Here comes a short update for the last weeks races in New Zealand as I'm sitting at the Morrison Residence in Havelock North, New Zealand before the 4th stage of Sprint the Bay in the afternoon.
WC #2 - Sprint in Wellington
The qualification race last monday didn't go very well for me, as I made 3 big mistakes of 15-20sek in the middle of the race, and I had to push really hard in the end to make sure that I qualified for the final.
I was really motivated to do better in the final, and the terrain suited me better with a lot of climb, downhill and forest running. The course was really tricky and I took some bad routechoices in the beginning and lost 40sek to the fastest there and was 14th after 5min running. But the last part of the race was good, and I finished really strongly with no bigger mistakes, and ended up as number 6, which was really good, and the best sprint result I have done since I was 6th at the European Champs in 2010.
WC #3 - Prologue and Chasing Start in Hawkes Bay
Again I did a bad prologue, with a lot of small mistakes, and the physical feeling was not good either after having a cold the days before the race. I ended up as 23rd, more than 2 minutes behind the leader. And since the results from the prologue made the startlist for the chasing start, including a lot of bonusseconds to the 12 best, it was not a good start.
I started really offensive and even though I took the wrong routechoice to the 4th control I managed to get contact with a big group of runners starting in front of me. I worked my way to the lead of the group, and felt strong physically, so I was leading the group in the middle of the course. But going uphill to the map-change in the end of the race, I started feeling tired, but I managed to stick with the fastest guys in our group as people dropt off. But at the last 4 controls I couldn't keep up with Kyburz, Kerschbaumer and Sedivy, even though we were suddenly very close to the group in front of us, fighting for the 4th position. I almost catched Hubmann and Bergmann in the finish, and ended up as number 12, and with one of the best racing times of the chasing start.
Overall I'm pretty satisfied with my perfomance at the first 3 World Cup races, and is ranked 9, in the overall World Cup. It gives me some good feedback, for my training the next 5-6 months before WOC in Finland. Firstly I need to improve my technical skills, because the speed is pretty good.
Before going home to Denmark, to have an exam in the end of january, I'm staying for Sprint the Bay, who is organized by the Morrison brothers. The terrains and courses are some of the best I have ever done for sprints, because it's really tricky and different from what we're used to in Europe. So even though I'm not that motivated for competitions right now, it's so much fun to do these races, and really good training :)
