Lillehammer Triple

We just arrived in Lillehammer, Norway for our second weekend of World Cup racing and our first mini tour of the season, which is usually held at the opening World Cups in Kuusamo, but this year it has been moved to Lillehammer, which is fun, as the venue is new last year and we will get an opportunity to really race all of the courses and loops.  Today was a skate sprint, tomorrow is a 5k skate individual start and Sunday will be a pursuit start 10k classic, based on the results from the sprint and the 5k.  It is a really fun format and I am hoping to be able to chase some people down in the coming days!  

It was a really fun day here, as Celine Brun-Lie who joined our women's team camp in Alaska this summer and hosted me at her house two summers ago in Oslo was second!  It is not an easy ladder to climb up in the Norwegian team or just in the World Cup field in general, so to be on one of those podium steps is a really special experience, and Celine has been really patient with a very tough battle, so to see her succeed today was so inspiring for me.  I am so happy for her.  Congrats Celine.  Thanks for reminding us all the importance of belief in yourself, belief in your process and your way and not to ever give up.

Celine, showing some emotion after securing second place in today's sprint.

Noah, still smiling with a broken fibula.  He actually just had surgery in Vail yesterday morning, so already on the road to recovery.  He is expecting to be back for World Champs in Falun, Sweden in February!  Send speedy recovery wishes his way!

Jessie and Soph just being great people.

Our team PT for the last 3 weeks has been Pete Dickinson from the Methow Valley in Washington.  He has been incredible to have on the tour with us, never too tired to work on whatever we need, even our boots! Thanks for all of your time and knowledge you have shared with us, Pete! We can't wait to have you back again in the future!

Some "dry needling" on my shoulder, which is a sort of acupuncture technique to get some muscles to relax.

Skiing in the heart of winter in Sjusjoen earlier this week.  So nice to be on real, white, beautiful snow.

And with the Norwegian tundra all around, on the Birkebeiner trail, ahhh, couldn't be better.

The views were beautiful.

Like I said, beautiful.

Reese Hanneman took this picture of me after our ski one day.  If you haven't checked out his photography, you should.  His website is: http://www.reesehanneman.com.