More Photos from the Scando Trip

Julia sent along more photos of hers and Eli's adventures in Estonia:

Bowling with the team!



Eli watching the water fly in the Science Museum.



ELi getting flipped frontward and backwards in an Astronaut Simulator
by an evil Estonian boy.

Eli finishing his classic 10km race strong.

Wandering through town in Tartu.

Julia biking across the rope bike in the science museum.

Photos from Eli and Julia from Estonia

Pretty Sweet Tracks!

The Coaches - Adam St. Pierre, Kate Barton, Scott Jerome. They’re great!

Julia doing some parkour to get into the stadium. Don’t worry she didn’t break her collarbone.

The Girls

Scando Trip Report from Eli

Otepää, Estonia for the Scando Trip – After a 25 hour trip, six j1 boys, six j1 girls and three coaches, arrived at what the US ski team likes to call “the bunker”, which is an extremely accurate name of our first hotel.  Activities in the bunker included ping-pong, Internet, and best of all, using the sauna.  We don’t have any races until the 24^th so we can basically do anything we want to, within reason of course.  This allowance allowed us to go tubing! Which was pretty sweet. The speed was comparable to the luge in Quebec City, except it was longer, with tubes.  The skiing was, in one word, spectacular.   We were skiing on the world cup course, which has big, steep hills, smooth grooming, and a ridiculous stadium. Just look at the pictures.  We’ve done two OD’s, a couple easy skis, and one classic time trial.  So far our daily schedule has been pretty routine, sadly we have yet to go clubbing at the crazy eastern European diskotechs.  Yesterday we left from Otepää to Mamamaste, which is the location of our races.  I’ll keep you all updated.  Pictures will be posted soon.

Cherie Walsh Race at Craftsbury

Day two at Craftsbury saw some ripping fast conditions out on Craftsbury's homologated course, which was in excellent condition.  Craftsbury has done some fabulous work, not only in rebuilding the race loop, but also with spreading and grooming their manmade snow.  With mass start races and places on the line for junior nationals this was sure to be an exciting day.  First up were the J2 girls.  As expected, CSU marched right to the front again with a nice pack of Zoe, Hadley, Charlotte followed by Meg, Clara, Sonya and Claire.   Finally, the front pack started up the big hill which included Zoe right at the front (and Leah Brams!) followed closely by Charlotte and Hadley.  A bit further back, having excellent races came Katrin, Sonya, Clara and Meg, all skiing near each other and Claire who made a great move up the last part of the hill to pass a couple of girls in front of her.  All the girls raced well!

Zoe, Hadley, Charlotte, Clara in the mass start

Zoe, Hadley and Charlotte

Katrin

Sonya and Clare

Claire

Next up were the J2 boys.  CSU's Gavin McEwen, Max LaChance and Chris Koziel went right out with the lead group and were in great position as they disappeared off into the woods. CSU coaches and parents were spread out on the big hill at 4k waiting somewhat impatiently to see what would unfold. As the boys powered up the last big uphill Gavin was making a bid for the lead with Max and Chris just a bit behind. A bit further back came Lewis, Nick and Jacob, all powering up the rather unrelenting hill and racing well. Gavin put in a good sprint to nab second place!

Gavin making a move

The start with Chris, Jacob, Gavin, Max and Lewis

The Jacob and Lewis ballet

Max

Chris

Next were the women, doing 10k.  CSU had a large contingent, but unfortunately I didn't get to watch much of the race since I was warming up for mine, but Olivia and Cate had awesome races.  Olivia was right in the pack that was chasing eventual winner Maria Stuber coming up the last hill and finished in 4th place with Alex just a bit further back in 7th and Cate in 12th.  Maddy came home in 22nd, Olivia Cannon had a great race, flying up the hills in 33rd, Julia 43rd, Rebecca 46th and Rosie in 50th. 

Final race of the day was the men's 15km.  I was especially looking forward to 3 laps and the big hill 3 times!  The main race had a big field for the mass start and took off while a small group of us masters started a minute later with no muss or fuss of a large start.  Up ahead the CSU men were trying not to get caught up in the melee.  Nathan was top CSUer followed closely by Ian and Calvin.  Rion "Crash" O'Grady decided that skiing with a handicap might give everyone else a chance and decided to break his ski on a tree and his pole too, but he persevered through 3 laps with a floppy ski tip and mismatched poles.  Next up was Sean and then Ryan and Hank.  Meanwhile, back in the master's wave I got into a nice rythm racing with another M6 and chasing my friend Peter Rayton.  The race course has a nice rythm and I was having fun out there, epecially with the amazing CSU cheering section on the big hill.  I almost had a heart attack trying to ski up to the level of the cheering!  However, in the end I got outsprinted to hold down DFL, but it was a hard fought and fun race on a beautiful day and course. 

Classic Race at Craftsbury

Saturday's classic race at Craftsbury turned out to be quite the klister-fest.  With 30 pair of skis to klister up with Swiss Klister Stew the wax crew had their work cut out for them and so I wasn't able to sneak away to catch the J2s in action.  Besides, my fingers were pretty well gooed up to touch my camera.  CSU had some really excellent results....and a few not so much.  The conditions were good, but the tracks deteriorated with the hundreds of laps so by the time the men raced the tracks were squirrelly and the hills pretty well buffaloed.  J2s certainly had the best of that!  Gavin, Chris K and Max were out hammering, finishing 5th, 6th and 7th and gunning for spots on the Junior Nationals team.  Nathan was top CSUer in the men's race, coming in 30th.  In the women's race Olivia M. and Cate Brams killed it, coming in in 7th and 9th.  Several others had good races on Saturday as well including Rebecca and Rosie.

Rosie

Clara

Sonya

Olivia C.

J2 Posers

Sean

Calvin in pain

Rion

Pics from Scando Trip

Julia sent along a couple photos from the Scando Trip.

Trail that goes right next to the ski jump area.



At night on the top of the ski Jump.



Big Day for CSU Jrs!

After the skate race today at Craftsbury the teams were announced for Junior Nationals.  12 CSU Jrs have now been named to the team!!  The team includes:

J2 Boys
Gavin McEwen
Max LaChance

J2 Girls
Julia Kern
Zoe Snow
Hadley Moreau
Charlotte Cole

J1 Boys
Eli Hoenig
Nathan Moreau

J1 Girls
Corey Stock
Olivia Meyerson
Cate Brams
Rebecca Smith

Lots of hard work, fast skiing, dedication and tenacity.  Congratulations to all!

Trapps Skate Races

Here are a few photos from the skate race last weekend at Trapps.  Wonderful skiing on a beautiful day and the CSU Jrs. did well, as did Coach Rob! 

Gavin

Max

Julia in the Leader's Bib!

Charlotte and Zoe

Corey

Olivia

Rosie

Rion

Rob

Calvin

Greg

Sean

Trapps JNQ Classic Photos

A few photos of the classic race at Trapps last weekend!  Great skiing and a beautiful day.

Rebecca!

Hadley

Julia

Katrin

Maddy in retro CSU colors!

Doro

Eli

Nathan

Ian

Hank

Jordan