"This is World Cup, not Clean Out The Cobwebs". So said Ben Sim at the World Cup races in Beitostolen in Norway today. About the best that can said about the races was that it wasn't quite a total disaster. Clare-Louise Brumley and KT Calder finished 67th and 71st out of 72 skiers in the women's 10km Classic, and Ben Sim was 81st out of 82 in the 15km Classic. If any Australian skiers are to qualify ifor the Classic events in Torino 2006 then a lot of improvement has to be made before the second round of distance World Cup events in Kuusamo in Finland next weekend.

With the lack of snow around Europe this was the first race of the season for Clare-Louise and Ben (KT raced on a 1.8km loop in Finland last weekend), and only the third day on snow for Ben. The organisers in Beitostolen did a good job to put the race course together, a 3.2km loop made up of artificial snow and snow trucked down from the nearby fjalls. Waxing wasn't so easy, with a combination of icy and powder snow. Unfortunately the Australian waxing crew didn't quite get it together, with all skiers lacking a bit of glide and the girls also a touch short on the grip.

Ben Sim had a promising start, and was up in the mid 60's in the first couple of kilometres. However after the second lap he had a lot of problems with his back, and struggled with pain and keeping his technique together for the rest of the race. He dropped back through the field, ending up just ahead of one skier. The 15km Classic was won surprisingly by Tor Arne Hetland of Norway, who normally has his best results in Sprint. Not many of the "Red Group" (the top 30 skiers in the world) did so well today. Most of the top 10 were lower ranked skiers, including Hetland and two others from the Norwegian National Group - thos who get a start in the race only because the race is in Norway.

Clare-Louise also had a reasonable start, in 60th place after the first 1.6km. However both she and KT found that they were having to work very hard to get grip on the hills and also lost time to those around them on the downhills. The race was won by Marit Bjorgen from Norway - no surprises there, the biggest question could be who will beat Bjorgen this season. For Clare-Louise the gap up to the next 5-10 places was not so much, so her form seems to be not that bad and she has a good chance to improve in Finland if (hopefully when) she has better skis. For KT the challenge will be harder. For sure better skis will help, however it may be that the recovery from the shoulder injury may take longer. She is healthy and able to train and race now and push hard, but something is obviously not right for her to be as far back as she was today. Maybe the upper body fitness is what is lacking, after such a gap without being able to to anything.

Ben, Nick Almoukov and Finn Marsland start the long drive tomorrow to Kuusamo - if all goes well we should get there in the late afternoon on Monday. KT and Clare-Louise stay an extra day in Norway and then fly directly to Kuusamo on Monday. At least there should be reasonable training in Kuusamo (Ruka) during the week - apparently they have 5km of man-made snow already.

Courtesy XC Files