2007 USSA CROSS COUNTRY SUPERTOUR BEGINS NOV. 24-25
Total purse of $130,000 over 26 races
PARK CITY, Utah (Oct. 9) – The 2007 USSA Cross Country SuperTour will have 26 races with a total purse of $130,000, beginning Nov. 24-25 in West Yellowstone, Mont., and including both the U.S. short-distance and long-distance championships, the U.S. Ski Team said.
U.S. Nordic Director Luke Bodensteiner said the races, which include three team (i.e., two-athlete) sprints, would help in determining athletes chosen for the World Nordic Ski Championships Team in Sapporo, Japan, in late February as well as the Junior World Championships and Under-23 Worlds, which will run simultaneously Jan. 29-Feb. 4 in Tarvisio, Italy.
“The SuperTour has been a development ground for our best World Cup racers in recent years,” Bodensteiner said. “Olympians Kikkan Randall [Anchorage, AK], Kris Freeman [Andover, NH], Andy Newell [Shaftsbury, VT], Carl Swenson [Park City, UT] – and even Ivan Babikov, the Russian who lives in Canada, all scored their first top-5 World Cup or World Championship results within a season of winning a SuperTour overall title.”
The schedule includes a variety of race distances in classic or freestyle (skating) technique. It also has a diversity of terrain, including both sides of the U.S. Championships (the short-distance title races Jan. 3-7 on the Michigan Tech trails in Houghton, Mich., plus the SuperTour Finals and long-distance championships March 29-April 1 at the Maine Winter Sports Center in Presque Isle, Maine), the fabled American Birkebeiner marathon Feb. 24 in Wisconsin and the Madison sprints Jan. 13-14, races downtown in the Wisconsin capital city.
The 2007 USSA Cross Country SuperTour schedule (* – designates mass start race):
Nov. 24-25 – West Yellowstone, Mont
– Men&Women FR sprint
– Men's 10K CL/Women's 5K CL
Registration is now open: http://www.yellowstoneskifestival.com/tour.html
Dec. 2-3 – Bozeman, Mont.
– FR sprint
– Team CL sprint
Dec. 6-10 – Sun Valley, Idaho
– CL Sprint
– Men's 15KCL/Women's 10K CL
– Men's 30K FR/Women's 15K FR*
Dec. 16-17 – Soldier Hollow, Utah
– Men's 15K FR/Women's 10K FR
– CL sprint
Jan. 3-7 – Houghton, Mich.
U.S. Short Distance Championships
– Men's 10K CL/Women's 5K CL
– Men's 15K FR/Women's 10K FR
– CL sprint
– Team FR sprint
Jan. 13-14 – Madison Sprints in Madison, Wis.
– Team FR sprint
– CL sprint
Jan. 20-21 – Itasca, Minn.
– Men's 10K CL/Women's 5K CL
– Men's 10K FR/Women's 10K FR
Jan. 24-28 – Telemark, Wis.
– FR sprint
– Men's 10K FR/Women's 5K FR
– Men's 15K CL/Women's 10K CL*
Feb. 3-4 – Minneapolis
– FR Sprint
– Men&Women 30K FR*
Feb. 10 – Aspen, Colo.
– Men&Women 30K FR*
Feb. 24 – Hayward, Wis.
– American Birkebeiner, 52K FR
March 29-April 1 – Presque Isle, Maine
U.S. Long Distance Championships/SuperTour Finals
– Men's 30K (15K+15K) Pursuit/Women's 15K (7.5K+7.5K) Pursuit
– Men's 50K FR/Women's 30K FR*
Source: USSA
