s.

Marty Hall has got to love this: On Wednesday, April 14, Thomas Alsgaard signed a contract with the Norwegian National Team. Krister Soergard said Thomas will be working with us on technique, especially freestyle. Krister said: "Thomas must have seen how our skiers struggled last year especially with freestyle technique." So much for the new Norwegian skating technique.

Phil Shaw in New Zealand: Phil has been in New Zealand for a couple of weeks roller skiing everywhere on his Aero 150S and classic on his 930K. For those of you who are not aware of Phil's adventures, in 2002 he roller skied from Newfoundland to Vancouver. He began his venture in Newfoundland on a European roller ski, but called two days after he started and said he would never make it alive on the roller skis he was using. Norsk Ski Shop in Montreal sponsored him with Aero 150S and 930K both equipped with Speed Reducers.

Phil made it to Vancouver without any problems, averaging 2,000 kilometers per tire on his 150S. In 2003 he skied Scotland, England and Ireland on the same skis. This year he is skiing New Zealand and as much territory as possible in Australia. About once every five days we get an update with pictures. Phil is on a crusade to get people to have a healthier lifestyle by eating better, exercising more and not smoking. Phil has many sponsors including, Fischer, Swix and Louis Garneau.

Star Ski Wax Very Hot at Birkebeiner: On Friday February 20 I received a phoe call from a Ski Technician working at the Birkie. He told me the STAR HA waxes were testing better than any other brand and that he waxed Irene Eder's skis with Map Black- HA and F1 and she had rocket skis and won the Sprint Final. In the main race on Saturday he waxed Sarah Konrad's skis with Map Black, HA2 and F1. Sarah had excellent skis finished 5th and was the top American in the race.

STAR has been very good this winter and three times we depleted our inventory as more and more racers are switching to STAR.

Grading of Vasa Racing Poles: Unlike aluminum extrusions, where modulus, tensile and other physical properties can be precisely controlled, composite structures can vary substantially. That is why racing skis with the same serial number often have different flex results. Ski companies don't know how to precisely control the composite parameters so the skis must be tested after they have been cured and then matched as closely as possible.

The same is true for composite ski poles. We have now developed a very precise system for measuring the stiffness of the ski poles. All Vasa Racing poles are now graded and matched. We have set very strict deflection limits for Vasa poles and we have found that a small percentage of pole shafts do not meet our stiffness standard. These shafts are not sold as Vasa Racing poles.

The test method is very rapid and very accurate. With this 100% testing system you can be assured of getting poles which are matched to within 0.1 mm of deflection. .

The World is Skewed: Received the following data from a friend. It's based on taking the World Human population of approximately 6 billion (6,000,000,000 ) and dividing by 60,000,000 so the total population of the new village, or the world, would consist of only 100 people, all population ratios remaining the same. ( When numbers are really big, like 6000,000,000, many people have a hard time relating to statistics, but when 6 billion is reduced to 100, keeping all ratios the same, it's often easier to understand the data presented. )

In this village, or world, of 100 people, there would be: 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western Hemisphere, both North and South, and 8 would be Africans. 52 would be female, 48 male. 70 would be non Christians and 30 would be Christians. 89 would be heterosexual, 11 would be homosexual. 6 of the 100 people would posses 59% of the village, or world's, wealth. 80 would live in substandard housing, 70 would be unable to read, 50 would suffer from malnutrition. One ( 1 ) would be near death and One (1) would be near birth. One would have a college education ( yes, only 1 ) and only One ( 1 ) would own a computer.

When you look at these numbers you realize why so many of us living in advanced countries have a hard time understanding the rest of the world. The distribution of wealth is as frightening as the fact that 50 % of the world's population suffers from malnutrition, 70 % of the world's population cannot read and 80 % live in substandard housing. This horrendous disparity in the standard of living is one of the main rasons for terrorism and revolutionary war. While 50% suffer from malnutrition, many of our kids are getting fatter than pigs ready for slaughter.

What I suspected about 4X4 and AWD is now confirmed: A major European Auto Test Group recently took 7 SUV's for testing in deep snow and very steep terrain. Four wheel drive systems come in the traditional 4 x 4 configurations used on most American SUV's and AWD systems, some of which are simple and some very sophisticated, such as the Haldex AWD.

The auto testers did not think any SUV would make it to the top of the steep hill which had over one foot ( 30 cm. + ) of greasy snow. The WV Touareg, the BMW and all standard Jeep like SUV's all got stuck at about the same spot, half way up the hill. The new Volvo XC 90 made it to the top without any problems and to everyone's amazement so did the Subaru. The Volvo uses the latest Haldex electronic AWD while the Subaru uses a much less sophisticated system. The new electronic systems can sense traction loss in milliseconds and redistribute power, and even braking, to the other wheels to keep it going straight with maximum traction. I have been convinced for a long time that these electronic systems could negotiate slippery surfaces better than conventional 4 X 4 systems, but I had no means of confirming the theory. The new BMW system was supposed to be better than the original system, but the BMW got stuck where the other 5 SUV's also bogged down.

The Problem of Over Training, Per Elofsson Out for the Season: Per has avoided the press for several weeks, but this last Wednesday he announced a press conference for Thursday, December 11. Despite the short time period between the announcement and the Press Conference, many Journalist's showed up in Umea.

Per announced that medical tests indicated he was chronically over trained and that he would not enter any more races this year. The two time World Cup Champion, who has amassed 11 World Cup victories and who has 3 Gold in the 2001 and 2003 World Championships will be recovering until April or May when he will again begin serious training. The tests indicated that a few of weeks rest, i.e. light training, would be insufficient for recovery. Per was over trained before the 2002 Olympics, yet he still managed to get a 4th and 5th place finish. Last year he suffered many injuries which disrupted his training and 2003 was not a great year for Per.

Per will be on a very light training program, probably just 1 hour a day of slow easy training until his body has recovered. His training will be supervised by a former top athlete who is now an exercise physiologist and he will also be working closely with National Team Coach Ola Rawald.

Marty Hall told me today about a top Canadian skier, who finished in the top 10 at a World Cup 50 K. Because he was doing so well, the skier decided that for the next season he would train harder so he would be even better. Unlike Gunde Svan, who put in mega hours, but skied, roller skied and ran at a very comfortable pace, the Canadian skier upped his intensity and increased his weight training using very heavy weights. The Result: He destroyed his fast twitch fibers, became chronically fatigued and never recovered. Marty said it took him many years to return to the fitness level of a normal person.

I saw a press photo of Per yesterday and he not only looked exhausted, he looked sick. Per had never finished out the top 20 since he began his World Cup career, this year in his only individual meet, he finished 50th. He said after the race his body had no strength. Let's hope Per has not become so ill that he will never be able to return to World Cup skiing.

Yale Study Supports Doug Garfield's RepMotions™ Exercise Program: Yale University researchers are cautioning people with aneurysms, high blood pressure and other related conditions - and everyone over the age of 50 to limit the amount of weight they lift for exercise. As you age the aorta tends to stiffen and heavy weights can be dangerous as it can lead to aortic dissection.

This is another reason why the RepMotions™ program in Doug Garfield's book The New Steady Ski For Nordic Athletes is a better way to gain strength and flexibility. Much lower and safer weights can be used to achieve the same muscular and cardiovascular benefits. All it takes is just two ten pound dumbbells and ten minutes of continuos RepMotions™ to make your body scream in pain and you will gain more useable strength than by using heavy weights. In addition to reducing the chance of damage to the aorta, less weight with the RepMotions™ program also reduces the chance of damage to ligaments and tendons. RepMotions™ is a revolutionary method for gaining the kind of strength necessary for Nordic Athletes.

Not Good News For Skiers: There might be snow on the ground, but global temperatures are rising. Even the Wall Street Journal, which for years has tried to dismiss scientific evidence of global warming, is now reporting global warming more objectively. ( How reporters have the right to dismiss scientific evidence and report subjectively is something I don't understand. ) For years those who did not agree with the scientific data said that the warming trends were simply due to natural variability rather than human influence. Most climatic scientists now say that such explanations are implausible. Instead the scientists say the cause of the global warming carbon dioxide. Scientists say the pace of change is also increasing, with temperatures rising three times faster in the last three decades than over the entire 20th century. "What is important is the trend. There is a trend towards warmer temperatures, particularly in the last 25 years", said Dr. Livrimore. The United States leads the world in the emission of carbon dioxide. The US makes up less than 5 % of the world population, but we generate 28 % of the world's carbon dioxide. We are killing this planet. If we don't instigate a strong environmental policy soon, it could be too late.

Kris Freeman in the lead pack of eight that fought for First Place: New Hampshire's Kris Freeman was in the pack of eight that sprinted to the finish in today's 30 KM Freestyle. Mathias Fredriksson won the sprint by 0.6 seconds over Rene Sommerfeldt and Kris was 6th only 1.2 seconds from first place. Carl Swenson also had an outstanding race finishing 13th only 32.2 seconds behind the winner. Mathias is starting the season just like last year, first three races in the top ten, then victory. Fredriksson now leads the World Cup.

Kristina Smigun continues to dominate: While the men's race was close Kristina easily won the 15 K mass start freestyle, winning by 18 seconds. Beckie Scott of Canada had a good race finishing 12th. We are proud to be a sponsor of Kristina, who has used V2 roller skis for many years.

Jim Galanes Comments on the Bengt Saltin Study from November 29th: This is what he said. I liked the article on Saltin. I have been telling our athletes for a couple of years not to use sugar drinks in training. It only makes sense. We know that if you eat sugar, carbohydrates, prior to exercise that will become the bodies preferred fuel. And we know that carbohydrate metabolism inhibits fat metabolism. I have read a lot about this subject, but I can't prove it because I am not a scientist doing the studies, but I believe the use of sports drinks in training is not good. I have seen increases in base line lactates when using them, indicating great metabolic stress from training and excessive bonking in longer training and racing.

Another Study on the effects of drinking liquids containing sugar: Research at the Royal Agricultural University in Denmark showed that when drinking sugared drinks appetite also appears to increase. In a 10 week study 21 slightly overweight adults drank 40 ounces of drinks containing sugar per day while the other 21 adults drank artificially sweetened drinks. Those who drank the sugar drinks were consuming an average of 500 more calories per day at the end of the 10 week period than they did before the start of the study and they gained an average of 3.5 pounds. The group that did not consume sugared drinks consumed about 100 calories less per day than at the beginning of the study and they lost an average of 2 pounds.

Obesity: According to an article in Consumer Reports, from 1971 to the year 2000 those who were overweight in the US remained about the same, 34%. However, from 1980 to 2000 obesity increased by over 100% from 15% to 31%. According to the article 65% of Americans are now overweight or obese. Experts say these dramatic increases have occurred mainly because of excessive use of soft drinks, eating at fast food places and the increase in the size of food portions. Daily calories in the food supply per person has increased from 3,200 in 1975 to 3,900 in 2000. That's a horrific number, no wonder obesity increased by over 100%.

Snowing: Right now it's snowing in New Hampshire, weather forecasters are telling us we could get 18 to 24 inches, but latest reports are for much less snow.

Germans Dominate in Double Pursuit: In the October 22 News Column, we mentioned that Thobias Fredriksson predicted that Germany would be the new Nordic ski power. He might be right. In today's 15 X 15 K race there were five Germans in the top 7. Only Anders Soedergren and Mathias Fredriksson kept the Germans from sweeping the top five places. Soedergren was second and Mathias fifth. Axel Teichman now leads the World Cup with Soedergren second.

The 20 year old Russian, Nikolai Pankratov, showed that his 6th place in Fridays race was no fluke as he finished a very respectable 23rd. Kris Freeman in 30th place was again the top American.

Very Interesting Study: One of the world's foremost Sports Medicine doctors, Bengt Saltin, who won the IOC Sports Medicine prize in 2002 suspected that training for endurance while using "sports drinks" and power bars might not the best way to develop the body for optimal results in long distance races. ( Of course the sports drinks power bar companies will try to prove him wrong. A well recognized US Researcher told me that the difference between studies in Scandinavia and the US is that in the States many studies are biased because major food and soft drink firms sponsor the studies. The purse strings for sports research in the US are mainly the marketing giants and without the money, no research. In Scandinavia, Universities generally fund the studies. About ten years ago I was indirectly involved with a University study on an exercise product. The manufacturer of the product was convinced the device was an exercise marvel and wanted a University study to back their marketing claims. When the study showed that power walking was more beneficial than their exercise device, the study was not allowed to be presented. The Doctor who performed the study was obviously upset, but the study was funded by the company and he was not allowed to publish it. )

It is well documented that you need maximum carbohydrate loading for long distance races, but what if the body was better able to use both sugar and fat for fuel? Most endurance athletes train using the same sports drinks as when racing. However, Professor Saltin said that a few years ago he began to question this method for training. Since we have more fat deposits for energy than sugar it is important to be able to utilize both energy sources optimally in long distance races. Bengt Saltin suspected that if we train while consuming sugar drinks, the body would have fewer fat burning enzymes. With sugar available, the enzymes are not needed so they don't get developed.

