Backdrop: Rob Hardy's great "Poem About Global Warming."
I was pretty revved up to ski-race on Saturday at the Crazy Carleton Classic Relay on Saturday, but alas, it's not to be. The predictions of -10 ambient temps (minus a zillion with the windchill) have worked their black magic and the race has been canceled. Even the International Ski Federation's official rules mandate cancelation in such conditions, so this is probably a good decision.
Instead of actually racing I'm going to look forward to some ski-race spectating via the web next week: four World Cup races at Canmore, Canada. The Americans and Canadians are, by all accounts, rather revved up for the competitions, which will see the Europeans jetlagged and out of their element. Because the races are in North America, both the U.S. and Canada can send many more athletes than usual, so there are huge contingents of racers from those two countries.
For both those reasons, I hope for some good results from the North Americans in Tuesday's skiathlons (Kris Freeman putting it all together?), the sprints on Wednesday and Saturday (Kikkan Randall or Andy Newell or Torin Koos or Devon Kershaw winning on the home continent?), and the interval-start distance races on Friday (Freeman for the U.S., Nighbor for Canada?). Here (via American racer David Chamberlain) is a skier's-eye view of the almost-always-decisive descent into the stadium at Canmore. The scenery's decent: