Anders Soedergren training again after back surgery: The person who deserved to win the 50K in Liberec, but finished 2nd when the world's best finisher Petter Northug beat him, is back training again. Anders wrote: "The other day I was at the winter sport center in Oestersund and roller skied on the treadmill. My back felt good and the test results showed that I am still in good shape. The healing process is good. The emphasis is now on strengthening my abdominal muscles and the muscles around the disc operation. I feel better every week. Not a hundred percent yet. Still very careful in my training, especially with running so that I do not over stress my back. Based on the results to date, I expect to be back to normal training in about one or two weeks."

Anders was recently an honorary guest at the big party for Petter Northug in Mosvik where the town and ski community celebrated Petter's three Gold medals at the World Championships. There was a large TV screen showing the finish of the 50K where Anders did 90% of the work. There was tremendous applause for Anders heroic efforts. Anders said it was a great celebration.

Laboratory tests on new synthetic XL98 tires finished: It's now time to test the tires on the road. The laboratory tests show phenomenal abrasion resistance and tremendous rebound which results in very low heat absorption ( the lowest we have ever tested ) and very low rolling resistance. These tires are rocket fast so most users will probably want to install the patent pending ISR (Internal Speed Reducer ) With the combination of rubber tires, synthetic tires and the ISR, you can almost have any rolling resistance you desire. Most, not all, skiers wear the rear wheel faster than the front wheel . This material has such outstanding abrasion resistance that I can see the synthetic tire on the rear wheel and the slower rubber tire on the front wheel being a very promising combination. If this combination is too fast, add the super light ISR ( 10 grams ) to one or both wheels. With the choice of two tires, medium, stiff and very stiff composite shafts, Speed Reducers and a very good Brake this roller ski for paved surfaces has everything you need. Europe is embracing Speed Reducers and Brakes and this month we received one order for over 100 Speed Reducers and 65 Brakes.

Boring 50 K races: I find almost all mass start races unbelievably boring. Swedish X-C TV commentator Jonas Karlson described why he found it so boring and ski writer Kjell Erik Kristiansen agrees. Jonas said that after being the commentator at 8 World Championships and three Olympics he is absolutely convinced that the drama in races with individual starts is much greater, if those producing the TV show know what they are doing. Unfortunately, the Central European TV producers are not willing to set up camera equipment in sufficient quantity to enable the public to follow the drama out on the course.

Jonas said that in mass starts, he now watches the first two K, then does something more interesting and meaningful until about 45 K when he watches to see who is the fastest sprinter and who drafted the most so save energy. Jonas said it is very different in bike races, where you have teams competing, not individuals. In biking everyone on the team has a specific roll and all share in the prize money. He said mass starts could be interesting if you had enough skiers from every country to compete as teams and the prizes were based on team efforts as in cycling. ( A study at Laval University in Quebec showed that on flat sections your pulse rate can drop by as much as 10 beats by drafting, and even on uphill your heart rate could drop by 4 beats. That is simply a dramatic reduction in energy expenditure for those who don't want to take the lead. In biking, you have designated people on the team, some who take the lead on the flat sections, others on hills, all doing their job for the key bike racer on the team. Teams can block other teams while they let their best skier get away. However, only a few countries, like Norway, have enough good skiers to follow this team effort. )

In Central Europe, the TV people don't know how to produce a dramatic individual race, or they don't want to spend the money. The most exciting ski races I have ever watched have all been individual start races produced by Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish TV. You literally saw every meter of the course and the commentators were knowledgeable. If you were physically at the race, as I have been, you had very large monitors so you could see everything. Every blogger who commented Kjell's article agreed with Jonas.

Snow / roller ski speed data: Ronald Faltus sent me some interesting data on snow skiing versus roller skiing. Ronald and his brother Robert are both using XL-100 skate skis and 910K classic skis. They roller skied and snow skied with a GPS. When roller skiing they ski together so their roller ski speed is always identical. Robert has been racing faster than Ronald and the data includes races so Robert's snow speed is substantially faster.

For classic roller skiing the speed was 11.2. For skate roller skiing the speed was 12.2. Ronald's classic snow speed averaged 11.0 and his skating 13.0. For Robert classic snow skiing was 13.1 and skating 14.8. Both Ronald and Robert have the slower skate wheels on their skis. With the new rubber wheels I think that snow and roller ski speed would be almost identical. ( Have to get a GPS )

Per Elofsson races for the first time in over 4 years: Got an e mail from Andreas Forneman in Sweden this morning who informed me that Per Elofsson entered the Valadalen ski race. He was pretty far back, 30th, but the fact that he is even racing could be a sign he might make a comeback.

New Tires for XL98 Roller Skis: We have developed a new tire made of a very interesting synthetic material. The tire is actually made right here in New Hampshire. It has amazing abrasion resistance, but it's very fast. By putting the ISR ( Internal Speed Reducer ) into the rim I was able to increase the rolling resistance by 25 %, but even with the ISR it's a lot faster than the latest rubber tires. Yesterday I tried braking with the synthetic tire. I was able to stop, but the hill was not very steep. The rubber tires brake better, but frankly I was surprised that I was able to stop at all.

Anders Soedergren's disc operation successful: Anders wrote that he now has a very good understanding of how the Swedish medical system works, having had a punctured lung repaired last summer, a testicle cancer operation last November and now a disc operation with neurosurgeon Gunnar Nyberg. ( Basically he had the same operation I had in May of 2005. ) He is very impressed with the excellent medical facilities and wrote that during his stay in the hospitals the care has been superb with an extremely pleasant and well trained staff.

Prior to the operation he was in extreme pain with stabbing pain down his leg and he could not sit. If everything goes according to plans he will begin rehab in two weeks, light training beginning in the end of April and early May, then normal training by June. When I had a similar operation I was pretty much back to normal within 4 to six weeks.

Gunde Svan leaves as head of Swedish Cross Country: Everyone was hoping that Gunde would stay on until after the 2010 Olympics. Gunde said when he first took the job it was only supposed to be for one year. He said it took him longer than he expected to reduce the turbulence within the National Team racing community and to set up a forward looking program, so he stayed on an additional 9 months. He really turned things around, found new sponsors and developed Team Spirit.

His main reasons for not continuing until the end of next season are family matters. His son Ferry is now 12 and daughter Julia 16. Gunde said he was so busy last season he did not even have time to shovel snow at his home. The children have shown excellent skiing potential. Wife Marie was also on the Swedish National Team so the gene pool is very good. Gunde is presently looking for a successor for himself and for a new National Team Sprint Coach. Gunde will retire from his job at the end of June.

Crap Cars: Anyone who reads this news page knows that I am a car nut. My wife flew down to Florida two weeks ago, I was too busy at work to go with her. She rented a full size car because we had a lot of goods to move, mainly to the dump.Because she would be renting it for two weeks they gave her a special Detroit "luxury car" with a big V8 engine and leather interior. Anita met me at the Tampa airport a week later. I was in terrible shape, had a fever, chest infection, etc. but she knows I am the world's worst passenger so I drove the car.

Now I know why Detroit is in trouble. This car is a gas guzzler with no acceleration, poor steering and brakes and handles like a horse and buggy carriage. My little four cylinder turbo accelerates twice as fast, gets 12 miles more per gallon, handles 100% better and has real brakes. You don't drive this "luxury" car, you aim it like when you are out boating and hope it ends up where you tried to steer it. I have found nothing complimentary about this expensive car, but my wife said the outside rear view mirrors were good. ( When that is all you can find that is really good, it's pretty sad. )

The World Cup ends with Dario Cologna and Alex Harvey showing they are Superstars: Young Dario has been simply spectacular. Whether sprints or distance this man can ski and he did it for a full season. There is no longer any doubt that Alex Harvey is on the road to stardom. His results in the last month have been fantastic. He and Dario are doing what Per Elofsson did early in his career. Let us hope these young skiers do not pull an Elofsson. Looks to me like Alex and Dario could be medal favorites in the 2010 Olympics. That is, if we can keep the dopers out. In Falun this weekend Christian Hoffman had such high hemoglobin values he was not allowed to race and will not be allowed to race for another 14 days. Not the first time Hoffman has had unusually high values.

Gunde Svan and Ferry Grill ski Vasaloppett together: From 1979 until Gunde retired in 1991, Ferry was Gunde's technician. Gunde promised Ferry 22 years ago that if Ferry wanted to ski Vasaloppett he would ski with him. Sunday March 1, 2009 was Ferry's 50th Birthday. Gunde flew from the Liberec World Championships on Saturday so he could ski with Ferry the next day. Ferry only started training last summer, mainly biking. Ferry said he had not skied for about thirty years. Gunde's job was to help Ferry. Gunde said Ferry had to work really hard the last 20K Actually pretty good time for 90K 5 hours and 40 minutes. Ferry has been the V2 Distributor in Austria and Bavaria since 1992. Have not spoken to him since the race, but will be in touch soon. Notice the bib in the picture below. 50 ar.

VM Liberec 15 K. Very Interesting: Just got a message that the US and the Estonian Team both bought STAR MP10 and F1 wax the morning of the 15K when the top seven skiers all used hairies. I know that Zach Caldwell has been successfully experimenting with this MP10 & F1 combination for "hairies". I wonder if that is what Kris used? I bet it is.

Soedergren finished 2nd in the pursuit today after pulling the field most of the way. Today Anders used hairies in the classic portion. The whole Swedish Team is still upset by the fact they were stupid enough to ski on wax in Friday's 15 K classic. However, today Sweden was the only country to place all four skiers in the top 20. This gives Sweden a very good chance to medal in the relay.

Alex Harvey was the top North American finishing 22nd today. I think this young man is the next superstar.

The V2 Rillers continues to do well at Swedish races. Got another e mail from Andreas today that yesterday, using the V2 Fine Linear structure riller, and STAR LA6 & C1 the skiers he prepped skis for captured one Gold, one Silver and one Bronze yesterday.

Today's 15 K in Liberec not good for those who used ski wax for kick: The first seven skiers all used "hairies" or no wax skis. Only two skiers in the top ten used ski wax for kick, Johan Olsson 8th and Tobias Angerer 9th. Kris Freeman made the right choice and finished a tremendous 4th .Veerpaluu, who won, said it was complete panic in our team just 10 minutes before the start. Just five minutes before the start Andrus decided to go waxless. Andrus said he had never skied on "hairies" before.

Jocke Abrahamsson said they had waxless skis ready for the Swedish Team, but the skiers were reluctant to ski on them. The problem was the tracks got warmer and glazed and the wax began to freeze on the skis. One of the favorites, Johan Olsson, said today we did not have a chance skiing against waxless skis. You know wax was the wrong choice when Axel Teichman finished 38th.

More News from the Scandinavian Cup Races: Today Andreas wrote: " Even more good skis withV2 riller. At the Sunday 5 / 10 K skate we got 4 out of 6 class winners at the Scandinavian Cup. We used STAR HA6 and XF cold liquid. I prepared the skis for 2 of those athletes and Falun Borlange Ski Club made the others after my test results. We used the V2 fine interrupted structure riller."

Scandinavian Cup Races: Received an e mail from Andreas Forneman stating that the V2 riller worked very well at the Scandinavian Cup races. He said they used STAR HA6 and XF cold liquid wax and the V2 Coarse Linear riller. With this combination they had very fast skis and four skiers made the podium. Four on the Podium, that's not bad.

15 K World Cup in Italy: In the classic 15 K yesterday the Swedish Team had very good skis and placed 1,3,7,9, and 14th. Soedergren had his first World Cup win in a classic race. His previous victories were all in Freestyle. He was very pleased that his back held up as he had to quit Tour the Ski due to back problems. However, he was not pleased with his skiing , even though he won. He said he skied much better at the Swedish National Championships and hoped to reach that form again for this upcoming World Championships in Liberec.

