The First Race Day
By Torbjorn Karlsen

February 9,2002 - Women's 15K & Men's 30K Freestyle Mass Start

Our Solda Wax Cabin at Soldier Hollow

What a day it was! When we arrived at 6.30 AM today it was -15C and the humidity varied between 65-85 % throughout the early morning hours. The skiing was just fabulous. I had my first 7.5 K in by 7.30 while Arve and Erik were testing in the same area as most of the National teams. The skiing was fast and pure fun. I wanted to get a feel for the snow on the entire course. Was it wetter or dryer somewhere or pretty much the same? It was about the same all over, and so I headed for the wax room to team up with the others. Erik and Arve were waiting for me with with big grins on their faces; the test skis were running great. I quickly got on Erik's best test skis covered with SOLDA HPO5 and felt immediately that Erik was right, these skis were gliding fast, not only in the downhill but they also felt great in the uphills and that's what counts the most to me. Our conclusion was that this wax could win today and that was the message we sent to each wax trailer. There are about 60 of them. For more details about our tests go to www.nordicequipment.com. Look under Olympic coverage. Several teams came and bought more wax throughout the day and asked us how we apply the wax. We had the clear impression that many in the top ten were on SOLDA today, including one winner. We have, in fact, sold so much that we had to get SOLDA to FedEx more wax from Italy for Monday delivery. I promise, however, that I will now tone down my future endorsements for the SOLDA wax on this site (since that is not the purpose with the site) and refer to the NEI site for that type of info. I just want to add one more thing: I find it interesting that I have seen at least one wax company without a wax bench, irons or skis in their wax room. Their "technicians" are simply just saying that so and so wax is running well and then handing out the wax for free. That's a scam - how in the world can they say that when they don't even ski? In comparison, we have 16 pair of test skis.

Gordon Lange showed up at 8AM and we quickly skied a lap on the 7.5K race course. Sunny, no wind and lots of spectators at the stadium and around the course. Flags, cowbells, horns and photographers from all over the world. Numerous friends that had showed up to watch the race gave us cheerful remarks as we were sweating our way around the course and back to the wax cabin. It's important to look good and we did our best. And to those that think you could just come and ski up to race time, you can't (you can't even get skis into Soldier Hollow). The only way that is allowed is with the right accreditation and course bib. We quickly changed into dry clothes and skied back to the course just in time to catch the start of the women's race. It was a great race with Italy's Stefania Belmondo winning in one of the best women's races in modern XC history. Beckie Scott did not race this race, she had decided long time ago to let the 10K classic be her first race (Tuesday)

The wax testing area

After the women's race it was back to the wax cabin for more waxing and testing. It had warmed up to O Celsius/32F, snow temp -4C and the humidity had dropped to 40%. Did another 5K feel test and reported back to the cabin - again great skis! The men's race was an exciting battle for 2nd place. Muehlegg was just too good. Justin Wadsworth pulled out after 5K; the cold I mentioned yesterday was for real. Andrew Johnson skied a very good race placing 22nd - my hat off for him and his coach Miles Minson. After the conclusion of the Men's race Gordon and I went out to test 2 different structures up against each other. We skied the entire 16.5 K loop and ended up behind the Kenyan skier going up the final hill back to the wax cabin. He was on classic skis and in classic boots but moving up the hill in a decent V1 technique. I don't think they will accept his "gliding herringbone" in Tuesday's 15K classic. Tomorrow is the Nordic Combine race at 9 AM so it will be another early departure.

By the way, I mentioned yesterday that we did stone grinding for a high profile skier with medal possibilities. That skier was Stephania Belmondo. Did she use the skis we ground? I don't think we'll ever know for sure, the wax technicians like to have secrets.