Canadians Alex Harvey (r) and Devon Kershaw (front left) lead 6 others, which includes Ivan Babikov (third from l), Kris Freeman (second from l) and Andy Newell (l), throughout a combi over-distance rollerski on Aug. 15 close to Stratton, Vt. The Canadian World Cup Team held its sea-level, dryland camp there for the 1st time this yr.
What do you get when you take a Norwegian Olympic skate-sprint champion, who’s won far more than a dozen individual Globe Cups and the all round sprint title in 2004/2005, and make him the co-Globe Cup coach of a tight-knit group of Canadians?
That is however to be seen, but if you request Tor-Arne Hetland, 40, who previously coached the Swiss sprint team the last four many years, he likes their chances.
“Knock on wood, every thing is for the moment fine,” Hetland explained of the eight-particular person squad’s collective overall health. “We will see when we begin racing if they have accomplished the job excellent enough.”
This year’s Period one Planet Cup staff consists of Globe Cup staples Alex Harvey (third in the Overall World Cup final season), Devon Kershaw, Ivan Babikov and Lenny Valjas. Joining them are added nationwide-crew members Graeme Killick (Advancement B-team), Jesse Cockney (Dev. B), Emily Nishikawa (Dev.), and Perianne Jones (Dev. B).
Tor-Arne Hetland (l) checks in with skiers throughout a 3-hour combi rollerski, while Andy Newell (l) and Alex Harvey (r) lead the group past the Stratton Mountain School in Stratton, Vt.
Period one involves four World Cup weekends starting this Saturday, Nov. 29, in Kuusamo, Finland, and extending through Dec. twenty- 21 in La Clusaz, France (with Lillehammer Dec. 5-seven and Davos Dec. 13-14 in amongst).
According to Hetland, in charge of the Globe Cup team along with Canadian Nationwide Group Head Coach Justin Wadsworth (also with the group in Europe proper now), all eight athletes — all of which went to the 2014 Olympics – will get some World Cup races in before Christmas.
Final weekend, the whole group kicked off the International Ski Federation (FIS) season in Gällivare, Sweden, with the sprinters participating in a classic sprint and the distance skiers carrying out a 10/15 k classic.
On Friday, Cockney, 25, placed 13th in a Norwegian Cup traditional sprint out of much more than 160 competitors, soon after taking third in his quarterfinal in a three-man photo finish for initial. In accordance to Cross Nation Canada (CCC), the Planet Cup staff did not have ample quota spots for him to compete in Saturday’s Kuusamo 1.4-kilometer classic sprint, which Harvey, Kershaw and Valjas are listed to commence.
Final weekend, Harvey pulled off two podium performances in the team’s opening FIS races in Gällivare, putting second in the one.4 k traditional sprint and third in the 15 k classic. Jones won the 1.two k women’s sprint, and Nishikawa was fourth in the 10 k classic the next day.
Even though the competition way up north in Sweden wasn’t really as deep as farther south in Bruksvallarna and Beitostølen, the races were nevertheless very good practice. Hetland did not place too much emphasis on them, focusing more on the rest of the season effectively past Kuusamo.
Two out of the three Canadian ladies on final year’s Globe Cup Group retired (Chandra Crawford and Dasha Gaiazova), leaving Perianne Jones, 29, who didn’t meet the Globe Cup Group’s 2014/2015 selection criteria. Named to the nationwide crew’s new Improvement B-staff as an alternative, she officially joined the Alberta Globe Cup Academy (AWCA) in Canmore.
Because no women met the Globe Cup Staff criteria, there’s no season-long female World Cup Staff for Canada. But two females, Jones and Emily Nishikawa, earned Period 1 World Cup starts with their final results last yr.
In May possibly, CCC nominated leading athletes to its Globe Cup (A), B, C and D teams, according to head coach Justin Wadsworth.
The 2014/2015 Improvement B-staff integrated three AWCA skiers: Jones, Graeme Killick and Jesse Cockney. Largely U23-aged athletes make up what Wadsworth referred to as the C-staff: Browne, Dahria Beatty (AWCA) and Raphaël Couturier (CNEPH). The ‘D’ (growth) staff is reserved for athletes who meet higher-finish domestic criteria and included five AWCA skiers: Emily Nishikawa, Heidi Widmer, Alysson Marshall, Kevin Sandau, Michael Somppi.
This time of year is often interesting, he said in a cellphone interview two weeks in the past from Davos. The group convened in Gällivare on Nov. 17 and educated there right up until this Wednesday. As a aggressive skier up till his retirement in 2009, Hetland remembered what the calm ahead of the start of the season felt like.
“It’s a great time and of program you commence to come to feel and smell the winter,” he said. “I’m searching forward to it and the primary [coaching] work is carried out, but now the actual work is commencing. I’m truly seeking forward to it and hopefully the athletes will carry out the greatest.”
