World Masters

Meanwhile, at World Masters being held at Theodore Wirth in Minneapolis, Alex has claimed a couple firsts, Rob a 10th and a 3rd and Kathy a couple firsts in their age groups.  Hopefully they will report later.

Alex looking pretty happy, but then she just won! (Fasterskier photo)

Handsome and Beautiful CSU Skiers Take on the White Mt. Classic

For the second week NE suffered a big warmup which ate up snow, but at least there was a brief snowfall early in the week which gave Jackson a few inches to work with.  They maintained plenty of snow cover so the big question became how warm would it get on race day and when and what klister would be needed.  Based on my looking at the weather about 100 times during the week I waxed up skis at home before heading to Jackson. 

Dawn over good tracks

The morning dawned at about 22F.  I rushed out with the test skis and quickly decided that Start Wide Universal covered with Rode T Line would work well.  My major concern each year is getting up Yodel without blowing a gasket early in the race.  The course was back to a longer course by adding in loops in the fields before we headed up the race loop as well as adding in the Henry loop, so the course was reportedly 26km, much better than last year’s 18 km. 

Just before the race started with temperature shot up, I removed my hat and the winds started gusting.  Weird weather!  The start went smoothly as we looped the golf course as I followed Robert Faltus around just a bit behind Bob Burnham who was behind Andy Milne with Frank Feist and John Sakolowski leading out the large CSU contingent.  I was happy to cross the road and start up Yodel with Andy and Bob just a bit in front of me, although they slowly gapped me as we crested the hill.  Behind me, Clinton was going full double pole again, this week on much harder hills.  I will be signing Clinton up for some canoe racing next summer!  Robert was just behind me as we labored up Yodel.  On the left turn heading toward the road crossing I passed Bob who was dusting himself off from an uncharacteristic fall.  Out in the fields, the wind was picking up, rendering the tracks useless and skiing into the wind was like skiing up hill while going the other way was so fast it was like going downhill.  Bob and I even tucked in several places.  Heading up the first section of the Wave was as always a rude awakening and I struggled a bit but once we got back into the woods it was better.  However, with the wind we now had large pine cones littering the track, some branches here and there so it was hop in the track, hop out of the track, try to flip pine cones out of the way with your skis without running over them, etc.  Lots of one-footed skiing, picking one foot up, then the other.  Interesting!  Adding in Henry added some good climbing to the course and some twisty downhills.  Back in the fields the wind gusts were getting ridiculous and it was good to get back in the woods in Alice’s Alley, but back in the fields Bob and I managed to draft off a skiing high school kid and he stayed in front so we kept following.  The wind gusts were so strong we were barely moving going into the wind and were flying going the other way.  Just before heading up the Wave again, someone ahead of us took a big, inexplicable dive.  As I crested the first big hill to head down the dip I figured out why….it was now warm and wet enough that I’d iced up a bit.  No problem kicking it free though.  We left the kid we drafted off of for dead as we headed up the hill but we in turn got totally schooled by Ava Thurston, an 8^th grader skiing for Mansfield Nordic who had smartly drafted us in the fields and then scampered up the hills and dropped us like a stone! She finished 2nd for women.  Lap two of the wave went better than round one with better kick as I chased Bob.  I tried to stay close on the downhills as he gapped me a bit, but once back in the fields was able to slowly catch back up.  Now the winds were probably gusting to 30 or 40mph.  We tucked in a few places going downwind and struggled going upwind.  I nearly got knocked down on the top of the one hill in the fields as I turned the corner.  Ridiculous!  I finally got by Bob as we headed up to the Eagle Mt. House, trying to get a lead before the big downhill on Yodel where I knew Bob would ski faster.  The focus narrowed to the finish line as we crossed the road in muddy slush and down to the first herringbone hill where Bob pulled up. “Here we go!” he said and proceeded to kick my butt up the hill, having taken lessons from    Norway's Johnny Kaebo, effectively putting our race away right there.  I chased but he gained time on the downhill and I didn’t have anywhere near enough time on the golf course to catch him.  Further up, John Sako led the big CSU contingent, coming in 13^th with Frank Feist 15^th, Jimmy Burnham 19^th, Ari Ofsevit 24th and Andy Milne 31st.  On the women’s side Ann Burnham was first CSUer and winner of her age group, followed by Christine Pasterczyk, Amie Smith, Lisa Doucett, Sarah Gates (1st F4), Jody Newton and Sara Mae.

