Canadian Alex Harvey earns season-best seventh-place World Cup finish
LA CLUSAZ, France — Canadian Alex Harvey earned a season-best seventh-place finish Saturday but feels he missed a great chance to register his first podium finish of the World Cup cross-country ski season.
Harvey, 28, of St-Ferreol-les-Neiges, Que., stood fifth on the third of eight laps in the 15-kilometre skate-ski mass start before crashing. He fell back to 26th spot on the narrow two-kilometre loop made entirely from man-made snow.
“There is no snow at all in Europe so they actually cut blocks of ice from a lake to create a base on the track and put snow on it so the corners were icy,” he said. “We are used to that, but I just lost my focus for a bit and crashed on my own.
“The hardest lap was the one right after. When you crash you are super tense, but I was able to recover and get back into relaxed mode. The course was super narrow so it was hard to pass. I slowly made my way up to the front. I felt really good, but I think it was a missed opportunity today.”