Hetland’s been operating with the team considering that May possibly, when the Planet Cup staff spent a little over a week on snow at the Sunshine Village ski spot in Banff, Alberta. In the spring, summer time and fall because, the team’s held camps in Bend, Ore., Stratton, Vt., Park City, Utah, and on Frozen Thunder at its home base in Canmore.
Harvey attended all but two of the camps at Sunshine and Frozen Thunder, functioning with his individual coach Louis Bouchard — a Planet Cup assistant coach — and recently skiing at Forêt Montmorency in Quebec.
“I do not feel that it is possible to have far better education circumstances than we’ve had in the coaching camps,” Hetland stated. “And also the instruction in Quebec and Canmore, it is not feasible to locate better areas than this.”
Following post-Olympic price range cuts final spring, these had been the sort of education-venue options Canada’s World Cup Crew was left with. Rather of holding global camps in well-liked, snow-covered places like Austria, Italy or their typical August journey in New Zealand, the Canadians saved money and cut down on travel by staying in North America.
“It’s great that we haven’t been traveling so significantly since the athletes are away from property all winter,” Hetland observed. “Now they are prepared to go [in] Europe and hopefully they will appreciate the timing with racing.”
In terms of ambitions or expectations, Hetland stated they are clear inside the group.
“Every athlete has their own ambitions and Cross Country Canada have their objectives and I have witnessed what the athletes have done in instruction,” he mentioned. “I believe the athletes can do extremely well and if they do every thing best then they will be challenging to beat.”
That mentioned, he acknowledged that other skiers around the world probably trained hard, too. But the variation for the Canadians this yr is that they may have skilled harder than usual.
“The instruction philosophy has changed noticeably this season with TA at the helm of the instruction prepare,” Kershaw wrote in an electronic mail, referring to Hetland, who co-developed education regimens for Kershaw, Babikov and Valjas with the assist of Wadsworth, the team’s coach for the final four many years. “More hrs all about and intervals were longer in time and shorter on rest.”
At the end of the season following April, Hetland explained they’ll be ready to see how different the coaching in fact was in contrast to many years past and whether it was useful.
“I feel most of the training is comparable with what they have done earlier, but of program with a new coach in the group then there [are] some new and different factors,” he explained. “Maybe not large things … but maybe some little modifications are manufactured to be more quickly.”
The four World Cup Team members (Babikov, Kershaw, Harvey and Valjas) have individual aspirations a lot like they’ve each and every had in the previous — with Babikov focusing on particular races and the Tour de Ski, Kershaw and Harvey as what Hetland referred to as “all-all around skiers,” hunting to be competitive every single weekend and contend for a top all round Planet Cup finish, and Valjas attempting to get back to his prime sprinting kind right after a well being-and-damage-plagued last season.
“Then it’s [about] not [being] as well greedy and not leap into too many races and be calm enough to train a minor bit and do nicely also in Planet Championships,” Hetland stated.
“It’s [about] not [getting] also greedy and not leap into as well numerous races and be calm sufficient to train a small bit.” — Tor-Arne Hetland on Canadian World Cup Staff’s philosophy for 2014/2015 race season
According to CCC’s 2014/2015 national-staff assortment criteria, the main aim at World Championships is podium outcomes, specifically at least two medals and a minimum of a single leading-12 personal end result from every athlete.
“Because of the implications to CCC’s funding, medal likely athletes will be the main target,” the criteria states (web page 14).
Assortment occasions incorporate 2014/2015 Globe Cups, NorAms and U23/Junior Globe Championships in early February. At the extremely least, Canada will select a minimal of two athletes per gender.
Asked regardless of whether there was any stress regarding medals at Globe Championships (which will be held Feb. 18 to March 1 in Falun, Sweden), Hetland laughed.
“I feel you can make a business prepare and also make goals for the athletes, but for the athletes, it’s nonetheless [their ambitions] that is the most crucial and [they] are creating the most stress on themselves. They know if they do the work, then the benefits will come.”
For much more on Canada’s Planet Cup Crew, see the mini profiles under:
Alex Harvey following putting second in the 15 k freestyle pursuit, the final race of 2014 Planet Cup Finals, for third general in the 2013/2014 Planet Cup.
(Photograph: Felgenhauer/NordicFocus)
Alex Harvey
Huge story: Finished 2013/2014 season on total Globe Cup podium (in third) for initial time in his job and very first time given that Kershaw did so in 2nd in 2012/2013.
