In cross-country ski racing, the right wax on a fast pair of skis can make all the difference.
Nikki Kassel knows that all too well, and made sure she had the Ferraris under her feet Wednesday at the masters World Cup at Sovereign Lakes.
In a blinding snowstorm, Kassel took off and skied the lead leg of the 35-39-year-old women's 4 X 5-kilometre relay and was rewarded handsomely for her efforts. The 37-year-old from Prince George won her second gold medal of the World Cup, teaming up with Doris Hausleitner of Nelson, Nikki Norre of Revelstoke and Marta Green of Vernon. Kassel and Hausleitner raced classic style and Norre and Green made their 5km contributions using freestyle technique.
"Today was just awesome, it was really fun to be on a winning team," said Kassel. "A Russian women who had the top 10K time on Monday [Svetlana Alekseeva] beat me by about a minute but we caught up."
The Canadians clocked 1:05:55, followed by Russia (1:08:17) and the United States (1:09:42).
Kassel, who won Canada's first gold medal of masters World Cup Saturday in the 15km freestyle, was a silver medalist Monday in the 10km classic event, a race in which she skied on her warmup skis by mistake. In that race, she finished 40 seconds behind Hausleitner, the gold medalist.
"By accident, I picked some warmup skis that hadn't been glide-waxed in a month, and I felt great, but it was a gliding course and I just had no glide," said Kassel. "It should have been a gold."
John Hagen of Prince George has been waxing Kassel's skis at the World Cup and the mistake was simply a breakdown in communication.
"They were his skis, and he has four sets of classic skis that all look the same to me, and we just screwed up," she said. "He was there when I finished the race and he looked at me and said, 'Nikki, you're on my dogs. Those skis are so slow.'
"It was a mass start and (Hausleitner) was just skiing away from me on the downhills, it was obvious. I was angry."
Canada men's 50-55-year-old relay team (Larry McCulloch of Smithers, Gatan Beaulieu of Quebec, Robert Lang of Surrey and James Bannon of Banff, Alta.) won silver Wednesday, finishing in 1:02:04. They were 52 seconds off the winning pace set by Germany (Ferdinand Kraller, Helger, Hanzlik, Karl Heinz Baltromejus and Konrad Blum). Russia won bronze.
Blizzard conditions were the story of the day. Winds of 30km per hour and a -6 C air temperature made it difficult for skiers and race volunteers.
"Lots of snow on the track slowed it down but I had a hot team and today we beat the Russians, so I was super-stoked about that," said McCulloch, the husband of Paralympic skier/biathlete Jody Barber. "We were only 50 second behind the Germans after 20 kilometres so that's not too bad. It was a lot of fun."
McCulloch finished 11th in the 10km classic on Monday.
"There were 40 skiers in my category and I was trying for a top-10 finish and I thought that was going to be my day," said McCulloch. "I was in 10th position and got two-thirds of the way through the stadium and the Russian caught me by one second. So it was retribution (on Wednesday)."
In other Prince George results Wednesday, Lauri Karjaluoto helped Canada's men's 65-69-year-old relay team to a fourth-place finish Wednesday, behind Germany, Russia and the U.S.
Karjaluoto was a sixth-place finisher in the 10km classic race on Monday and was fifth in Sunday's 15km classic.
In the 10km freestyle event on Monday, former Prince George resident Kevin Woytula (men's 30-34) was seventh; Peter Krause of Smithers (men's 35-39) was 13th; and Scott Forrest of Prince George (men's 50-54) was 24th
Kassel, a distance specialist, competes today in the 30km freestyle event.
"I'll make sure I have my race skis for that one," she said.
McCulloch, Krause, and Woytula are entered in the 45km men's freestyle today.
