Pyeongchang Course Preparation View # 10 – February 22nd
By now you have all heard that the US ladies won the Team Sprint, and with Norway’s silver Marit Bjorgan is now the most decorated Olympian. Great to see both the Canadian Team of Len Valjus and Alex Harvey, and the US Team advance to the finals last night under the bright lights of the Pyeongchang Nordic venue. The crowds, though sparse, were excited! The US wax techs certainly did their magic on Jessica Diggins’s skis as she gained meters on her fellow skiers on each of the 2 downhills.
Further proof of dust or pollution in the air here, as we have a phenomenon known as “Diamond Dust” happening. At home we see these super light, large crystal, sparkling, snowflakes falling when it is very cold on clear nights. But this morning it is only -8, a clear blue sky, and the water vapour in the atmosphere is depositing on minute airborne particles and drifting towards the ground. (I did have to look this up).
Last night I renovated both courses again. It was high time as the upper layers have gotten very hard with all of the grooming, snowmobiles, a few days above freezing, strong sun, and of course thousands of skiing laps. The broken snow cut by the renovator blade actually plugged and stopped the tiller from turning a few times and I had to lift, back up and start again. The entire coarse is “snow white” again this morning. Today, I will remove the blade as it needs to be picked up and driven to Biathlon. If the underpass between Biathlon and Cross Country would have been the same size as all of the other ski bridges, the sharing of the renovator would have been much simpler.
Tonight we start the challenge of preparing for the final weekend of the Classic Long Distance events. Tomorrow, Friday, is Official Training, followed by Saturday’s Men’s 50km and on Sunday the Women ski the 30km. We are still, after 30 days, undecided about how to fit all of the tracks into some of the tighter sections of combined Red and Blue course. Lars and I have long figured it out but the Jury is literally “still out”, and, plans are being modified every day. Well they have less than 12 hours to let us know. Good news, the Snowmobile Camera routes have been shortened slightly to avoid the 2 constricted areas.
Course Controllers (photo 424) with their tablets are placed along the course to video technique infractions and interference. As the entire site has Internet access the video clips immediately upload to the Cloud and are reviewable by the Competition Committee and Jury as needed. The controllers have battery backups and presumably a spare tablet as well. They seem to work well in the cold weather, but keep in mind that with only 2 categories of competitors at Olympics, Men and Women, sometimes on separate days, the events don’t last long.
1/ Photo 423 – Replaced the Blade with the Renovator. This morning I switch it back. Biathlon needs it.
2/ Photo 312 – Russians taking waxing almost as seriously as the Norwegians…and Canadians of course! But the Americans nailed it last night!
3/ Photo 406 – Many American Fans here – very discreet. They were excited last night (Team Sprint Gold)
4/ Photo 413 – Kassbohrer Technicians in Korea – I have his number and the heater works again in the cab.
5/ Photo 308 – Norwegian Sprint team in the Athletes Food Tent , Klaebo on the left with the telltale neon glasses
6/ Photo 424 – Course Controllers
That is it for now. Don’t miss seeing the next races!
Cheers Dirk Van Wijk
PyeongChang Course Preparation View # 9 – February 19th
The Norwegian XC Skiing stars of the Olympics, in my opinion, are Klaebo, who literally “ran” away to the Sprint Gold and yesterday, in his seemingly effortless style, stole the show for another Gold in the Men’s relay. Then Marit Bjoergen who could become the most decorated Olympian , male or female, if she medals again in the 30km on Sunday. We have 3 very exciting races coming up, the team sprint, the 50km and the 30km Classic events. Alex Harvey chose not to race the relay yesterday but will compete with Len Valjas in the team sprint and then race the 50km. The Canadian Relay Team did very well and I felt for the last skier on the US team who almost got lapped by Klaebo.
It has been a week since I last ate Kimchi – It seems to be the national dish. Koreans have it 3 times per day. Phillippe, our Korean “Go To” person on the Organizing Committee, doesn’t want to join us for meals in the Athletes compound. His excuse, “I don’t like that food, all I need is Rice and Kimchi”. Kimchi is salted and fermented vegetables, mainly cabbage and radishes with chili powder to add the spice. Traditionally the mixture was placed large clay pots (photo 404) and stored in the ground.
