Birkebeinerrennet 2008

April 25, 2008

This year, as several times in the recent years, temperature a few days before Birkebeiner Rennet was again close to 0C and waxing was for sure going to be an issue again. But for 2008 BR, Swix , the local wax manufacturer, decided not to repeat errors and to avoid situations like for example in BR 2004 … That year with my waxless skis I remember to have passed hundreds of infortunate skiers who blindly followed Swix advice, and who were stuck a few kilometrs later waiting in waiting lines for rewaxing... Never repeat such wrong advice ! So this year official wax advice was not looking like : put this for base grip then that for kick wax. That would have been too easy ! No in order to maximize probability of being right, the waxing company gave to the poor skiers following advice : put this as a base and this for kick wax, or option 2 put (completely different products) that, or option 3 (again different products) put those. In the end skiers were tempted to buy all products (just to take them to the race if their choice proved unfortunate) and Swix multiplied by 3 its chance to be right. If this seemed winning strategy for Swix, it had just the opposite results on many skiers who just decided to put grip tape (from Swix competitor, and worked quite well) or simple use waxless skis !!

Apart from that rather funny waxing issue, all the rest of the race was as usual perfectly organized, weather was very nice and tracks in much better shape than what we could have had if snow was really around 0. We also avoided last year's strong winds which forced organization to interrupt the race at the last minute. Lots of snow were present everywhere and Norwegian crowd was there, sometimes looking at the skiers from the very top of their wooden cabin buried in the snow (see picture). At the first food station there was even rock band playing to encourage the skiers! So despite lots of philosophical debates between kickwax, grip tape or waxless, this race was really a good way to conclude the 2008 season. Now it is time to complete our passports, for some of us get a new master and start spring training before next snow .. or before Kangaroo Hoppet ! See you soon !!

This page was last revised on August 21, 2008