Anders wrote: " Today many of the top classic skiers looked a bit tired. I am sure they have been training hard for Liberec. Think the skiers will be a lot faster next Friday when we ski the 15 K. Before this race I had planned on not competing in the 15K classic race, but now I want to ski all the races. Even though I felt groggy today I managed to get reasonable speed, but I never thought I would win. Since I started in front of most of the top seeded 15K skiers I received few reports of where I stood. I feel quite satisfied."

Kris Freeman had a very good race finishing 16th, but the rest of the US team was nowhere. How is the US going to field a decent relay team at the World Championships?

Three Time Olympian Visits: Don Nielsen, Olympic X-C 1976 and Biathlon 1980 and 1984 has been a close friend of our family for almost 30 years. In 1991 Don moved to Greece and except for a few short visits to the US Don has lived in Greece for the last 17 years. On Saturday, January 10th, Don called from Boston after arriving on British Airways from Greece and stayed at our house for a few days before going to Hanover and then back to Boston to visit the Greek Consulate.

The main purpose of Don's visit was bureaucratic paperwork. Don was having trouble with his Greek residence visa and work permits. They claimed his passport was improperly stamped and he had to return to the US for additional paperwork. Don is now married to a very good looking woman from Greece. When our daughter died, Don planted an olive tree in her memory on the grounds of a monastery above Athens. It was really great to see him again.

Pre Olympic Races: What happened to the US distance skiers in Callaghan Valley? These results do not bode well for the World Championships in Liberec. Meanwhile the Canadians are doing very well. In the 30K pursuit there were seven Canadians ahead of the first US skier. When 20 year old Alex Harvey finishes over a minute ahead of the top US skier, something has to be wrong.

Wishing you all a wonderful Holiday: Nine days without power. Our son Erik arrived from Boulder last Friday, December 19, and we greeted him with no hot water and a very cold house, except for the kitchen where we have our wood burning stove. Friday afternoon we received a major snow storm which lasted until Saturday afternoon. Early Saturday morning I started plowing the driveway with my tractor when I noticed a big rig with a monstrous skidder and a 55 foot cherry picker. Two guys in a pick up truck drove up our driveway and said they were there to clean up the power line on our property. Frankly I did not know how they were going to get the skidder over the stone walls, but this monstrous rig just climbed over the stone walls breaking down small trees and bushes as if they were not there. Five hours later the crew of four had removed the trees and branches from the power line and the power company reconnected the line. We had heat and hot water for the first time in nine days. Below is a picture of the ice storm from our deck.

Being without electricity for five days is getting old: Like everyone on our hill, we have been without power for 5 days. Since we have electric heat our wood stove has been getting a real workout. The generator is hooked up to lights, a few 110 volt outlets and the well pump. No hot water and no baseboard heat, so cold showers are very quick. Hopefully power will be back in a few days. At the Jenex facility we never lost power. One of the few areas that did not go into a black out.

World Cup Standings very interesting: With Dario Cologna leading the overall World Cup and Johan Olsson leading the Distance, there is some new blood up front.

The Canadians had outstanding results in Davos: Team Canada is for real and Virpi Kuitunen simply awesome in classic.

World Cup X-C. Too early to tell what will happen later on: The real ski racing starts after Christmas, but to date all three Scandinavian ski countries are doing better than at any time in the last 10 years: Today, Virpi Kuitunen showed why she she is probably the best classic female skier in the world today. She destroyed everyone in the second classic portion of the relay, putting Finland 40 seconds ahead of second place Sweden. ( According to my Finnish friends, Virpi is still using V2- 910K for her classic training. )

After that impressive performance by Finland, everyone else was just a question mark. Norway and Sweden battled it out for second place and Charlotte Kalla of Sweden just managed to beat Kristin Steira of Norway for the second place.

Men's Relay: Petter Northug is a very fast finisher: Same as two weeks ago, Petter and Marcus from Sweden were battling for the finish. Emmanuel Jonnier of France skied like crazy to make sure that Italy and Germany did not catch the front team of three. Poor guy. Pushing like hell to make the podium before Italy or Germany, knowing that drafting behind him and probably saving 5+ heartbeats per minute, ( a lot of energy ) were two of the best relay finishers in the world. Petter who is an unbelievable finisher, beat Marcus and Emmanuel, who did all the work for almost 10 K. ( Emmanuel did hid job, he beat Italy. But, maybe he deserves more for all that hard work. )

On December 2, told Marty Hall that Anders would be top ten in today's World Cup: Marty chided me because I forgot to mention Stefan Kuhn's good effort in Kuusamo. After Anders cancer operation on November 21, he was not able to train for a week, but he was so turned on when he found out he did not have to have chemo that he was just aching to race. So, only fifteen days after his operation he finishes 6th, less than 7 seconds out of first place. However, being a mass start this race turned out to be another bicycle tour. Vitoz tried to pull away, but the pack caught him. On the last of the eight 3.5 K laps anyone of 30 skiers could have won the race. Anders went out in front on the last lap and tried to get a gap in the steep hills where he is very strong, but he was unable to pull away from the pack and not being a good sprinter let 5 skiers pass him coming in to the finish. Petter Northug, who is probably the best sprinter of the distance skiers, won by 0.2 seconds. I still say mass starts in races that are less than 50 kilometers long is a crap shoot and does not determine the overall best skier as a good sprinter has a big advantage.

Babikov unbelievable: While most skiers require a week to two weeks to adjust when crossing the pond, this guy just hops on a plane a couple of days before the race and finishes in the top ten. He did not leave for Europe until last Tuesday. He has done this many times before. If I remember correctly, he flew from Canada to Russia just before the Russian Championships and won a race. Then he hopped on a plane back to Canada and a few days later won another race. What's your secret Ivan?

Marcus Hellner for real: When Marcus won the first World Cup of the season it was a big surprise and the following day he almost won the relay. In today's race he went out in front several times and pulled the pack. This was just his second World Cup this season as he did not compete in Kuusamo. He recently switched ski brands and he was having trouble getting his skis sorted out so, instead of racing in Kuusamo, he was testing skis. This very young skier finished 16th today, less than 20 seconds out of first place. Marcus probably needs another year or so to do really well in 30K. He was in the top group until 5K before the finish, then he started dropping back, loosing about 4 seconds per kilometer. Will be interesting to see how he does in the relay tomorrow.

I expected Johan Olsson to be in the top ten, and he would have, but while in the lead group he broke a ski pole just 2K before the finish and dropped from top ten to 20th. After getting a new pole he skied very fast and gained eight places, finishing 12th.

Zach Caldwell called to give an update on his European trip: As usual when Zach calls it ends up being a very long conversation. He filled me in on the races from Gallivare and Kuusamo. A lot of interesting little details I did not get from my Swedish contacts. This coming Friday Zach flies to Ottawa with Gunnar to install the new Tazzari stone grinder. ( Maybe little Gunnar is the real stone grinding genius.) Lars Svensson and Zach were to have installed the stone grinder together, but in the end of October Lars's had an accident in Italy. ( A motorcyclist flew through the window of Lars car and the motorcyclist was killed instantly. Lars was knocked unconscious as apparently the motorcycle helmet hit Lars in the head and he sustained severe head injuries. After a hospital stay in Italy he returned to Sweden, but was not ready to meet Zach in Ottawa. )

A Good day for the US and Canada: With Devon Kershaw placing 5th, Andy Newell 11th, Stefan Kuhn 15th, Kris Freeman 16th and Kikkan Randall 23rd, it was a good weekend for North America. More interesting for me than the final finish was analyzing the pace strategy of the top twenty men in the 15 K classic. The winner Martin Johnsrud paced himself very evenly, 4th at 2.5K, 4th at 8.1K, 1st at 13.1K. Second place Lucas Bauer started very slowly, 44th at 2.5 K, 17 seconds behind the eventual winner after just 2.5K. He then moved up rapidly and was 7th at 8.1K and 2nd at 13.1K. Andrus Veerpalu, who finished 7th overall, was 40th at 2.5K then moved up steadily, but he had to make up some 16+ seconds from his position after 2.5K. That's a lot.to loose in the first 2.5K.

Devon paced himself very well. He was 5th at both 2.5 and 8.1K, 6th at 13.1K and picked up one place in the last 2K. Kris Freeman also paced himself quite well as he was 13th at 2.5, 10th at 8.1 and 14th at 13.1.

Great News! Anders is OK: Anders wrote on his home page: It's been tough waiting to hear from the hospital after my surgery last week. After the operation my mental pendulum has swung between hope and disaster. Dr. Goeran Beskow, the head Doctor and the person who operated on Anders last Friday, called Anders at 14:00 this afternoon and told Anders all tests showed he was OK and he can begin training again.

Anders wrote that the news was more shocking than when he found out he had to have the operation. "I pinched myself in the arm and danced with joy around the floor in our apartment. Tomorrow morning I am training again. Actually I went out and trained this morning before I heard from Doctor Beskow. I can skate OK, it is just painful when I classic ski, so have to take it easy with classic for awhile. I contacted Joakim Abrahamson and Magnus Ingesson and told them I was ready for the Team again and want to race in La Clusaz in France on December 6th and 7th. I have now won something that feels even better than my two victories in Holmenkollen."

It's called the Gunde Effect: After Sweden finished second in the relay today, without Anders Soedergren or Mathias Fredriksson, and then the Swedish woman getting third, Gunde was so happy it was reported he had tears in his eyes. The Swedish Newspapers are calling the two Gold yesterday and today's Silver and Bronze "the Gunde Effect." In just a year Gunde has the Team back on track. The skiers are happy, the coaches are happy, there is camaraderie and unity again. The year before, with coaches not listening to skiers and vice versa, it seemed nobody was really happy.

About Gunde: This is probably in the Archive section of this News Page. When Gunde quit racing I was really upset. He had another five to eight years to show he was the best ever in X-C skiing. ( By quitting early, Daehlie beat him. ) My good friend, Ferry Grill, advised Gunde that he had accomplished enough and that he should quit. Thirty World Cup victories + all the Olympic and World Championship Gold. Gunde listened to Ferry and quit early. After Gunde ended his career he was not himself for awhile. Shortly after quitting ski racing, he started auto racing. Ferry, my wife Anita and I watched Gunde in an auto race in Austria. ( Gunde had asked us to come to the race.) He did pretty well, but did not win. It was obvious he missed ski racing and just had to find another way to compete.

Gunde is not your ordinary X-C skier. He is an extremely intelligent and very focused person. He became the host of many Swedish TV programs, from Sports / Game shows to Food shows. He is a true entrepreneur. He owns Porsche and Opel Auto Dealerships, consulting companies and more. Gunde could excel in almost anything. The skiers on the Swedish Team are just ignited by the fact that this legend is now their leader. This bodes well for Swedish X-C country. They need a true leader.

Labor Content in Composite Shafts: We knew the material cost would be very high, but we underestimated the amount of labor required to build the composite shafts. We have made some important progress, but we have a long way to go. We are now looking at much more advanced automation.

Anders watches on TV, while Marcus Hellner & Charlotte Kalla win this seasons first World Cup: Anders said there was no risk that he would fall asleep watching today's races. Last week Anders beat the winner in today's race by a minute. He said he wanted so much to race today. Meanwhile the 23 year old Marcus took a giant step by winning his first World Cup. Marcus has in the past shown that he is very fast in the last three kilometers. If he is doing well with just three k to go he has a very good chance. Anders said that Marcus has the ability to give everything in the end. Anders tipped him to be in the top ten, but not to win the race.

