On Monday November 3rd, the US Ski Team moved their on-snow training camp from sea level in Fairbanks, Alaska to 6800’ (2000m) altitude in Park City, Utah.
The conditions at White Pine Touring center in Park City are currently very good with about 8 kilometer of well groomed trails on two separate loops of respectively 5 and 3 kilometer. The US Ski Team coaches had done a great job earlier in the week shoveling snow onto the trail where needed, making the conditions for Saturday’s (November 8th) 16 km (8 km classic + 8 km skate) double pursuit race superb. Sunny and 28 degrees F (-2 Celsius) made for “this is great skiing” comments, easy waxing and a very spectator friendly event.
Fasterskier.com was there but ESPN missed out.
In this mass-start race the men stayed nicely together for about 1.5 km. At that point Kris Freeman made his “trade-mark move” and threw in what almost looked like a full double-pole sprint and got a good gap to the rest of the field. From there on he was skiing by himself and came into the ski transition/exchange area with no one in sight (about 45-50 seconds ahead). Four kilometers from the finish he was roughly 1 minute and 15 seconds ahead of Carl Swenson and Andrew Johnson with Justin Freeman in fourth. At that point it appeared that Kris “coasted” in while Carl and Andrew had a “war” to the finish. At the end it was Kris First with Carl in second place 55seconds back, Andrew third 1:13 min back and Justin fourth.
The first two World Cup events that Kris and Carl will participate in consist of a 15 km Free Technique race in Beitostolen, Norway on November 22, then a 15 km Classic and a 30 km (15+15) double pursuit in Kuusamo, Finland on November 29 and 30.
Results from White Pine time-trial:
Men Time Classical Skate
1. Kris Freeman 44:05 22:31 (1) 21:34 (2)
2. Carl Swenson 45:00 23:34 (3) 21:26 (1)
3. Andrew Johnson 45:18 23:33 (2) 21:45 (3)
4. Justin Freeman 46:02 23:36 (4) 21:45 (4)
5. Leif Zimmerman 46:44 23:45 (6) 22:59 (5)
6. Chris Cook 47:00 23:40 (5) 23:20 (8)
7. Andy Newell 47:02 24:00 (7) 23:02 (6)
8. Torin Koos 47:45 24:05 (8) 23:40 (9)
9. Scott Loomis 48:16 25:05 (10) 23:11 (7)
10. Zach Simmons 49:13 24:50 (9) 24:23 (10)
11. Justin Easter 50:11 25:43 (11) 24:28 (11)
12. Chris Humbert 55:55 30:08 (12) 25:47 (12)
Women
1. Aubrey Smith 34:30 18:05 (1) 16:25 (1)
2. Melissa Oram 35:32 18:05 (2) 17:27 (2)
