a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ObMdc4mpVIg/STNH8H1HoYI/AAAAAAAAABI/np1276XSjmI/s1600-h/P1013021.JPG"/abr /Well, West Yellowstone pulled it off again. This is the third year where ...
Kris was 16th (tied) today in Kuusamo. It’s not the result he was looking for, but it’s quite respectable for a basically pedestrian day. He set the race up perfectly - was running right near 10th place, and definitely within striking distance, for the first 10 K. These 15K races tend to break open in [...]
KUUSAMO, Finland – Bill Demong (Vermontville, NY) and Johnny Spillane (Steamboat Springs, CO) led the way for the U.S. Nordic Combined Ski Team as they finished 27th and 28th in the first World Cup competition of the season. The day got off to a rocky start when Spillane jumped to just 35th and Demong 39th, which put Spillane 3:16 back in the cross country start, and Demong nearly four minutes. Demong sprinted to the fifth...
Ivan Babikov (CAN) claimed his second straight SuperTour victory, winning a challenging 8km skate race in West Yellowstone. The US Ski Team's Leif Zimmermann and Garrott Kuzzy rounded out the podium. Babikov turned in another strong performance as he prepares to head to Europe to join the Canadian National Team on the World Cup. After winning Saturday's classic race by a wide margin, the Russian-turned-Canadian and defending SuperTour Champion skied to a 24.5 second victory...
Morgan Arritola (USST/SVSEF) skied to victory in the women’s freestyle SuperTour in West Yellowstone, Montana, edging Friday’s winner Shayla Swanson (CAN) by 4.1 seconds. Arritola finished third in Friday’s classic race, nearly a minute behind Swanson, but took her revenge in the skate competition. “Morgan has been on fire this week. Her training has been really solid,” Cross Country Development Coach Matt Whitcomb said. “She’s made some huge strides and improvements and we are seeing...
Kikkan Randall, who last year became the first American woman to win a World Cup race, turned in a career best World Cup distance race, finishing 23rd, 1:31.6 behind winner Aino Kaisa Saarinen of Finland. Randall scored her first World Cup points (top 30 finish) in a non-sprint event, and showed significant improvement over her past distance races. Her previous best finish was a 37th place, 57.89 point effort in December 2007 in Davos, Switzerland....
Kuusamo, Finland – Canadian Devon Kershaw bounced back from disqualification in yesterday's sprint to finish 5th in the men's 15km classic World Cup. For the 26 year old Kershaw, this was his top finish ever in a World Cup distance race. In 2006 he cracked the podium in the sprint, finishing third, and last season he posted a fifth in Lahti, again in the sprint. His previous best distance finish was a 12th place in...
The World Cup has officially kicked off in Gallivare, Sweden this past weekend. The first sprint is scheduled for this Saturday in Kuusamo, Finland and we sprinters are definitely getting anxious. After a good week of training and some tune up races in Muonio, we were all ready to get the season going. Bird opened up with a solid distance result in the 15k skate to set the tone for the upcoming season. Due to some unwanted colds we were unable to field a complete relay team, but this did not stop Newell and I from getting into the mix. Newell took the first leg, which was a body to body fight for the one track. And yeah a World Cup relay and the decision was they only need one track…Newell held his own and fought hard. He came into the stadium for the exchange just off the lead group. I went out looking to catch everyone I could see…maybe this wasn’t the best strategy but eventually it will be, the season is young. The relay was over for only a couple of hours, and we were back out there for an evening training session. We have a couple more days of training here and every session is a countdown to Kuusamo. We knocked out another solid sprint interval session Wednesday morning and tackled our long road trip the following day. Off to Kuusamo… Time to get our Sprint on….
The World Cup has officially kicked off in Gallivare, Sweden this past weekend. The first sprint is scheduled for this Saturday in Kuusamo, Finland and we sprinters are definitely getting anxious. After a good week of training and some tune up races in Muonio, we were all ready to get the season going. Bird opened up with a solid distance result in the 15k skate to set the tone for the upcoming season. Due to some unwanted colds we were unable to field a complete relay team, but this did not stop Newell and I from getting into the mix. Newell took the first leg, which was a body to body fight for the one track. And yeah a World Cup relay and the decision was they only need one track…Newell held his own and fought hard. He came into the stadium for the exchange just off the lead group. I went out looking to catch everyone I could see…maybe this wasn’t the best strategy but eventually it will be, the season is young. The relay was over for only a couple of hours, and we were back out there for an evening training session. We have a couple more days of training here and every session is a countdown to Kuusamo. We knocked out another solid sprint interval session Wednesday morning and tackled our long road trip the following day. Off to Kuusamo… Time to get our Sprint on….
