CSU Fall Classic Rollerski Race

A Typical New England Fall Day

I woke up at 4 am this morning to the sound of hard rain, grabbed the iPad and checked the radar and it looked like it was almost done, so back to sleep.  The weather by race time had considerably improved, although we were left with soaking wet roads, slippery leaves and even slipperier crack sealer in places.  32 skiers suddenly appeared giving me the largest turnout in many years!  It always helps that Chris City brings the Harvard team up and this year with 12 athletes that helped boost the numbers.  12 CSU juniors also raced so it got crowded out there on the first lap.  By the time the race started the sun started peeking in and out of the clouds.

My view from well back in the fray was of a lot of younger skiers going away up the road in front of me on the first hill as usual.  I never get much warmup so thats to be expected and on the long downhill I was able to get in a nice group with Robert, Clara, Hannah H and we were chasing Charlotte, but without much success as she quickly left us behind.  Up front a big group formed in a nice train and went down the road very quickly. The lead in our group went back and forth a bit with Clara and/or Robert cruising past on longer downhills or Hannah going by on uphills and then I'd play catch up. On Lap 2 Hannah fell off the pace and I tried hard on the long downhill to drop them both but that wasn't happening and on the 1st downhill on the back half of the course Clara went by and gapped Robert and I enough that we couldn't close it down and catch up. Clara is making a habit of this having done the same move last year.  The new pavement on the finish street did make for a nice DP sprint amongst the 3 of us.

Meanwhile, up front Connor and Will were going at it lapping through together with Ian a bit further back.  Will faded on Lap 2 and Ian got by, but Conner pulled out to win by 1 minute.  On the women's side Rachel led the whole way (sorry, no Lap 1 splits) with Charlotte close behind in 2nd and Nina coming in 3rd a ways further back.  Andy and Marc had an epic finish sprint duel with Marc besting Andy by a smudge as they shot their feet at the line.

In the junior race James and Oliver took the top two spots and were mixing it up with the Harvard boys.   Laura had an excellent race out in the front with Lorelei and Lydia having a good race together finishing 2 sec. apart.

By the time of the awards the clouds had returned and some frozen stuff fell for a couple minutes.  Yup, a typical November day with a little bit of everything.

Prizes were pies, cider donuts and ski flex certificates and several pairs of glasses provided by Chris Li at Bikeway Source.

Thanks to Chris City for the race photos and Dmitry for the post race photos.

Thanks to my assistants, Paul and Sarah Gerver, Evan Doucett, John Adams and Brian Telfer for doing the registration, timing and corner marshaling.

Place	Name	Lap 1	Finish
	MEN
1	Connor Green	0:19:18	0:38:46
2	Ian Meyer	0:19:36	0:39:43
3	Will Rhatigan	0:19:18	0:40:03
4	Jacob Meyerson	0:22:18	0:44:32
5	Marc Roy	0:23:02	0:45:35
6	Andy Milne	0:22:47	0:45:36
7	Jamie Doucett	0:23:47	0:46:58
8	Robert Faltus	0:23:48	0:46:59
9	Bob Burnham	0:24:42	0:49:27
10	Dmitriy Leyfer	0:24:49	0:50:50
11	Haaken Sigurslid	0:20:47	0:51:46
1	WOMEN
2	Rachel Hampton		0:44:23
3	Charlotte Cole		0:44:37
4	Nina Armstrong	0:22:47	0:46:07
5	Clara Cousins	0:23:46	0:46:56
6	Hannah Hardenbergh	0:23:48	0:48:26
7	Lily Koffman	0:24:47	0:49:21
8	Hannah Smith	0:26:01	0:51:57
9	Jody Newton	0:34:08	1:08:51
	JUNIORS	Finish
	Women
1	Laura Appleby	0:23:00
2	Lorelei Poch	0:28:31
3	Lydia Yoder	0:28:33
	Men
1	James Kitch	0:19:17
2	Oliver Snow	0:19:46
3	Jacob Jampel	0:20:44
4	Henry Johnstone	0:22:19
5	Tyler Lee	0:22:24
6	Kevin Telfer	0:22:48
7	Ben Buchheit	0:23:11
8	Linden Niedeck	0:24:05
9	Alex Burt	0:24:33
10	Barry Kitch	0:28:08
11	Bjorn Zetterland	0:33:58