So Favre's Packers won't be the team to end the Patriots' "Pursuit of Perfection" (has there been a more annoying sports phrase since "Threepeat"?). American nordic skiing is on the eve of its own Super Bowl of sorts, the World Cup events in Canmore, Alberta, between Tuesday and Saturday. Though I already blogged about the events - toward which all the top American and Canadian racers have been training for a year - it's worth seeing that U.S. head coach Pete Vordenberg has raised the stakes rather high: "We'll be disappointed if we don't get at least one podium. It's cool that we've got three athletes who already have been on a World Cup podium - and Kikkan [Randall - Anchorage, AK], of course won last month in Russia. So, I don't know who it's coming from, but we're looking to see someone back on the podium."
Until last season, no American had won a podium place in more than 20 years, so this is placing a big bet.
The courses at Canmore are very hard, with constant ups and downs that don't allow the racers much time to recover. The only meaningful flats in Tuesday's pursuits will come as the skiers pass through the stadium on their way out to another 3.75km loop. Both races on Tuesday will have to be won on a last-lap breakaway up the big climb midway through the final loop, unless someone wants to take his or her chances in a bunch sprint to the finish line - which would be harrowing since the stadium comes at the end of a long, fast descent. Though neither Lukas Bauer nor Charlotte Kalla, the Tour de Ski champions, are racing in Canada (both haven fallen ill after winning the tour), both fields are very strong. My picks:
men's 15km+15km pursuit
1. Petter Northug (Norway)
2. Tor Arne Hetland (Norway)
3. Axel Teichmann (Germany)