway.
Not only is this a new facility for this year, it is the first time the race has been on the 8.35 loop. Traditionally it has been on a 16.7k loop. In another break with tradition this is the first Holmenkollen 50k that will not be a time trial. A mass start has not gone down well with some in Norway. 
Our support team is going to be interesting tomorrow! In typical GB team shoestring style Andrew Musgrave (Muzzy) will be tackling the 50k race with myself and Andrew Young as his only support. The Canadians reckon they will have 20 people supporting their team of 4. How come? First there are the drink stations (best practice to have 2, 1 in case the skier misses the first), second there is the ski exchange; skiers can call in at a pit stop to change skis up to 3 times. There are teams who will be testing their wax for the whole of the race as conditions can change a lot in 2.5 hrs. When you add in the coaches who will take the used skis from the pit stop and dash it to runner who will run the ski to the wax room (about 750m and a climb of 30m) and the waxer who will re-wax the ski before it makes its way back to the pit stop the support adds up. Will Muzzy even get juice? Fortunately the organisation is going to put out one drink station and we also have a friendly Luxemburger (who is also helping the Swiss tomorrow) who is going to have some back up juice. Andrew Young will be in place for the mid 2 laps to make sure that there is definite back up.
Note I said “facility”. Under the snow, which is unusually deep at the moment, is a roller ski track. There are also lots of state of the art things in the set up - the one that hits me is the vacuum cleaner in the wax room! Gone is the broom (well actually it is still there) and at the flick of switch the wax is sucked into the bucket.
Just as an aside, I think many in Britain will be surprised that there are lots of Oslovians who were very pleased that the temperature went above zero yesterday for the first time this year. Many have had their annual dose of skiing and want to move over towards their summer sports (our hotel sits between 2 huge marinas).
Tomorrow is sure to be a great experience and one that Muzzy has been looking forward to – his first ever 50k race. Just being here has to be a learning experience for all us; this is the venue for the 2011 World Champs, and it will have its rebuild completed by then.
Setting sights on Youth Olmpics 2012
The Cross country qualification criteria for the Youth Olympics 2012 are now out and it looks like there will be a sprint (Men and women), 10 k for men and 5k for women as well as a mixed relay with Biathlon. Age range: those born in 94 and 95.
The top 7 nations in “Marc Hodler Trophy standings for CC at Junior World Champs of 2011 (as well as the host nation) qualify 2 men and 2 women. The following nations scoring points in the Marc Hodler Trophy standings are entitled to 1 starting place in respective gender until the maximum quota is filled. Any remaining places will be distributed (with a max 1 M or W per NOC) by FIS to NOCs not yet qualified and applying for quota place, in consideration of international representation throughout all FIS disciplines at YOG
Max number of places 90 (each nation maxes at 2 men 2 women)
The Marc Hodler trophy is awarded based on position of the best 2 skiers in the World Juniors (but I think it may be a bit more complicated than that but I can’t find a reference for it on the FIS web site. I will ask FIS about it. In the meantime here is a note about the trophy from a news report
As in 2009, and most years since the introduction of this coveted prize in 1999, Norway won the Marc Hodler Trophy that rewards the best nation at the Junior World Championships. Germany took 2nd, while Russia was the 3rd most successful nation. For this prestigious team trophy, nations are awarded points according to their athletes' rankings, whereby a maximum of two competitors per nation may score points in the individual races comprising eight Cross-Country events, three Nordic Combined and three Ski Jumping events in the junior category.
In practice I think this means GB cross country is likely to have 1 Male place and the liklihood is that at WJC next year we may have Andrew Young, Callum Smith and William Newman all fighting for one place. Thats tough on the guys.
In Biathlon : Sprint (7.5k men; 6k women); Pursuit (10k Men; 7.5 women) Mixed relay and the mixed relay with CC. Age range: those born in 94 and 95. Quota to be determined by World Cup Nations Ranking from the 2010 – 2011 season:
Nation cup places 1 to 20 will get 2 quota spots; places 21 – 29 will get 1 quota spot and
1 place for host nation. (I assume the Nation cup places will be looked at on men and women.) There are 100 quota places (each nation max at 2 men, 2 women).
The "Other" Opening Ceremony
Its been a busy time here in Whistler and luckily we've not been asked to attend many functions, but there was one. We went to a reception at Nita Lake Lodge, in Creekside, the evening before the Opening Ceremony. The British team at both sites were linked by teleconference for a few speeches from Lord Moynhen (Chairman of BOA) and Alan Hunt (Chef de mission and BOA Chief Exec) and interviews with the athletes. It was good fun and had some serious comments from the BOA big guns. (The BOA is certainly fighting for winter sports to be better supported - see the BOA web site).
There was also the small matter of announcing who would carry the flag at the opening ceremony (Shelly Rudeman if you didn't see it). At Vancouver Sue Baker hosted, while Claire Balding did the honours in Creekside. The BBC has it that the cross country skiers are the babes of the team (including a theme of questions for AY on being 18 during the Olympics He keeps pointing out that he's not allowed alchohol in BC until he's 19 and in any case he racing the day after his birthday! Anyhow, Claire Balding was superb and really energetic in going round the room, talking to the athletes and funny with it. After more good food we were scooped up and shuttled back to the village at 9.15. Early night.