After watching Charlotte Kalla completely outclass the field, with second place finisher Marit Bjoergen 25 seconds back, and Marcus winning Anders said he had a let down. Later he took the dogs for a walk, but he did not exactly take very long steps after the removal of his testicle yesterday. He said that right now the worst thing is not knowing what's going to happen. The doctors have promised him all tests will be done by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. If he does not have to take chemo, he could be back very quickly. Things happen so fast. This last Wednesday Johan Olsson ( 8th today ) and Anders were doing intervals together. Let's hope he can return quickly.

Kris Freeman and Devon Kershaw both do well: Kris Freeman finished 20th today, just 46 seconds out of first place and Devon was 28th. A little more time in Europe and they might be in the top ten. (See Kris Freeman's column by Zach )

Anders Soedergren does not deserve this: After destroying the other Swedish skirs at the tryout races last weekend, Anders found out this week that he had cancer in his right testicle and was operated on early this morning. Magnus Ingesson, who is a member of Gunde's Leadership group said he had been in contact with Anders after he came home from the hospital today. Magnus himself had testicular cancer in 1994 and missed a whole ski season.

The Swedish Team are devastated. Anders is the number one male distance skier and has won Holmenkollen twice. Gunde is probaly afraid he might loose Anders for the whole season, let us hope not. Anders is an incredibly nice guy, not just a great skier. The Norwegians cheered Anders as much as their own countrymen in the last Holmenkollen. Let us pray that he recovers quickly.

Just my Personal Ramblings on the Financial Crisis: For over seventy years people in America have been told: "As GM goes, so goes the Nation." History shows that it's been a pretty accurate statement. Right now, the US and GM are both in what is probably the worst financial crisis since I was born, and that was over 70 years ago. GM stated two days ago that it will run out of money in less than two months, but now they say eight months. GM is desperately looking for cash and has asked the government for a bailout. The really sad part is that the government is also broke. With the cost of the war in Iraq / Afghanistan, and insufficient tax revenues, the government has the largest budget deficit in the history of this country and it's mounting faster than the experts had predicted.

What started as a war in Iraq and housing problem in the US, where banks and other financial institutions purchased and sold paper derivatives that most fiduciary experts did not understand, has turned into a global meltdown. People were told these were safe investments. A town in Norway decided that these US investments would be helpful for their town in the future and put in some very serious money. The Norwegian town is now practically broke. Not many months ago, Iceland was a wealthy country. (Wealthier per capita than the US.) Because of inadequate US financial regulations, Iceland is now bankrupt.

I think it is important that we save GM. For a long time, GM has been criticized for poor management with short term thinking, poor planning, etc. The management should probably be replaced, but we should try to save the company. GM is the largest manufacturing company in the US. For over 60 years GM was the world's largest auto company. GM is now almost broke and rival Toyota has over $100+ billion in reserves. (Toyota passed GM as the world's largest auto company this year.) Today it was announced that a GM car from Opel won the European award for the best new car in Europe. This is good news for GM and bodes well for future GM products as this very good new platform will be used for the Chinese built Buick, as well as other GM cars from Korea and Europe. ( It costs $billions to develope a new platform and the platform is the foundation of a car. If the platform is poor, you simply cannot build a good handling safe car. ) With thousands of North American sub contractors dependent on GM, the ripple effect if GM goes under, could be so great that US unemployment could hit double digit figures. The highest since the 1930's.

The three American automobile companies, GM, Ford and Chrysler are all on the rope. Chrysler was saved by the government once before and, in my opinion, does not deserve to be saved again. Saving Ford might be a different story. (My experience with Chrysler products has not been good. With less than 85,000 miles on the Jenex company Caravan we have replaced the engine at 68,000 miles, transmission at 73,000 miles, rear differential at 28,000 miles, ( It's an all wheel drive.) and twice the brake lines and serpentine belt tensioner have broken. Luckily I was driving the van both times when the brakes failed. It was a scary experience both times! The only other time I lost the brakes was also in a Chrysler, many years ago, when I was coming down Laurel Canyon in Hollywood and thought I might be killed.

The Jenex Caravan car has been towed to the dealer six times. Without the supplementary 100,000 mile - 7 year warranty the car would have cost us a fortune.) My personal car has been the same brand for over 35 years.Just five cars in 35 years and I have driven some 750,000+ miles with them. All over Europe, United States and Canada. I have never been towed, never had an engine, transmission or any other failure that caused me to be stranded. This brand just runs and I love it. (During the 35 year period I also owned some supplementary Porsches. They are exciting cars, but I had both engine and transmission failures and they are expensive to fix.)

Obama is probably facing more problems than FDR in the great Depression. For the first time in history we have a 10 trillion dollar National debt. That's $32,895 per capita. If we add unfunded Medicaid, Social Security, Medicare, Veterans pensions and other obligations, this figure rises to $59.1 Trillion, or $516,348 per household. Unemployment, bancruptcies, house foreclosures, a devastating imbalance in exports vs. imports and the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has the country reeling. What happens when all the baby boomers apply for Social Security and Medicare? (The youngest of the baby boomers are still under 50.) If we don't start paying for these services now, future generations will be killed by the tax burden.

Anyone that's run a business, large or small, knows that you can't borrow money forever. The same for any Government. Eons ago, when my partner and I started the electronics company, that reached sales of over $1billion per year, we needed substantial start up capital. Our business plan indicated that we would not reach positive cash flow until the end of the third year. So, we needed enough money to pay for salaries, tooling and capital equipment for at least three years. Our investors did not try to micro manage us, they left us alone, but we still had to present a yearly report of our financial condition against the plan. If we did not meet objectives, they could have pulled the plug on us. Fortunately we did very well and reached positive cash flow about six months before our projection.

United States used to be the ultimate icon in business. Over the last 45 years I have travelled out of the United States many times every year. ( Especially when our electronics company had manufacturing sites in both the US, Europe and Japan.) Now when I travel overseas I find the US is no longer the business glamorate. Most of our sub contractors no longer buy American made manufacturing equipment like our company did in the 70's and 80's and early 90's. Why? Japanese and European capital equipment is now better. More efficient and more reliable. ( Every one of our major sub contractors rely on Japanese or European CNC production equipment.)

Obama, and the leaders of all countries, are facing a very different world. It is no longer an American or European economy, it's a world economy. When something happens to the economy in Japan, China, the US or India it affects us all. Let us hope that people with sound minds and world cooperation can solve this crisis. We need intellectual leaders, not just politicians. We will recover, but because of the mistakes we have made, a lot of what needs to be fixed in the US, like infrastructure, health care and education, will take a back seat to the economy. Bush has put Obama in a hell of a bind!

Endurance Record: Sometimes you read an article that really blows your mind. The article was written by David Brown in the Washington Post. The bar-tailed godwit, a plumb shore bird, migrates from Alaska to New Zealand and vice versa, without stopping. The birds fly non stop 11,732 kilometers ( 7,242 miles). The birds expend energy at eight to ten times the energy expended at rest and do it continuously for up to 200+ hours. Energy expenditure in the Tour the France bike race peaks at about 6X over resting energy expenditure. The birds were equipped with satellite transmitters that weighed less than 28 grams. The birds weigh about 650 grams, half of which is fat which they burn off completely during their flight. One female, which are larger than the males, landed in New Zealand eight days after departing from the Yukon Kuskiwim Delta of Alaska and averaged 61 kilometers per hour for 192 hours without a single stop. As endurance skiers, maybe we should study these birds a bit more. Obviously fat is a very good fuel.

Complaints about Aero 125 - 150's: In the last nine years we have sold well over 10,000 Aero roller skis. Over the years we have received hundreds of letters and phone calls praising the Aero's. Those who train on Aero's have won numerous Olympic Gold medals, in fact over 10. We have skiers like Bill Knight, who is extremely strong, tall and weighs 100 kg. ( 220 # ) and has been skiing on the Aero since they were first introduced. He has never had a problem with Aero's. Bill is a smooth skier and coaches High School skiers. Phil Shaw skied around the world on Aero's and never had a flat. His first ski was from Newfoundland to Vancouver. Phil weighs 86 Kg. ( 190# ) And top skiers like John and Bruce Bauer just love the Aero.

This person claimed the frames are very soft and the forks bend easily. He switched to 125's and found tire life to be very poor and he gets a lot of flat tires. When comparing the tire life of 150 to 125 the 125 tires do wear out much faster. This means that you must replace the tires quite often. They are not only smaller in diameter they are also narrower which means they are under much higher stress.This person weighs just 75 Kilo's ( 165 pounds ). The frames being soft is a stunner. In the lab we apply a load to the frame, in the center, of 2000 Newton's (440 pounds) for 1,000,000 cycles. All V2 frames must be able to meet 1,000,000 cycles. The deflection of the shaft of an Aero at this load is about 3 mm.

His other complaint was that we do not have an e mail link. The reason we eliminated the e mail link was because we simply received more inquiries than we could answer, like one weekend over 440 e mails. How do you answer 200+ e mails a day and stay in business? Instead we have a toll free number to call. I just don't know how to answer his complaints. What am I supposed to say? Maybe this person should be on solid rubber tires. Help me here!

New STAR Glide wax chart now available: Andreas Forneman, is now the STAR man in Sweden as Lars Svensson is working full time with Tazzari. Andreas and Lars have fantastic ski wax experience and Andreas has made a very good chart for old and new snow. It's on the Index page or click on the link here .FASTER SKIS.

New England's magic colors: While stacking firewood last Saturday I kept looking at the beautiful colors of the trees. As the sun had already moved too far towards the west to get any good pictures, decided to take some pictures on Sunday morning. From our house we can see many of the Monadnock mountains and just down the street is a farm with very nice scenery. Here are a couple of pictures, the first from our house, the second from the farm. In the farm picture with the pond, there are a bunch of geese in front of the pond and between the trees on the left can be seen one of the many cows that share the farm with donkeys, horses and small goats.

John Bauer called: John called to say hi, but also to let me know that he had recently gotten two flats on his favorite skate skis, the Aero 150S. He just had new tires put on and right after that he had the flats. He said he had skied for years without a flat. Said the 150's were so bulletproof he never carried a spare wheel when he skied. He suspected that the tubes got pinched when the new tires were installed. He was using a different shop to install the tires.

Sending him two new wheels today, with factory installed tubes & tires. After some 40,000 tires and tubes we have found the 150's to be very reliable.

Tire testing by Duncan Douglas: As noted earlier, Duncan is one of the skiers we use for tire testing. When Duncan did his extreme interval training on September 23, we changed the tires on his XL98 roller skis. Duncan had been testing two compounds that we call compound A and B. Duncan had one ski with an A rear wheel and one with a B rear wheel. Likewise on the front.

It took about 150 miles ( 245 km ) before Duncan could see any wear difference. Compound B tested slightly better in the lab and we expected B to be the best. After 245 kilometers Duncan called and said B was holding up better. That is the compound used in the new XL100 and XL98 tires. Duncan skis a lot in very steep terrain and he is unusually powerful. Shown below is a photograph of the B rear wheel after some 570 kilometers compared to a new wheel. The overall diameter had decreased by some 7.5 mm and the shape was very different from the original tire. Considering the terrain and speed that Duncan averaged ( about 17 kilometers per hour ) the tires held up quite well. Duncan skis with a GPS, so he knows exactly how far he has skied. Another good skier recently reported that on chip seal the tires wore a lot quicker.

Paul Daly called: Had not heard from Paul for quite some time. Just last week Duncan Douglas and I were talking about Paul. Paul was Duncan's coach for one year at St.Lawrence. Paul also coached our son Erik.

Paul said he was training and getting back in good shape, both running and roller skiing. He was looking for new wheels for his roller skis. Sound like Paul will be racing again. Know that one year Paul was National Masters Champion. We had a long conversation, so long that Paul was almost late for his next teaching class. Many years ago our daughter Berit sang at Paul's wedding.