Bengt first tested his theory at the University in Copenhagen, then a study was made in Sweden on 18 skiers divided into two groups of nine. In the ski study, which lasted for eight weeks, the two groups trained three times a week for 1.5 hours and on the fourth day for approximately three hours. One group used a well known sports drink while the others drank only water while training and did not take any carbohydrates for at least one hour after training. Prior to the experiment, biopsies were taken on all athletes. After the eight weeks, new biopsies showed that the group that used only water had substantially more important enzymes for the burning of fat. So in race conditions, the water consuming group could better utilize the two available fuel sources, sugar and fat. This month Bengt Saltin is starting a third study of the potential benefits of reduced carbohydrate intake while training for endurance races.

Aero Tires and Wheels: As mentioned previously, the late summer and fall demand for Aero Products far exceeded the most optimistic forecasts and we depleted our inventory and ended up with a large backlog. We just received the 150 mm product and the 125 mm tires and tubes have been shipped and are expected in Customs the first week of December. The 125 tires have a new cross ply construction and have a harder, higher shore rubber compound. Some skiers have had many flats on 125 tires while others, who skied a lot, never had a flat. Checked my log this week and found that this summer and fall I skied 62 days on Aero 125 wheels without a flat.

The Racing Season has Started, the biggest Surprise is a 20 year old Russian: Both in Beitestolen and Kuusamo there were some surprises. In Beitestolen Per Elofsson had the worst race of his life, 50th. The former World Cup Champion said he had no strength in the hills so he loafed up the hills and tried to ski fast on the flats. After his miserable performance in the classic race he did better in the relay where he finished fourth, but he decided to skip this weekends Kuusamo races and instead aim for the 30 K freestyle in Toblach December 6th. For years Per had a winning formula of 5 days training, 2 days off. It worked, he won the World Cup at age 22, then before the 2002 Olympics he changed the formula. He has never been the same since. I don't understand why anyone would mess with a successful formula? Same with Marcello Rios, he was ranked #1 in Tennis, fires his coach because he wants to train differently and now he is nothing.

In the Kuusamo 15 K classic, Nikolai Pankratov, who medaled at the World Juniors last year, actually led the race. Even though he faltered near the end he finished 6th only 14. 4 seconds out of first place. Norwegians Aukland and Svartedal finished 1-2 with Anders Soedergren of Sweden third. Mathias Fredriksson, who won the World Cup last year, has started the season exactly like he did last year, finishing 8th in Beitestolen and 9th in Kuusamo.

Kris Freeman continues to get excellent results, finishing 28th in Beitestolen and 20th in the 15 K in Kuusamo. Kristina Smigun dominates the women winning the double pursuit by 22 seconds. Kristina is an advocate of very high resistance classic skis, she trains on both the V2 Terra and the 910.

Tryout Races for World Cup in Beitestolen: This last weekend there were many races in Scandinavia, with the majority of non Scandinavians racing in Finland. Kristina Smigun, from Estonia, won both the 5 K Classic and the 15 K Freestyle races with the very sizable margins of 14 seconds in the 5K classic and 26 seconds in the 15K freestyle. In the first Finnish men's race Veerpalu and Jak Mai from Estonia dominated, while in the second race where Mai and Veerpalu did not compete, Germans took the top five places, the winner being Tobias Angerer. Finnish skiers took the next four places after the Germans with Teemu Kattilkoski in 6th place. Mika Myllylae and Jari Isometsea, the dopers from Finland, who are trying for a comeback finished a distant 14th and 21st respectively and thus did not qualify for the races in Beitestolen.

Meanwhile the Swedish team had some tryout races in Bruksvallarna. Anders Soedergren beat out Per Elofsson by 13 seconds in the 12 K classic race. Per was ahead of Anders by 11 seconds in the first lap. ( Loosing 24 seconds in the second 6K lap is quite a lot. ) 3rd was Mathias Fredriksson, then Martin Larsson and Joergen Brink. Martin Koukal, 50K winner from Val di Fiemme who has been training all summer and fall with the Swedish team, was 8th.

Waiting for Aero Wheels: The unusual demand for Aero Skis in September wiped out our inventory. Demand was up over 50 % compared to any previous month. Wheels - tires - tubes should ship on November 21, but many times in the past our suppliers have been late.

Veikko Hakulinen dead at age 78: One of the worlds great skiers was killed when he was hit by an automobile just outside his home in Valkekoski, Finland. In a recent world ranking of the greatest X-C skiers from 1900 to 1999, Veikko was ranked 4th. He won many Gold medals, probably best remembered for his 1952 Olympic Gold in 3 hours, 33 minutes and 33 seconds.

Thomas Alsgaard working with the kids at Torsby Ski Gymnasium: Recently Thomas was helping the skiers at the school with advanced skating technique. Earlier this year both Martin Koukal and Thobias Fredriksson helped the kids to fine hone their technique.

Dusseldorf Sprints a big success despite lousy weather: Some 120,000 spectators saw the sprints on Saturday, October 25. It was not a good day for Norway, as no skier made the men's semifinals. Martin Koukal impressed, he is a distance man, yet finished second behind Sweden's Peter Larsson. Sweden had a lucky day with five skiers in the top 7.

USADA now reports the use of the stimulant Modafinil by US Track Stars: Calvin Harrison is just one of the track stars that has admitted to the use of the stimulant. Modafinil is not on the list of forbidden drugs, but since it is closely related to drugs on the list it cannot be used. Apparently the doping regulations are written in such a manner that drugs with similar properties to those on the list are also banned. According to Calvin, a coach gave him the stimulant saying it's not a steroid and it's not on the list so you can use it. Kelli White also had traces of Modafinil when tested at the World Championships in Paris.

THG gets uglier and uglier: It now appears that Regina Jacobs is also involved with THG. The 40 year old who just finished one of her best seasons is now linked to THG. USATF is instigating a "zero tolerance" for drug users and wants a life time ban and a fine of $100,000 if convicted of drug use. A Federal Court is now holding hearings with 40 athletes that have been accused of using products from Victor Conte's Balco company. What a mess!

Everybody is congratulating Professor Don Catlin and his colleagues at UCLA for developing the method for detecting THG.

Muehlegg given Ultimatum: According to Radiosport, Muehlegg has been told by the Spanish Ski Organization that if he wants to ski, he must live and train with the Spanish Team. This message was delivered to Johann two months ago, but there has been no reply from Muehlegg.

He helped Bjoern Daehlie, Gunde Svan, Torgny Mogren, Anders Soedergren, Per Elofsson and many others: The Norwegian Ski expert Magnar Dalen was asked to hold a one hour lecture in Soederhamn, Sweden, but there were so many questions from the audience the lecture and question answer period lasted almost three hours.

For 15 years Magnar lived in hotel rooms over 220 days a year while working with, first, the Norwegian Team, then the Swedish Team, back to the Norwegian Team and he retired from the Swedish National Team in 2002. Magnar is both an exceptional ski technician as well as a good coach. He talked about his first meeting with Anders Soedergren, who took silver in the 50 K at the World Championships in Val Di Fiemme. It was four years ago when he met Anders at a roller ski time trial up the hard climb Narvik to Riksgransen. Anders was so far behind Elofsson and the other skiers he was convinced skiing was not for him. Magnar told Anders he had talent, but he needed about five years of hard training, four years later he won a Silver at the World's. Magnar also talked about the very large disparity between Norway's ski budget and Sweden's. Norway has 2.5 times more money for Nordic skiing. But, he emphasized that money is not everything, as proven by Sweden's excellent results last year.

It was Magnar who told STAR to contact me regarding distribution of STAR ski wax. When I told Magnar I knew nothing about the wax, he faxed me 13 pages of test data comparing STAR to other brands. In the early 90's, Bruce Brinkema and I closed the bar in Ramsau at 3 AM with Magnar, Jochen Behlie, and a bunch of other crazy skiers.

Not just Sprint Skiers in Dusseldorf: This coming Saturday is the first X-C World Cup in Sprint. From the Scandinavian Newspapers it seem that the Distance skiers are hoping to get some World Cup points by getting into the top 16. The Germans, Norwegians and Swede's are expected to dominate the Sprints.

Britain's Dwain Chambers might be the first to be caught for using THG. It appears a surprise test in Saarbrucken on August 1, showed THG in Dwain's blood sample. Vice President in the IAAF, Arne Ljungqvist, would not comment until he had seen the results of the second B analysis. Before this THG is over it could get ugly.

New Ski Tunnel In Stockholm: Yesterday it was announced that the problem with the location has been solved and the 1,250 meter long tunnel could be ready as early as next fall.

More US Track and Field Doping: Probably the biggest doping scandal to date. This summer a coach called USADA and told them about a new designer drug developed so it would not be detected. It was being used by many US track stars. The drug is called tetrahydrogestrinone THG.

Both coaches, athletes and chemists were apparently involved in the development of this new drug. Kelly White, Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery and many other athletes were buying products from Victor Conte, whose company Balco developed the drug.

Now all 350 Drug Tests from the Paris World Championships will be repeated using a new method to detect this drug. According to reports mainly US track and Field people were involved, but also foreign athletes had been in touch with Balco.

World Sprint Champion Tobias Fredriksson thinks the Germans are the new Ski Power: Tobias said the Germans are improving very rapidly and he thinks he will have a much tougher year than last year.

Vasaloppet has 31,508 registered to Race: This is a new record by more than 2,562 skiers and there is still room to register in some of the mid week races. X-C skiing in Scandinavia is not dead yet.

X-C Ski Expert Vidar Martinell's new book: Vidar, and a number of other experts have picked the best X-C skiers from the years 1900 to 1999. Results after 1999 were not included. Here is the pick by the X-C Experts. Men. 1- Bjoern Daehlie N, 2- Gunde Svan S, 3- Sixten Jernberg S, 4- Veiko Hakulinen F, 5- Eero Maentyranta F, 6- Thomas Wassberg S, 7- Vladimir Smirnov KZ, 8- Nils Karlsson S, 9- Assar Roennlund S, 10- Vegard Ullvang N, 11- Mika Myllylea F, 12- Oddvar Bra N, 13- Nikolai Zimjatov SOV, 14- Thorleif Haug N, 15- Torgny Mogren S.

Women: 1- Jelena Vaelbe SOV, 2-Galina Kulakova SOV, 3- Raisa Smetanina SOV, 4- Larizza Lazutina SOV, 5- Marja Lisa Kierviesniemi F, 6- Alevtina Koltsjina SOV, 7- Stephania Belmondo, I, 8- Toini Gustafsson S, 9- Ljubov Egorova SOV, 10- Ljubov Kozyreva SOV, 11Marjo Matikinen F, 12Manuela Di Centa I, 13 Helena Takalo F.

Number 5, Marja Lisa, is one beautiful and smart woman. I have many pictures of her from training in Dachstein.

Mathias Fredriksson in very good shape: On August 24, while we were in Sweden, Mathias and a number of other elite ski racers had a 20 K in-line skate race in Stockholm, where Mathias finished 3rd behind winner Stefan Larsson of Vasaloppet fame. ( Stefan is the guy who double poled the 90K Vasaloppet as his leg was in a cast and he finished 5th overall, out of some 14,000+ skiers. ) After the in-line race in the morning Mathias won an 8 K cross country race that same evening in the outstanding time of 24' 55". That's under 5 minutes a mile for 5 miles. Pretty good for a very solidly built skier, not a skinny runner.

Vegard Ulvang convinces Gunde Svan to become FIS representative: Gunde said it was Vegard that convinced him to represent Sweden in the FIS. Gunde said we need to build a better bridge between the top FIS officials and the ski racers. He implied that when changes in race format are introduced, it should not just be the officials that decide, there must be input from the racers as well. Other top former skiers in the FIS include, Marco Albarello, Jochen Behle, Vladimir Smirnov and Vegard Ullvang.

Ola Rawald pleased with the Swedish teams training so far: Most skiers have had a very good summer and there has been minimal sickness amongst the athletes. We have continued to work on better technique, while building max VO2. We had a plan of what we wanted to achieve regarding improved technique and the racers have been working very hard to reach that goal.