Jody, Christine, Amie, Ann, Sarah and Lisa take home the club championship!  Absent - Sara Mae

This race serves as the one day club championship and as usual the scoring was going to be close between CSU and NWVT.  In the men’s race it came down to the first tie-breaker and NWVT took top honors.  I noticed they’ve locked down the younger age groups and we seem to have locked down the older ones.  Need to round up some younger skiers!  Also, they stole Chris Burnham from us (well, Chris does now live and work up in NWVT territory).   On the women’s side CSU pulled out its secret weapon, founder Sara Mae Berman, who made the difference after the scoring came down to 2 tie breakers to give CSU the top spot!  Well done!

It was another beautiful day to race, even if the weather was a bit extreme, the course was good and lots of CSUers made the trip to enjoy the racing and comraderie.

Full results are HERE

Here are some really nice photos from the Jackson Facebook page.  Thanks Jackson!

Robert

Jamie and Bob

John

Ann

Sara Mae

Amie

CSU going downwind (to the right) and upwind (to the left)

Tom

Andy

Jamie, Bob and Steve

Michael

Lisa

Frank and Jim

Geschmossel 2018

After a week of warmup and heavy rains that destroyed the snow in the Boston area it appeared that Bretton Woods had survived with sufficient cover to hold their race.  Lisa and I headed up on Sunday in time to get in a ski to check things out.  BW had already modified the planned course due to the icy conditions and lost cover.  Heading across the golf course in the cold and wind, which had returned, we skied on a sheet of boilerplate and heading up B&M there was ½ inch of new snow over, you got it, boilerplate and nice big ice patches.  It was pretty grim, but the coverage was at least pretty good.  I started down Abenaki Way and turned around due to the ice.  Hopefully BW would be able to pull off a grooming miracle for the second year in a row.

Monday dawned at 2F, but sunny and no wind.  It was going to be a beautiful day, although it was a bit weird that the top of Mt. Washington was naked rock and little snow.  Heading over from Highland Lodge nice and early I started working on the skis, using klister binder and blue klister covered with blue stick.  It was warming up nicely and tested the skis, happy to find that indeed, BW had groomed things up very nicely, covering up the ice, grinding up ice and setting a couple tracks, shallow in places, but totally skiable.  Well done!  It was going to be fast!

CSU arrived in force along with Northwest Vt, Ford Sayer and other New England clubs.  Toeing the starting line for CSU were John Sakolowski, Rob Bradlee, Kathy Maddock, Robert Faltus, Clinton Kreiger, Tom Smith, Lisa Doucett, Sarah Doucett, Jody Newton, Gray Holmes, Steve Moreau and Roger Wilson.  (Hope I didn’t miss anyone.)  The start went well with few entanglements and off we went!  I started a bit too far back and a gap was opening ahead of a couple people in my track, so I hopped out of the track to the outside and DP’d by several people before settling into the gap comfortably behind Robert and Clinton on his first foray into double poling the entire race.  Turns out that wasn’t a bad idea as it was very fast and there was very little striding but Clinton found how tiring it can be!  I strided a bit just to get the legs moving and stay a bit warmer, but it was mostly DP and kick DP all the way up.  I was moving pretty well, chasing some high school kids and was joined by Ian Blair from Bethel, trading places as we chased the kids. Near the top, in the one place where striding was the way to go it was like I’d forgotten how and flailed about a bit, then back to DP toward the downhills on Sebosis.  Up ahead John was having a good race in the top group with Kathy and Rob a bit further back while close behind were Robert and Clinton. The ride down Sebosis was interesting with some icy spots, a bump with dirt after which I spazzed and fell down on a flatter stretch. Stupid!  The fast ride down continued on Dark Forest to the last hill by the road where I’d almost caught up to the kids and 2 guys who’d passed me when I fell.  My skis were rocking!  The finish was a dead flat km to the finish and my skis were so fast I caught up to everybody, the last one a high schooler and I just knew he’d be able to shoot his foot at the line and I would have probably torn my hamstring if I’d tried, so got nipped at the line.  I’d had a blast in my first non-Weston race of the year.  CSU had a great day and a good showing with John in 10^th, Rob in 18^th, Kathy 21^st, Steve 26^th, Jamie 31^st, Robert 37^th, Clinton 39^th, Tom 52^nd, Gray 60^th, Sarah 62^nd in her first non-Weston race since high school, Roger 70^th, Jody 80^th and Lisa 85^th.  Lots of age group first places with Sarah, Kathy and John all first! 

