Alex Harvey salvaged another world cup weekend for Canada with a ninth-place finish in the 30-kilometre skiathlon pursuit race in Rybinsk Russia on Sunday (Jan. 25).
In the last tune-up before world championships in Falun Sweden, Harvey was in the mix for most of the race, and was only nine seconds away from the bronze medal. He controlled the pace for the first 28 km, but didn’t have the legs for the final 2 km, when the pace quickened.
“Having raced three times this weekend, I was feeling a little fatigued and was missing a bit at the end of the race,” said Harvey. “All the same, I’m satisfied with the result. Being in the top 10 – you always have to take that with a smile.”
Ivan Babikov had his second best race of the year, finishing 19th. He turned on the jets for the skate portion of the race, scratching and clawing his way into the top 20.
“I struggled a bit in the classic part of the race; two times I got stuck behind some skiers crashing and after the second time I wasn’t strong enough to breach that gap between our group and main pack,” said Babikov.
“But I managed to gain about 35 seconds in the skate leg and get back to the main leading group. Unfortunately, I spent too much energy doing that, and had not much left in the tank for the last lap and finished at the back of the leading group.”
Devon Kershaw stuck with the main group until the last lap, where he dropped off and finished in 34th. Graeme Killick ended up 40th.
The solid races were a good sign for the team after a rough sprint race on Saturday (Jan 24). Harvey was the lone Canadian to qualify for the heats, and he was quickly eliminated.
The rest of the men had disappointing times, as Len Valjas was 42nd, Jesse Cockney 47th and Patrick Stewart-Jones 52nd.
Stewart-Jones was skiing well, but fell during his qualifier.
Alysson Marshall was the lone Canadian woman to race in Russia. She was 43rd in the sprints.
The results drew the ire of Canadian coach Tor-Arne Hetland.
“It wasn’t a good sprint race for us at all. Our sprinters have a big job to do before (world championships) in Falun if they want to reach the top 12. Our speed in the prolog is just not good enough.”
