COLERAINE, Minn. (Jan. 17) — The Nor Am Super Tour made its first post-Nationals stop today at Mt. Itasca, Minnesota. With the most of the US and Canadian ski teams heading to Europe for World Cup competitions, these races are likely to feature some new faces on the podium, along with some of the top names in North American skiing.
A huge field of 350 races participated in various races at Mount Itasca as the SuperTour headed into its two final weekends. These races were not only Super Tour events, but also JOQ's and NCAA qualifiers as well, making for a very large and competitive field. SuperTour Finals will be Jan. 21-25 at Telemark resort in Wisconsin.
Olympian Lindsey Weier took the overall victory in her home state. Weier (Mahtomedi, MN) pulled away in the final 300 meters Saturday to win a SuperTour 10K classic, mass start at Mount Itasca by 5.5 seconds.
Weier, a student at Northern Michigan University who leaves shortly for the World Junior Championships in Stryn, Norway, took the lead for good on a short climb heading to the finish. Her winning time was 31:26.8 with Canadian Madeleine Williams runnerup in 31:32.3 and Norwegian Sigrid Aas, a University of Alaska Fairbanks racer, third.
In the men's race, Russian Ivan Babikov continued to tear up the Nor Am circuit, this time with a 25 second victory over David Chamberlain. Babikov won in 39:30.7 and Chamberlain's time was 39:55.9 with U.S. Development Team racer Chris Cook (Rhinelander, WI) taking third place. Chris Cook narrowly edged out Chad Giese for third in a sprint finish to this mass start race. These top Americans all skied well last week at Nationals and could each make an argument that they should be skiing World Cups.
The SuperTour continues Sunday with men's 10K freestyle and women's 5K FR.
<Full Results-PDF file
