Host club Bridger Ski Foundation has posted information for tomorrow's sprint race on their website. The start list has been posted online, as well as the course map. The course is in downtown Bozeman at Lindley Park, and is relatively unrelenting with lots of turns and few big climbs at high altitude.
There was quite a lot of activity on "internets" last week during the West Yellowstone ski festival. I decided it would be cool to put it all in one place, just to remind the rest of us that it wasn't a dream and all really happened.
Garrot Kuzzy (USST/CXC Team Vertical Limit) has had a terrific first week of racing. He won Wednesday's classic sprint, took second in yesterday's 15K skate, and won today's 10K classic race in a close finish with Chris Cook (Steinbock Racing). Cook took second only 2 seconds behind Kuzzy and looked very strong on the course, while Canadian National Team members Sean Crooks and Stefan Kuhn finished third and fourth, together 30 seconds behind the winner.
Madeleine Williams of the Canadian National Team won today's SuperTour 5K classic race in West Yellowstone. Holly Brooks (APU) was today's fastest American in second place just under six seconds back, followed by Shayla Swanson and Dasha Gaiazova (Canadian National Team), and second American Rosie Brennan (Dartmouth).
The story of the day for SuperTour action is easily APU’s Holly Brooks winning today’s 10K skate in West Yellowstone. Brooks beat second place Dasha Gaiazova of the Canadian National Team by 4.5 seconds, and Madeleine Williams of the Alberta World Cup Academy by 9.7 seconds. An elated but nervous Brooks waited without warmups at the finish line for the last two A-seed finishers, 5th place finisher Kristina Trygstad-Saari (Bridger Ski Foundation) and 18th place...
Former USST member Leif Zimmerman of Bridger Ski Foundation/Madshus brought the funk back to the trails today to win the Mens’ 15K skate in West Yellowstone. Garrot Kuzzy (USST/CXC Team Vertical Limit) took second, and Noah Hoffman (USST) took third. The course was not technically challenging, but the lack of any big climbs or downhills made the high altitude terrain difficult. Racers had to continually put the hammer down, and those the better open-field cruisers...
Today’s sprint in West Yellowstone was a bit of an easy season-warmup. Reminiscent of a mid-season high school race, it was a relatively long course with 15-second individual starts and no heats. Removed from their typical stadium setting, the start and finish areas were posted in the middle of the Volunteer Loop, a very typical heavily treed Rendezvous trail corridor. There was no staging area, no finish area, and relatively little spectator access. Ahhh, just...
Canadian Dasha Gaiazova won today's women's race in West Yellowstone in front of APU's Laura Valaas. An enthusiastic Gaiazova is glad to be here racing in the US, and for the first time at West Yellowstone.
Garrott Kuzzy won today's sprint in front of fellow American Simi Hamilton, and Canadians Sean Crooks and Drew Goldsack. These days Garrott Kuzzy is receiving support from the USST as well as his CXC club coach, Bryan Fish. "I've been trying to stay on the same [training] program. I had the opportunity to get on snow in Silver Star November first, and we've been able to be on snow since then."
The results are up for today's SuperTour sprint in West Yellowstone, MT. Statements regarding the course length was inconsistent and landing somewhere between (1.4 and 1.6K), but the results show that the difficult course was relatively long.
The official start list has been posted tomorrow's SuperTour sprint in West Yellowstone. The course is technical a point-to-point on the Volunteer Loop. It was announced at the coaches meeting that there were over 400 signed up for the races, but the start list now shows 241 official entries.
I was asked to comment on high school and club Nordic skiing. I’ll take this opportunity to discuss my personal thoughts and experiences on how high school and clubs can work together to be extremely effective.
Two weeks ago, Matthew Voisen put together an article describing blanket regulations enforced by associations that govern high school athletics, and how they appear excessive when applied to high school skiing programs. Some readers posted very informative comments about similar situations around the country, and it quickly reminded me of the extremely contentious relationships between high school programs and their elite club counterparts.
This week, all of Aino-Kaisa Saarinen's doping tests from the beginning of the training season be published. Thereafter the site will be updated for each and every test she takes. "I will increase the public's knowledge of a number of tests, such that they get to know how often we actually are tested. I want to show that I am a clean athlete, and that it is possible to achieve results without doping. It's tight between the tests, and the system works," believes the ski racer.
606 students from 16 top sports high schools - including the national team course focus (landslinje) for skiing - have received surveys from doctor Marianne Martinsen with Norway's Sports Community College (Norges idrettshøgskole). She wants to find out how many young athletes who have just started at a videregåendeskole, have symptoms associated with eating disorders.
"This only shows that 'the winner takes it all", says manager of sponsorships at [Norwegian Bank] DnB Nor, Jacob Lund, to Aftenposten.
Norway's Eldar Rønning came home from the Norwegian National Team's altitude camp on Friday. When he got back he was looking forward to some training on his home trails, but in reality he got something entirely different.
Former Norwegian ski king Thomas Alsgaard shared a room with Hjelmeset during the [Norwegian] National Team training camp in Val Senales. "I have missed being in good shape and knowing that my body is really capable," Alsgaard said to [Norwegian TV station] NRK.
As the years roll by, you hone your skills in maximizing your workouts and can thoroughly break down your body. But as a result the recovery is also becoming harder to deal with. Maybe you're pushing 16 hours, or 20 hours, or maybe even 30 hours. You aren't sleeping as well after the harder days, and your part-time job is becoming a chore.
(Original Source: langrenn.com, 10/27/2009, translated by Patrick Stinson) True to the Olympic plan. Petter Northug is: Trusting his plan. Asleep at least 12 hours a day. Reflective and serious when necessary. Quiet and modest off the trails. National Team coach Morten Aa Djupvik knows the oft-discussed cross country racer better than most. And there is another Northug than the one that is portrayed in the media. “That he is boastful of all of his achievements...