1985 Men's 30K World Cup - Biwabik, MN Part2

Part 2 of 2

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• nordic
• ski
• cross
• country
• world
• cup
• xc
• birkiebob

[Biffbradford]

When Bill Koch chases Vladimir Smirnov up that wall, your video conversion didn't capture the spectators cheering him on: "Go BILL! ... C'mon Bill! Stay with him Bill. Cmon Kochie, stay with him Kochie." Hope you didn't erase the original!

[BirkieBob]

AWESOME, eh? +:^] YEP, great skiing and great commentators.

I must have edited out the commercials while making the tapee and missed that part. Not bad quality though for a tape that has been sitting around and not viewed for over a decade.

[44jens44]

Great stuff!

I do wonder about two things though and I'd like to get good answers.:)

Why didn't they often skate with both legs, but with only one? For example in Ramsau '85 the track was probably too narrow for proper skating, but it can't be the case about Bibawik race.

Secondly. Why did they run the uphill sections instead of skating?

[BirkieBob]

jens, this was the early days of skating, skating evolved from the marathon skate, with one leg in the track and one leg skating, used by some skiers whose wax was failing, koch popularized this skate on the world cup in I believe 82-83 season. The skiers are herringboning up steeps because they probably feel at this point in the skating evolution that it was faster than skating.

- Bob

[pmeysemb]

Hey, awesome video BirkieBob! Thanks so much for posting these. As one who skied with Boonstra and Brochman, these videos really get the goosebumps going. Thanks again.

Paul in Duluth

[BirkieBob]

Thanks Paul, I skied with Koch and Audun at a race clinic at Royal Gorge in the early 80's, got a great picture of Koch after a crash with his butt stuck 2 feet deep in a snowbank. Audun BLEW US AWAY with the first preview of the V1 skate going up the steep Kidd Lake trail. A good buddy of mine was friends with Audun, he usually spent post racing season out west here for a few weeks and would sell us his used ski stock and uni's.

[etekplayer434]

this is cool im a high school racer and i have started there and raced some of those trails

[Canuckastan]

Awesome Video!

Pierre Harvey just awesome!

He went to both Olympics in '84. Cycling and XC Skiing.

He won the 5-mila at Holmenkollen in '88. Which makes him just about perfect in my eyes.

Watch for his son Alex!

[zenmachinefilms]

Awesome video. Great to see Koch, Svan, Mogren, Smirinov, etc. in action.

[ellukeaduke]

In addition, skiers at that point hadn't developed the same upper-body power that modern skiers have. The focus then was more on the legs. As upper body strength and technique improved, skiers were able to pull themselves up more hills using their core and arms.

[xedvux]

Gunde Svan - One of the greats of all time.

[Biffbradford]

I thought I was the only one who taped this ... AWESOME, eh? +:^]

[44jens44]

Sorry, not Ramsau, but Seefeld.:P