Per Elofsson is having a better summer than last year, but he is still up and down. Per did not go to Ramsau as he felt he needed more recovery, but he will go to Le Diablerets later this fall.

New Vasa Racing Shafts Just arrived: In about two weeks we will be able to start shipping the new V2-Vasa Racing poles. These are superb poles at a fantastic price. The high modulus carbon fiber is reinforced with just enough high strength carbon fiber to make the poles stronger. Very stiff and very light, in fact when equipped with the V2 cork grip and the standard V2 basket it's lighter than the Exel C1 Racing, it's the same weight as the Swix Star, 150 grams for a 160 cm. pole. You can buy the shafts only and put on your own grips and baskets, or you can buy V2 grips and baskets and assemble them yourself ( very easy to do ) or you can buy finished poles with V2 grips and baskets.

Shafts fit 10 mm baskets or roller ski ferrules. Prices are as follows: Shafts only $59.00/ pair. Shafts with V2 baskets and standard cork grips not assembled $79.00 / pair and finished poles $99.00 / pair. Maximum length of poles assembled is 168 cm. We have already sold over 250 pair of these new poles.

Kristina Smigun and other Estonian skiers on V2: For many years Kristina and Katrin Smigun and other Estonian ski team members have used V2 roller skis. Kristina is now ranked the #1 female X-C skier in the world. Kristina is a firm believer in high resistance roller skis and uses both the V2-910 and the Terra skis for classic training. According to Kristjan, her boyfriend, the Terra and 910 have made Kristina and others on the team much better classic skiers. We recently received several nice photos of Kristina skiing and we put her photo on our Index page.

The Terra are slower than the 910 and Marty Hall was really surprised that it was one of their favorite classic skis. But, it's always been that way with the Russians, Belarussians and Estonians. They used our slowest classic skis to develop more power.

John Bauer calls: John called to let us know they now have a baby girl, born the 20th of August. John said for skating he has been using the Aero 125SR for smoother pavement and the 150 for rough pavement and dirt roads. John said he really likes the feel of the 125SR.

Marty Hall on Aero 125SR: When Marty first got his Aero 125's in early May of this year he got a flat. ( Marty is strong and weighs between 185 and 190 pounds.) Marty called today to say that since I emphasized the importance of pumping up the tires before every ski session, he has not had a tire failure in four months. Personally I have never had a tube or tire failure on either 125 or 150's, but I pump up the tires each time I ski. Our data base also indicates that it is the same skiers that get flats. Some skiers, who put in mega hours on the skis, don't have a problem, while others who ski a lot less have tube and tire failures. Obviously, besides proper air pressure, technique and weight are very important factors. See below for more data on air pressure.

Proper Air Pressure is Ultra Important for Aero Roller Skis: We cannot overemphasize the importance of proper air pressure in the Aero roller skis. The amount of air in a Aero 125 tire is less than 5% that of a bike tire, so just the slightest amount of air loss reduces the tire pressure by a very large factor. The Aero 125 tire has 50% less air volume than the Aero 150, so the air pressure control in the 125 is even more important than for the Aero 150. If the tires are underinflated, both the tube and tire can fail. If you weigh over 165 pounds ( 75Kg.) you are better off on the Aero 150, as the load stress on the tires is only about half that of the smaller tires on the 125.

My road bike tires loose air very rapidly, they have to be pumped up every time I ride the bike, same for the Aero tires. Air loss is generally due to the diffusion of air through the tube, sometimes there is a slight leak in the Schraeder valve. The air loss increases due to the load on the tire and the temperature of the tire. The greater the load, i.e. weight of the skier, and the higher the tire temperature the quicker the tubes loose air. Just like on bicycles, some tubes loose air much more quickly than others. My wife went biking this morning and she asked me to check the tire pressure. It was three weeks since she last inflated the tires. When I checked the bike, one tire had lost 30 pounds, the other about 18 pounds.

We just did a laboratory experiment with some tires. The wheels were run at a constant speed of 30 kilometers per hour and each wheel was under a load of 440 Newton's, 100 pounds. We ran each wheel for three hours and then checked air pressure. Unlike roller skiing, this is a constant load of 440 Newton's and a constant speed of 30 KPH, so it's much more severe than normal roller skiing. The air pressure loss varied substantially. One tire lost 20 PSI in 3 hours, another tire lost only about 8 PSI.

First of all, the tires must be inflated every time they are used. For the Aero 150 we recommend inflating to a pressure of 95 to 100 PSI on the Fox shock pump. When unscrewing the pump there is generally a loss of 5 to 10 PSI, that is why the pump gauge pressure should be about 10 pounds above the tire recommendation. For the Aero 125 we also recommend 100 PSI on the gauge. We have found that slightly overinflating the tires is much better than the pressure being too low.

Phil Shaw Demonstrates the outstanding Durability of the Aero 150 Tires: Phil is one of Canada's top skiers and in 2002 he roller skied from Newfoundland to Vancouver, B.C. in an anti smoking campaign. This year he roller skied Scotland, England and Ireland, also in an anti smoking program.

Phil first called us from Newfoundland in 2002, asking if we could send him some V2 roller skis. He was using another brand and he said he would never make it across Canada without being injured. He had to walk down many steep hills. Norway Nordic, a ski shop in Montreal, sponsored him for the V2 roller skis. He switched to V2 Aero 150SC and V2 920K, both with Speed Reducers. I recently e mailed Phil and asked him how many flat tires he had in his 10,000 kilometer journey across Canada, Scotland England and Ireland. This was his answer:

"Interestingly I didn't get one flat tire on the Aero's crossing Canada or Britain / Ireland. I averaged approximately 2,000 km's before changing tires. ( The tires would be completely bald ) In fact I would often times roll through broken glass and gravel with never a puncture." Phil is about 6'2" and weighs about 190 pounds.

Nothing to do with skiing: Obesity: We just returned from Sweden where we visited relatives. While there, we spent some time studying fat kids and the Stockholm Metro. Child obesity is becoming an epidemic and child diabetes has doubled. The number of overweight children in the US is estimated to be over 25%. Since Sweden has so many fast food places I suspected the same thing was happening there. There are Mc Donalds and Burger Kings and almost every corner has a pizza and kebob restaurant.

After seeing thousands of children in Sweden, it was obvious that only a very small number are overweight. While I was counting fat kids, US and Swedish doctors had just finished a study comparing Swedish and American youth. The report was recently released in “Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise”

The doctors put pedometers ( step counters ) on some 700 US and 700 Swedish kids of the same age groups to find out if there was a difference in the volume of daily exercise. On the average, Swedish youth exercised 32% more than Americans, with 12 year old Swedish boys averaging 18,346 steps per day. On the average, American girls had 100% more body fat than the Swedish girls of the same age group. It’s a shame daily caloric consumption was not part of the study.

Public Transportation, the Stockholm SL network: In the 30+ years I traveled around the world while working for electronic companies, I had the opportunity to visit many of the worlds great cities. Some have excellent public transportation, but I am convinced the Stockholm Public Transportation Network has no equal.

There are 246 Metro stations and according to Discovery Channel, Stockholm has the worlds largest bus network to complement the Metro. The T ( Metro and Commuter trains ) covers over 300 miles. Spokes radiate from the Central T with several branches to areas in the countryside so you almost never have to wait more than a few minutes for a Metro. Our apartment was about 9 miles from the center of the city and our average wait was a couple of minutes. The new trains accelerate very rapidly so it took less than 20 minutes, including our walk to the station, to travel downtown from our apartment. I measured the average time to unload and load passengers in the peak rush hour traffic to be 34 seconds and in non rush hour traffic it was 22 seconds.

A relative moved to Tullinge, a town outside of Stockholm. His area is served by small high speed commuter trains. The trains run every 15 minutes and when we met him for dinner in downtown Stockholm he told us it took him less than 30 minutes. Since 21 % of Sweden’s population is located in the Stockholm area, without this public transportation network Stockholm would be a nightmare, just like Boston, and most US cities, where it can take hours just to get to work and the carbon dioxide spewed into the atmosphere is astronomic. The Stockholm SL network transports over 700,000 passengers per day.

Dementia, a terrible decease: As a kid one of my heroes was my uncle, my mothers youngest sibling. He was a great X-C skier, winning many top races in Sweden including the Dalarna Championship, which at the time was like winning the Swedish Nationals. He never took skiing too seriously as he was very involved in his work. Before this visit, the last time I saw him was when I stayed at his house during the 1993 Nordic Championships in Falun. In ‘93 he was 74 years old, but looked not a day over 55. A full head of jet black hair, his weight was within a couple of kilos of when he was 30 and he had just retired from his company. ( Working till they are old is a family trait, my uncle Hans in Los Angeles was working full time as a Civil Engineer when he was 85. )

About three years ago my uncle developed Dementia. As my mother also had Dementia I knew what a terrible decease it is. He is now paralyzed, cannot not feed himself and cannot talk. The doctors wanted him in a Nursing home, but his wife refused, instead she requested daily home Nursing help. Nurses come to the house five times a day to bathe and care for him.

Hot Deals for August and September: While supply lasts we have some great deals on older STAR ski wax and composite poles. New pole shafts and ski wax has been shipped and we need the space for the new inventory.

For pricing on all items look at the Hot Deals in the left scroll bar on the Index Page. Here are some samples of great deals. Composite pole shafts, less grips and baskets $42.00 pair. These are 50% high strength and 50% high modulus strong and lightweight shafts. With grips and baskets, or roller ski ferrules, $59.00. (Grips and baskets not assembled)

STAR Ultra Tech, regular price $13.95 now $6.95. Tekno glide wax standard price $29.95 now $14.95. Dice 3 100% fluoro regular price $89.00 now $46.00 Supply is limited so if you want to get in on these deals, call as soon as possible

Best Roller skiing in years: Since discovering the Nashua River Trail in May I have been roller skiing an average of five days a week. It's very flat, but to compensate I have been skiing up Mount Pack Monadnock once a week, 13% average grade with the last part a murderous 22%. In the process I have lost 16 pounds and feel much better. Still too heavy but it's coming off.

Leaving for Sweden: Tomorrow we are leaving for Sweden. Plan to see Mathias Fredriksson and Vladimir. The purpose is mainly to see relatives I have not seen in many years.

Smigun Sisters: Kristina and Katrin have been in touch several times. With Bente retired Kristina is now ranked #1in the world. Yesterday they e mailed and wanted some wheels for their old Terra skis. They also have 910's, 850's and Aero's. Apparently they like the Terra because Kristian Vahi said : " These skis have raised Kristina's, Katrin's and Aivar Rehemaa's classic technique and classic performance incredibly."

Team Basis Wins Division 1 and II Overall Competition at Collegiate Nationals: V2 Jenex is sponsoring Team Basis with STAR Bicycle Cleaners and Lubricants. Team Basis is composed of six female racers and Kate Maher and Laureen Gaffney swept the overall competition at the collegiate Nationals.

Sarah Konrad is one of the Team racers and she has always liked STAR products. When her team mates tried her STAR lubricants, they all wantedto use STAR. This morning a local Bike Shop owner stopped by to tell us how great the STAR cleaner and X Dry lubricant was. He and a friend tried it on an 80 mile road ride, then they tested it on their mountain bikes. He said it was by far the best cleaner and lube he had used and he purchased a substantial amount for his Bike Shop. Those who have tried STAR are amazed at how smooth, quiet and clean the chain and sprockets are, even after a long ride.

Updating our Home Page: We are presently updating our home page. Our Dealer list was out of date and we have eliminated the dealers that have minimal activity. The Dealers listed in bold generally have V2 models in stock. We are now working on updating the, Where to Ski, folder but this will take a few days. Next we will update the product section so the home page will be more like the new catalog.

Thomas Alsgaard and Mathias Fredriksson in a joint venture: The two friends are building an inn to be mainly used for a training center and conferences. It's located in Lofsdalen, Sweden and according to the report will have room for about 40 beds.They also hope to attract sport fisherman and hunters.

Marty Hall Visits: Marty stopped by on his way to Bowdoin College. It's always fun to have Marty stop by as he is full of ideas. Marty looks very fit and enjoys coahing at the college. We discussed many subjects and Marty tried a new pair of roller skis.

New BikePath: Last week we discovered the new Nashua River trail which runs from Ayer, MA, to Hollis, NH. It's about 12 miles long, perfect 9 foot wide pavement and is built on an old railroad bed. Nice views, but it's very flat. Good for double poling sessions. Double poled an hour on Sunday and again on Tuesday night. There are no safe roads locally and this path starts only 9 miles from my house.