The next day was the opening ceremony, which was overshadowed by the Luge fatality. However, the Vancouver opening was pretty good and I really liked the "Slam" poem. The cross country athletes had opted not to attend the opening as it was going to be a long day and would not allow us to train. In fact all the athletes based in Whistler opted to stay, so we met at the dinning hall at 5, had dinner and then took our flags to Athlete Village plaza in the pouring rain. Some Sky blue folk joined us and then took us to the National Olympic Committee room where they were watching it on a big widescreen in the dry. Much cheering and flag waving ensued as the countries came in . We did see Shelly but not Bengt (although his sister says she saw him in Sweden, which would suggest better coverage than here). Actually just after that some of us began to feel really tired - the early dinner made it feel a lot later than 8.30 and there was a sort of drift to bed. Jason, Jacko and I stayed to watch and marvel at the no security for Wayne "the great one" Gretzky as he made his way to the waterfront cauldron. We spend all our time going through security.
Anyhow, Andrew and I recovered from our soaking yesterday and the track did likewise. They've experimented with some chemicals to harden the snow and are saying that they will use it if they have to, but the forecast is for colder temperatures so they are hoping not to need it. So the course was in pretty good condition today (in comparsion to the conditions of yesterday afternoon). Its good job that we've skied in the Clash!
There are 56 nations registered to race in cross country. This is the largest number of nations in any competition here. Of those 18 are seen as developing nations - we know that we are one, along with Australia, New Zealand, Peru & Ethopia.
Talking of Ethiopia. I went up to the team meeting with Robel but as he wanted to go wax his skis, I represented him at the meeting. This involves shouting "yes" when they do the roll call and handing on all the notes to Robel afterwards. But just for a moment I was in the green, yellow and red. Robel also has dreadlocks, which I can't match anymore. He arrived in Vancouver to a hero's welcome, flags all over the airport - he reckons 10,000 Ethiopians live around Vancouver with another 50,000 in Seattle, so he's a bit of media star. He is a genuinely nice guy and hopes that for 2014 he doesn't qualify because another Ethiopean skier has beaten him!
More porridge - Take 2, 3, 4, & 5!
Well the great porridge debate continues GBTeam Video stars on BBC. Not sure where the cinni minis come from or if there is a possiblility of a sponsorship deal? BOA press guy just laughed his headoff last night when he saw Muzzy's video - he got away with it!
TAKE 2 - Today we met Rob Walker BBC Commentator for all Nordic events. (Remember Rob from Beijing Olympics who boarded the sailing boats to get interviews after the regata). He is a really nice bloke and came up from Vancouver to interview Jacko (biathlon) and us.
At 2:30 we were standing in the stadium in heavy falling wet snow demonstrating that klister works best when there are tracks for doing classic (rather than the beat up mush that was there - more of this later). Andrew Y, Fiona, Bengt and I were in front of camera. I think the first 2 did well, although it has to be pointed out that I was sidetracked into taking photos of the one of the jury members - a really nice guy who thinks his uniform is akin to snowboarding - but then cross country needs to get more in the face of the younger generation. The side track included the some silly suggestion on how to make Andrew's interview more lively - before we were moved away for making too much noise! However we do need to watch for Fi's visor when she is talking (prizes for spotting what happens.) Bengt normally has great English but showed how nervous the camera makes you, as he appeared to impersonate Sven! So this makes my performance equally excusable - we all know I don't normally talk in English anyway!!
Muzzy has been in the gym in the Village, which was invaded by the world press (on open day), so we arranged for Rob Walker to come down and meet him. Rob wrapped up his shoot in the stadium and then set off. We cleaned up the skis and wax room and set off. Muzzy did some stretching and then set off. Unfortunately, Rob ended up having to wait for a car to collect him, so we were back showered and in dinner before Muzzy was interviewed. (Interviews can really interfere with your plans!)
A special mention of thanks go to Jan from BOA staff who stayed with Muzzy all the time he was away trying to do the interview - Jan also spent 6 hours waiting on our wax kit and wrapped skis to arrive from Canmore - a real heroine and good person to have around!
Saturday will have us back to our normal race schedule and then its pre-race day. This will be different for me as I will be trying to help Jacko and the biathlon team, which may be more a challenge for them than for me!
Then its Monday - will it be porridge or Cinni Minis? Hmm! We shall see who lasts longer or skis faster?
Canmore waxing lyrical
The Canmore sprints were blessed with another sunny and fine day. The day belonged to Justyna KOWALCZYK and Emil Jononssen. Bengt was made even happier by a close friend of his daughter doing well - Ida INGEMARSDOTTER took the silver. From our team AY had the best of the day with a really good 60th. All 3 feel there is more to come and a bit of rest and speed work is planned for the comming week.
After the races we packed the wax cabin and found we were 3 ski bags short of a full house (a miss communication with HQ meant that they had not followed up as planned). So some resource hunting resulted in us wrapping the skis and having them ready for our bus by 3.30. It was bit pityful to see our small pile as the Russians loaded a whole bus (the big tour type bus). In the end we had to wait a long time before we could wave bye to our kit.
Canmore to do - shaking off jetlag!
Today was a big day in our preparation for the Olympics. It gave us a very hard work out (its a tough course here in Canmore - the cameras don't focus on the toughest climb, I think this might be because some of the skiing on the 3rd lap is not pretty).
We've been working pretty hard in the run up to this race, clearing jet lag and the effects of a long travel. The trio have been in great spirits and are getting there, today was about continuing to sharpen what we do, both as athletes and support team.
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