The World Cup has officially kicked off in Gallivare, Sweden this past weekend. The first sprint is scheduled for this Saturday in Kuusamo, Finland and we sprinters are definitely getting anxious. After a good week of training and some tune up races in Muonio, we were all ready to get the season going. Bird opened up with a solid distance result in the 15k skate to set the tone for the upcoming season. Due to some unwanted colds we were unable to field a complete relay team, but this did not stop Newell and I from getting into the mix. Newell took the first leg, which was a body to body fight for the one track. And yeah a World Cup relay and the decision was they only need one track…Newell held his own and fought hard. He came into the stadium for the exchange just off the lead group. I went out looking to catch everyone I could see…maybe this wasn’t the best strategy but eventually it will be, the season is young. The relay was over for only a couple of hours, and we were back out there for an evening training session. We have a couple more days of training here and every session is a countdown to Kuusamo. We knocked out another solid sprint interval session Wednesday morning and tackled our long road trip the following day. Off to Kuusamo… Time to get our Sprint on….
Finally some real snow! It’s been cold and winter-like here in Sweden for the past week but not really much natural snow. Finally this afternoon (and yes it’s pitch-black by 3pm), it started to snow. I took this picture from the porch of our apartment. We’ve been staying up here at the venue for a [...]
Kuusamo, Finalnd – Petra Majdic (SLO) claimed her first victory of the season in an effort to defend her World Cup sprint title. Lina Andersson (SWE) finished second and Justyna Kowalczyk third. Majdic posted the fastest qualification time of the day besting last year's overall World Cup Champion by .69 seconds. Kuitunen also advanced to the A-Final, taking the final spot and finishing 6th. this was Majdic's 7th career World Cup victory. Overall, the host...
Kuusamo, Finland – Ola Vigen Hattestad led a Norweigan sweep of the podium in the men's 1.4km classic sprint. Teammates Tor Arne Hetland and John Kristian Dahl followed close behind. Last year's NOrweigan sprint Natinal Champion, Hatestad qualified in 6th position and made his way through the heats to capture the third World Cup victory of his career. The veteran Hetland qualified in 17th, but showed his experience in capturing second. Top qualifier Kalle Lassila...
The 43rd Annual Turkey Day Relays, sponsored by Beaver Sports, saw a record field of 105 teams (315 skiers) register, and all but one registered team participated. In the past seven days, a total of nearly 800 competitors have entered the three NSCF events held so far this season. The day started off with comfortable temperatures in the mid teens. A total of 12 teams participated in the 3x1Km event for skiers in grades K-4,...
They come from all over: Michigan, Wisconsin, California, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Utah. College ski teams: Montana State, Michigan Tech, University of Minnesota, University of Colorado/Boulder, Dartmouth, Middlebury… Club ski teams: Sun Valley, Mt Bachelor, Far West, Bogus Basin, Steamboat Springs… They come even though the snow lies a scant foot deep, and only high on the plateau above the Rendezvous ski trails. They come for the first on-snow training camp and races of the 2008-09...
The next SuperTour races on the schedule – next Tuesday in Bozeman, and the following weekend at Soldier Hollow, have been canceled due to lack of snow. The upcoming races in Vernon, British Columbia have been added as USSA NRL events. Lack of snow and unseasonable warm temperatures were cited as reasons for the cancellations. Both venues are capable of making snow, but have been unable to do so. The races in Vernon include a...
Canadians Ivan Babikov and Shayla Swanson skied to convincing victories in the 10/15km classic SuperTour in West Yellowstone, Montana. Babikov, the defending SuperTour champion, picked up where he left off in 07-08, outpacing the field in the men's 15km individual classic race by 45 seconds. Due to low snow in town, the race was moved from the Rendezvous Trail System up to the South Plateau, where competitors skied an unusual out and back course. Starting...
We wont be able to do any real updates for a while. No time today and tomorrow directly after the race we have to split for the airport and the long road to Davos (about the same dist in km as driving from Fairbanks to LA). Today we were aiming for the podium. That is where our sites are set. Though we came up short of that today our confidence remains very high. We have prepared well and we know it. Keep checking in - well post stuff from West Yellowstone and Kuusamo as soon as we can. Train well!
We wont be able to do any real updates for a while. No time today and tomorrow directly after the race we have to split for the airport and the long road to Davos (about the same dist in km as driving from Fairbanks to LA). Today we were aiming for the podium. That is where our sites are set. Though we came up short of that today our confidence remains very high. We have prepared well and we know it. Keep checking in - well post stuff from West Yellowstone and Kuusamo as soon as we can. Train well!