Smigun Sisters e mail: They are in Florida vacationing and looking for replacement roller ski wheels for their many V2 roller skis. They introduced V2 to Estonia and now the whole Estonian Team uses V2.

Disturbing US TrendsThis has nothing to do with skiing, just disturbing data. I like to look at trends. As an engineer - businessman, statistics are important to me. The data for this commentary was obtained from numerous journals and statistics provided by government agencies and by other research sources. When I began my work career some 40 years ago, the US was the strongest nation in almost all categories, not just military might. From manufacturing, agriculture, finance, quality control, computer technology, car manufacturing, service industries, to non corrupt business practices. We were the guys in the white hats... good solid citizens. However, today we have much tougher competition and integrity for many businessmen is now taboo. Below I have listed some specific areas where we are no longer as strong as we were some 25 years ago.

Capital Equipment: The foundation for manufacturing is the equipment and people that produce the components. In the first company I worked for almost all of our machinery was made in the US. One of the most important machines for many types of manufacturing is the milling machine and for several years my Father worked for the world's largest and one of the best milling machine companies. The company was so respected that they felt no one could beat them and their investment in R&D was reduced in order to make more profit. Foreign competition increased R & D and with more advanced technology almost forced the company out of business. When I co founded the electronics company some 30 years ago virtually all of our manufacturing equipment was made in the US. We were vertically integrated so we made many components in house. We had punch presses, turning tools, injection molding equipment, chemical manufacturing equipment, assembly machines, etc. We had about 5 engineers devoted just to manufacturing technology. Twenty one years later, when I retired from the company, a lot of our standard manufacturing equipment was Japanese and European. Why? It was more advanced and more reliable than the US equivalents.

Of the roughly 40 subcontractors in New England that produce parts and sub assemblies for V2 Jenex, almost all use Japanese and European equipment. I know why, but I ask them anyway. The answers are always the same. The foreign equipment is not less expensive than the US equipment, but it is often more advanced and reliable. The Cadillac North Star engine is machined on a Japanese machine and most CNC lasers are made in Japan and Europe. We still make some very good equipment, but we have not invested sufficiently in many fields. Many Managers don't put enough emphasis on R&D. They think Marketing and Sales is everything. Manufacturing in the US is now only about 16% of our total GNP. But, we are very good at making Potato Chips, Mac Donald hamburgers and Coca Cola.

Commercial Aircraft: In the past, the US owned the commercial Aircraft industry. Almost everything you flew on, except some small propeller plane, was Boeing or Mac Donald- Douglas. Since we provided components and sub assemblies to the aircraft industry, I remember the laughter from some of the aircraft employees when the European Airbus consortium was being formed. They said the Germans, British and the French would never be able to work together. Today Airbus is giving Boeing - Mac Donald Douglas a very rough time. Airbus planes such as the 340-500 have the longest flight range, lowest fuel consumption and they are quieter and environmentally more friendly than the US planes. From the 330 to the new 380, Airbus claims their planes are less expensive to run than the American counterparts. American airlines are buying a lot of Airbus planes. To compete Boeing is out sourceing more and I have been told they have hired some 500 Russian Engineers ( who work in Russia ) . Today there are some 7,900 Boeing Aircraft in service and about 3,000 Airbus. Not long ago there was not a single Airbus in the sky. Airbus is rapidly gaining market share. Next to Agricultural products, the Aircraft business was one of America's largest exports. With Airbus competition, the export numbers have decreased rapidly.

Imports and Exports: In the last 50 years the US has generally imported more than it exported, but the gap is getting too big. This is very disturbing for our economy, especially with unemployment at 6%. Actually unemployment is higher, since a lot of people are no longer looking for work so they are not counted as unemployed. In 1992 the US imported $41 billion and we exported $38 billion, only a gap of $3 billion or 7%. In 2002 we imported $100 billion and exported $60 billion, a gap of $40 billion or 40%. The main reason for this is that upper management in many US companies have decided to out source to the lowest bidder, usually in the Pacific Rim, and we loose more US jobs. Recently I consulted for a multi billion dollar US company. Almost all their manufacturing is now in the Pacific Rim.

Bad Management Practices by US Companies: A few weeks back a female Sales Engineer from one of our suppliers stopped by to visit. ( This is a part we buy from Europe, because no US manufacturer makes this component.) She said, our company is now the second largest company of XXX components in the world. She said the company owner just bought YYY which makes us #2. I said, what do you mean the owner bought YYY? Certainly the second largest company in the world must be a publicly traded company! Not so. The company President, who is the owner, stated that her experience was that stock holders often forced the company to make short term decisions that were not good for the employees or the company. The merger of these two already large companies resulted in a giant, second in the world in a major industry. The President made a promise to all of her employees. There will not be a single employee laid off because of this merger. We are profitable without employee layoffs. She went on to state: If this were a public company, the stock holders would ask for more profit and then I would have to downsize. The Sales Engineer had nothing but good things to say about her company.

At the same time a smaller American company, in the same business, bought a US competitor. The first thing they did was lay off many of the workers from the company that was purchased. One employee, who had only a few years left to retirement, was told to move to another state or he would loose his retirement benefits. He had just bought a brand new house. He is now going to rent a small apartment some 400 miles away and see his wife only on weekends until he retires. Meanwhile US Executives of failed companies amassed 3.3 billion dollars: In the last four years, before their companies went belly up, executives amassed 3.3 billion. The failures wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars in shareholder equity and these executives forced over 100,000 employees to loose their jobs. Alan Greenspan, US Federal Reserve Chairman, attacked the infectious greed of the short term managers who were out to make a quick buck, while employees and shareholders suffered tremendous losses, some lost everything they had. Ken Lay, of failed Enron, grossed $247 million, while Gary Winnich of failed Global Crossing grossed $512 million. Never before have we seen so many greedy and corrupt managers who simply managed their companies to failure, while making themselves ultra rich. World Com, Tyco, Enron, Global Crossing and Arthur Anderson are just a few of the scandalous companies were greed came first, integrity and management leadership last. This was not the America I knew in my early business career.

The Environment: When I first read that the US was the biggest polluter in the world I could not believe it. I reviewed data from many different sources and found out we are the #1 polluter of this planet. United States makes up just 4.9% of this planets population, but we use 28% of all the worlds energy. Carbon Dioxide from all this excessive energy use is so great it's hard to believe. We, the US, put out 1.75 billion metric tons of Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere per year, or 6.00 metric tons per person. ( That's not a typo error. )

But, here is the real problem. In the last 20 years, Western Europe, Russia and Japan have substantially decreased Greenhouse emissions while US emission has increased by 25%. In Europe emissions are now down to 2.2 metric tons per person and environmentally friendly Scandinavia is down to 1.9 metric tons per person. In other words we pollute about three times more than other industrialized countries who have a stronger environmental policy. My initial question was, how can we possibly pollute like this? Once you stop to think, the picture comes into focus.

In the US we drive fuel hungry cars and trucks. In most Industrialized Countries the price of gas is over $4.00 per gallon. In the US, gas is less expensive than Maine's Polands Spring water so getting only 15 MPG is no big deal. Trucks, (SUV's are in the truck category ) make up over 50 % of US transportation sales. As trucks they do not have to meet DOT car safety and emission requirements. In addition we have more Motor Homes, Motor Boats, Jet Skis, Snow Mobiles, All Terrain Vehicles and Lawn Tractors than all other countries combined. Plus, we have mid western coal burning power plants that send acid rain all over New England and eastern Canada.

Why am I writing this? Because so many people don't study these subjects and they don't realize what is happening to our nation and our planet. Once people understand, we can begin to make the necessary changes.

New Catalog Ready: We apologize for the delay of the new Catalog, it's now available and we started shipping new catalogs yesterday. If you would like a copy of the new catalog, call us at 1-877- V2 Jenex or e mail us at jenex@jlc.net. ( If you e mail make sure you give us your postal address ) The new catalog has about five nice action pictures we took at the Olympics in addition to pictures of all products. The cover photo is of John Bauer when he got 12th place.

Bente Skari retires, along with Thomas Alsgaard: Norway's two top skiers retire. The news for Norway was not good, but the retirement was understandable. Bente had 42 World Cup Victories, which I think is the World Record for both men and women. The 30 year old Bente had nothing more to prove, as did 31 year old Alsgaard. Bente said she was flying to Florida for some relaxation after the Norwegian National Championships.

Alsgaard has had an incredible career, Olympic and World Champion, but he is obviously tired, both mentally and physically. It's only natural, how long can you train 750+ hours and travel all over the world with little rest to only race again.

As is very evident, the best Master Skiers are not those who had World Cup results as top Seniors. The top World Cup skiers had enough of travel and high intensity training, they don't want to keep this up forever. I guarantee that if Thomas Wassbergh and Pierre Harvey trained hard for just 9 months, they would clobber everybody in the World Masters. I have talked about this at length with World Cup skiers. They all said, we are not ready to train at intense levels after we spent some 15 years doing nothing but training and racing. But I still think my good friend, Ferry Grill in Austria, should have let Gunde Svan ski two more years. Ferry convinced Gunde to quit, as he had nothing else to prove. Gunde could have easily dominated X-C another two to three years, he was only 29 when he quit.

What a week for the Fredriksson Brothers: On Thursday, March 20, Tobias Fredriksson, Mathias brother, won the World Sprint Cup. He said he valued the World Championship Victory a little more, but this was a great Bonus. Mathias entered the sprint and finished 7th.and on Saturday, March 22, Mathias won the skiathlon in Falun, brother Tobias was 10th and in the Relay on March 23, Mathias and his teammates won the relay.

Joergen Brink gets another chance to anchor the Relay: It's still hard for Joergen to understand how he bonked so badly in the final leg of the relay at the World's, but he got another chance to anchor the relay today and he did a superb job sprinting at the finish to win. Not only did he win the relay, but with his super finishes in the sprint and in the skathlon, he finished 3rd overall in the World Cup.

Mathias Fredriksson wins World Cup: Today Mathias clinched the World Cup title by winning in Lahti. His stat's for the year are very good. Thirteen races, 5 times on the podium, 3 World Cup victories and in the top ten in all 13 races. His real disappointment was not getting an individual medal at the World Championships. He was going to ski the Sprints in Borlaenge next Wednesday, but will probably skip them and concentrate on the Falun races next weekend. Very good results by the US New England Team as Kris Freeman was 17th, just 5.2 seconds behind Per Elofsson, and Carl Swenson was 28th. The US is definitely showing the rest of the ski world we have some very good skiers.

STAR had great success on the World Cup and at the World Championships: A European wax technician told me which World Cup and World Championship victories he knew for sure were won on STAR wax this year, including the winner of this years Swedish Vasaloppet. All I can say is, there were many more than I would have expected. I can't really name the skiers, outside of Vasaloppet, as some of the skiers and the National Teams they are on, are sponsored by brands whose wax they did not use.

I think the FIS should instigate a Sponsorship rule: If you are sponsored by a specific brand of wax, that is what you have to use. Some wax companies pay large sums to have their logo on National Teams, yet the Team does not necessarily use their wax. That is total BS. In a Formula 1 race, if you are sponsored by Michelin tires you don't use Goodyear. I do know a skier sponsored by one brand of skis, who used another brand at the Olympics. He had a professional change the graphics so that only a close inspection could tell it was not his ski sponsor. Marty Hall: You are never one to shrink from telling it like it is. Give us your opinion!

Former Track Athlete comments on Doping: This US track athlete told me that when he was competing he was offered steroids and other drugs, but refused. What surprised me was that he said many of his competitors openly used them. He is still in close connection with US track athletes and he said there is a very big drug problem in US Track and Field.

Carl Swenson 5th in 50 K World Championships: Carl did it. He beat all the Norwegian, Finnish, Russian, German, Italian, French, Austrian and Estonian skiers. The only skiers ahead of Carl were three Swede's and one Czech. This is the best result for the US in a World Championship since 1982. Both Carl and Kris Freeman, who goth 4th in the 15 K classic, are originally from New Hampshire, Carl from North Conway and Kris from Andover. I watched Carl in many races when he was a teenager.

Thomas Alsgaard hopes Mathias Fredriksson wins the 50 K tomorrow: Alsgaard said: I have incredible respect for Mathias. I really want him to win tomorrow. He has worked so hard and had to be the leader after Gunde Svan and Torgny Mogren retired. He could have had three Gold at these Championships instead of one Bronze. He was just unlucky. Thomas said that he and Mathias were very good friends. We are very much alike and see life in the same manner. Mathias said: Thomas is the non Swedish skier he most associates with and said he and Alsgaard meet often .They went to the Riviera together and they tried out Formula 1 cars together. At Val Di Fiemme Thomas and Mathias were in constant communication and Thomas promised Mathias two bottles of Champagne after Norway won the relay.

