Kris Freeman

It’s already the 23rd in Japan, and Kris is just headed out to go skiing. He sounds good. Actually, he sounds kind of bored and impatient. He’s really pleased to be going into these races feeling as though he’s got a chance to do something. The wax team has been doing good work so far, and seems to be on top of the situation, so that adds to the level of confidence. Today’s performance by Newell has reinforced a really upbeat atmosphere among the staff, and Kris says he’s beeing very well taken care of. It sounds like a really good situation.

The courses are very difficult, and Kris is getting tired of skiing them really easy. He’s done a lot of testing, but conditions change every day and the whole team is going to have to roll with the changing conditions and make the best of it.

Kris has a pretty loose plan for the 30K. It’s hard for him to know what to expect from that race because he hasn’t done one this year. However, he’s confident that he’ll be able to sit in the pack for most of the race with no problem, and his plan is not keep it pretty low-key for the classic portion. He feels that the race will start in earnest during the skate portion, and he wants to try to stay well positioned once they swap gear. The trails are winding and it’s easy to lose visual contact and not know what’s happening at the front of the pack. He’s prepared to ski the last section of the race agressively - to attack if he’s got the form. If he doesn’t have the energy to ski from the front, then he’ll try to set himself up for a good sprint finish.

Well, that write-up is about like our conversation. Not much left to say. The work has been done. We’ll see what happens in about 30 hours.