Val Cartier

Rob's report from Val Cartier Nor-Am races and a photo courtesy of the Stratton Mt. School Blog:

“The path to excellence is overcoming obstacles” – Terry Orlick

“When a bad thing happens to you, then you are about to meet some nice people.” – Rob Bradlee

Corey Kicking it in for 5th place!

CSU had a great day of racing today, but also some difficult obstacles.  Yes, Corey Stock placed 5th in the Junior Women’s pursuit race at the Val Cartier NorAm and the Canadians were preparing immigration forms to put her on their World Junior Team, but after the races the Stock’s car just would not start.  Jim needed to be in Boston for a 4 PM flight on Sunday so hanging around was not an option.  What to do?  Peter Moore of the Coastal Nordic Club (in the Portland area) volunteered to drive Isaac, Anne, and Corey to the airport to pick up a rental car while Jim and Chris waited for the tow truck.   We jammed all the Stock’s ski bags inside my Volvo.  Peter, Susan, and Anna Breu of NH took Neil and Hannah to stay with them back at MSA.   Tomorrow I will be driving home Hannah and Neil and we will be stuffed in with a whole lot of skis, but the bottom line is that the whole club and all the precious skis will make it home.  We train, race, and
 travel as a team.

So, aside from that little difficulty, how was the racing?  As I mentioned, Corey asserted dominance over most of the Canadians and all the other Americans (including a large group from SMS) with her 5th place. She had to start way in the back of a large mass start and she just powered through everyone until she caught up to the lead pack.  Nice work.  I told her it was good practice for those future World Cup races where she will have to do the same thing when she’s just starting out.

Corey wasn’t the only story in the Junior Women’s race.  It was also a replay of the Mass Bay East races at Weston.  Hannah Smith and Olga Golovkina (now at Colby) also worked their way from the back of the starting pack to the top third.   Hannah even passed Olga on the V1 uphills showing the form that she had worked so hard on developing at the MSA camp.  This race, by the way, was a continuous pursuit with a classic race, a switch-over to skate gear, and a skate race – all with the clock running.  At the finish Olga, now back ahead of Hannah, was a bit confused and skied into the lap lane and Hannah followed her.  An official corrected them and they finished, but when you look at the results please understand that they skied even faster than the numbers indicate.

The first race of the day had been the Men’s 30K pursuit (15K classic and 15K skate).   Coach Andy Milne represented CSU in this very difficult race that had both hard climbs and treacherous downhills, especially in the skate portion.   The winners of this race will be skiing for Canada in Vancouver at the Olympic Games in February.

In the Junior Men’s race, a 20K pursuit, we had four young men: Isaac Hoenig, Chris Stock, Jimmy Burnham (now at Bates), and Chris Burnham.   All four skied well on the difficult course with Isaac gaining revenge over Chris Stock who had beaten him in the CSU pursuit 4 days ago.

Late in the afternoon the “Juvenile” class finally had a chance to do their races that were 7.5K classic-only races.   Hamish McEwen ripped an 11th place (racing with 14, 15, and 16 year olds) that I believe put him on the podium for 14 year olds (Juvenile 3).   Neil was close behind after his nasty head-cold caught up to him on the second lap.

The final race of the day started at 3:10 and Cate Brams showed fine form with an 8th place finish.  I believe she may have been another podium for her single-year age group.

The weather during the day was amazingly stable with temps holding steady exactly at 26 F (-4 C) all day.  For the wax freaks out there we used Ski Go (-3 to +1) covered with a bit of Ski Go (-2 to –15).   The track was very slick with all the skiers going around the 2.5 or 3K loops so we had to wax warmer than the temps indicated.  (Toko Yellow covered with Red had good kick, but was a bit slower.   Rode Super Blue was also quite good.   Corey added a bit of Swix VR55 as she used some pretty stiff skis and needed a bit more kick).

I think we all had a great time as “Team USA” consisting of CSU along with Stratton, Colby, Middlebury, UVM, Putney, Coastal Nordic, etc. competing at an international event.   Obviously, it takes a great deal of work to go to an event like this, but it is very exciting.

SMS and Colby obtained one of the nice wax rooms at the facility and let me share their space.  Before I left I re-waxed the skate skis of Hannah, Neil, and Anna Breu (Toko HF Red + Jetstream Red hand-corked.  I will re-test in the morning to be sure).  They will race the prelim of the sprint race at 9:45 and 10:15 AM.   Then, we will jam everything in the car with wax boxes, dirty clothes, and a zillion ski bags and Hannah, Neil, and I will head for home.  I sure hope the border guards believe that I have a good reason to have $10,000 of skis wedged into my car.  If not, please come visit me at the ICE detention center.