Alex Harvey pulled off a pair of top-10 performances and Canada had three athletes in the top-20 in the final stage, but the national team is ‘extremely disappointed’ with its performance at the Tour de Ski.
Harvey finished the Tour in 14th overall in the 10-day race series patterned after the Tour de France, while Ivan Babikov finished 30th and Devon Kershaw 34th. Len Valjas dropped out of the tour after his 10th-place finish on Jan 8. There were no Canadian women in the tour.
“It is a hard 10 days of racing and you for sure feel like you accomplished something when it is done,” Harvey said. “It is the same feeling for everyone, but I think there are likely five guys that are happy when it is done and the rest are wishing for more. I’m extremely disappointed with the Tour overall this year. I had a couple of good days, but I raced below my expectations.”
Uncharacteristically, Harvey finished out of the top 30 in three of the 10 races, and ended up in a big hole by the last stage. In years past, Harvey skipped the final stage of the Tour de Ski – the grueling nine kilometre hill climb with a 28 per cent grade slope in Val di Fiemme, Italy due to a medical condition that cuts circulation to his legs when climbing. However, he had surgery last year to correct the ailment, and ended the day with the 14th fastest time.
“It was my best climb by far. I didn’t fully remember it from before and I think I went out a bit too conservative. Both my legs were working really well, so I’m happy with the day,” Harvey said.
“The hill is not that long, but it has three really steep pitches that have you breathing as hard as you can and your legs are super tired. You are just hacking it up the hill. You can’t find a technique that is appropriate for the terrain and it is just a really unusual feeling. The only way to describe it is like going up a hill on your bike in the hardest gear and you are not allowed to switch gears.”
Babikov was the fastest Canadian of the day, finishing 11th. In years past, he’s recorded top three finishes in the stage, but he was happy with his effort.
“I’m happy with my climb, 11th place is quite good, even though it’s far from my personal best. I gave my 100 per cent up that beast and I’m proud of my effort,” Babikov said.
Babikov now returns to Canmore and will not race the next world cup.
Kershaw finished the tour in 34th spot. He’s one of only a handful of athletes to compete in every Tour de ski to date, and he ended up 19th in the final stage.
“I was skiing at a better level before Christmas and for whatever reason the races didn’t go as planned. It was hard for our whole team,” Kershaw said. “The only good day for the whole team actually was that hill … at least we finished it off better.”
Kershaw said his tour was over early, as he struggled in the 30 km mass start, where he finished 41st. Since the event is time cumulative, he found himself in a hole early, as Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby won his third Tour De Ski in a row with a dominant performance.
“It was a tough tour this year – Sundby is on another level completely and it made for some blown out races and tough days of racing. I had a really bad day on stage two and that wrote the tour off already. That was disappointing,” Kershaw said.
“I am definitely not happy with how the tour went. I wasn’t at the level where I expected and hoped to be. I’m disappointed, but really motivated to be ready to rock and roll for Ski Tour Canada – which, coming into the season like I did, was the big number one goal all along,” Kershaw said. “That said, I was wanting much more out of this Tour de Ski, so obviously when you fall short of your goals, it stings.”
He said there were a number of factors that contributed to lacklustre results, but said it’s hard to pinpoint one reason.
“Perhaps I overdid the training over the holidays and didn’t give enough emphasis to the load that all that racing before Christmas had on me. Also, we struggled a few days with the skis. That’s never great in a cumulative tour.
“Of course, we had bad days ourselves. You can prepare as best you can, you can do all the things you need to do – you give your best every day, and the reality is that sometimes it doesn’t work out the way you thought going in. The Tour de Ski was one of those times.”