Tobias Fredriksson wins Sprint at World Championships: Olympic Champion Hetland said: " I knew you were good, but did not expect you to win. " Tobias is now very muscular, typical of a Sprinter. How did this sprinter manage a 3 rd in the 90 Kilometer Vasaloppet some few years ago?. How do you go from 90 K to winning 1.4 K?

Two Heroes, According to Norwegian Newspapers: When Sweden had a lead of over 30 seconds after the two first legs of the 4 X 10 K World Cup relay, Per Elofsson was expected to increase it in the third leg, but with his poor training this year he lost ground and when he tagged Joergen Brink, he only had a 22 second lead. Young Joergen is a very fast sprinter, but he had never been in a major relay. The pressure on him to win was so great he pushed too hard. In fact up to about 1.5 kilometers before the finish he had gained ground and was 24 seconds ahead of Norway and Germany. On the last uphill he totally caved in due to lactic acid overdose. That he finished third was all due to guts. ( There was a very scientific explanation of his breakdown in a Swedish Newspaper. Nothing new to experienced skiers, but it reminded me of when I almost passed out in a college race. )

Norway's major newspaper, Verdens Gang, had a whole section in Swedish Blue and Yellow colors saying today we had two heroes. All Norwegian newspapers not only praised Joergen for his ability to finish 3 rd, but for his ability to answer all questions at the Press Conference. Thousands of e mails from Norway said Sweden should have won the relay. The Norwegians know skiing and remember the 1999 VM when Elin Nilsen collapsed in the relay. Elin said: "I really feel sorry for Joergen, but it's not a World Calamity. He will be over it, hopefully soon.

The US is becoming a Nordic Ski Power Again: In the Skiathlon today the two top US skiers, Carl Swenson and Kris Freeman were only seconds from the Gold. Carl was 5 seconds from first place and Kris was only 8.2 seconds back. The pack before the final sprint was so tight the top 20 skiers finished within 13.5 seconds. Very exciting for the spectators, but I read nothing but bad comments from the skiers about the Skiathlon format. The US now has several very good skiers, with others developing. The oldest of the US crew, Justin Wadsworth, is showing his age as he was over 2 minutes back, while Andrew Johnson, who has been good, was 1' 37" back today.

The 4 X 10 Relay: The US could have a very good relay team. The two naturals are Kris and Carl. Kris is a phenomenal classic skier so he takes the first leg in the relay. Carl is a great skater so he has the last leg. The in between is the problem. If the skiers are healthy, the logical choice is probably Justin Freeman for the second leg and Andrew for the third. With this lineup the US could be in the top three in the first leg, drop back a slight bit in the second, drop slightly more in the third leg and be with the best in the last leg. Justin's performances to date are not good enough to put him in unless others on the team are sick. Did a quick analysis of today's race by country to check for possible relay results. Many Norwegian's missing, and many other countries had only three skier entered, so it's hard to tell. According to times of the top three skiers from each country, Sweden was best with 1, 3, and 7 in today's race, Germany second.

Per took Gold, but it would probably have been Joergen Brink: Per is not a sprinter, but he is mentally tough. In today's race Pietro Cottrer pulled away from the pack, but with Per in the lead the pack caught him. Per was obviously unsure of his condition, looked to see if Mathias Fredriksson was ready to sprint, but Mathias shook his head and Per went for it. Meanwhile Sweden's Joergen Brink, who is a very fast sprinter, moved up rapidly and was going for the Gold when Teichman tried to change lanes and ended up semi falling on top of Brinks skis. Before Teichman could extricate himself from Brink's skis Joergen had lost over twenty meters. Since Brink was only 0.4 seconds behind Per at the finish, he probably would have had the Gold. Per said that in the last few meters his only thought was: "I am going to be first across the Finish line if I have to ski through a brick wall."

Per talked about his Nightmare Summer and Fall: He said, this was such an unusual summer and fall. I was used to training three to five hours every day and all I could do was sit and watch TV or read. Just getting up was tiring. I thought going to Ramsau would be good in September, but I was so weak I flew back to Sweden after the first day. My first real hard training was in November. I knew the World Cup season was dead so I focused on the World Championships. Since I am not in very good shape, there is no pressure on me. Today's success was mainly mental plus very good skis. My upper body strength and my classic legs are not in good shape after loosing so many months of training. My skating is actually easier, despite my lack of upper body strength. The reason I think my skating is better is because I skate very efficiently. Today I was only in third gear most of the time.

Kris Freeman did what I predicted in my January 8, column: Kris not only won the 30 K U23 World Championships, today he had the best result of any American in a World Championship since Bill Koch got third in the Holmenkollen World Championships in 1982. Today Kris got 4 th, 10.6 seconds out of first place.Sometimes I used to look at the Nordic Chat group news, but I stopped. Too much illogical information that makes no sense.

Having said this, a friend called today saying that many on the Nordic chat group had questioned Kris Freemans ability. When looking at potential greatness, you look for progress. Kris has unusual progress. That is why I made the statement of a possible medal over a month ago. Kris has moved forward like Per Elofsson did. Per started to win when 21, but suffered in Salt Lake, still won the World Cup for 2002. Kris has the ability to be a World Cup Champion. To me, the World Cup is more important than World Champion. Why? World Championships, like the Olympics, invite cheating with drugs and special super hype preparation. Being the best over four months of skiing is a better measure of greatness than one week of super energized glory.

This is how good Kris is: Here are the positions at various intervals over the 15 K today: 1.6 K. Elofsson, Hjelemeseth, Fredriksson, Botvinov, Teichman. 6.4 K: Teichman, Noutrikhine, Freeman, Elofsson, Batory. 10 K Teichmann, Schlutter, Freeman, Noutrikhine, Fredriksson. 13.7 K: Teichmann, Freeman, Mae, Schlutter, Estil. Finish: Teichmann, Mae, Estil, Freeman, Schlutter.

Kris Freeman was 10.6 seconds from Gold. That's how good this New England skier is. My prediction: Kris will be a World Champion. I have watched the progress of skiers for over 50 years and have been carefully watching Kris for the last four years. You look for changes and progress and Kris has it all to be a World Champion. When I found out he was diabetic, I got worried, but he is handling it well.

Too many Races: Noticeable today was that the best in the 30 K Classic, two days ago, did not do well. Mathias Fredriksson, who was one of the favorites in the 30K, got bounced by Thomas Allsgaard who was ready to fall in a steep downhill and forced Mathias out of the track into a crash. When Mathias got up he was 150 meters behind. He recovered, but had no chance of a medal after falling, but he skied so hard he caught the lead group at 27 K. However, when the sprint started he was too tired to respond and finished some 9 seconds back. Today Mathias said he really felt tired from his exhausting 30 K. He felt so sluggish he could not respond to Teichmans speed and finished 21 seconds back. It was very noticeable, that all who finished well in the 30 K died in today's 15K. ( Too many races in too short a time )

Freeman on the cover of Sweden's largest Newspaper: The picture on Sweden's largest Sports Page Newspaper, DN was not of Teichman, Elofsson or Mathias, it was of Freeman: Freeman has been getting enormous publicity since his U23 win and today's success has made him a US - Scandinavian idol. Everybody is talking about Freeman. All relate to him like the Bill Koch of the 80's.

Kris Freeman again shows his ability: At the OPA Sci di Fondo, Under 23, Kris Freeman was 4th. After winning the 30 K, Under 23, he showed again he is one of the best in the world.

Gunde and Torgny reminisce about Val di Fiemme in 1991: In 1991 Gunde took one Gold and three Silver, while Mogren took one Gold.When asked about the new Championships 2003 by Dagens Nyheter, one of Sweden's major newspapers, Gunde Svan and Torgny Mogren had some what different opinions. Gunde felt the 50 K was too long for Per Elofsson after missing 100 hours of training and picked Per for the Pursuit. Torgny picked Per for the 50 K and Mathias for the 30 K classic. Sweden was kind of dead for 10 years, now they are hot again who knows what will happen.

Gunde was really worried about doping. He does not think the FIS has the resources, i.e. money, to catch the dopers. Ironically, Gunde, who hosts several TV shows, is not the Swedish TV commentator at the FIS Championships, it's Torgny, who is usually quiet and very reserved. I have met Torgny many times, Gunde only a few, but I really thought Gunde would be the commentator. He has several TV shows in Sweden while Torgny is usually reserved and not considered a TV commentator.

Kris Freeman wins World U23 Championships: The 23 year old and under FIS World Championship 30 K race was dominated by Kris Freeman from New Hampshire. Kris won the 30 K classic race by almost two minutes. I said it before, and I will repeat again, this guy is World Class. Don't be surprised if he medals at the real World Championships starting next week. Johan Olsson who finished second said he felt like he was skiing on two, instead of four cylinders. Sweden was not planning on sending a team to the U23 games so he had no altitude preparation. Johan said he had to let Kris Freeman go after only 4 kilometers as he said he felt like he was skiing without air.

Read several newspaper articles from Europe on Kris Freeman's performance and most coaches and ski experts predicted he would be in the top fifteen at the World Championships next week. I think he will do better, top ten and maybe medal. The Norwegians have not had a good year and many other top skiers have been sick. My predictions are that Mathias Fredriksson will win the 30 K classic and that Kris will be in the top ten.

Betting on Cross Country Skiers: If you did not know, there is a betting game on X-C. The odds for the races in Asiago Italy, tomorrow are as follows: ( Remember, nobody with even half a brain will be skiing hard in Asiago tomorrow, except for those not skiing in the World Championships next week. ) Fredriksson 5:1, Estil 6.5 :1, Bauer 7:1,Verpaluu 8:1, Aukland 10:1, Rotchev 12:1, Hjelmeseth 14:1, Elofsson 14:1, Di Centa 16:1, Mae 20:1, Soedergren 14:1, Ivanov 20:1, Valbusa 20:1, Teichmann 25:1

Latvian Skier called: Raymond Dombrovski is now working with the Latvian Biathletes and the bobsled team. Have not heard from him since he lived in Salt Lake City. He moved back to Latvia about six years ago and is now in Lake Placid with a Latvian Bobsled Team. He said they have a new roller ski track for Biathlon that would be perfect for the Aero skis he spotted in Lake Placid. He wants to get Aero's for the National Team and said he would order them next week.

Chip Sealed Roads: Apparently this less expensive method of fixing asphalt roads is becoming increasingly popular. This year our street was Chip Sealed. It's a much rougher surface and with regular roller skis it's a rough ride. More and more skiers are calling saying that regular roller skis are not satis factory on these rough surfaces. Today skiers from Park City asked for Aero skis to reduce vibration.

Russians Dominate at Junior World Championships in Sweden: Russia won both the boy's and girl's relay. They were dominant in both events, winning the boy's relay by some 2+ minutes. Finland was a surprising second in the girl's events.

Interesting! Geir Tufto, who works with the Norwegian wax - ski tuning team, said today he hopes to catch up to the other Nations regarding glide. Norway has had unusual results in ski races this year, except for Bente Skari. Geir implied part of the problem was poor ski tuning and poor glide.

The Black List from the FIS: For the last two weeks we have been getting reports via statements by Dr. Bengt Saltin saying that many World Cup skiers are showing variable and unusual hemoglobin results indicating that they are doping. These rumors - statements are nothing new. It was announced about a week ago that many skiers would soon be tested before the World Championships in Italy.

Today, a Scandinavian Newspaper said they had inside WADA - FIS reports naming the suspected doped athletes. The athletes were listed, but I don't think I want to name them, but I will name the countries these skiers were from. Russia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic.

All of this is not just wild speculation. According to the report the hemoglobin values of these athletes have varied beyond normal deviations. Some who had very high values in Salt Lake are now much lower and some with relatively low previous values are now much higher. According to Dr. Saltin it is virtually impossible to vary values more than 5 % without doping and now the values are changing by over 15%. Let's hope WADA does their job and catches the dopers.

Jegorova ousted from the Russian Team: According to the Russians she has been a pain in the butt and they could no longer take it and ousted one of the foremost skiers in the world. She will not compete in Val Di Fiemme.

Over 40,000 now entered in the Vasaloppett: The numbers just increase. With snow in southern Scandinavia more and more want to ski the Vasaloppett. The main Sunday race was filled long ago, but you can still apply for the short races, open races and the shorter skate loppett. If the skiing conditions remain good, the organizers now expect over 43,000 entries.

