Kris Freeman

Train Wreck. I haven’t talked to Kris since the morning before the 15K, so I don’t know the details in terms of which skis he used, how he felt, etc. What I have gathered from various reports is that a nasty snow-squall hit for a while in the middle of the race - right when Kris was skiing. Obviously, it was right when a bunch of other people were skiing as well, and some of them did quite a lot better than Kris. But it’s hard to tell the story from half a world away without having any first-hand information. So I won’t try.

According to Brayton Osgood who was watching Eurosport live from Austria, the snow started coming down just before Kris’s start. But it couldn’t have had a terrible effect for at least a little while, because at the 2K mark Kris had the 10th fastest time, 8 seconds behind the best of the day. By 5.7K he had dropped to 21st. By the mid-point, as he started his second lap, he was in 48th place. Conditions had to be pretty slow at that point. Kris started his second lap just as the red group was headed out of the start. As he lapped through the starters should have been Sommerfeldt, Hoffman and Estil who, at the 2K mark were sitting in 69th, 77th, and 71st place respectively.

At some point the snow stopped. The USST media site has a photo of Kris finishing the race with no snow in the air. And a number of the red group guys negative split the race - indicating that things sped-up a bit. Teichmann negative split the thing by 46.6 seconds to move from 51st place at half way to 5th at the finish. Of course, he’s known to have a very fast finish.

Well, I’ve done way too much analysis of this race already. Kris got screwed, along with a bunch of other people. I’m going to give the race of the day award to Marcus Hellner, a Swede who started two minutes ahead of Kris and finished 9th. The final word on the day comes from the e-mail I got from Pete Vordenberg this morning:

Kris (needs) to refocus on the 50km. This IS a race he can certainly get a top 10 in and perhaps even better. Today cannot remain something he dwells on for a second longer. We’ve got to stay positive and focused on that event… eat, rest and make a few strategies. In addition to that we need to test classical skis and wax.

Today was a full rat fuck. And not at all just for us. Snowed hard for the middle part of the race - was clear at the start and at the finish. Nothing more to say (at least for now).

Thanks,

Pete