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2012 March

The 2012 season wrapped up today with the 50km National Championships. Thank you to Craftsbury for fighting the eighty degree weather and hanging on to a race course for us. 33 laps today. I had a solid day and finished 12th. Thanks for the wonderful...

Freeman Claims 50k Title to End Season on a High Note

CRAFTSBURY, Vermont — For someone who was almost ready to hang up his skis and skip spring series altogether, Kris Freeman (SSC Vail/USST) sure knows how to turn things around over the course of a week. After fighting off a sinus infection during SuperTour Finals, and before that coming home from Europe disappointed with his World Cup season, Freeman handily defended his Distance Nationals 50 k title on Saturday, beating Tad Elliott (SSCV/USST) to the...

Conditions for the first race of Swedish Biathlon National Championships weren’t exactly wonderful in Solefteå, Sweden on Friday. “The weather has been really bad with warm temps and wind,” U.S. National Team Head Coach Per Nilsson told FasterSkier. “It was on the edge to hold the races… today was deep slush, gusty wind and challenging conditions for everybody.” It showed: in the senior division, Helena Ekholm and Carl Johan Bergman took the sprint titles with...

Video: Distance Nationals Women’s 30 k

CRAFTSBURY, Vermont — After 20 victory laps, the women are finished with their season. The fast pace set by Kikkan Randall, Jessie Diggins and Liz Stephen made for an exciting race; each pushed the pace and tried to break at some point, and the last two laps were an all out sprint. Randall prevailed, but as they crossed the finish line everyone was happy to simply be done. Interviews with top athetes follow the race...

The Veteran Sprinter, Randall Defends 30 k Title at Distance Nationals

CRAFTSBURY, Vt. – Shaking out the legs, clicking into their skis and moving their bodies just before the Friday’s 30-kilometer mass start at U.S. Distance Nationals, about 50 women looked straight ahead, all likely thinking the same thing. This is it. One more and we’re done. Some prepared for 20 times around a 1.5 k loop thinking each was a victory lap. Afterward, they’d be finished for the season. Four to five months of racing...

Cologna won the World Cup overall, but I always feel like he’s sort of in the background compared to other top skiing personalities. Doing well in the World Cup overall rewards not just speed, but showing up at tons of races and skiing fast. For instance, let’s check out his won/loss record versus the next [...] Related posts:

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Rocky Mountain Racers Seeks Assistant Coach

Rocky Mountain Racers are seeking an assistant coach to work with our high performance cross country and biathlon racing team based out of Canmore and Calgary. The assistant will report to Head Coach John Jaques and work with assistant coach Luke McGurk to deliver the cross country and biathlon training programs. The team is currently comprised of 29 men and women from 14 to 32 years of age. It is not necessary to have experience...

Here is a hodge - podge of pictures from the last couple of race days. Above, Tyler works the hill climb.Hamish crests the last hill in the sprint.Gino hammers the hill climb with Hamish (who was fighting a cold) cheering him on.Doesn't look much like ...

On Hill Climb, Freeman Secures SuperTour Finals Title

JAY, Vermont — At the outset of the hill climb up Jay Peak on a blistery Wednesday morning, the four-race fight for the overall SuperTour Finals win had come down to two skiers: Kris Freeman (SSCV/USST) and Noah Hoffman (SSCV/USST). In the end, Freeman claimed the title just as he did in Sun Valley last spring: on a brutal pitch that left him and just about everyone else completely spent at the finish. Hoffman finished...

Diggins First to Top; Stephen Fastest in SuperTour Finals Hill Climb

JAY, Vt. – Every uphill has to end at some point. But what if it’s a mountain, and what if you can’t see the top? Nearly 70 women and 90 men probably thought something along those lines as they ascended a 1.8-kilometer freestyle hill climb at the Jay Peak alpine resort on Wednesday. As part of the SuperTour Finals, the event was a pursuit with the mini-tour leader starting first and the rest of the...

The racing season is now officially over for me and I am back home in Lake Placid.  After over four months on the road, it feels great to be back in my own bed.  All in all I am pleased … Continue reading →

If you hang around skiing in North America long enough you will eventually hear people talking about point differences between races in Europe and North America (or the US in particular). One of the most common forms of this is the complaint that penalties (and hence points) are artificially high in the US, compared to [...] Related posts:

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