Skiing in New Zealand: In June Alexie Sotskov left for New Zealand to be a coach for two + months. While there he e mailed a few times and when he returned he called me. He said New Zealand was just fantastic and that the Snow Farm had the best snow conditions he had ever encountered. One day while skiing a distinguished lady asked him if he was Alexie Sotskov. He said yes and she said: "Welcome to New Zealand." Alexie did not know who she was, but he had seen her face before. It was Helen Clark, the Prime Minister of New Zealand. She likes to X-C ski. Can you imagine Bush doing something like that?

There is a very nice roller ski video on youtube from New Zealand. The skier is Nat Anglem, the best X-C skier in New Zealand who has already earned FIS100 points. Because of the road surface in New Zealand, Nat told us it's very hard to ski on anything but Aero roller skis. Click on the link and enjoy the beautiful scenery of New Zealand while he cruises on Aero 125's. If the link does not work,when you get to youtube the title of the video is XC ski training NZ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCdSv9VlfsO

Robert "Duncan" Douglas interval training: Yesterday afternoon I met Duncan at Miller State Park in Temple, NH, just 20 minutes from V2 Jenex. Duncan had called me the week before saying he wanted to meet and also to do some extreme long uphill interval training. If he wanted extreme I told him we had the perfect place. It's the fire tower road to Pack Monadnock mountain. 1.4 miles ( 2.3 km) with 900 feet ( 275 meters ) of vertical, the last part is a 23% grade. Pavement is not that bad and during the week very little traffic, which is limited to 15 mph.

Have known Duncan since 1990 and we have talked on the phone a million times, but we had never met. The former Olympian is in awesome shape. When it comes to climbing long steep hills, he is probably the best in the country. His technique is not what I would call graceful so on a rolly course with shorter hills he is good, but not outstanding. He gains his time in the long steep up hills and did he display his prowess in the steep hills yesterday. We used to have a yearly roller ski race to the top of Pack Monadnock, and from the bottom to the top I have never seen anyone skate up faster than 13' 45" and there were some very good skiers like John Sacket, and Sten Seeman in those races and they were using faster skis than the XL100R.

Duncan decided that he wanted to do 4 intervals, the first for warm up, then three very hard intervals followed by a fifth warm down. I was there to drive him down from the top. While I drove him down, Duncan took his lactate measurements. In his warm up ski he did it in 13'30". The next ski was an incredible 12' 15", and three and four were both under 12'40". In my opinion his lactate levels were very low as in the 13'30" ski it was 3.2 and his pulse in the first ski in the 170's on the 23% grade and just about 180 even in the next three tries. It was simply an awesome display of uphill power. The top picture is in the middle of the 23% grade, the bottom picture at the top when Duncan was checking his time and pulse rate.

So, Duncan skied almost 3,600 feet (1,100 meters) of vertical for a total distance of 9.2 kilometers in less than 50 minutes.

New XL 100 & XL98 tires have arrived: The new tires have three differently sized nano particles for enhancing the rubber, making it more durable and more lively. The smallest of these particles measures 20 billionths of a meter. What this means is that the tires will have more energy return, making them faster, and the tires will be more abrasion resistant. No need to worry that the skis will be too fast, as the ISR ( internal speed reducer ) can be installed to increase rolling resistance.

We are still trying to catch up on the long back log for XL100 and XL98 roller skis. The 98m has a more rounded profile as can be seen in the XL100 &98 catalog. The 98 tires also weigh about 25 grams less. However,with the smaller XL98 tires you will loose some ground clearance.

Duncan has put another 150K on the XL100's: Duncan called today and said he had put another 150 K on the skis since his last report. At 150K he could not really see any real difference between wheel compound A and B. However, after 300K he said B is better. This is what we would have expected based on the formulation so it made the engineers happy to see that sometimes science actually works in the real world.

XL100 roller skis: Duncan, along with Adele Espy and Dick Taylor have the XL100 skis with a more durable rubber compound. Because nano particles in the 10 to 20 nanometer range are very hard to mix into the rubber, rubber companies often try to cheat by using larger easier to mix particles. But, you need the small particles to get good abrasion resistance. We are now convinced the first production batch did not contain the specified particle size and we are waiting for another production lot to arrive. Meanwhile we did receive a few tire samples that we were told met our specification and they are being tested by Duncan, Adele and Dick.

Last Tuesday Duncan called me and said he had skied some 150 kilometers on the new tires and that they looked quite good. He said he really loved the feel of the skis. Yesterday I received an e mail from Dick Taylor stating that the skis were marvelous. Adele and Dick have only had the skis two weeks and I don't know how may K's they have skied. Dick said he would report back in about two weeks.

STAR Speed Traps and XL100R roller skis: Yesterday Ian Harvey called. Haven't talked to him in over a year, usually when he calls to order some roller ski stuff I am not here. He ordered a couple of the STAR Speed Traps and a pair of the XL100's with a brake. Ian went to Holderness School, the same school our daughter Berit graduated from and my wife and I saw Ian ski when he was quite young. When I told my wife Ian has two kids, the oldest being 12 she could not believe it. It was fun catching up with him.

Video by Bill Hegman of the Mountain Top Roller Ski Race: As a roller ski company we get a chance to look at the condition of roller skis from all parts of the world. We often find that novice skate skiers damage the shafts and forks of the ski by tipping the ski in an abnormal manner. After observing a lot of skiers, and after talking to a number of coaches, the technique problems that contribute to this excessive ski tilt include the following: ( See picture above )

1-Pushing the ski too far sideways instead of pushing vertically. 2- Pushing backwards so the foot and ski get behind the hip. 3- Letting the ankles twist inward, like a novice skier learning to herringbone. 4- Feet to wide, so the skis are not under the hip. All of these problems are exaggerated when skiing up a very steep hill. Think the video of Duncan Douglas on Youtube shows that you don't have to be scraping asphalt to get up a steep hill at very rapid pace. It's truly worth watching and I would like to thank Bill Hegman for putting it on the NENSA sight. Go to NENSA and watch the video. DUNCAN

XL100R now with Carbon Fiber: The composite shafts of the XL 100 were originally reinforced with fiber glass. The latest skis use carbon fiber which is both lighter and stronger. The pictures below show the ski viewed from the front top and the bottom of the ski with the distinctive carbon texture. This is what one coach wrote us. "Bottom -line -- these are clearly the best rollerskis I've ever been on. This shaft is SO MUCH better than any previous shafts, it's not even worth comparing."

Duncan Douglas is amazing for his age: The above picture was taken last year when Duncan won the roller ski race in Lake Placid. Last Sunday I saw on the NENSA sight that Duncan had won again, and by a very sizable margin, 50.8 seconds. It was not until Duncan called me on Monday that I found out he stayed with the lead pack and did not make his move until he was less than 2.5 kilometers before the finish. To ski 51 seconds faster than Anders Folleraas and the rest of the young skiers in less than 2.5K is quite a feat.

Right now Duncan is testing some new tire compounds for the XL100. Since he skis over 200K a week he is a good tester. In the laboratory the new compounds displayed outstanding dynamic characteristics. To test tires we run the tires at a constant 30 kilometers per hour under a load of 220 Newton's. After one hour the tires typically show a temperature rise over ambient of about 30 to 55 degrees Centigrade. Both of these new formulations had a temperature rise of less than 22 degrees Centigrade and a lower rolling resistance than the present XL100 tires. Normally when ordering custom rubber products you do not specify the formulations, only the final parameters you are looking for. This time I stipulated all of the most important ingredients. Abrasion resistance should be much better on these tires.

Foot Angulation when skating up hill: A good young skier who had received some XL100's stated that he bottomed out on the skis when skiing up hill. Since he had the medium flex shafts and he only weighs 140 pounds (64 Kg.) we found this most surprising. He came in to see me and he showed me the angle of the skis when going up hill. He basically had the skis lying almost flat. He did not bottom out the shaft. He bottomed out the wheel forks. The XL 100 has the narrowest shaft and the narrowest wheel forks of any roller ski we make, and the result is that the XL100 can be tipped more than any other model we make. If this young skier had been on the V2-850, the skis used in the NENSA roller ski series, he would have bottomed out with the foot tipped 20 degrees less than on the XL100. When skating, the more you tip the skis the slower the skis. You don't see top skiers doing this on snow or on roller skis.

The day after this young skier visited us I received an e mail from Dick Taylor, one of the best coaches I know, requesting a pair of XL100's for Adele Espy. In his letter Dick said:

"Narrow wheels give a more ski like balance and the 100 mm diameters put them over rough surfaces more smoothly. Mainly, they require a more complete and subtle weight shift in order to push off more vertically, as opposed to the side." The picture of Duncan above was taken after he passed Kris Freeman. This is a very steep section in the race at Whiteface. That's about maximum foot angulation for going up a very steep hill.

Gunde Svan Cleans House: Bengt Station has resigned from the Swedish Ski Association. Gunde said that Bengt responded in a very mature manner during this difficult process. Basically Gunde has temporarily dismissed everyone so he can organize from scratch. In an interview with Laengd.Se, Gunde answered a number of questions.

LSE: You have let everyone go? Yes, I want to start with a clean paper and formulate my own plans. The picture must be visible, clear and maximized.

What do you mean by maximized? We are good at telling the skiers how to train, pole, skate and diagonal. But, we must place much more emphasis on how to be better leaders. I think we can do a much better job by making sure we have the right people doing what they can do best.

Now you are looking for a Dream team? In my organization I want to have the best there is. I want people, who I think, can really contribute. In this analytical process I am thinking exactly the way I did when I was competing. The worst thing you can do is to become complacent when things are going well. To win you always have to be one step ahead of the others.

Who, of those presently no longer employed, will be with the Team in the Future? That I can't tell you today. There will be changes, but what changes has not been decided. This is a complicated puzzle and I am constantly evaluating different scenarios to see what might be best for the majority.

You are not afraid that you will loose some of the most competent people? I know many are weighing different options, but I am not afraid of the future.

Do you think there will finally be some kind of order in the Swedish Ski team? I hope to present a good organization that will work for the majority. However, I doubt that everyone will be pleased and happy.

When will you announce the National Team training group? Within a few weeks. I am responsible for the team, but I want to announce the team in conjunction with those who will be the coaches for the men and women's team.

What are the Competitors saying? We had a very good meeting a week ago where everyone had a chance to be heard. We discussed a lot of the organizational questions that I am now struggling with.

New XL100R Roller ski nomenclature: With three different shafts and three wheel combinations, the nomenclature became rather confusing. We think we have reduced potential confusion by making the nomenclature more meaningful and simpler. To see the latest nomenclature description of the XL100R and for more data on the product itself you can click this link: NOMENCLATURE.

The new XL100R ad that will be running in Trax magazine also has more information on the XL100R. Click below to see the ad and get more information on the XL100R. TRAX AD.

ALL WHEEL DRIVE: As an engineer, and a car nut, I have always been fascinated with various all wheel drive systems. It became pretty obvious to me many years ago that Haldex made the world's best all wheel drive systems. Haldex are used by Audi, the latest Range Rover, Volvo and by Bugatti Royal, at 1200 HP, the world's most powerful production car. It was literally impossible to drive the Bugatti without the Haldex system. However, all these cars use the earlier generation 1, 2 and 3 systems. This last summer Saab introduced a new 9-3 with generation 4 Haldex, called XWD ( Cross Wheel Drive ). It's far more sophisticated than anything before and includes a Saab designed electronic limited slip differential. To showcase the new development, Saab invited hundreds of automotive journalist from around the world to Sweden last summer. To show how the new Saab X handled with this XWD system, SAAB set up a very difficult gymkhana race course and made available some of the world's best handling cars to be driven by professional drivers, so they could compare them to the new SAAB. The cars included BMW -M series, Infinity 35, Audi and many other top handling cars, including the 420 HP all wheel drive Porsche Carrera.