John Bauer calls in from Duluth: John called today to say hi and see how things were going. He was totally bummed out about the no snow in Duluth and the mid west in general. John will be on the cover of the new V2 Catalog. We got a great shot of him at the Olympics where he was the top American with a very good 12 th place finish. My first encounter with John, and his brother Bruce, was in 1987 at the Polar Cup races in Scandinavia. They were great skiers and wonderful teenagers. We have stayed in touch ever since and John and Bruce began using V2 roller skis in the early 90's. John is having a sabbatical year, but he surprised me when he said he wants to go for the US Team again. With his capacity I am sure he could make it.

Alsgaard apparently still not in shape: At the Norwegian Nationals today Hjelmeseth won the 10 K. Thomas was a minute back, an eternity for a 10 K. Let's hope he improves in the next three weeks before the Val Di Fiemme World Championships.

Mathias Fredriksson wins, but I think Kris Freemann was also a winner: In today's classic 15 K race in Germany World Cup Leader Mathias won, but the real Star for the US was New Hampshire's Kris Freeman. He finished just 65 seconds behind winning Mathias. One of the best ways to evaluate ski performance is to look at the time lost per kilometer or the distance behind the winner. Kris lost 4.6 seconds per kilometer to Mathias, which meant he finished just 416 meters behind Mathias. Kris beat a lot of the top names on the World Cup today. This guy is good!

The other US skiers did not have a good race in this Classic 15 K. Carl Swenson was the second best US skier, over 3.5 minutes behind Mathias and he lost an average of 93 meters per kilometer. Andrew Johnson lost about 100 meters per kilometer and Justin Wadsworth finished some 5 minutes, or 2 kilometers behind Mathias if it had been a mass start.

Per Elofsson stayed home for the Swedish National 15 K freestyle which he won by over a minute. He has lost 5 Kilo in six weeks and he said he felt great. After his injuries, when he was unable to run or roller ski, Per gained weight. Then he got the virus which again prevented him from serious aerobic training. A friend of his, who is a nutritional expert, made some changes to Per's nutritional program. Per was afraid to overtrain like he did earlier, but he needed to increase his daily metabolism, so Per started walking in the morning, before eating breakfast, and he also used an indoor exercise bike to rev up calorie burning. This way he could ski train the hours he wanted and he used the low intensity walking and bike exercise to simply burn more calories. It worked as he lost 5 Kilo in six weeks. Last weekend Per got third in the World Cup in Nove Mesto. He said that today he felt much better than at Nove Mesto. Per, the World Cup winner for the last two years, has no chance to win the World Cup this year, but he can win races at the World Championships. And, with luck, his good friend Mathias Fredriksson will win the World Cup.

Per Elofsson making progress: In the first World Cup race that Elofsson entered for this season he finished 24. He skipped several races in order to train as he had lost over 100 hours due to injuries and a virus. He has improved his results in every race and today in Nove Mesto he got on the podium in the 15 kilometer freestyle. Per has improved dramatically in the last three weeks and he should be ready for the World Championships in Italy. Alsgaard is also making progress, he has been as far back as 34 this season, but today he was 14. Home Czech skier Lucas Bauer dominated the race and won by 30 seconds.

New England men continue to dominate at the Nationals: Just as in Saturday's 30 K Classic race the New England bred skiers, some living all over the U S, dominated both Monday and in today's race. The top five skiers in Monday's Nationals 10 K all began their skiing career in New England. Today four were in the top five, including # 1 & 2. The results are available on many Home Pages including AXCS ..... xcskiworld. com.

Not Enough Depth ? A disturbing note in the National races is the time difference between the first and tenth place finishers. In the 30 K Classic, Kris Freeman from NH was 1' 50 seconds ahead of his brother Justin. In yesterday's very fast 10K Freestyle race Carl Swenson, from North Conway NH, was 30 seconds ahead of second place Kris Freeman. In such a short race the difference should be much less. ( Kris did say he screwed up on his Fischer ski selection for the Freestyle. ) We should be looking at five people within 30 seconds in a 10 K freestyle and at least 5 within 1.5 minutes in a 30K, unless we have some Super Stars that blow all the rest away.

Me thinks we have potential Superstars: Are we looking at super skiers, or is there not enough depth? From everything I have seen in the last three years, Kris Freeman is World Class and his brother could be the same. Justin has spent so much time studying, it was impossible for him to train optimally until this last year. Apparently he has now decided to really go for X-C skiing. Carl, a two time Olympian, has always been good in skating, but he is much older, 32 if I remember correctly. Kris is 22 and Justin 26.

In Kris and Justin we might have the likes of great skiers like Bill Koch, Jim Galanes, Stan Dunklee and Tim Caldwell. The problem that I see with the limited USSA budget is that the really good skiers don't get a chance to go to Europe often enough to test themselves against the best. I think Kris and Justin Freeman can be a new dimension for US X-C skiing. They are very young, very competent and have the ability to be world great. Justin Wadsworth has been our best male skier for several years, but he is no longer young.

Peter Larsson, same virus as Per Elofsson: After winning the Dusseldorf Sprint, Peter has been in a slump. Tired and logy. Peter is one of the best Sprint Skiers in the World. The doctors just discovered that he has the same virus infection that crippled Per Elofsson for so many months. Peter is not sure if he can recover for the World Championship in Italy, a shame as he is one of the best.

Extremely Cold at the World Cup Races in Russia: At today's races the temperature on one part of the course was down to -22 Celcius ( 7 degrees below 0 F ). In the women's race Kristina Smigun totally dominated winning the 5 K race by 16.3 seconds. In the men's race Rene` Sommerfeldt won his first World Cup Race, with Mathias Fredriksson in second place just 5 seconds back. In third place was Rene`'s team mate from Germany AlexTeichman

Norway, the traditional super power for men is not having a good year to date. In the 6 World Cup traditional distance races, i.e. 10 kilometers or longer, Norway has had only 4 skiers in the top ten. Today the top Norwegian was Tore Ruud Hofstad in 24 th place. Compare that with Germany having 10 skiers in the top ten, Italy 5 and Sweden 17. According to Per Roennestrand, the Norwegian's are worried as they don't know why their results have not been better. Norway has actually done better in the three World Cup sprint races with 7 skiers in the top ten, while Germany had 5, Italy 2 and Sweden 10.

Jim Galanes Visits on his way to the US Nationals: Jim and I have been good friends for many years, but the last time we physically met was at the World Masters in Lake Placid in 1998. Since he is now living in Alaska and I don't get a chance to attend many races we just don't meet even though we communicate regularly. It's nice to see one of the top skiers in US Nordic history still so involved with X-C skiing.

Jim was on his way to Maine, where the APU Team had rented an Inn in Bethel for their 11 skiers and coaches for the US National X-C Championships. Jim's program at APU ( Alaska Pacific University ) is large. My numbers might not be exactly correct, but it's like 100 Master Skiers, 15 Elite Senior Skiers + a bunch of Juniors. Jim's skiers always do well at the Nationals. While visiting, Jim picked a bunch of STAR Ski Wax to fill in the "holes" in his wax box. For his APU skiers, Jim uses STAR exclusively, both for glide and kick wax. We wish all skiers competing for a spot on the US Team for the World Championships the best of luck.

Weight training study: Over the last ten to fifteen years, working out in the Gym on weight machines has become the trend for almost all athletes. Tests on Hockey and Football ( soccer ) players shows that the athletes have reduced oxygen uptake values and are not as quick and balanced as they should be. According to exercise physiologist Rickard Nilsson, the main problem is the use of weight machines in the gym instead of free weights and the emphasis of gym training over more natural training. The machines isolate the muscle groups which, Rickard claims, is fine for body builder physiques but is wrong for most sports. Free weights and general strength, balance and core strength exercises are better according to Rickard Nilsson.

Teichman wins Double Pursuit, Elofsson improving rapidly: In today's race Per finally showed he is getting into better shape by finishing 6, 22 seconds out of first place. He is totally against the double pursuit format, but it was the World Cup winner's best result this season. Anders Soedergren continued to live up to Per's predictions that he is one of the world's best, as he finished 2nd today, just 0.9 seconds behind Teichman. Anders and Mathias Fredriksson did most of the grunt work and were in front most of the way. Anders had an 8 meter lead with 500 meters to go, but Teichman passed him just before the finish. Mathias lost ground in the last kilometer and finished 7.

Skiers Protest Double Pursuit: Today the skiers submitted a written protest to the FIS regarding the new Double Pursuit format. Per Elofsson said virtually all skiers competing in Ramsau signed the protest. Per said that using combi boots means that neither the classic or the skate can be performed at maximum efficiency. He also said that the chance of injuries is greater when using the new double pursuit format. He cited the pre race favorite, Mathias Fredriksson, who injured his achilles again this week and Mathias blamed his achilles problem on practicing both techniques in the combi boots for the upcoming race.

When Per was asked if the format followed in Finland last season, three hours of rest between the two races, was better, Per said yes, but he claimed this format was also too stressful. He felt they should go back to the original pursuit format where one discipline is performed one day and the other the next day. He implied that the FIS does not get enough input from the racers when changing the rules.

Becky Scott of Canada has a great Sprint Race: Today, in Linz Austria, Becky proved again she is one of the best on the World Cup. She finished third, just behind Norway's Hilde Pedersen who was second. Pirjo Manninen of Finland was the surprise winner in a photo finish. If you study Becky's results it's pretty obvious she is great at shorter races. Good to have this wonderful Canadian skier in the top tier of the World Cup. Congratulations to our Northern neighbors.

Sprint Races in Linz: Ola Rawald's Team did not get a chance to meet Tor Arne Hetland in the finals of today's sprint, but Ola's skiers did finish 1, 2, 7 and 10. Hetland did not make it to the final today. But, Tor Arne Hetland leads the World Cup. The top finishers today were Mikael Oestberg and Tobias Fredriksson.

Mathias Fredriksson jubilant to be where he is on the World Cup: According to Mathias, he is far from being in top shape yet he is leading the traditional distance World Cup. He said today he is not near top shape and is surprised by his good results this fall.

When will the FIS and IOC separate short races from long races? Can you even picture Green, Michael Johnson or Marion Jones of 100, 200 and 400 meter track fame competing in 1500, 3000, 5000, or 10,000 meter races ? So, why is the FIS instigating this combined farce? We know the FIS is desperate, because Cross Country Skiing at the FIS level is not getting enough publicity or sponsorship money. But, this is a very sophomoric short sighted approach.

I have no disagreement with Sprint Races. The Sprint Races generate more interest in Cross Country skiing and it's beneficial. I just think the points should be separated into two different categories. Where the rules- regulations fall apart is in the measurement of World Cup points. We know that you can perform a lot more 1 to 2 kilometer races per year without serious de-conditioning. If you are going to combine Sprint and Long Distance races we need a new Point System

Swedish Coach, Ola Rawald not pleased with Hetland's Sprint Tactics: The comments in the press were somewhat ambiguous, but in a long review it was strongly implied that Tor Arne Hetland, with his speed and strength, was bullying other skiers in the Sprint Races and forcing many to fall and make mistakes. He was behaving less like a Cross Country Skier and more like an NHL Hockey player. The comment was: " Let's hope he does not pull this crap again." Ola said: "We are now most anxious to meet him in the Final of the Linz Sprint Races tomorrow."

Jochen Behle says German Skiers are Clean: Coach - Director of German X-C, Jochen Behle, responded to Bengt Saltin's comments by saying as far as he knows, all blood values of the Germans are clean. Jochen is a very funny and outgoing person. About nine years ago we closed the Matchner bar in Ramsau, Austria with Jochen, Magnar Dalen who was then the Swedish Head X-C Technician, my best friend Bruce Brinkema and a dozen World Cup skiers who were training on the Dachstein Glacier. Jochen was at the time the best skier on the German Team and he loved V2 roller skis. He converted the whole German Team to V2.

Norwegians returning to Norway for More Training: Only four Norwegians will return to Central Europe for the races in Ramsau, Austria: Thomas Alsgaard, Espen Bjervig, Odd Bjoern Hjelmeseth, and Frode Estil. According to the report, the others will stay in Norway and train.

