A record 1040 skiers did The 2004 Great Race from Lake Tahoe, California to Truckee. Super California weather with sunshine and 40 degrees Fahrenheit at the start and temperatures in the fifties at the finish made for great racing conditions. The new wave-start format seemed to make the start easier, a night time low of 25 F and the usual amount of more or less spectacular crashes (causing a few minor scratches and sore buns) coming down the last hill at 40 miles per hour made for another (bloody) good Great Race.
A Bloody Good Great Race
FasterSkier · March 8, 2004
The women’s (clear) winner was Brooke Bauman with Mari Storeng in second and Suzanne King in third. The men’s race was won by Scott Loomis with last year’s winner Patrick Weaver in second and (UAA coach) Trond Flagstad in third. (It’s great that Flagstad makes us coaches proud, but it must be tough being one of his athletes after time-trials describing to friends how it went: “well, I felt pretty good and was (only) 2 minutes behind Coach today”)
Loomis passed Weaver with only minutes to go in the race and got around the last downhill U-turn with Weaver on his tail. They crossed the finish in a full downhill tuck with only inches separating them -quite a sight.
 recruiting scandal faced Bruce one bit….<br />
The 4th place overall finisher in the women’s race was quite a surprise, fast mom – Beth Reid!? Well, maybe not a total surprise if you knew that her maiden name was Beth Heiden. Beth is a former cycling and speed skating World Champion, Olympic medalist and NCAA Cross country ski champion. One of the top skiers in the country, Katrine Smigun was 5th. </p><p>Torbjorn’s race<br />
“Back by popular demand” – how Torbjorn experienced his race.<br />
Ok, here we go again:<br />
My season has been up and down with some very good races and some “a little below my expectations”.<br />
The problem with my racing (with the exception of Master’s Nationals where I felt that I put together 4 solid races in a row) has been that a good race has usually been followed by a “bad” race. (The explanation to this is of course in the training, and the necessary adjustments need to be made for next year). </p></div><div class=)
I had skied well in a 20-kilometer race the week before the Great Race and had the following strategy to avoid a bad race: To start easier than usual: “Go into the big climb feeling rested and then go hard to the top and pick it up from there”.
The plan (part 1 of it) worked like a dream for the first 5 k! I skied nice and relaxed with the leaders of the women’s race. I felt great and didn’t worry that we were far behind my (realistic?) goal for the race – a top 20. We were roughly in 35th place at that point.
Part two of the plan however wasn’t as successful (!) – I was not able to pick it up when Broke Bauman and Suzanne King took off at the bottom of the hill. All I could do was to “ski at my pace” and watch them gradually ski away. 3 k higher up Suzanne however suddenly “parked” and I caught up to her a few minutes later. She looked at me and said, “I’m done”.
I kept going and thought that was the last time I would see her in the race. But no, 1 k from the top (when I had kept a 30 seconds distance to the group in front of me without cutting it down to more than 15 seconds a few times) Suzanne pulled up on my side and said: “It seems like we are always at this top at the same time together (it happened two years ago as well).
I answered: “yes, we need to stop meeting like this”
She took the lead approaching the (fast) downhills and I yelled:
“Don’t chicken out like you did last time (when I skied away in the downs)”.
Suzanne’s response: “I’ll try not to!”
Well, she didn’t. She skied very aggressive and I had my hands full following her. It was a fun group of four of us that skied most of the next 15 kilometer together. Suzanne did most of the work and I was rude enough to win the “group sprint” after a tight battle with Ben Grasseski at the end (the official result list is wrong – he is not 48 seconds behind me but less than 1 second).
I ended up in 6th place in the 40-49 year old group but was only beaten by one skier that’s older than me – Bruce Cranmer. I would have been 2nd (in 45-49) if they had normal 5-year age categories.
That’s my suggestion for an adjustment to the organizers. (5-year age categories).
It’s big difference being “young” or “old” in a 10-year age bracket.
Anyway, it was a good experience and the race is one of those events that’s good to use as a motivational goal and train toward. You can easily see progress from one year to another if you improve your ski-fitness.
Look up our (Torbjorn Karlsen and John Aalberg’s) coaching service on www.torbjornsport.com if you are looking for help and guidance in your training and motivation. We have a year round professional approach to this and are working with top World Cup, top age group category skiers as well as “middle of the pack” and “just starting up skiers”.