Turned out that the small 9-3 with XWD had the fastest time of all cars, beating the Porsche Carrera, which was second. Porsche was embarrassed. Yesterday, Porsche announced that future all wheel drive Porsches will use the Haldex / SAAB system. The SAAB X should be available in the United States in April, but it is my understanding that almost all 9-3X allocated for United States for 2008 have been sold.

Making Progress on the new XL100R: This has been a tumultuous week. We received new composite tooling, three new injection mold products, one mold had to be modified as the material shrinkage did not follow the typical pattern, plus we had to evaluate a bunch of other new parts. In the middle of this I started feeling sick enough to have to go home. Felt dizzy and nauseous and fell asleep in the middle of the day. Still not feeling OK, but need to get the new production line going. It's always the same with any product that deviates from the conservative norm.

Over the last 12 months we have introduced a lot of new and better, products. The products include the XL brake, which is superior to the original Universal brake. The XL Speed Reducers, which are far better than the original speed reducer and the much improved wheel forks on the Aero 125 / 150 models. And, now we are coming out with the most advanced roller ski composite shafts on the market along with a revolutionary internal speed reducer and a solid rubber split rim tire. See the NEW PRODUCTS section for the latest we have to offer.

However, one of the most ambitious project is still not in production. Some 24 months ago we began the development of a daring new microcellular tire. Initial testing looked so good we felt very confident that this 100 mm tire would be the ultimate for paved surfaces. The owner of the company that was to make the tire, decided to retire and there was no one in the company with enough technical knowledge, or innovative talent, to take over the project. About ten months later we found a German company with advanced microcellular technology. The employees at the German company, with an American plant, were very confident that the tire would work. But, after making hundreds of prototypes none of the tires have met our specifications.

The microcellular tire has been tested by a very good young skier. Yesterday, his father told me that his son thought the tire was as smooth, or even smoother than his pneumatic 125's. In the present format, the tire only works for very light skiers. The project is not dead, but we have not made any progress in the last six months.

A Few Pictures of the XL100R: The NEW PRODUCTS page has a few pictures of the composite shaft and the wheel and tire for the XL100R. ( You can click on NEW PRODUCTS here or above to open link. ) Most of the production components are now in stock, but we are still missing a few parts. We expect to begin assembly mid April and should be able to ship the last week of April.

STAR SKI WAX: Under STAR RACE RESULTS on the Index page you can see some of the races were STAR wax was very successful. You can open the link by clicking STAR RACE RESULTS here or above. We have, in most cases, listed the snow, humidity and temperature conditions and the wax combinations that worked best. STAR is becoming the dominant wax at many of Scandinavia's best ski clubs. If you look at the recent National Championships in Sweden, and at the World Junior Championships you will find that STAR was a big winner.

Thomas Alsgaard, Frode Estil and Anders Myrland of TEAM FAST enter Skinnarloppet: Just 2 weeks before Vasaloppet, the most important marathon race in the world, Skinnarloppet is a great tune up race. This race in Malung, Sweden is only 45 Kilometers long so you are not going to get totally wasted. The winner of last years Vasaloppet, Oskar Svaerd won today followed by Myrland, Frode Estil and Thomas Alsgaard. Svaerd was an easy winner and said he was trying to peak in the next two weeks.

Alsgaard is skiing well, but found he is not registered for Vasaloppet, but Frode Estil and Anders Myrland were both registered.

STAR SKI WAX: STAR is one of the most popular brands on the World Cup. Probably the most successful. We have a new link on our home page called STAR RACE RESULTS where we have listed the waxes used in some of the races.

Not really Brain Surgery: This last weekend at Vermont Academy many skiers had trouble with grip. Some tried "hairies", but these were not good conditions for that approach. Alexie Sotskov used STAR K3 for his skiers and they had excellent skis. Our kick wax recommendations clearly indicate that K3 should be used in these conditions. We made this chart to help people, but apparently nobody except Alexie used it. Our charts for Glide and Kick are in pdf format and can be found under FASTER SKIS on our index page.

What a great article by Ian Harvey: In the latest "Master Skier" Ian has a very refreshing article about ski technique. Harvey very clearly illustrates how the world elite ski with very different technique, both in classic, skate and double poling. It's a very good read by a person who knows how to ski. Can't stand the many articles by skiers, coaches and ski instructors who promote a specific technique. And many who insist you ski a certain way, have no credentials.

Skiers and coaches have told me that Lukas Bauer has poor classic technique. Maybe it's not traditional, but skiing is all about getting from point A to point B in the fastest time. As Ian stated, you have to find your own technique for getting from point A to point B in the most efficient manner. Lukas has dominated the World Cup in classic skiing this season including the Tour the Ski. When he returned to racing yesterday in Otepaa he was dominant again in the classic 15K. Kris Freeman was a very respectable 16th, but Kris was still 2 minutes behind Bauer. In a 15K, there are usually 20 to 25 skiers within 2 minutes of the winner, that simply shows how fast Bauer skied.

Ski Wax is now Hazardous Substance according to the US Customs and Homeland Security: This story is true. We received some ski wax from STAR on January eight. Robin informed me it was sold in just a few days and we ordered more wax. It was shipped by UPS Air from Italy on January 22nd. When February rolled around and no wax had arrived tracked the shipment on the UPS sight.

It arrived in Koeln, Germany on January 23rd. It was identified as a hazardous substance and returned to Italy. Somehow it left Italy again and arrived in Philadelphia on January 29th and was forwarded to Kentucky. We could not track it on the UPS sight any further. The UPS sight indicated the package never arrived in Kentucky. STAR had a trace on the package and on February 7th we found out the package had been returned to STAR in Italy. It will now be shipped to us again. It must be that F1 cocaine powder that is the hazardous substance.

Take a look at our Sale Items: We need more inventory space as we are now getting ready for the roller ski season so we have some additional winter items for sale including a few of the STAR dual microprocessor digital wax irons. These are without question the best digital irons made and we are now selling them at a very special price. Call our toll free number 1-877- V2-Jenex ( 1-877-825-3639 ) for the best deal possible.

The 1994 Double Pole Revolution: Before 1994 no on believed that you could just double pole the 90 kilometer Vasaloppet and finish among the top ten. The double pole revolution started with Staffan Larsson in 1994 when he was seriously injured and was in a cast so he could not diagonal. He could only double pole and at 78 kilometers he had moved into 1st place with 15,000 skiers chasing him. He finally tired, but only four skiers passed him in the last 12 kilometers and he finished 5th overall. Have reported on this before, but the video from the 2007 Vasaloppet reminded me again of the importance of double poling in today's races.

Vasaloppet is mainly a downhill race as you start at 350 meters elevation and finish at 165 meters. However, in the first three kilometers you climb to 540 meters, a climb of 190 meters ( 640 feet ) and that's a lot of vertical. From 26 kilometer to 32 kilometers in the race there is another climb of 120 meters ( 400 feet ) and from 33 kilometers to 37 kilometers you climb again some 50 meters ( 165 feet ). So even though the starting point is some 185 meters above the finish, there are some serious climbs in this race. What skiers realized when they saw Staffan almost win was that double poling is very efficient. Today, the elite who race Vasaloppet hardly take a single diagonal stride. The average skier still strides the race, but the top finishers double pole. SVT has 14 short videos from Vasaloppet, seven of them show skiing from various points on the track. In the seven videos I did not see one diagonal stride. Anyone interested in seeing the best marathon skiers in the world should look at these videos and this is how you can watch them.

Go to the V2 index page and click on SKI VIDEOS. In the horizontal SVT bar click on Skidor, then on Laengdskidor. Next click on Diverse Arkiv Laengd, then Vasaloppet 2007. ( The reason I did not link directly is because the change their videos quite often. By going to Skidor, you can see all their ski videos. ) There are 14 short videos, seven with skiing action. The videos clearly indicate that double pole is the king of speed in classic marathon races. Most elite skiers use just enough kick wax to help them in the first steep 190 vertical meter climb, but it is my understanding that some use no kick wax at all. When you see the speed they are traveling at, it's truly amazing. No way could you achieve this speed by trying to stride.

What a Difference a Day makes: First the Norwegian red army captures the five first places in the classic sprint. Then in the 15K Freestyle not a Norwegian in the top ten and in the Free Style Sprint not one Norwegian in the final six. Just amazing how quickly things can change. Now looking forward to the next World Cup in Estonia.

The Norwegian Red Army dominant in the World Cup Classic Sprints: In the sprint for men in Canmore, Norway captured the first five places. Don't think Norway will be this dominant in the Free style sprints. Andy Newell finished a respectable 17th, with Chris Cook 20th and Torin Koos 26th. For the women there was at least some diversity in the race, as in the top five we had Majdic from Slovakia in first, Jacobsen from Norway in second, Kowalczyk from Poland in third and Kuitunen from Finland in 4th. SVT Television had a brief video of the pursuit for women, but no footage of the pursuit for men.

World Cup 30K Pursuit in Canmore: Ten skiers finish within 3.8 seconds! You only have to look at the finish times to see how the skiers were skiing in packs, just like in a bicycle race. There have been several studies that show the increased energy expenditure when not drafting in skiing. To break away, and not be caught by the pack is extremely hard. The first group near the finish consisted of 21 skiers separated by 22 seconds and 18 skiers were within 8.9 seconds at the finish. Next was Kris Freeman, some 17 seconds behind the first group. The next group was a full minute behind Freeman so I suspect, without seeing any video, that Kris was in the first group when the speed increased. If you are not a pretty good sprinter, you really don't have much of a chance unless the last two kilometers is all up hill and a very strong skier could pull away. Kris was only 38.2 seconds behind the winner, while the next best US skier was over 4 minutes back.

Races canceled in Scandinavia due to lack of snow: Most of the cross country races were canceled in Scandinavia this last weekend due to lack of snow. The only place with a lot of snow is the Saelen - Idre area in the provence of Dalarna where they have 110 cm of natural snow. Saelen is where Vasaloppet starts. Idre, which is the Alpine area next door to Saelen, has the largest snow making facility for Alpine skiing in the world. This year Idre has had a micro climate all its own, as all the areas north and south of Idre are practically snow less, while Idre has over 110 cm of natural snow.

Many cross country ski areas that had invested in snow making also had to cancel races as the temperatures had been too high to make snow. The snow making for Vasaloppet is very close to Saelen so they have been able to make snow. To make sure Vasaloppet is not canceled they have installed massive snow making, enough to have sufficient artificial snow for a track 110 kilometers long. The Scandinavian web sites are full of articles about building more ski tunnels to keep X-C skiing from becoming an extinct dinosaur. As we know from climatologists, the northern areas of this planet are the predictors of global warming. Here in New England it is today very cold, but as we know from two weeks ago, things can change overnight.

Read a very interesting article about Global warming in a Dalarna newspaper. The contributor was a bus driver who, since 1970, had a bus route between Mora, the finish of Vasaloppet, and a town north west of Mora. He said that between 1970 and 1990 the snow was always hard packed on the road with virtually no melting until spring. ( They don't use salt. ) In the 90's there was periodic melting in the winter, ice formed and the roads became very slippery and sloppy. He said that every year since the early 90's the number of melt cycles had increased and the road conditions had deteriorated. I can relate to this. In the winter of 1983 I was working with L.M. Ericsson in Stockholm, Sweden and decided to drive to Rattvik to visit my parents. ( My parents moved from Westport, CT to Sweden in 1982. ) Just north of Stockholm the roads were completely covered with hard packed snow. Since no salt is used, the only time the snow melts on the road is if the temperature is above freezing. The roads were completely snow packed for the 300 kilometers to my parents place and the roads were exactly the same when I drove back to Stockholm three days later. During the 80's I worked in Sweden for a couple of weeks every winter and the road conditions north of Stockholm were just as the bus driver described, hard packed snow. Now, with thawing and freezing the roads are icy or sloppy and very dangerous, except of course when the roads have no snow in the winter which is happening more often.

