WC Livigno with Team GB Snow Sport

Here is the report from WC Livigno this weekend. In overall it was a good weekend. However, the weekend was still somewhat bitter sweet since I do believe with some better tactical and technical choices by the athletes it could have been even better. 

Both athletes had stayed in Livigno more or less two weeks before the competitions to acclimatize to the altitude. 

Andrew Young was 32 in the sprint qualification being, and therefore unfortunately unable to progress to the heats. GPS analysis done prior to the race Saturday had indicated some areas where he needed to improve technically to qualify compared to James. Unfortunately, he was not able to improve on that in Saturday's race. Especially the time lost in a quite easy, curvy downhill terrain seemed somewhat unnecessary. However, he learned from Saturdays prolong, and put together a very improved prolog on Sunday's qualification. Here he was number was number 9. This performance would probably on Saturday held to a top 20 position in the qualifier. The performance was also important for ensuring the team into the finals together with James. In the finals, he also gave a really good performance, and exchanged James (last lap) into 3rd spot. All in all good learning for him this weekend, and I think he just need more races before he is in top shape. The team sprint is a targeted event at this years WCH. For more information about the GPS look at the attached document to understand more about GPS Analyzation. If people are interested I can go thru this online.  

James Clugnet had a safe qualifier to the heats being 7th in the prolog. James has now qualified 4 out of 4 skate sprints this year. In his quarter he looked fantastic until he "crashed/stumbled"  with an Italian skier. By doing so he almost fully stopped, lost all his speed, and ended in his heat as number 4. This lead to an overall performance of 17th. In retro spective I should have suggested heat 5 at the heat selection if the goal was a semi final this weekend instead of heat 3. On SundayJames went on to do another great prolog on Sunday's team sprint. Here he was 7th and had the 7th best time of all during the qualification. Together with Young's time the time finished as number 6 in the qualifier. In the final, James did everything correctly as we had planned prior to the race until the last long stretch going in towards the end. Due to his crash the day before, he decided to have his own line and “luck” going into the finish. This meant skiing in the front and taking a lot of "head air/wind". Unfortunately, he ran out of gas with 200-150m to go, and thereby the team ended as number 9, which all things considered is a decent performance. Post-race talks were constructive and good, and he understood he maybe should have done as we agreed pre-race, to stay behind the French skier until the last 100m/ finish line to save energy if the goal was to finish as a top 6 team. However, it was not that the tactical necessarily was wrong from James (if he had been strong enough). The winning team did exactly the same as James, but the athlete (winner of last years sprint overall cup) on the French team was stronger, and had enough energy to go all the way to the finish compared to James. 

Wax team
We had only Magnus and my-self for ski testing this weekend. Luckily, we have this weekend as previously a close cooperation with Norwegians. On Friday the Norwegian waxer fixed training skis for our athletes, and since Magnus was not there I fixed everything else that was needed for having a proper training. This weekend that collaboration was also together with the US team, and we got to wax the skis in their wax truck! Fantastic.  

Magnus delivered skis good enough to podium everyday, and we can’t ask for more from him on selecting race skis, especially with the travel situation this weekend.  

Staff
The staffing this weekend worked well with both Magnus and my-self testing skis. I’m not going to lie it was for myself a very busy weekend with all the extra load of the transport situation, and only being two people (read more below). Also this is related to the time needed to do the GPS analyzations well enough. I do believe that time is super important to have since we see clearly how much that can improve performance from one day until another with better pacing/technical choices/skiing.

Next 

The weekend coming up we have sprint classic, 10 km skate and 20km Mass classic  in France in the World Cup from Andrew Young, James Clugnet and Andrew Musgrave. Jostein will be at these races with Magnus. 

I am traveling to Canada to be at the U23s where Joe Davis is preparing for his races together with the continental and junior GB Team 

Jostein Vinjerui, Team Manager/National Coach Cross Country Skiing, GB Snowsport