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Features | General | Team Reports
Something to do for the summer
Anthony Evans reports...
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Just in case you are new to the sport, Anthony Evans is a veteran of three Winter Olympic games and has more Australian titles under his belt than any other skier. So what do elite cross country skiers do when they retire from World Cup competition? Read on...
September 1998 and my third summer since 1986/87 is fast approaching. Full time work is hangin' around my neck, but I live and breath sport so what to do for the summer? Anyone who has seen me play cricket would first cringe then die with laughter at the thought of me pulling on the Greg Chappell hat and zinc cream. Fishing has got to be the most ridiculous excuse for recreation since Finn and Ben tried tobogganing on their Australian team parkas and tore them to shreds. The answer came in late November when I was in the support crew for my brother James at Australia's biggest multi-sport event - the JLW Buller to Melbourne. 2 days; 230km of sheer hell as you descend 4000 feet from the summit of Buller, then kayak, cycle and run some more until you reach Melbourne. An event like this sounded just like just what I needed for the summer because no matter how tough training and competing in an event like this can be I don't think it could be harder than a season of ski racing in Europe. BINGO - the organizers announce another JLW to be held in Sydney in the end of May -"The Three Sisters to the city". Then a few weeks later an event is earmarked for Albury at Easter. The goals are set !
The running and riding should be no problem, but I'd never sat in a kayak before, and to make matters worse the Albury event had a fourth discipline - swimming. My swimming ability rates somewhere up there with my ability to play cricket. I decided to play it safe and bought a secondhand surf ski - a bit slower that a racing kayak, but easier to climb back onto after falling in. Training was very unscientific - fit in what I could around work, but aim for 2 - 3 kayaks, runs and rides per week and 1 - 2 swims (although due to a strong dislike for swimming that part of the program didn't start until February when I heard that a kayak was on offer for first prize). The man to beat was John Jacoby - previous World Marathon Kayak champion, 3-time winner of the New Zealand "Coast-to-Coast" (the multi-sport equivalent of the Hawaii Ironman). My only hope was to go out hard in the first 10km run at the start and try to build up some sort of a lead. The run around the back of Bethanga was pretty hilly so I was able to get a handy lead but almost all of that disappeared in the 1km swim across the Hume weir. My only hope before the 'killer' kayak leg was the 20km mountain bike so I went for it, and climbed onto my surf ski below the wall of Lake Hume with a 8 minute lead. That sounds a lot but about two thirds of the way through the 26km paddle into Albury Jacoby flew past me like I was picnicking on the side. Two minutes down in Albury with a 15km mountain bike and 8km run left. Like most of us XC skiers I am at home in hills and I reeled him in halfway up Nail Can Hill. From then on it was try not to fall off on the downs (which I'm pretty good at doing), but the hardest leg of all was the 8km of flat concrete bike paths in the hot sun with 5 hours of activity under my belt.
A race is never complete without some controversy and for this race bit came in the form of Jacoby (and a heap of others) missing a dodgey turn on the last mountain bike leg, saving him enough time to cross the finish line first. He later realized his mistake and in true sportsmanlike manner accepted that the boat was mine. A great start for me in this new world of multi-sport, but Sydney might be a different story - 2 days, long paddle legs and no doubt a bit of a pissed-off Jacoby. Anyone got any kayak tips ?
[Editor's note: Any hopes of easily knocking off an untrained Anthony Evans on the ski tracks this season are now put on the back-burner. Stay tuned for Anthony's efforts in the "Three Sisters to the City". Anyone know a web address?]
After note: For the results of the Sydney "Jones Lang LaSalle" event go to this link.
XC is the official website of the Skiing Australia Cross Country Committee. It is produced with the assistance of the Australian Sports Commission, and the Kangaroo Hoppet. The editor can be contacted via hoppet@netc.net.au.