Comments on doping by Dr. Bengt Saltin: The German Ski Association is apparently suing the reporters for ARD Television who claimed German skiers and biathletes were doped in a laboratory in Austria. Meanwhile Bengt Saltin, the famous doctor who discovered the effects of blood doping, said to Swedish Television this last Wednesday night that he knew several of the biathletes were doped and that there are at least three laboratories in Austria that are providing performance enhancing blood doping or other means of improving performance. According to the Austrian news bureau APA, swimmers, track and field and soccer athletes have also received banned substances in these laboratories.

Professor Saltin is right now working with the German anti doping agency to find out who has been using the facilities in Austria. What a mess.

A few comments on STAR ski wax from a Swedish Blog site: " After seeing how fast the STAR skis were this weekend my other brand will never be used again. From now on it's STAR." Janne

" Thanks for such fast skis on Saturday. They were rockets." Anna

"Thank you for waxing my skis last weekend. They were simply outstanding." Henrik

Charlotte Kalla must skip Canada: After the Tour win, which resulted in Kalla leading the World Cup in her first year as a Senior, she became ill. As a result of her win there was so much media attention that she must have been under a lot of stress. She is presently taking antibiotics and hopes to recover soon. She said this was the first time she had been sick in two years. Charlotte was really bummed out as the events to be held in Canada are her favorites.

German Athletes suspected of Doping: On September 2nd 2008, we reported on a highly developed German doping program that had been ongoing for over 30 years. Doctors at the University of Freiburg were the brains behind this program. Now the German TV channel, ARD, issued a report that a number of German athletes have recently visited a blood bank in Vienna where they supposedly received some high octane blood. According to ARD, those who visited the facility were German biathletes and cross country ski racers, some of whom, according to ARD were World Cup skiers.

After hearing the report by ARD biathlon coach Mussiggang said: " I have a hard time believing that any of our athletes are involved." Not the most positive statement from a coach. World and Olympic Heptalon Champion, Carolina Kluft said she thinks all world class athletes should be outfitted with a homing device so that all athletes locations could be monitored. She did not consider this an invasion of privacy as the homing device would simply identify where you are and where you have been. With Marion Jones finally admitting that she doped, and receiving jail time for lying to a Federal commission, it's about time we used the technology available to us to find out who these athletes visited and where they received their banned substances.

Rising Water: Just read a report by British scientists that the ice in the Antarctic is melting much faster than previous projections. ( Unfortunately I lost the report, but I do remember the most important facts.) At the rate the oceans water is rising, many cities will be under water by the year 2050. Many cities in Europe have already started programs to protect the cities from the higher water. The northern areas of our planet, those areas that were under some 3,000 meters of ice during the last ice age are somewhat fortunate as, even though the water is rising so is the land mass. The tremendous weight of the ice compressed the land mass and the area of compression is still coming back. This is very evident, especially in many parts of Scandinavia. If the scientists are correct, what will happen to New York when the ocean is one meter higher?

Ski Videos: If you click on the SKI VIDEOS on the V2 Index page you will be connected to Swedish TV. They have some fantastic videos of all sports. If you want to look at X-C skiing first click on Sport. You will then see a list of all sports. To view X-C, click on Skidor ( skiing ), then Langdskidor ( x-c). Some fantastic video from Tour de Ski, etc. They usually have good video of all ski events, Alpine and X-C. Note! Unfortunately not all videos can be viewed on computers outside of Sweden. To get a full screen view of the video simply click on the rectangle in the lower right corner of the video.

Global Warming: According to the experts on climatology and global warming, the changes in temperature, draught, rainfall, wind etc. are more dramatic than before global warming. On January 4, the temperature was -20C in the morning and on January 8 the temperature was +20C. That's a 40 degree Centigrade swing in four days. Took a picture of our driveway in the afternoon on January 6. As you can see below, we had a massive amount of snow. Took another picture in the afternoon on January 10th and it looked like summer. According to the local forecast we will get more snow tomorrow night.

STAR Ski Wax: This week we received some STAR wax that we ordered right after Christmas. If I remember correctly the wax arrived on the 8th. On Thursday, January 10th, Robin informed me that most of the wax we had ordered had been sold and we had zero inventory on several waxes that we just received. It's been impossible for us to project wax sales. When we look at the sales data for the last ten years, it just makes no sense.

Charlotte Kalla Wins Tour de Ski! This is her first year as a Senior on the World Cup circuit and she beats all the best including Bjorgen and Kuitunen. After Kalla, the next four skiers were over ten years older than Charlotte. If she does not pull a Per Elofsson by overtraining she could be both World and Olympic Champion. Anyone that can climb like she does is born with unusual aerobic capacity. She is an incredible climber, but starting 39 seconds behind Virpi, the leader after five events, I did not think it was possible for her to win. Gunde Svan and Charlotte set up a game plan where Kalla would go out slowly and then give everything she had in the steepest part. On the lower flatter section Virpi gained on Kalla and Charlotte found herself over 50 seconds behind. Here is an interview by the newspaper DN right after the race.

Were you worried when Virpi gained another 15 seconds on the flatter part? "Tried to forget it and ski smoothly. Know that I am very good in the steep sections" When did you first see Kuitunen? "Just when we started up the steepest portion. Then I started feeling really good because I was gaining on her. What did you think when you finally caught Virpi? " I just wanted to stay behind her and recover and not start my final surge too early." You spoke to Gunde just before you pulled away from Virpi. Why? "I wanted to be sure I did not start my sprint too early. Decided that when we hit the serpentine part I would go for it." When did you realize that you were going to win? "Just a few meters before the finish line."

Kalla's mother said that Charlotte was so determined and trained so hard they often had to put the brakes on her training.

Tour de Ski or Tour de Farce? In the last couple of days I have spoken to a number of skiers and coaches who think something is wrong when Lukas Bauer beats the best in the world by such margins. Does this remind you of Muehlegg in the 2002 Olympics? When Zach and I were watching Johan, Zach said to me that something was very wrong, Muehlegg must be doped. Many were skeptical and chided Zach, but Zach was right.

Found out today that no one has been tested in the Tour de Farce in the last three days. Odd Bjoern Hjelmeset made an ironic comment about Lukas superfast skis. Axel Teichman could not understand why they were not being tested. When Charlotte Kalla won on Tuesday she was not tested. Nobody is being tested.

When reporters from Sweden's largest newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, asked Jurg Cacol, who is in charge of the venue in Nove Mesto, why nobody is being tested he answered: "It's not always best to test at races, it's better to make surprise tests." DN Continued. "But is it not standard procedure to test the top three skiers in every World Cup Race? His answer was: "What's normal? It's the unexpected that gives us results." Sounds like a lot of do - do to me. WADA is simply not doing their job if they don't test every winner on the World Cup circuit.

STAR Ski Wax being tested for the 2010 Olympics: Today we shipped a massive amount of ski wax to Canada for testing in the unusual micro climate where the Nordic events will be held in the 2010 Olympics. Over the next two years Zach Caldwell will be testing wax and ski grinds for the US Team, and the test base is built around the STAR ski wax foundation. In the 2003 World Championships, when the US Ski Team had one of their best results ever, the US Ski Team used STAR almost exclusively.

Planet Earth: If you have not seen this magnificent series of 5 DVD's made by BBC, I urge you to watch it. It is simply mind boggling. The budget was almost unlimited and 40 photographers, accompanied by other professionals, spent five years making this series. This is what the New York Times wrote: "A tour de force.... A masterpiece. The Chicago Tribune made the following comment: " The best DVD of the year... an absolutely extraordinary achievement".

Tour de Ski: The third day of Tour de Ski just finished. The way the points system is configured, if you don't have luck in the sprints you can quickly be knocked out of contention. After the second day Lucas Bauer had a phenomenal lead, almost one minute, but after the Sprint he is now in second place. So many skiers fell, or were taken down by other skiers, that if Mother Luck was not on your side you could move down the results table at lightning speed. Charlotte Kalla, who was second before today's Sprint broke her pole and moved from second to 6th place. Marcus Hellner, second after the first two days was taken down by Svartedahl when Svartedahl fell, and Hellner moved from second to 9th after the Sprint. In some ways, the Tour is a crap shoot.

Three time Olympian called from Athens: On Thursday, December 27th, Don Nielsen called from Athens to let us know he had gotten married. Don moved to Greece in the early 90's. Don, who competed as a X-C racer in the 1976 Olympics and as a Biathlete in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics, has been a close friend of our family for some 25 years. Don spoke to my wife Anita, and said he would e mail more information about the wedding.

While training for the 1984 Olympics Don spent two weeks at our house. We had an excellent ski - running trail in the woods behind our house and a good spot for him to shoot. Also at that time we could roller ski almost anywhere, with very little traffic. Have lots of video of Don and our son Erik roller skiing. In the two weeks that Don was at our house he used up almost 3,000 rounds of ammunition. When our daughter Berit died, Don planted at Olive three in her memory on a beautiful hillside above Athens next to a monastery and he sent us several pictures of the tree and the plaque. Although we correspond regularly, we have not seen Don for a long time.

Happy Holidays! We wish you all the very best in 2008. We will not be at work this week. We realize that this can be an inconvenience to some of you, but when you work over 2,800 hours per year you need some time off. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics ( www.bls.gov.) the average full time employee in New Hampshire works only 2,000 hours per year. Most of my career I worked over 3,000 hours.

Our son Erik, who is home for the Holidays from Boulder, CO, set a nice little 0.7 K ski track in our field and we got in about 15 laps on Saturday afternoon. First time on snow in a long time.

Tour the Ski starts December 28: Not too sure I like this format, but according to many World Cup skiers web sites, most are looking forward to this duel.

New STAR Personal Crono Test has arrived: This is the most user friendly ski glide tester ever made. We have only a few in stock, but if you order and we are out of stock, we can obtain more in about two weeks. With the U.S. dollar being worthless against the Euro, the Crono ended up about $145 more than we estimated. See NEW PRODUCTS for pictures and info on this superior ski glide testing device.

Comments from Anders Soedergren after the Kuusamo race: Last weekend I was 3rd, today 17th. Just could not ski fast today. It felt just like I was doing a long distance training ski. After the race I was not even tired, could have gone three more laps without any problem. Sometimes the body just does not have another gear, you just have one speed. The skis were OK and the cold did not bother me.

Have another tune up race on Wednesday with a very strong field and on Thursday we leave for Davos. Looking forward to Davos, one of my favorite places to ski. Hope I have another gear there. Will stay in Davos for a week after the race to train so will not race in Rybinsk. My friend Thomas Alsgaard said he is going to make a comeback. Have trained with him a few times this year. When we were in Greenland, Thomas and I went for a 5 hour 20 minute run in very difficult terrain. You have to be in pretty good shape to be able to do that. Think Alsgaard is making a comeback just because he likes skiing, not just to try make the podium.

Excellent results for Andrew Newell and Kris Freeman in Kuusamo: With a 4th place finish in the sprint for Andrew and a 5th place finish in the 15 K classic for Kris, the US is off to a great start for this season. In the female section Norway continues to dominate with Marit Bjoergen leading the World Cup by over 100 points after only 4 races.

Maybe this will be a real winter: According to he latest forecast New England should be in for a major storm this afternoon. Last year I did not even mount the bindings on the skis Zach Caldwell picked out for me.

Jay Hakkinen 9th in a field of over 100: The Biathlon Season started today and Jay had a superb race. Jeremy Teela was 38th and Tim Burke 49th.