A full lap of warm down with NWVT then commenced for many of us as our big pack slowly yakked our way around the course again.  An excellent day of racing!  Many thanks to Bretton Woods for pulling off a race in marginal conditions.

Full results can be found at:

http://brettonwoods.com/Winter_Sports/Nordic/~/media/CB1776C8428C4D29945B97272CB4B2BD.ashx

CSU takes on the Gunstock Winter Thaw

A good crew of CSU juniors and masters showed up to the Gunstock Winter Thaw race this Sunday. The name was meaningless, because it was -3F when we arrived, and warmed up to about zero for race time and well into the double digits after the race. Conditions were beautiful, though there was definitely some debris on the trails from the recent storm.

For the juniors, we had a big crew. Dante, Lucas, Ben, Linden, Flora, Jordan, Eva, Francesca, Madeline, Graham, Henry, Alex, and Devon were all racing. For some, this was the longest race they'd ever done - kudos! Alex Burt had a good day, getting to stand on the overall podium despite finishing fifth (I like that math). I think everyone enjoyed the experience, at least in the "type 2 fun" sort of way.

For the masters, we had a bunch of age group winners: Bob Burnham, Frank Feist, John Sakalowsky all won their age classes. In the M5 category, we swept the top four spots, and that includes Andy Milne who brought his classic skis to a skate race. Cameron Cogburn and Ari Ofsevit took second and third in M1, and we had good representation across all the age groups - good training for the White Mountain Classic coming up!

We had fewer women in the race, but took a DXC/CSU sweep of the overall podium, with Kathy Maddock winning the race, Alex Jospe in second, and Lily Bates in third. Chris Pasterczyk took second in the M5 category, and Cat Johnstone missed her start with equipment problems, but still managed 5th in the category!

Women's results: http://www.gunstocknordic.com/attachments/GNA-Zak-Cup-2018-Womens.pdf

Men's results: http://www.gunstocknordic.com/attachments/GNA-Zak-Cup-2018-Mens.pdf

Andy striding the hill

Women's podium

Beautiful day!

Men's podium

Dante cruising

MSA! Is it Cold Enough?

It's darned cold up here in the North, but a little sun at least makes you think it isn't as cold as it seems, if only until the next downhill frosts your face.  Too cold to get the camera out much.  A really fun afternoon ski with Alex, Madeline, Rebecca, Lily, Laura, Kate, Phoebe and Hannah doing speeds and transitions.

Weston!

Fort Kent Eastern Cup report

The first EC of the season kicked off up in the way far north, pretty much Canada, at the Fort Kent Outdoor Center. They received a nice dump of snow midweek, followed by some days of chilly temperatures, so the conditions were pretty much perfect. Saturday was a skate sprint, which means everyone did a qualification race, and the results of that race seeded people into heats.

The bossman and his sidekick testing wax on a bright sunny Friday afternoon, basking in the warmth. Or something like that. Was certainly a shock to my system to ski at below-zero temperatures!

The women raced first, and Laura, DXCer Lily, and Coach Alex slid into the open heats. After the top 30 open racers, the next fastest 12 U18/U20s get pulled out for semifinals/finals, which included Madeline and Kate. Then the next 12 fastest U16s go into heats, where we had Shea, Eva, and DXCer Aggie. Francesca, Amelia, Phoebe, and Elizabeth didn’t go quite fast enough to qualify for the heats in this competitive field. They got the advantage of resting up for the next day, and started the mental preparation for it.

In the open heats, both Laura and Alex ended up third in their heats, with bib numbers not low enough to make it into the semis as lucky losers, and Lily finished just behind Alex. In the U18 heats, Madeline skied a really smart semifinal, tucking in behind a gal from GMVS and cruising through in 2^nd, and then blitzing the final for the win! Kate did her first skate sprint heats, and ended up in the B final, where she skied a smart race and ended up 3^rd in the heat, learning a lot along the way. For the U16s, Eva and Aggie got bumped to the B final after a brave semifinal, and then skied a smart race, with Aggie winning the race and Eva ending up third in the heat. Shea absolutely crushed her semifinal, and then ended up in third place! Awesome work, ladies.

 

Madeline on the top step of the U18 podium, and Shea in the bronze medal position for the U16s. 