Also: Won skiathlon at 2014 World Cup Finals, a World Cup skate sprint in Szklarska Poreba, Poland, and the opening Tour de Ski stage (4.five k skate prologue) in Oberhof, Germany. He was second in the TdS skate sprint two days later on in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. Posted greatest-person Canadian finish at 2014 Olympics (17th in skiathlon)
So far: 2nd and 3rd in Gällivare FIS opener (traditional sprint and 15 k traditional, respectively)
Been doing work on: “Like previous years, I elevated a bit the complete volume and went back to a bit much more capacity perform,” Harvey wrote in an email. “The major factor is Louis and I built a prepare for the up coming quadrennial. Each and every yr will have a particular physiological energy technique that we focus on top to [the 2018 Olympics in] South Korea.”
World Champs target races: thirty k skiathlon and 50 k classic
Devon Kershaw at the Frozen Thunder traditional sprint on Oct. 24 in Canmore, Alberta, exactly where he completed fifth overall. He went on to win the ten.8 k freestyle race there on Oct. 27. (Photo: Angus Cockney)
Devon Kershaw:
Huge story: Acquired engaged to Norway’s Kristin Størmer Steira in April in Nepal’s Himalayas.
Also: Placed second in the very first stage of last year’s Tour de Ski, the 4.five k skate prologue in Oberhof, Germany.
So far: 5th in initial FIS race of season, Gällivare 15 k traditional
Prior to Sweden: “I was in Norway for 8 days,” Kershaw explained. “It was great to hang out with the fiancé for a bit just before things got going. Kristin is still injured and recovering from her fractured pelvis, so to have a little above a week soon after practically two months apart was super critical and all around wonderful for each of us. I will not see her in Kuusamo both, so that’ll be the only time we’ll get collectively in November. It was good — she’s taking her MBA, so was hectic with school most days, but I was instruction twice (dryland) for the duration of the day, so it was all good.”
Pre-race emotions: “I’ve been feeling good recently and this complete season — but you know how xc skiing goes — you never ever know until you know. You know? Even now, I’ve been confident and believed in what I’ve been carrying out which is so important. As for expectations — I expect nothing nevertheless I’m trying to put together for every thing. Deep I know…”
World Champs targets: Individually, the 50 k classic, and as a group, the relay and staff sprint
Ivan Babikov in the Frozen Thunder traditional sprint. (Photo: Angus Cockney)
Ivan Babikov:
Large story: After a fourth-location finish at 2013 Globe Championships (in the 15 k skate), the 34-year-previous Babikov will be hungry for medal in Falun
Also: Posted the third quickest time up Alpe Cermis, the ultimate climb of the 2013/2014 Tour de Ski, to finish 15th total
So far: 6th in Gällivare 15 k classic
Planet Champs targets: “Falun is rather far ahead, haven’t started the Planet Cup season yet. :)” Babikov wrote. “But I’d seem forward to the Duathlon [skiathlon] race and the crew relay of program.”
 
Lenny Valjas:
Lenny Valjas during the Frozen Thunder classic sprint on Oct. 24 in Canmore, Alberta, in which he placed eighth. (Photograph: Angus Cockney)
Massive story: The youngest guy on the 4-guy Planet Cup Staff, the 26-yr-old Valjas is their comeback kid. “Some things just do not function out the way you planned,” Valjas explained in a website submit. “For me, last season ought to have been the ideal one of my daily life, the a single I was coaching four many years for. Rather, it was my worst year ever.”
Following arthroscopic knee surgical procedure in June 2013, he anticipated to be out for 6 weeks. As an alternative, it was 5 months. He got back to Europe last February, shortly before the Olympics, but caught a nasty cold and was quarantined from the athletes’ village in Sochi.
“This was the hardest yr of my daily life so far,” Valjas continued. “… I am a lot more determined than ever to train smart (I learned a lot about myself by means of all this), and race tough.”
Because Could, he’s been back to typical coaching with the rest of the staff.
“He will come into the season with two knees,” Hetland stated with a laugh. “Both are operating, and he’s obtaining a minor bit tired of hearing individuals talking about his knee. He liked the time earlier far better when everyone was talking about that he was strong. I consider he has trained properly and has completed most of the coaching. … He’s been looking good so we will see when the season is starting and hopefully he can be enhancing for the duration of the season also.”
So far: 3rd in the qualifier and 4th in the Gällivare traditional sprint. “I felt robust in the race, like my outdated quick self,” Valjas wrote in an electronic mail afterward. “I nevertheless have some tapering to do this week but I’m excited to race the Kuusamo program.”
Several have mentioned that Kuusamo’s difficult climbing course is suited for him.
“Looking to get back into the factors soon after missing the leading thirty last year with my knee surgical treatment,” he wrote.
Planet Champs targets: For the traditional-sprint expert, it’s gotta be the traditional sprint
“He will come into the season with two knees.” — Hetland, about World Cup skier Lenny Valjas
