Post Season Report

Another season has already come and gone. It seemed to happen so fast! I raced my last race of the season this past Saturday, the Buckwheat Ski Classic. A 50km classic race which takes place in between Skagway, Alaska and Whitehorse. It was a good finish to the season for me, it’s a race that I’ve always wanted to win and this year I was able to make it happen!

I was able to race over in Europe again this year, this time in France as a member of Team Canada at the World Junior Championships, and at two OPA (European) Cup races.

In France for the World Juniors I raced two individual races; a 20km Pursuit race, and a 10km skate. In the 20km race I felt really strong at the beginning, and I actually was leading the race for a couple kilometers, but then the weather started to change and my skis started to lose their kick. This was defiantly a damper on my race as I lost a lot of time struggling on the up hills due to my poor skis, and I ended up finishing in 25^th. The 10km skate race was a little better for me but still frustrating. I had a good race but the competition was really tight and I finished in 24^th, just three seconds from being in the top 20!

The two weekends of OPA Cup racing I did after World Juniors were held in Germany and Italy were a bit better for me. The first weekend I raced a 10km classic, in which I had a strong race and placed 4^th Junior. The next weekend in Italy I raced another 10km Classic and the next day a 15km Skate. The 10km race was another good race for me and I finished in 6^th. The 15km race was one of my best races of the year and I finished in 2^nd!

Racing the sprint qualifiers at Nationals

Photo by Stéphane Berrette

After Europe the next big races I did was Canadian Nationals. The first race was a Team Sprint which I raced with Graham Nishikawa to finish in 2^nd place in the Open Men category. The first time a Yukon team has ever been on the podium in the Open Men’s Team Sprint event! My next race was a 10km skate race; I had a strong race and placed 2^nd Junior (five seconds off the winner). Two days later I raced a 15km classic race were I had another strong race and placed 2^nd again (just ten seconds off the winner). Next up was the 1.2km classic sprint race, I skied well and ended up finishing in 3^rd. At the end of the week I won 2^nd place overall in the aggregate category.

Overall, my season was a huge success and I can’t wait to start training for next year’s season!

David Greer