The men had a great day too. We qualified three for the open heats: Oliver and Jackson qualified in 15^th and 16^th, and James landed in 22^nd. The next 12 U18/20s were tight, but Alex B landed in that group, with Jacob just missing the heats by 1 second! So close. Linden and DXCer Quinn qualified for the U16 heats comfortably. Coach Rob had a blistering time in the qualifier, winning the master’s field. Ben and Henry didn’t qualify for heats in this tough field.

In the heats, Jackson and Oliver were in the same quarterfinal. Oliver led it out hot from the start, but tangled with a competitor and crashed. Jackson came up the wax-cabin hill in a comfortable 2^nd place, but didn’t quite have the finish he wanted, ending up in 3^rd place. His bib wasn’t a low enough number to make it through as lucky loser. James was in the next heat, and he was in third place coming through the rolling hills behind the stadium. Then he used great skis and a finish kick to out-lunge eventual winner Daniel Streinz at the line, getting into the semi-finals. He landed in the B final, where he had a good finish for 4^th, and 10^th overall. 

In the U18 heats, Alex got bumped to the B final, and then duked it out for 5^th place in the heat. In the U16 heats, Linden also got bumped to the B final, where in an exciting race, he was fighting for the lead coming over the camels humps, and the three leaders lunged across the line in an all-out sprint. Unfortunately for Linden, his split wasn’t quite good enough, and he was third in the heat, which was still a great result. Quinn fought hard for a fifth place finish (I need to check on this – right now the results aren’t up for the U16 men).

The fun thing about sprints is that anything can happen. Sometimes, that anything works in your favor, and sometimes, it works against you.

Proof that teenagers now only communicate via pictures.

Sunday dawned chilly, but sunny, with really great conditions. The waxing was straightforward, and nearly everyone had great skis. The course was fun, starting with some long hills and then coming back down to the stadium with a couple little kickers along the way. Mass start races for everyone, 5k for U16s and the women, and 10k for the men.

The U16 men went first, and our boys had great races. Linden ended up fifth (fourth American), and Ben 10^th (and sixth American). Our DXC buddy Quinn had a breakout race, in 12^th. Great skiing gentlemen! The U16 women were next, and Shea and Eva both had really good races, with Shea in fourth (third American) and Eva in 6^th! Just behind them were Aggie and Francesca, skiing really nicely in 10^th and 11^th, and Amelia just behind in 13^th. Elizabeth had a really nice race for not getting on snow much yet, in 26^th and right in the mix with a pack of other girls.

Next off was the open women’s 5k mass start, which was, as one coach predicted, completely chaos. There was some aggressive skiing in the start, and a crash shortly thereafter that definitely affected the outcome of the race, as half the field was caught behind it. Laura skied a great race despite coming from the middle of the early crash, and ended up in 13^th as the sixth U18. Kudos! Just behind was Coach Kathy, in 16^th. Next was Madeline, with a solid race, in 21^st race, followed by coach Alex in 23^rd, and Lily in 30^th. Pretty good showing for the top 30! Schuyler (from DXC) had a great race, skiing really smart to get around lots of other racers to end up in 39^th, followed closely by Phoebe in 45^th with an excellent race. Kate had a rough day out there, which are the only days you can really learn from.

The men’s 10k was next. James and Oliver led our baby blue pack, coming in for 11^th and 12^th, with Oliver right on James’ tails. Not far behind them was Jacob, showing his classic specialist colors, in 26^th place. Jackson had a solid race, putting some classic distance demons behind him, ending up in 37th. Henry had a little trouble with his skis, ending up in 60^th, and Alex had a good first lap but then faded a little in the second lap, ending up in 71^st. Connor had a rough day, breaking his binding off of his ski, but he managed to get the binding back on the ski and still finished!

New Wax Team leader John Buchheit absolutely crushed it this weekend. Skis were fast, classic skis kicked like a dream, and there was zero panicking. His faithful followers were solid and dependable, churning out fast skis all day long. Kudos!

Great work to all the racers. This is an incredibly deep field that we’re racing against, so it’s hard to sometimes get the results you want. But it’s important to remember that every race is a practice for the next one, and the smart racers are the ones who are learning from each race and each mistake, figuring out what they can do better next time, and celebrating the small process successes (for example – I remembered to bring boot covers, and my feet were warm!). Fantastic weekend up in the County. Thanks to all who made it so fun!

Kathy and Alex took Rob to an Asian fusion restaurant for dinner on our way back south. Rob is skeptical, and claims to prefer the potato-based food from the County.