Vasaloppet TV Rescued: Vasaloppet has been one of the most watched TV sport shows in Sweden since TV was available, but for whatever reason, it looked like there would be no live TV in 2003. This would have been catastrophic for the organizers and for the public that likes to watch skiing. Fortunately it will be shown from beginning to end in 2003, that's some 4 hours + of X-C TV without commercials. If you have not seen a Swedish Vasaloppet TV Video before it's fantastic. Cameras are located on snowmobiles traveling with the skiers both in front and behind the leaders, in helicopters above the skiers and stationary cameras on the ground are everywhere. You get a viewpoint from every angle. You get a hawk view, a ground hog view, front and back view and side view, it's all there. Very knowledgeable commentators cover the event. This year Norway is out in force. All their top distance skiers have entered. As mentioned in an earlier report, Norway has only won once in the last 30 years and they are out to win the longest and biggest X-C Ski Race in the World. For the last twenty years I have bet against the Norwegians who entered, but this time I think they will win. Why? Because there are so many top skiers. I think they will work like a bicycle team and make it very difficult for all others. As we mentioned in an earlier report, this year there are over 32,000 skiers entered.

Professor Saltin announces unusual blood values in 15 X-C Skiers: Today, Bengt Saltin said the variations are even greater than last season at this time of the year. The 15 skiers are now under special scrutiny. He did not mention the skiers by name, only by country and by the number of athletes from each country. Russia 5, Estonia 2, Germany 2, Austria 2, Finland 1, Italy 1, Kazakhstan 1, and the Czech Republic 1. The encouraging aspect of this report is that despite these high blood values by some athletes, no Norwegians and no Swedes had unusual values. This proves athletes don't have to dope to win. My questions is? 15 skiers have unusual blood values and will be scrutinized, but how do you prove they are cheating? How do you determine these are not unusually high normal values ? The countries that were listed with unusual blood values were no surprise to anyone that's been involved in X-C skiing or other endurance sports.

Mathias Fredriksson on a roll and Anders Soedergren had his best World Cup race: When Mathias won the World Junior Championships, some ten years ago, it was predicted he would be a new Super Star. He has been good, but to date he has not performed to expectations. For the last three years he has been in the shadow of Per Elofsson, but things have changed. As of today, Mathias leads the World Cup. He has been able to train without any serious injuries and Coach Ola Rawald has greatly improved his skating technique. He is not only in good condition, he has regained his confidence. In todays mass start classic race it was a mad sprint at the finish between Estil Frode, Anders Aukland and Mathias. The two Norwegians beat Mathias in the sprint, by 2.7 seconds, but Mathias now leads the World Cup by a reasonable margin.

Per Elofsson said: "Anders will be great": Two years ago, when Per was asked who he considered his main rivals, he mentioned several well known World Cup skiers and Anders. Most people had never heard of Anders Soedergren, but Per trained with him and knew his capacity. With many injuries and a lot of bad luck last year Anders was unable to perform to Per's predictions. However, this year he has had fewer health problems and he is proving himself to be one of the best skiers on the World Cup. Today he was 4th in Cogne, last weekend he was 10 and the weekend before 12. When you are in the top 15 in the seasons first four World Cup races, you are no longer a slouch. Anders is only 26, so he can become a great skier.

Meanwhile both Per and Thomas Alsgaard are trying to get in form. Per was 23 today at Cogne and Alsgaard was 30. They were not that far back timewise, just a little over 2 minutes for 30K. The four in the lead group; Frode, Aukland, Fredriksson and Soedergren were about 36 seconds ahead of the next group.

Letter from Canada: Two days ago I received a most surprising and wonderful e mail from Canada. It was from a Sakari Uunila, who had married my cousin Annika Johansson some thirty years ago in Sweden. I have had no contact with the family and I have never met Sakari. They live in Vancouver, but also have residences in Vernon, B.C. and in the Cariboo wilderness in B.C. Annika and Sakari sent us photographs of my Grandparents and of my Mother and her siblings from the age of about five to when my Mother was about 18. It was incredible. I had always wanted these photographs of my Grandparents and of my Mother as I had very few pictures of the family from before my Mother left Sweden for the United States in 1929.

I have been very negligent about keeping in touch with my North American relatives. I have Swedish relatives living in Ontario as well as in British Columbia. Turns out my cousins husband, Sakari Uunila, was on the Canadian X-C National Ski Team in the 60's. What a small world. Anita and I hope to make a trip to Vancouver and Ontario soon to meet our relatives.

Mayor of Minneapolis tries V2 Aero 125 Roller Skis: Just received an e mail from Corey Brinkema in Minneapolis. Apparently the Mayor of Minneapolis is working hard to make the City of Minneapolis, the Silent Sport Mecca. Kate Ellis, a friend of Cory's, convinced the Mayor to put on some Aero 125's and we have a great picture of the Mayor on 125's. ( Corey is a great skier and the son of Master Skier Bruce Brinkema. Bruce was my College Room Mate and is a very close friend. )

Norway wins Relay in Davos: Despite the mediocre individual results yesterday, Alsgaard was 36th, Norway beat Italy in the final sprint.Thomas Alsgaard beat Zorzi by some 0.4 seconds in the final sprint, making up for yesterdays erratic performance. Norway was elated after poor performances by the men in Kiruna and Kuusamo.

The unusual High Altitude Preparation Worked for Mathias & Anders: Today, Mathias Fredriksson won the Davos 15 K World Cup Skate race. Mathias has always been a good classic skier, but never a great skate skier. He said the new coach, Ola Rawald, has helped him to become a much better skater this year. Mathias said his timing is now better, he can ski faster and he is more relaxed. He said he still has a lot to learn about skating, but he feels his technique is much better than in previous years.

It was a battle between Vincent Vittoz of France and Mathias throughout the race, only in the last two kilometers did Mathias develop a slight edge as Vittoz was visibly getting more tired than Mathias. Anders Soedergren, who followed the same altitude plan, ( see the December 2 column ) finished a respectable 10 even though he said he was tired from a week of very hard training. One coach thought that with a little more rest during the week, Anders would have easily been in the top 5. The big surprise was that the first Norwegian was Kristen Skjeldal in 15th place. The Norwegians are either in a very hard training period right now or they missed the wax. I doubt it's the wax, as Bente Skari won her race. By the World Championships in February in Italy, I am sure the Norwegians will be ready. In the Relay tomorrow it should be all Italy, but you never know. With four Italian's in the top 30, two in the top five and three in the top 15 today, they should theoretically dominate tomorrow. (At his request, we shipped a bunch of different V2 roller skis to Mathias last year, but we think he is by contract required to officially sponsor another brand. )

Bente so strong she now wins skate races: Probably the biggest surprise in Davos was Bente Skari winning the skate race. She is the ultimate classic skier, but before she used to be way behind in skating, yet today she won. Now that she has learned how to skate, she will be a killer in the Pursuit races. Who is going to catch her after her 30second+ lead after the classic portion?

Justin Wadsworth was 22 and Beckie Scott 15, at Davos: Excellent results for "the couple". As Justin gets older, he just seems to get better and better. Beckie is now consistently top twenty and in shorter races she is awesome. I first saw Justin ski in 1987 in Kiruna, Sweden, so Justin has been on the circuit a long time.

A different way to prepare for the High Altitude at Davos: While most skiers have already left for Davos to get "acclimatized" for the high altitude, two skiers are trying a very different approach. Mathias Fredriksson and Anders Soedergren, 9th and 12th respectively at the Kuusamo World Cup last weekend, will continue to train hard at the lower elevations in Oestersund, Sweden then fly to Switzerland on Friday afternoon, sleep at relatively low altitude, then drive to the races on Saturday morning. They have not done this before, but they wanted to try it to see how they feel and perform.

This could be better than just trying to stay at high altitude for just a few days while trying to acclimate. If you look at data gathered by the Swede's in Dachstein in 1992, just a few days at high altitude was a disaster. ( I happened to be at Dachstein during the testing, there was a problem with the ski treadmill and I was asked to help. ) The data was plotted on some ten skiers. After high altitude training, test values declined for the first five days and did not approach normal levels again until the skiers had been at high altitude for almost two weeks. Skiers adapted to altitude very differently. One skier was still way below his normal oxygen uptake after 12 days at altitude while others were just approaching normal levels.

If you are going to have to race at high altitude for some ten days, such at the Olympics or World championships, it is assumed you cannot afford not to get acclimatized, which means spending at least three weeks at high altitude before the games. But, who knows what would happen if all training was done at low altitude with only race days at high altitude? It might be better, because we all know high intensity training is better and less stressful at lower elevations. We would appreciate your comments on race preparation for high altitude and we look forward to Mathias and Anders results this coming weekend!

Finland Surprises in the mixed World Cup Relay: This could be an interesting new relay format, two women and two men skiing both classic and skate. After the first leg it looked like an easy win for Norway. Bente Skari had a very large lead, but the other Norwegians were not her equal and in the last leg it was Italy in front with the Finnish A and B Team in second and third. Italy appeared to have things in control when the Finn's started a serious sprint and finished 1 & 2. Italy was 3, Russia 4 and Norway 5. Germany, Estonia and Sweden did not participate in the mixed relay. The winning Finnish team consisted of Ann Marie Viljamaa, Ari Pelolahti, Pirjo Manninen and Temu Kattialoski. There are some good new Finnish skiers so when many, including myself, predicted it would be many years before Finland returned as a Nordic ski power we will probably be proven wrong. Finnish Sisu is truly strong.

Finally found some comments about the mixed relay in a Norwegian paper. As noted yesterday, the Scandinavian papers buried Kuusamo, it was almost impossible to get any news in major papers. The ski news were mainly in special small newspapers. The Norwegians are not at all enthusiastic about this new format. They claim it was mainly designed for countries with so few skiers, they can't have a relay without both men and women competing. We will have to see how this format plays out, it could also be that Norway was also negative because they did so poorly today, compared to expectations.

The Freeman's in a class by themselves at the FIS / Noram 10 K classic races on Friday, November 29: Brothers Justin and Kris Freeman were a second apart and 27 seconds back in third place was Olympian Carl Swenson, followed by Andrew Johnson and David Chamberlain who were within 3 seconds of Carl. Another 30 seconds behind David, was Pat Weaver.

New England still a Nordic Power House. Of the top ten men at the FIS / Noram, eight developed their skiing skills in New England including the first six finishers. The terrain in New England, coupled with so many races, makes for very tough competition and good skiers. If we look back to the best US World Cup ski results we find that the best were Bill Koch, Stan Dunklee, Tim Caldwell, Jim Galanes, Dan Simeneau and Martha Rockwell. They were all from New England and they all had top ten World cup results including 1st places, both individually and in World Cup relay's. Now a new crop of superstars are emerging such as Kris and Justin Freeman, Andrew Johnson, Carl Swenson, Dave Chamberlain, Pat Weaver and Andy Newell. Newell is only a Junior and he finished in the top ten at the Noram's in Yellowstone. These New England skiers are good! Don't be surprised if they finish in the top ten, or better, in the World Championships in Italy.

World Cup Races in Kuusamo: The major news and surprise for me was not the Nordic Ski results, it was the lack of Scandinavian media coverage. After I quit working today on my Fathers house, I started checking out the Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish newspapers for articles on today's Classic races. Virtually no major Scandinavian newspapers had articles about the Nordic races in Kuusamo. Like five major papers had nothing, although they did mention the Alpine ski races in Aspen. This was very untypical, as nordic skiing is usually in the news. It's not a major sport in Sweden, but in Norway it's big time and Kuusamo was buried in the Norwegian papers.

Bente Skari just gets better and better. She won the 10 K by 24.3 seconds over Estonia's Kristina Smigun. 3rd was Russian Lilija Vasilijeva and the major surprises were Ann Marie Viljanmaa of Finland 4th and Jenny Olsson of Sweden 5th. ( Jenny was sick all last year, but is feeling great this season. ) Becky Scott of Canada finished a very respectable 14.

In the men's race the surprise was again the lack of good finishes for Norway. Vasili Rotchev, the sun of the former National Russian Team member Rotchev, won his first world cup. First Norwegian was Anders Aukland 8th, Mathias Fredriksson of Sweden was 9th. The top five included three Gerrman's; Techman, Schlutter and Sommerfeldt + Lucas Bauer of the Czech Republic who was second. Per Elofsson did enter and was a respectable 20. He was right up with the winners at 2 kilometers, but after that he lost time at every check point. Typical of not being in shape. Capable of early speed in a race, but not able to maintain speed for the distance.

More News on FIS Doping: According to several new reports the doping controls at the Lahti 2001 Championships were shoddy and were "deliberately" designed to allow most skiers to compete. According to what I just read, the blood vials were not filled to the proper level, resulting in lower reported hemoglobin values. ( This apparently would be an easy way to get lower values based on the standard FIS test methods. ) Here it's where it gets sticky! Dr. Bengt Saltin, one of the most respected world experts in his field and the new Director of the FIS Medical Committee, said he knew the tests were not conducted properly in Lahti, but he does not know who was responsible.

