Rybinsk - More Disappointment
Posted by Zach Caldwell on December 15th, 2007I haven’t heard from Kris - or anybody else with firsthand knowledge of today’s race. The whole crew is pretty much out of touch in Russia. Cell phones don’t work, or if they do they cost a huge amount. No internet. I can speculate about what might have been going on, and I have my suspicions. But I’ll wait, like everybody else, before floating an explanation of another sub-par performance.
Kris will be home Tuesday. We’ll know more then.
13 Responses to “Rybinsk - More Disappointment”
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December 15th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
leading at 12k to 46th. can’t be skis if he was dumb enough to try and pull. Wasn’t travel, everyone was on a charter. accommodations sounded pretty good from Hetland.
What was it this week?
December 16th, 2007 at 5:57 am
Martin,
Why such a negative tone? Having been at the race yesterday, I can tell you Kris looked strong early and he was not “pulling” the field around, but merely showed himself at the front a few times. Likewise, there doesn’t always have to be an explanation for Kris’ performance. Assuming you’ve raced before, I imagine you have had off days, where there is no easy explanation for your result. Just cause Kris didn’t have the result he was looking for, says nothing about his fitness, his skis or his potential for success in Canmore. Also, I hope it came across in my fasterskier article, that the pace was hot from the gun, and Kris survived several selections before he got into trouble, so it was not as if he got dropped with the first acceleration.
December 16th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Just as a factual matter, Kris was leading the pack at the 9.6K time marker and continued to do so until about 10.5K (1:50 later), when he was passed by Piller Cottrer and a couple of others. At 12K he was about 23rd, 8 seconds back, and by 13.35K he was near the back of the main pack. That’s where he seemed to stay, 7-12 seconds back, until somewhere soon after the 20K point, when the gap started to open more and more.
December 16th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Keep doing what u are doing kris i have no worry’s about your fitness. you show us,at kuusamo, that you can be in the leading pack on a Good day! you gonna have other top 10 results even top 5 from here to the end of the season i’m sure about that !!!
cheers !!
December 16th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
I’m sure Kris was not pulling the field but I question the need to go to the front so early. Comparing a mass start race to a bike race, you never see the real contenders show themselves till near the end. Sure there are a lot of lesser riders trying to make something happen early on in a bike race but rarely does their efforts pay off. Its usually the known quantity waiting till late in the race to make a decisive move. Why not sit in 6-12 and allow others to pull; perhaps mark a few fellows and go when they go late in a race. Again I’m not questioning his efforts just questioning whether it was smart to ski at the front so early.
December 16th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
I watched the entire race on WCSN.com which I highly recommend. I was unaware that the racers could change skis during the race. Is this a new concept? Is it always allowed in mass start races?
December 16th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
First, where are all you guys seeing the details of the races. Please fill me in.
While I may have differing opinions about the USST program and the need for radical changes in the US development system.One thing I will never ever criticize is Kris Freeman, good bad or indifferent results. He is committed, dedicated and focused on what it takes to be succesful at the highest levels. I am sure Kris is more demanding of himself that any of us could be.
If we had more athletes making the effort I am certain we would see consistently better results. I am sure Kris has to feel very alone in his effort most of the time.
Keep at it
December 17th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
“If we had more athletes making the effort I am certain we would see consistently better results. I am sure Kris has to feel very alone in his effort most of the time.”
Kikkan just won a WC… along with the two boys getting podiums and are consistently fighting for top spots.
WTF are you talking about Jim? You seem to be loosing it a bit in your old age.
Nothing against Kris, the fitness is there, we all know he can do it and he probably will, but to claim he is alone at the top is quite far fetched. As for the development issues, there has been success at the World Junior level.
Go back to you ice cave.
December 17th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
I still haven’t moderated out a legitimate (non-spam) comment, but I came damn close with the one above. However, instead of deleting the comment I decided to make an example of it. Marty Hall, the author of the comment, is a good sport and I’m sure he’ll understand.
Leaving aside the specifics of the content, I don’t approve of personal attacks on this site. It’s one thing to disagree with what Jim has said but it’s another thing to tell him to go back to his ice cave. And it’s another thing still to do it under an anonymous pseudonym. Anonymous posts are bullshit, and anonymous posts that infer familiarity with a previous poster and then insult him are double-bullshit. You should be ashamed Marty - we all expect more from you.
December 17th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
Oh, snap. That was quite a trick Z. I guess I better not post anything anonymous on here, huh?
Listen, it’s all positive for US Skiing right now, let’s keep it that way. The sprinters are kicking some ass….especially Kikkan with the big win. Watching her win was pretty impressive. Kris has had his ups and downs, but at least he has already had an up…better than the last few years. Domestically, there are some juniors going fast and some of the old names hanging in there….all good things to me.
Most important, we are all having fun in this sport, and that is most important at the end of the day, right???
December 18th, 2007 at 4:20 am
Hey “The Truth”. Kikkan is on the podium due in large part to Galanes’s coaching over the past decade. Show some respect man!
December 18th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
It’s pretty crazy that we now have Kikkan, Kris, Andy and Torin all fighting for top 10 spots now, compared to only what, 5 years ago when Kris was really only it.
Looking at Andy’s development from a junior skier in N.E. to now shows that the system is working with the ski team, even if there are some flaws.
It’s nice to get some of the real stories off this site though rather than fatterskier.com
December 18th, 2007 at 6:42 pm
Mr The Truth
I am not certain you would know the truth if you were to see it. You want to have a dialog send me an email and I will call you on my dime!
There is no doubt are sprinters are doing well. The development issue I speak of concern our distance skiers. Minus Freeman we have nothing much going on there.
So have at it Mr Truth lets see you come up with an assessment of where we are.
As far as committment of Freeman I stand by my statements.