Steffen Hoos, aka "Hoosie", Toko's International Race Service Manager
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The last week of the Games have begun. With wonderful weather again there were three
events decided in the Whistler Nordic Park today. The jumpers competed in the team
jump (on the big jump).
In the cross-country stadium
next door was the team sprint in the free technique (skating) in the men's and
ladies. There have been some interesting
results which are in contrast to the previous season so far. For example, the German ladies
with Claudia Nystad and Evi Sachenbacher won a surprise gold medal. Neither has achieved a podium
placement in individual races this year. In the men's the Germans also
surprised with silver.
Today was the coldest morning in
recent days of -7 ° C. Most of the teams knew from the
weather report that around noon the temperature would hit around 8 ° C and the track
would become damp and then wet. The clever ones though
thoroughly tested yesterday exactly at race time and thus had the proper race
wax all dialed in well before the race started so they could focus on structure. As we know, these details play a great roll
in making a ski fast. The anticipation of these test
items a day or more in advance when the weather is stable provides the
necessary experience to predict what is going to run at race time. Some teams had visibly faster
skis.
As it always is when the weather
is stable (and in this case warm), the teams require almost only products from
us that are for warm conditions. Soon we
will run out of these items. This is
better than going back to Switzerland with full boxes though.
The women's Giant Slalom
training took place in preparation for the actual event which takes place tomorrow.
The weather tomorrow will be
very sunny and cold. We can
be curious if there are more surprises again.
Until tomorrow
Steffen
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US Skier Torin Koos on the bike between racing
Team technicians servicing skis during the Team Sprint event
One doesn't get this close to a king very often. Here is the King of Sweden visiting the events.
Course forerunners getting their briefing before doing their work
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