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Canadians close at Tour de Ski

Kershaw, Harvey lead Canadian efforts, but no podiums so far at nine stage race
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in the finals Canada's Alex Harvey (back row, far right) placed fifth in the individual sprint at the Tour de Ski on Wednesday. The Canadians have been close, but no podiums so far. Photo BY nordicfocus

It's been a mixed bag for the Canadian cross-country ski team at the Tour de Ski, with some solid results from Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey, but less than they expected after last season's success. As well, a hard crash injured teammate Ivan Babikov and spoiled his shot at a top 10 finish in Stage 4.

The 2011-2012 Tour de Ski packs nine World Cup level competitions into 11 days, taking place at five different venues in Germany and Italy. The last race is this weekend, Jan. 8, and complete results and standings won't be available until next week.

The tour kicked off at Oberhof, Germany on Dec. 29 with a prologue and an individual pursuit race. In the freestyle prologue race, Petter Northug Jr. of Norway was the racer to beat, followed by Dario Cologna of Switzerland and Maurice Manificat of France. Alex Harvey was sixth for Canada, just under three seconds back of the podium, while Devon Kershaw was 12th and Ivan Babikov 38th out of 99 racers.

The women's prologue went to Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland, followed by Marit Bjoergen of Norway and Hanna Brodin of Sweden.

No Canadian women were in the tour this year.

In the men's classic 15km individual pursuit race, Alex Teichmann of Germany took the win, followed by Petter Northug Jr. and Dario Cologna. Kershaw was the top Canadian in 15th, followed by Harvey in 27th and Babikov in 52nd.

In the women's classic 10km individual pursuit it was Kowalczyk up front once again, a ski tip and 0.2 seconds ahead of Therese Johaug of Norway. Marit Bjoergen was third.

The tour moved to Oberstdorf, Germany for the classic sprints on Dec. 31 and the "skiathlon" race.

In the men's sprint the Russians controlled the heats and the finals to take the top four spots and five spots in the top eight. Nikita Kruikov won the gold, followed by Alexey Petukhov and Nikolay Morilov.

For Canada, Kershaw was relegated to the small final and placed 11th overall, while Harvey was 17th. Babikov didn't qualify for the heats in 81st place.

Kowalcyzk made it a hattrick with a win in the women's classic sprint, while Bjoergen picked up her third consecutive medal in second place. Astrid Uhrenholdt of Norway was third.

In the skiathlon, men raced 10km on classic skis and then another 10km on skate skis, while the female racers did 5km on classics and 5km on skate skis.

Northug Jr. took the win, a fraction of a second ahead of Cologna. Maxim Vylegzhanin of Russia placed third.

Kershaw and Harvey were sixth and seventh, while Babikov placed 31st.

"Today was a great day to have both Alex and I in the top eighth and Ivan (Babikov) was right there with us until he unfortunately crashed in the final lap," said Kershaw, who ranked fifth in the tour standings after the event. "It is really tight racing out here. The top eight is not what we are looking for, but things are getting better and better and we are in the game and psyched right now."

To give skiers some incentive there were some bonus seconds available on the sprint section of the course. The Canadians went for those as aggressively as they could.

"There was a lot of bonus seconds out there so Alex and I made a point of going for them," said Kershaw. "If you are well-positioned you go. I think it is important to play for those preems in these races... they are more important in the overall tour than winning the sprint races."

So far Devon Kershaw has been unable to recapture the stride that put him on the podium four times in the 2010-2011 edition of the Tour de Ski, including a gold medal, two silver medals and a bronze. The string of medals set new records for the Canadian program, and established Kershaw as a legitimate contender on a tour that is packed with competitors from countries where cross-country skiers are highly regarded and races are televised live.

Kershaw followed up his Tour de Ski with a gold medal in the world championships, combining with Alex Harvey to win the team classic sprint.

With a seventh place result and some bonus seconds in the skiathlon, Harvey moved up to 11th overall on the tour.

"Our skis were running super awesome today and I felt great," said Harvey. "We were just trying to position ourselves out there and I'm really happy to be back in the top 10."

Babikov was leading the field when he crashed, injuring his arm and cutting his nose as he went off course into a fence. There was some concern that his arm was broken, but an x-ray ruled that out and Babikov may return to racing before the tour is over.

The racing resumed at Toblach/Dobbiaco, Italy on Jan. 3 with classic races, freestyle sprints and the pursuit races.

In the 5km classic race on Tuesday, Kershaw held onto his fifth place ranking despite a tough day on course. He placed 18th, while Harvey drops to 15th place overall with a 29th-place result.

"I didn't have the power like I usually do with classic and I needed to trust my skis more," said Kershaw. "The skis were great, but it is tough to trust that when you don't ski much in these types of conditions because in your head you know there is no wax."

The ski choice was the result of a fresh load of snow, requiring the ski techs to use sandpaper to increase grip on the soft snow rather than wax to increase glide.

Babikov, with a strained wrist, finished 72nd.

Alexander Legkov of Russia placed first, followed by Eldar Roenning of Norway and Dario Cologna.

On Wednesday, Alex Harvey made the finals in the men's sprint race. Unfortunately, both Harvey and Kershaw had fast skis and were feeling strong, but faced each other in a tough quarterfinal race where Harvey edged Kershaw. Harvey advanced, placing sixth on the day while Kershaw was 13th.

Despite finishing out of the finals, Kershaw's times were good compared to the other tour leaders and he actually moved up one spot in the overall standings to fourth.

Final results next week.