Meanwhile, FIS Race Director Bengt Erik Bengtsson who, to my knowledge, has no medical or laboratory expertise, said it was impossible not to perform the tests properly as the tests were overseen by several people. However, many experts have been complaining for years that the FIS test methods are sloppy and unprofessional. Who can we believe, world renowned Dr. Saltin or FIS Race Director Bengtsson? Having been involved with testing for over 40 years I know that to obtain accurate test results is not an easy task. Finnish Professor Videman said after the Salt Lake Olympics: "Most of the Salt Lake Olympic test results are not worth the paper they are written on."

What a Thanksgiving Surprise! I no longer believe in conventional statistics, other equations seem to rule: Because of my Mothers deteriorating condition, we decided in the last minute to visit my mother in Florida. ( See article of her death below. ) At the same time, one of my wife's cousins from Sweden and her husband decided to meet their daughter and the grandchildren in Orlando for a week of fun at Disneyland. Their daughter, husband and grandchildren live in Ottawa, Canada and they were driving down for the week. They found out we were in Florida and cousin Eva and her husband visited us for Thanksgiving. We had a great time, we had not seen them since our daughters wedding in 1999 in New Hampshire. The probability of this accidental meeting was statistically very low. But, conventional statistics must no longer be valid. When measuring parts we generally find that taking 20 samples provides a typical distribution. But, last week not so! The distribution of measurements in 20 samples looked nothing like that of 200 samples. There were distinct groups, so you had to take a very large sampling in order to get the overall distribution. These parts had been randomly mixed so it was most unusual. Our meeting cousin Eva was equally unusual.

Many skiers skipping World Cup in Kuusamo, Finland: Vincent Vitoz, the surprise winner last weekend, will not compete as he is training for the Davos World Cup. Thomas Alsgaard and Per Elofsson are also staying home training. Thomas, like Per said he was not in good shape.

Central Europe has little snow: The biathlon race scheduled in Hochfilzen, Austria was moved yesterday to Ostersund, Sweden. The Davos race course has very little snow and the FIS has contacted Norway, to see if the race could be moved to Beitestolen. FIS race director, Bengr Erik Bengtsson, said Norwegian TV did not have the money to cover the race and one of the FIS goals is to have all races shown live on TV.

Thomas Alsgaard looses it, and we all do at times: According to Rene Sommerfeldt, Thomas became irrational after the Kiruna relay race. Rene was upset because Thomas and Christian Zorzi never wanted to lead. Every time Sommerfeldt moved over for one of them to lead they stopped, forcing Rene to spend much more energy than the others. ( This is a very tough rule decision as scientific data shows, that the lead person can expend as much as 7% more energy than the skiers behind. Depending on terrain, wind and speed those that follow the leader have a major advantage in a long or short sprint. In reality the only way to make it fair in a relay might be to have several designated tracks, but how do you do it for skating which uses so much real estate? I have seen mass start races where the lead person stepped aside and the others refused to lead. They just stood there! This happened in the Swedish Vasaloppet one year and the lead pack stood there arguing for minutes, until the next group caught up. Who do you think took off first? The poor guy that had been doing the grunt work in the lead pack for about 50 K. This was one of several reasons for the many top skiers who wanted to boycott mass start races. In bicycling, I think Time Trials are the only true measure of performance, because in a time trial it's the racer against the clock, not some Team tactics.)

Back to Rene. About 200 meters before the finish the sprint started. Alsgaard was unable to get by Sommerfeldt and he grabbed Rene's pole. Then Rene blocked Thomas, but according to video it was not intentional, but it gave Zorzi the win by 1 / 10 of a second. According to Aftonbladet and Sommerfeldt, Thomas said: "In the next race you will die." Germany protested Alsgaard's action and in TV reviews it was verified that Thomas grabbed Rene's pole, but FIS X-C chief, Bengt Erik Bengtsson, only gave Thomas a warning.

Next FIS races: Per Elofsson will ski in Finland, but he will skip the races in Switzerland: He needs to build base strength and after missing 100 hours this summer it's tough to catch up. It must be very tough for the World Cup Winner to not race, but this time he is being smart, not like the overtraining he did for the Olympics.

My Swedish Mother dead at the age of 93: Last weekend my Mother was transferred to another Nursing Home in Florida with a more intensive care facility than she had been in. We were most concerned about her condition and my wife Anita and I took a Southwest flight from Manchester, NH to Tampa on Thursday, November 21. Because of poor visibility in the Northeast we left Manchester 8 hours behind schedule. By the time we arrived in Venice, FL my mother was dead.

ROOTS: Mom came to the United States from Sweden just before the great depression. She had very little formal education but, like my Grandmother and Grandfather, she had a high IQ coupled with street smart survival instincts. Soon she was the cook for some of the wealthiest people in the US. The people she cooked for in Greenwich, CT and in New York was a list of who is who among the wealthy. After a dinner in Greenwich one of the Rockefeller's asked the host who his cook was. The host gave him my mothers name, Linnea, which is also the name of a Swedish flower. Next she got a call from the Rockefellers in New York, offering her a job with more pay. She took the job, but after awhile she decided she liked Greenwich better and returned to work for another of the top twenty wealthy club. Because of her reputation, she was never out of a job during the depression. Her favorite person that she worked for was one she called Colonel Cooper. He came from a modest mid western family, but he had married into one of the richest families in the US. He was considered one of the world's most brilliant Civil Engineers and he built dams and bridges all over the globe, including Russia and China.

Mom told me Cooper dreaded the high society dinners and having to dress in a tuxedo for his meals. He would make all kinds of excuses not to attend the dinners that his wife lived for. Instead of elegant gourmet food he would ask my mother to prepare some simple Swedish home cooking. He especially liked plaettar ( a Swedish crepe ) smothered with lingonberries and cream. He told my mother how much he missed the simple mid western lifestyle and he was particularly irked by the people who enjoyed the high society lifestyle while there was a depression and many did not know how to do anything, but play golf & polo.

Despite her achievements as a cook, Mom wanted to be on her own and in her "spare time" she studied physical therapy and massage. By the late 50's she had developed a good business in Westport, CT. Her customers included many in the public limelight such as well known film stars many who, like Paul Newman, lived in Westport. But, it was very hard work. She took all her equipment to the houses including her 70 pound massage table. She continued in this business, much longer than she should have. Her cooking reputation followed her and many of her new clients often asked her to prepare something special for a major party or dinner event. She refused most, but for important occasions for her best clients, she would prepare some tasty appetizers or desserts.

By the late 70's Mom decided to move back to Sweden. She was very independent and Dad had no say in the matter. She had inherited a beautiful five acre lot overlooking lake Siljan in Dalarna and her youngest brother, who was a contractor, built a small, but very comfortable house. She and Dad sold their house in Westport and moved there in 1982. After living in Connecticut for over 50 years, the first winter in Sweden was a shock and in 1983 they decided to spend the winters in a small house in Florida and the summers in their house in Sweden. This they did until 1990, when it was getting to be too much for them to travel back and forth. Since then they have been living in Florida. Mom loved to ski and I have saved a pair of her old wooden skinny skis. Like our daughter, she wanted to be cremated and her ashes placed in the church yard in Rattvik, Sweden. My Father, age 94, is adapting to her death better than I expected. They had beeen married 70 years when she died. On the 26th we will have a small family memorial service. The help in the Nursing Home told us how much they missed my feisty mother. They said that until the last week before her death, she would shout to them: " I want my coffee now!"

World Cup in Kiruna: The only surprise was the lack of Norwegian men in the top of the freestyle and that this very strong Norwegian team did not win the relay. Norwegian women dominated after several top Russians have been suspended for two years for doping. The Italian's are hot, they must be planning on winning the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS in Italy next February.

Per Elofsson said: "Maybe now they will believe me and realize I was not faking when I said I was not in condition." After finishing 24 in the skate race, Per said he felt fine and was pleased to be 24. Thomas Alsgaard, who was supposed to be in good shape, was only 16 so Per should not feel too bad.

Per Elofsson will TRAIN in the next weekend World Cup Race: Based on his present capacity, the World Cup will only be a training race for Per. Earlier many thought it would be best for Per not to race. A really lousy performance can affect your confidence, but Per is experienced and he felt he needed some competition in his legs even if he was not in shape. He said the race means nothing to him, as he knows he is not in shape. He knows because he is experienced. I had no racing experience for many years when I returned to skiing in the 70's and after the first few races I almost quit.

Just after returning to X-C ski racing, after a 13 year hiatus of little exercise, I entered a 15 K race in New York State and I was 12 minutes behind the winner, a newly arrived Finn named Samela Weikko. Samela was 12 years younger than I, but even so, it was an embarrassment. He skied every kilometer 48 seconds faster than I did. I told my wife Anita. " No matter how hard I train there is no way I can ski more than 20 seconds faster per kilometer. This guy will beat me by 7 minutes in a 15 K classic race even if I had time to train like a pro."

Two years later, in the Washington Birthday race in Brattleboro, I finished 7th overall out of some 500+ skiers. I also managed to beat Samela by 20 seconds. I was 41 years old and no skier over the age of 30 was ahead of me that day. US Ski Team member Stan Dunklee won the race and Dave Hosmer was second. It's amazing what a few years of even minimal training can accomplish. I was still working an average of 55 hours per week so finding time to train was hard. I would have continued to race, except after my last Vasaloppet in Sweden I developed severe asthma. This made racing no fun, as people I could easily beat before were now way ahead of me. I did not race again until one of the last Great American Ski Chase races in Waterville Valley. I had not beaten my asthma problem but, it had improved and I managed to win my age group.

Per Elofsson must be cautious: World Cup and World Champion, Per Elofsson must be careful after loosing 100 hours of training this summer. He entered the classic race on Saturday, November 16 and finished 13. He said he felt like he had a plug in his system, nothing flowed freely. ( The plug in the system is a Swedish expression I can't translate properly. ) He decided not to race on Sunday, where Matthis Fredriksson won again. It's early, but loosing 100 hours of basic summer training is almost impossible to regain. If anyone can do it he can and it will be interesting to see his race results in January and February.

Finland under pressure, capitulates: The Finnish Ski Association, under a lot of pressure, decided that the Finnish Athletes who doped in the 2000 World Championships will not be allowed to compete in the 2003 World Championships in Italy. After the announcement most of the doped skiers refused to speak to the press, but that night, on Finnish TV channel MTV-3, Jari Isometsae said: "I am very disappointed. I am glad these cowards were not around to defend Finland in the last war, or the Germans would still be here". He was apparently referring to the pressure from other countries, as the Finnish Ski Association earlier said the athletes could go. Many countries put pressure on Finland, but Norway and Sweden were particularly vocal with Norway being cited by Jari as the real culprit.

Races in Norway's Beitostolen unbelievably close: The depth of Norwegian skiing is remarkable. They are not top athletes in many sports, skiing is their specialty, then running and women's soccer. In the years first competition in freestyle, the top ten were within 20 seconds, with classic specialist Espen Bjervig winning the freestyle. He said he was most pleased with his skating performance. There was only 5 seconds between him and third place Thomas Alsgaard. If Norway could field 30, instead of 4 or 5 athletes in World Cup races, the results would be very different. Bente continued to show she is the X-C Queen by easily winning the Classic race.

First Races in Sweden: Mathias Fredriksson wins both the classic and the skating races in the first test of the year in Sweden. World Cup winner Per Elofsson, who has lost 100 hours of training due to sickness and injuries, said all he wanted was to finish in the top 20 and he finished 13. There is no reason for the world's best X-C skier to rush the season. He had a winning training program, changed it before the Olympics and it does not seem to work. Per ended up overtraining, then he got injured and sick. My comments to you Per, for what they are worth: ( For some 7 years you had a winning program of 5 days of training and 2 days of rest. It worked for you, and for all those years you were never sick or overtrained. Why change this formula when it made you the top X-C skier in the World? Everybody knows the old statement. " If it works, don't fix it." )

Ronald Faltus writes: The Astra Zeneca Pharmaceutical Company R&D skier in Montreal said: "It seems your suggestion was heard somewhere." When Dr. Bengt Saltin, the new FIS Medical Chair, said dopers will be stopped by knowing their natural blood values, I think I was erroneously credited with part of the idea. I had made statements on this Home page earlier that based on previous scientific data that it's fairly obvious that, especially with new EPO drugs emerging daily, that to test for the chemical substances is almost impossible. Instead a data