Dick Taylor and his wife Sally visit: Dick and Sally stopped by and I had a chance to see the modified Concept 2 rowing machine that Dick has turned into a very good poling machine. With an ingenious adapter the Concept 2 becomes a very good double pole trainer. We spent several hours discussing training and grabbed lunch at a good local restaurant. Dick left a German Nordic magazine which is the best I have seen to date. My German is very rusty, but will review what I can before I return the magazine to Dick. Dick Taylor used my racing suit that my Grandmother made when he raced at the Nationals and qualified for the Olympics.

Testing New Roller Ski Shafts: For snow skis there are a number of different flexes to suit different skiers. Roller skis are generally designed for a maximum weight, which means that for lighter skiers the shafts hardly deflect at all and if you are on solid tires, this means a very rough ride. Aluminum shafts are the most common, however to make them last they must be quite stiff. ( Aluminum has very poor fatigue resistance and if the shafts are designed to absorb road shock by deflecting they will fracture in no time. To last, they must be stiff. ) With pneumatic tires a stiff shaft is not much of a problem, but with solid wheels you need a flexible shaft to absorb vibration. ( Just received a post card today from Brayton Osgood who trains in Bend, Or. He said the roads are so rough he does almost all his training on the Aero 150's. )

When we decided to build composite shafts we began by first designing a test stand that could accurately measure deflection of the shafts under different loads. After deflection tests, the shafts are fatigue tested under 2000 Newton ( 440 pound ) load for a million cycles. To date we have made about 50 composite shafts. They have been produced in two flex formats. A medium flex, which is about 3X more flexible than our aluminum shafts, but can still take a load of over 500 kilograms and a softer flex shaft which is about 5X more flexible than the aluminum shaft. These composite shafts are made from several different materials each providing a unique property. To date all of the composite shafts have been lighter than our aluminum shafts.

Just returned from testing these skis for ten days in a warm climate. Too cold in New England now to get a good feel for speed and road feel. All test skis were equipped with 100 mm solid rubber tires and were tested on some very rough road surfaces. The composite shafts gave a much better ride than aluminum. Although I weigh 75 Kg. (165 pounds ) I spent most of my roller ski time on the softer shafts. For best roller ski characteristics we should probably offer three or more different flex skis, but this is impractical, both for retail stores and for Jenex. We plan to offer two flexes, but for some skis there will be just one composite shaft, since even a stiffer composite shaft will flex 3X more than aluminum without fatigue failure. The shafts will definitely be available by March and will be offered in two different 100 mm wheel designs. All models but one will be offered in the new XL format which incorporates more advanced Speed Reducers and Brake.

World Cup Ski Racing has started: Marit Bjoergen is certainly back and 20 year old Kalla showed that, by finishing 3rd in Beitestolen and winning the opening Sprint Relay in Germany, she is for real. Not great results for the two Americans that competed in Norway. Let's hope that they perform better in Finland this weekend.

Ola Rawald makes skiers faster: The Swedish Olympic Committee has hired Ola to work with both biathletes and x-c skiers. The skiers are very happy to have Ola back. Many of them give Ola credit for the three Gold medals at the Turin 2006 Olympics. After the Olympics Ola worked with the Chinese Team. Rawald said that you will see the biggest difference in speed with the Swedish biathletes. He said that they will be much faster this season than last year.

Peter Larsson, who with Tobias Fredriksson, won the Dusseldorf relay said : "Ola is more than a coach. He knows your strength and weaknesses and he is incredible when it comes to improving your technique." Ola said it's really a simple equation. It's all about turnover, rhythm and power. Ola continued. Bjoern Lind developed tremendous power at the Olympics. We are now working on this again and on fine tuning the technique.

Races in Dusseldorf: After winning two Gold at the 2006 Olympics, then never making the podium last year, many ski enthusiasts said Bjorn's career was over. Bjorn heard this so often that in a recent interview by the newspaper Aftonbladet, he stated that this year would be different and he would prove it in the first race of the year. He did by coming in second on Saturday.

On Sunday he was to ski the relay with Tobias Fredriksson, but when he woke up Sunday morning he had a sore throat and Peter Larsson skied with Tobias and they won. The two youngsters Marcus Hellner and Emil Joensson finished third. There were 32 teams and Andy Newell and Torin Koos did well, finishing 9th.

In the women's relay the two Swedish teams were 1 & 2 when Lina Andersson fell during the exchange. In the 5th leg Charlotte Kalla pulled ahead by over three seconds and the Swedish second team took Gold. Gunde Svan was running around looking pleased as hell.

Did not take Gunde long to settle the dispute: Gunde met with the skiers last night and everything is settled. The skiers signed the agreement with the Swedish Ski Association and the skiers will be at the Sprint Championships in Dusseldorf this coming weekend.

Apparently Mekonomen will get the exposure they need as sponsor and the skiers are pleased with the negotiations.

Apparently Sponsors behind the new Rules: If you are a sponsor for the National Ski Team, and the team members leave the Team to form their own private team you probably have a right to be upset. Apparently the new rule, see October 19 report, was instigated to satisfy the sponsors.

However, none of the breakaway members have agreed to sign the new contract. It's my understanding that Gunde will be meeting with the skiers tonight. Previously it was reported that Gunde had already met with the skiers, but apparently he only contacted them by phone.

Duncan Douglas: Spoke to Duncan yesterday. Think he could burn out unless he gets some more rest. The former Olympic Biathlete called me yesterday after he finished a 56 kilometer roller ski on the 150's in 2 hours and 35 minutes. Duncan is a doctor ( MD), married and has four children. About two years ago he started training for ski racing again. In addition to his scheduled hours at the hospital, he is also on emergency duty and sometimes has a 15 hour shift. This makes training very difficult. He said that in order to train he often has to get up at four in the morning. Right now he is in very good shape, as evidenced by his recent victory at the roller ski race in New York where he beat everybody, including Kris Freeman. His training routine is that of a masochist. Since he has limited time to train he has to get the most out of each session. Being a doctor he obviously has an advantage over others in understanding the limits of training. If he does not "blow up", he could be one of the fastest American skiers this winter.

Skiers not pleased with new rules: When Mathias Fredriksson, Anders Soedergren, Bjorn Lind and Tobias Fredriksson were dissatisfied with the management of the Swedish Ski Team and formed the Mekonomen ski team, the managers of the Swedish Ski Team made a new rule. If you are on a private team you can't compete in World Cup events for Sweden.

Sweden is the only country in the world with this new rule. In Norway, and other countries, there are many private teams where the skiers can represent their country. Anders said: "You must know why the Swedish Ski Organization came up with this new rule" Gunde Svan is trying to figure out how to solve this problem quickly. He does not think it can be solved before Dusseldorf, but he hopes he can do something soon.

The public is furious with the Ski Organization. In just one blog I counted a large number of comments in just a few hours. People are calling the Ski Organization a cheap dictatorship and every comment I read implied that the people who made this new rule must be "miniature managers" with very little self confidence or self esteem. I hope Gunde blasts these buggers.

Gunde Svan quickly moving into his new position: Did not take long for Gunde to go to work. He has already spoken with Mekonomen management and tonight will be meeting with the ski team members that left the National Team. Mathias Fredriksson said he could not return to the National Team because he had a three year contract. Think that can easily be sorted out by letting Mekonomen become a sponsor of the National Team. Since Mekonomen have already provided money, they could get the same advertising exposure while being a part of the National Team.

Reading between the lines, I think what Mathias implied is that he would not return to the National Team unless Gunde removes some of the incompetent people now running the National Team. That's what this whole Mekonomen thing is all about. The skiers left the National Team because they felt there were too many people running the National Team that were not suited for the job.

Gunde Svan takes over the top job for Swedish Cross Country: The Swedish National Team has been split into two groups, the "Mekonomen" private team with four of Sweden's best skiers and the official National Team. The Swedish Olympic committee has been very unhappy with the poor management of Cross Country. Today at a Press Conference at noon, it was announced that Gunde would be the new head of XC.

For you youngsters, Gunde quit in 1991 at the early age of 28 when he was at the top of his career. My good friend Ferry Grill was the one who convinced Gunde to quit. With four Olympic Gold, one Silver and one Bronze, seven World Championship Gold, three Silver and one Bronze, Ferry felt that Gunde had nothing more to prove. It seems like everyone in Sweden is happy that Gunde is taking over. He is a great leader, a good communicator and if anyone can turn the team around it's Gunde.

More on Gunde: Just six hours after the announcement that Gunde was the new X-C ski chief the major Swedish magazines had already received over 5,000 comments from readers. Over 78% thought this was great for skiing. On the skiing web sites I did not read one negative comment except from one person who thought Gunde might be paid too much. Gunde had his own TV shows, has several successful businesses and does not need the money. Whatever Gunde is paid it will be worth it, because with Svan in charge getting deep pocket sponsors will be much easier. Corporate Sweden trusts Gunde. The Swedish ski budget was very small and the Ski Association had few large sponsors. With Gunde there, raising money will be much easier. Think this is a real chance for him to revitalize Swedish skiing again.

Duncan Douglas just plain Fast. Not aided by rocket skis: After the race on Saturday in New York there is a lot of misleading information on the web regarding Duncan's skis. Unfortunately I am responsible for some of the misleading information. I was doing a rapid pace hike up Mt. Pack Monadnock with my ski poles on Saturday when my cell phone rang. It was Zach Caldwell calling from British Columbia. He asked all kinds of question regarding speed of roller skis.

We had sent Duncan some V2-6600 roller skis which use 76 to 80 mm in line skate wheels. For racing we use Hyper's fastest 80 mm wheels and that's what I thought was shipped to Duncan. ( With fast Hyper 80mm wheels Peter Galanz won the World Championship Roller Ski Pursuit some years ago. ) However, Duncan did not use this setup. I had forgotten that I had asked Libby Adam's to slow down the Hyper wheels by using our kinematic damping. Those wheels are ultra slow so Duncan's skis were equipped with some almost twenty year old Rollerblade wheels that were not that fast when they were new. Urethane wheels usually get faster in the first year, but after a few years oxidation reduces the elasticity and rebound of the material. Twenty year old wheels are not very fast. Duncan skied like hell to beat the rest by such a large margin.

The 6600 skis do have some advantages as with 4 wheels on each ski you get excellent push off and the wheels bridge gaps and depressions in the road making for a smoother ride. Fast wheels make a very large difference on courses with flats and down hills but, they are not that much better on all up hill courses. Over the years I have tested various skate skis on the 1.8 mile hill leading to the Waterville Valley Alpine slope. On the lower flatter section fast wheels made a very large difference, but for the last mile which is quite steep, there was not very much difference in the time going up the hill using slow or fast skis. The bottom line is that Duncan was not on very fast skis. He simply skied very fast.

Kris Freeman likes the new skis: Last week we shipped Kris a special pair of classic skis that use a different method of increasing rolling resistance. Kris called Zach Caldwell and said they were perfect. Today we are shipping some new skate skis as his existing skis are in pretty bad shape.

STAR wax and Digital Irons should arrive soon: There are only a limited number of 110 volt irons, so if you want the best iron made, call us soon.

The great Skier and Arctic Explorer Richard Weber called: The famous explorer has been a friend for over 20 years. First met Richard when he stayed at our condo for the NORAM ski races in the mid 80's. Richard won all the races that year and after graduating from college he became a famous explorer and guide. He just returned from his camp in the arctic. It's magnificent. Don't have the web site right now, but will post it.

Vasaloppet to have man made snow: With Global warming moving at a rapid pace the organizers of Vasaloppet are convinced the race cannot be held in the future without man made snow. They have now invested in a snow making facility that can produce 100,000 cubic meters of snow, enough to provide sufficient snow for a 100 kilometer track. With over 30,000 competitors and a massive amount of spectators, Vasaloppet has become an important economic stimulus to the area.

