4 Things I Learned from my First World Cup Races
Hello, everyone! The date is January 9th and a few days ago I managed to complete the 2022 Tour de Ski — a six stage World Cup event that took place in Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. These were my first World Cup races ever, and while I certainly tried everything in my power to make sure I was well-prepared, there were still plenty of big lessons I learned along the way.
The bottom line is that World Cup racing is a lot different than racing in the United States. Sure, to some extent “a ski race is a ski race,” but there are a lot of factors that make it a unique experience.
Here are 4 Things I Learned from my First World Cups. These are all lessons I know will serve me very well in future World Cup events, or even a future Tour de Ski.
1. A bad race on the World Cup can look REALLY bad on the results sheet.
Let me explain what I mean by this. World Cup skiing is a select gathering of top skiers from many different countries — the eight (or so) best Norwegians, Russians, Swedes, etc, all in the same race. As a result, the level of competition is A LOT higher than any American race. That’s not to say that the top skiers in American races wouldn’t do well on the World Cup. I only raise this point to illustrate that there are 80+ “top skiers” in any given World Cup event, with “top skiers” being athletes that could conceivably win US Nationals on a given day.
What’s my point? Well, at risk of sounding cocky, I can have a bad race at a SuperTour and still hope to end up in the top 10 or 20 skiers at the end of the day. If you have a similarly bad race at the World Cup, you could damn easily be almost last place. This is something that I really had to take to heart during some of my worse results of the Tour. It is easy to become demoralized after a poor result number, but it is important to always keep it in context.
A bad result is easier to swallow when you have fans like Jan and Leo that cheer for me no matter what.
2. Skis and wax are even more important here.
This lesson is similar to my first point. In most races in the United States, I can usually get away with having “okay” wax or skis in a given race. If I don’t have great kick, glide, etc, I can generally “make it work” and still pull out a solid result. On the World Cup, this is a lot less true for me right now. The guys I am racing against are just so damn fast that I really struggle to compete if my skis aren’t totally dialed in. The top athletes on the World Cup, (Klaebo, Bolshunov, etc) are strong enough to make it work with “okay” skis. Let’s just say that I am not there yet. In races where I had poor kick or glide — something that is inevitable from time to time — I really struggled to compete. While all skiers hope for perfect skis every race, it’s simply not the reality. Skiing with less-than-ideal skis is a skill that takes many years of training and racing to develop and is definitely something I will keep in mind going forward.
The pair of skis I used in the 15K Classic race in Switzerland were “Zero skis” from around 2013. Bad call. Suffice it to say that Madshus makes much better skis now.
3. Everyone pees everywhere.
On a lighter note, I thought it was really funny how much peeing was going on at the world cup. The locations of the toilets at some of the venues we raced at were not always very convenient. The “official toilets” were also usually indoors, which meant they posed a risk for COVID. As a result, skiers peed wherever and whenever they could. I thought it was so funny to pop my head around random corners to see like 6 dudes peeing on a wall. The side of the trails on the warmup tracks were covered in yellow spots where people had peed mere steps away from where we skied. My personal favorite was people peeing directly behind the starting cameras in Val di Fiemme. If the cameraman were to pan the camera 180 degrees he would have had an HD shot of 8 wieners.
Luke, Ben, and I eating some post-race lunch near a popular pee spot in Obertsdorf, Germany.
4. It IS possible to compete at this level.
Despite my earlier points about how high of a level World Cup skiing is, I am not saying it is impossible to produce a good result! In two the races in Obertsdorf I was able to get 36th and 34th, both times only seconds away from a top 30 result. For those that don’t know, the top 30 skiers in the race score World Cup points, thus “Top 30” is often held as the standard for a good result.
I believe the only real way to excel at such a high level as the World Cup is to expose yourself to that level as much as possible. That is why first-time world cup skiers generally struggle compared to long time veterans. If there is one trait that separates humans from other animals, it is our incredible skill to adapt. That same skill that once allowed us to survive in the wild now lends itself to make something stressful like World Cup skiing become normal with more and more exposure. When I am back on the World Cup, I am ready to use the experience from these races to make me even more ready for the next ones.
Not to mention, the proof that American men CAN do well on the World Cup is plentiful this year with so many of my good friends posting some insane results. It is really cool to see.
A team picture from the top of the alpine climb after finishing the last stage of the Tour. It was really heartwarming to see the outpouring of support from my coaches, teammates, and friends.
What’s next?
My goal was to qualify for the World Cup races in France next week, but unfortunately those were cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns. As a result, I am currently in Sun Valley, Idaho to race the SuperTour races on January 15th and 16th. I do not know what I will be doing beyond that, time will certainly tell!
Thank you for reading!
