US vs. Canada In Men's National Championship Team Sprint

The second officially scored race at Spring Series and possibly the most exciting, fun-filled event for spectators and racers alike–the classic team sprint relay–came down to a fierce final 50m battle which resulted in a photo-finish between Zach Violett (FSx) and Canadian wonder-junior Alex Harvey.

Violett had teamed up with fellow FSx racer Dave Stewart (XC Oregon) while the J1-year-old Harvey was anchoring for possibly the fastest male sprinter in Canada, Phil Widmer. The Canadians were at the front almost the entire race, even getting a gap over the FSx team on one of the last laps, but Violett closed it up and coming into the final straight in front of the stands the two skiers were virtually dead-even, double-poling fiercely to increasingly loud and wild cheering from the crowd of spectators and skiers around the finish. The final lunge across the line was too close to call from most people's vantage points, but after examining the photo-finish it was clear that Harvey had the win.

http://www.fasterskier.com/racing3258.html , http://www.fasterskier.com/racing3263.html), only this time, there was no Kris Freeman ahead of them. Freeman teamed up with his brother Justin (Fischer skis), but the duo were out-sped on the mushy granular 1.2km loop by three other teams and had to settle for fourth behind the local Maine Winter Sports Center heroes Brayton Osgood (Alpina) and Colin Rodgers (FSx).