There are 5 of us living in XC Sport Manager Im’s 2 bedroom townhouse in Daegwalnyeong, a 5 minute drive from the venue. The 2 Norwegians, Lars who works XC with me and Tom (photo 390) his neighbor from Oslo who is one of the winch cat operators on the Jumps. Steve Hamer from Thunder Bay, also a winch cat operator who I met in Whistler in 2008 – 2010. Jon Servold from Alberta, who competed at the Calgary Olympics and has gone to every Olympics since preparing ski jumps all over the world. I was initially concerned at the close quarters and having been relegated to the couch in kitchen/living/dining room but it has worked out great. The beer time discussions don’t sway far from snow and machinery.
This period of 4 nights of training and Nordic Combined events finish at 11:00 PM. Late start for us, all wrapped up and in bed by 02:30. Jump guys were up at 07:00 so I got up and joined them to get their machine carefully and slowly down from the top of the landing hill. When they till the landing hill the machine ends up at the top and this jump has no exit from up there. They don’t design Jump Hills for groomers. It is difficult but I try to get a short nap in during the day. Tonight is another 11:00PM start.
Lars and I received a huge compliment yesterday from Norway’s head wax technician. “Best grooming at any championships that he has been at”. The weather has certainly been kind to us and I hope we can keep it up. Most complicated grooming nights are still to come with the 2 long distance classic days plus the one official training day, Friday through Sunday.
Off to have dinner, watch some ski jumping and back to grooming.
Attached Photos;
1/ Photo 404 - Kimchi Clay Pots
2/ Photo 376 – Difference between groomed and ungroomed snow showing the dirt
3/ Photo 257 – Doping Control station at XC (strange that people can just walk by)
4/ Photo 390 - Norwegian Tom – at the top of the landing hill of the Normal Hill, Big Jump in the back ground, XC Stadium on the right of photo
5/ Photo 370 – First Leg of the women’s relay – OAR and Norway in the lead.
Cheers Dirk Van Wijk
PyeongChang Course Preparation View # 8 – February 17th
We are a few hours away from the Women’s 4 x 5 relay. 2 of whom will ski 2 laps of the 2.5km course using classic technique and then 2 will ski the same course twice using free technique. The 2.5km course is imbedded into the 3.75km Blue course. Last night we groomed / tilled everything perfectly flat and then Lars worked with the stadium crew to set up the 5 classic tracks in the start grid and a set of 2 classic tracks in the lap lane. Fairly straight forward stadium a little more complex on the course. Jury wanted 4 classic tracks up the first 500 meter climb out of the stadium to accommodate the mass start. There is a narrow gap at the top of the climb where the red and blue course split and there is not enough space for 4 tracks plus a free technique lane. I kept the set of 4 tracks on the red side, did a short 5 meter scrub or neutral zone (no tracks) crossed back over and then set 2 tracks on the right side of the rest of the 2.5km blue course. The blue course is inside of the red course and therefore has many more twist and turns versus the red which follows the outside perimeter of the venue (golf course). Each twist and turn is a neutral or scrub zone as skis will not stay in the tracks. Personally I feel this course is more suited to free technique.
The crowds are back in town in huge numbers. There is a line of traffic driving into town form the main highway (the infamous highway with no exits). Kilometer long line up to get into the Olympic Plaza. The Korean “Bridgehead” had people waiting outside. It is a 4 day Korean holiday due to the Lunar New Year.
The weather is amazingly stable. Clear skies, cold nights, and the days are just around freezing. As we are at 37 degrees Latitude the sun is strong. It feels like those beautiful spring days we get at home.
With the constant wind and very low humidity the snow is noticeably sublimating. Ground is appearing where there was natural snow only a week ago. Thankfully the man-made snow is holding up very well. Next time you watch an event, see if you can notice how dirty the ungroomed parts of the course are. There appears to be a fine sandy dust in the air here. Likely also combined with some unsavory emissions from neighboring areas. Many locals wear masks. All of us notice it in our throats. We have had to wash the windows of our grooming machine multiple times in order to be able to see out. I wonder how the athletes are managing.
European TV rules the agenda of the Olympics. Many events are late at night so they can be viewed during prime time in Europe. The Nordic events in Whistler were held early in the day for the same reason. The Women’s Relay is scheduled to start at 18:30 local time, which will be early morning viewing for Europe and Scandinavia. If you want to watch it live in Ottawa, you will have to get up with Toni Scheier around 04:30. The Women’s relay is followed by Official Training for the Men’s Relay. Thankfully I set the tracks on the extra 800 meters for the 3.33 course last night. We can go on the course once that is wrapped up at 22:00. Another late night – early morning.
Attached Photos;
1/ Photo 350 – 2 tracks on skiers right on the start of the Blue course
2/ Photo 345 – 4 tracks up the first hill leaving the stadium area
Cheers Dirk Van Wijk