Vladimir Smirnov has a new career: Vladimir will soon be the General Manager for Saab Scania trucks in central Asia. He will be responsible for heavy truck sales in Kazakstan, Turkmenistan, Kirgistan and Tadzjigstan. After 16 years in Sweden he is moving back to Kazakstan. Scania is one of the five largest truck manufacturers in the world and is known in Europe as the King of the Road. Vladimir is such a well known figure in Central Asia and he understands the culture, so he will probably be as much of a PR man as General Manager. We have stamps from Kazakstan with Vladimir featured on the stamps. Know that daughter Anna will object to moving to Kazakstan, because she refused to move to Norway when Vladimir was thinking of moving. Anna is now 19 so she is probably ready to be on her own. Would not surprise me if h keeps his house in Sundsvall as he will be traveling to Sweden regularly.

Latest Catalog now on the web in Acrobat pdf format.

German Doping Scandal: The rumors have been around for years, even before the bicycle racers in Telekom ( later T-Mobile) admitted they were performance enhanced by researchers at Freiburg University. Now there is evidence that West Germany, not just the former East Germany, have been systematically doping athletes since the 1950's. Two researchers have already left the University of Freiburg and many more are expected to be indicted. An International commission of three biomedical professors and three Judges are presently investigating the doping scandal. One of the three professors is Bengt Saltin, famous Swedish doctor known for his hemoglobin research. The commission is expected to make their first report in December of this year.

What is known to date is that for many decades Freiburg University researchers have provided German athletes with hormone and blood doping formulations. This is probably the biggest scandal ever in German sports. We are presently only seeing the tip of the iceberg. Andreas Schmid and Lothar Heinrich have already been expelled from the University. Professor George Huber, who was the chief medical doctor at the 2002 Salt Lake and the 2006 Turin Olympics is also involved and has been relived of many duties at the University. The Directors of the University stated that researchers at Freiburg University would no longer be working with the 1,500 elite German athletes. It appears that the University of Freiburg was the center of athletic performance enhancement by doping. The Dean of the University stated he did not know how the drugs were obtained or who paid for them. ( Sounds like crock to me. )

It apparently began in 1952 when Doctor Reindell, working with the famous running coach Woldemar Geschler at Freiburg, decided to use drugs. Woldemar coached a mediocre middle distance runner named Joseph Bartel. At the time, Joseph Bartel was ranked 41st in the world. Oscar Wegener, a colleague of professor Reindell, recently said that when Joseph Bartell won the Gold medal in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics it was strictly due to being doped with Pervitin, a substance given to world war two German soldiers to make them feel temporarily invincible. Apparently a very powerful drug.

After professor Reindell retired, the person that took over the department for performance enhancing research was Josph Keul, a famous professor who tried to prove that anabolic steroids were not dangerous. One of the researchers working with Dr. Keul was Dr. Ernst Jacob. At the Turin 2006 Olympics there were several researchers from Freiburg and when Evi Sachenbacher was caught for doping her doctor was Ernst Jacob. Wonder what all these performance enhancing drug doctors were doing at the Olympics? Don't think they were just supplying water and Gatorade.

In 1977 professor Wolfgang Schauble, also at Freiburg University, said: "We want to use these substances only in restrictive and controlled conditions by medical experts, because in certain sports we can not be internationally competitive without these substances."

What do you think Wolfang Schauble is doing today? He is the German Minister of Athletics. This story about German doping is just beginning. It's a really sad mess. Wonder if other German cross country skiers besides Evi are involved.

Swedish Cross Country Racers start Team Mekonomen: Dissatisfied with the format of the National Team training program, four of Sweden's best X-C skiers have left the National Team and formed their own Professional Team. Right now there are only four skiers. Gold medal winner from Turin, Bjorn Lind, Mathias and Thobias Fredriksson and Anders Soedergren. Would not surprise me if others also join. The stock Exchange company, Mekonomen, has not declared how much money they have provided, but it's not a short term contract because it continues past the 2010 Olympics. This appears to be a solid organization. Involved are: Dr. Ulrich Ghisler, team doctor, who is very experienced with X-C skiers. Stefan Larsson, former National Team skier and winner of the Vaasaloppet ski race in 1999.

Coaches are: Ola Rawald, Mathias Persson, Glenn Bjoerklund and Janne Bengtsson. Others include Jean Marc Chabloz from the Swedish Biathlon Team, Bo Olsson, Karin Magnusson, who is the nutritional expert, and Emma Helena Nilsson, Administrator. Ski Tuning and service people include former National Team tuner Micke Book, Hans Ake Olofsson and Lasse Jonsson. This is a pro Team, probably better in quality than the Official National Team.

Kris Freeman's wheels a bit too slow: Next Tuesday we will send Kris some more wheels. At least he now knows that with kinematic damping we can make the wheels as slow as molasses. He said they were too slow for double poling, OK for diagonal.

XL105 Microcellular tires making progress: The last lot produced by the German company has been the best too date. However, the company has had problems with process variability. The rolling resistance from one tire to another has an abnormal spread, but last Friday we think we found what is causing the problem. We cut the tires down the middle, just like cutting a bagel. With the conventional microscope we did not detect anything unusual in the microcellular structure. We then used a Jenex video microscope. With this microscope we can get up to 300X magnification and we can look at a monitor instead of peering down a tube. It appears that the tires with higher rolling resistance have larger microcells in certain areas of the tire and we think we know what's causing this problem in the manufcturing process.

Slow wheels for Kris Freeman: Yesterday we sent some extra slow 910 wheels to Kris Freeman. Kris is now in such great shape, the 910's are not quite slow enough. The speed is regulated by the patented kinematic damping. To make the wheels slower than the standard 910's we used a higher viscosity damping fluid. Unfortunately we did not have any unassembled wheels with the aluminum hub used for the ratchet wheels. Like any speed reducing method the by product is heat. The aluminum hub would have been much more effective in removing the heat generated by the kinematic damping. As soon as we receive more aluminum hub wheels we will make another set for Kris.

Kristina Smigun retires: The Olympic double Gold Medal Champion from 2006 has decided to retire. When Vladimir Smirnov retired, Kristina became one of the top skiers to promote V2 products. She started skiing on V2 roller skis in the 90's. We always received pictures and post cards from her and when she visited Florida in the spring, which she did almost every year, we would send a new supply of wheels or skis to Florida for her to take back to Estonia. She is still quite young and it's a shame she decided to retire.

Visit to Sweden: Just returned from a trip to Sweden. Had a great time and in the twelve days there walked over 40 hours. We rented the same apartment we have been using for many years. The apartment is next to a very good bike / running path in hilly terrain overlooking the Arstavik sound between lake Maelaren and the Baltic ocean. Every two kilometers there are now new exercise stations. There is a balance beam, an arm dip station that can accommodate three people, two shoulder stations and three arm pull up stations. The shoulder / push up stations are very simple and very practical. A 15 cm X 15 cm beam, 3 meters long is pivotally mounted at one end and the other end rests on a horizontal support and has two ergonomic hand grips. A weight can be moved up and down the beam to generate more or less load. I used the least amount of weight and found that 3 X15 reps was sufficient to make my muscles ache. There were always people running and the exercise stations were being used every day by people of all ages.

Infrastructure getting better every time we visit Sweden. This is the first time we did not rent a car. It was totally unnecessary, it was much faster to travel by public transportation. The first six years that we rented the apartment we had a choice of using the subway or the bus. The bus station is located next to the subway, just a two minute walk from the apartment. Now there is also a high speed commuter train station located just above the subway station. There are more stops on the subway and it takes approximately 20 minutes to get to downtown Stockholm. With the high speed commuter train it takes only six minutes. The subway goes every 10 minutes, the high speed train every 15 minutes.

Letter from Bruce Bauer: In the beginning of August I received a letter from Bruce with photos of his horrendous project in the summer and fall of 2006. He built these massive stone wall and walk ways. He wrote: "I was in lousy shape last year and this is my excuse. About 10 ton of rock into the wall, 12,000 lbs. of concrete hand mixed in a wheelbarrow, another 10 ton of loose rock placed on the slope. I'd never done anything this size before, but it went well and was sort of fun in a hard working way.

This summer I've done much more training, especially with the Aero's with the brake. It works well, and of course it makes skiing through town much safer. This year we are going to get some snow and I am already looking forward to some racing.

Marty Hall: Marty just e mailed with photos of his new house in Ottawa, right in Gatineau Park. The house looks great. Marty and Kathy designed it and Marty was the general contractor. To reduce energy consumption they installed the new high speed direct water heaters, no hot water being heated in a tank using precious energy. The golf course is right out his back door and a 2 minute walk to the ski trails in Gatineau park.

V2 received a very nice Plaque from the Canadian Ski Team this week: The Canadian Ski Team has been using V2 roller skis, since about forever. Every year we receive a number of nice posters or a plaque. Very professional and they never fail to thank us for sponsoring their team with a few roller skis each year. They often buy many more skis than the number offered in our contract for the team. For Junior National Team skiers, like Alex Harvey, we have special prices and Pierre Harvey and Richard Weber always make sure their skiers have a supply of V2 roller skis. Canada is on a roll, by the 2010 Olympics they could be a major Nordic power.

Swedish A Team for Men not cohesive: Don't really know what is happening, but Swedish skiers are opting to train on their own. Mathias and Thobias Fredriksson have left the National Team training program and now Anders Soedergren and Bjorn Lind are contemplating training independently. Sweden still has a very good team, but it's not the kind of coach - skier relationship that it used to be. Something is truly wrong with the XC program. Apparently the Team is really opposed to the new management. This last weekend Anders got married. This was to have happened last year, but a tragic family accident, where his bride's brother died, postponed the marriage.

Coaching: Sometimes coaches tell athletes they have potential, even when the results are not really great. These coaches, in my opinion, are not doing their job. If the athlete is not improving and is actually following the coaches program, the coach must try a different program and if the results don't improve, even after the training program has been modified, the athlete has probably reached the peak of his ability or the coach has some really bad training programs. This is a tough decision for a skier and a coach. Many skiers don't accept this. If the coach has the guts to tell the athlete: "You are probably not going to get any better" , skiers usually don't take kindly to this advice and try to find another coach.

If you look at training scientifically, test results must improve in order to get better race results. Roller skis are not the most precise method of evaluating training improvements. However, they are a pretty good barometer. Just like skiing on snow, conditions vary. Roller skis get faster in warmer weather and older wheels often roll faster. ( Not because the bearings are getting faster. But, sometimes the material continues to cross link. When this happens, the rebound, or energy return of the molecules in the tire goes up, which makes for faster wheels and faster skis.)

One of the best ways to test your condition is simply to run up a mountain road and measure your time, about every 6 to 8 weeks. Try to do it when the temperature is somewhat similar, but it does not have to be identical. Make sure you have the same rest periods before each time trial. Running in shoes will not produce the variability of skiing on snow or roller skis. If you are getting slower or faster, the clock and the pulse meter will tell you. Test results are critical to evaluate performance. Some athletes try to evaluate too often. That's a real no, no, because that means you are not sticking to a training program. High School kids do this all the time.

There are a lot of "coaches" out there who have no scientific background. They might have been reasonably good skiers, but they do not fully understand the science of improving physical performance for X-C skiing. These "coaches" can ruin the best potential talent we have. In my opinion, Kris Freeman is one of the best talents for traditional distance skiing, and he wasted several years on a training program that was not suitable.

NENSA to have top racers on the same roller skis for specific races: This is good news. But even so, just like on snow skis, different weight skiers and bindings in diffent positions, will never make the skis perfectly matched. Roller skis are just like snow skis, no one ever has the same exact speed. However, it's better than not controlling the type of roller ski being used. Good luck at the races!

Climbing Pack Monadnock and "Old Time" Racers: