Is it too cold for a cross-country ski race?
If it was happening today, most definitely.
Fortunately for the skiers and organizers of the B.C. Cup cross-country races taking place this weekend at Otway Nordic Centre, the cold air and high wind chills that will make it feel like -35C today are expected to moderate for the start of Saturday's sprint races, with a high of -14C expected.
"We're right in the middle of a big Arctic front and we have contingency plans for cold weather to cut the risk down so that the racers and volunteers aren't out longer than they need to be," Jim Burbee, the chief of competition for the races.
"Minus-20 is the coldest you can run a race and beyond that, the rules say, no race, no matter how much volunteer effort is wasted. If it's close to that (-20C) we'll do shorter races to try to sped things up."
Burbee was in Thunder Bay, Ont., last weekend for Nor-Am Cup races and saw firsthand what can happen in cold, blustery weather. "We skied right at minus-20 one day and the other day was minus-18 and there was lots of frostbite and frozen fingers," he said. "We don't want that for this one."
The sprint race involves shorter distances than the 10-kilometre classic race planned for Sunday but a sprint event actually takes longer to complete. Starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, skiers will compete first for seeding positions, then will have to wait while those start positions are determined.
With 176 racers, including 35 locals, expected from all over B.C. and Alberta, Burbee figures it will take 90 minutes to sort out the secondary start lists. From there, groups of up to six racers will compete for a top-two position needed to advance to the next round. While sprints are labour intensive for the volunteers, they short races cater to spectators, who can see most of the action taking place in close proximity to the stadium area.
"The sprint is actually two races, so it ends up being a pretty full day if it's a sprint day and if it's really cold we'll probably drop the sprint and do a different type of race format," said Burbee, director of competition for the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club.
"There have been three cancellations of races in December down in the Kootenays and the Okanagan, so people are really wanting a race."
Sunday's classic race is a mass start, which gets underway at 10 a.m.
Among the clubs coming to Prince George is the Black Jack Cross Country Club of Rossland, which has former Prince George resident Dave Wood as head coach of its racing team. Wood retired as head coach of Canada's senior national team last spring, following the 2010 Olympics.
While Wood is at Otway, Burbee plans to tap into his expertise for ideas to improve the city's nordic facility for the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
"We're going to get him to come and take a look at our trails," Burbee said. "He's seen courses all over the world and maybe we can get him to provide us a little input on the developments for the Winter Games. We're planning a significant upgrade (and widening) of our trails for the competition.
"As the new sprint formats come out and the team pursuits and multi-phase races, the old race courses don't cut it anymore. It's our one chance to upgrade. The range certainly has to be moved to a more accessible place for biathlon."
The Caledonia club is conducting an online survey of its more than 1,500 members at www.caledonianordic.com to select the best of three possible locations for the range, a decision Burbee said will be finalized by next month.
"We're discussing it internally at the club because people are sensitive about trees being cut, and it's a typical land-use decision," Burbee said. "We need to be in construction stage by 2012 because we need a couple years to do test events before the Games, just like the Olympics, to make sure we're comfortable doing our jobs."
The club will also have to build a new technical building for timing officials as one of the Winter Games upgrades. The money for the improvements at Otway will come out of the $19.6 million infrastructure budget to be shared equally by the municipal, provincial and federal governments.
