It came as no surprise that CXC teammates Laura Valaas and Caitlin Compton were the dominant team in today's SuperTour sprint relay in Bozeman, Montana. After all, the two of them have divvied up all of the SuperTour wins so far this season. Valaas has won the two individual sprints, and Compton won the lone distance race while also making the podium in both sprints.
They ran away with today's relay, which consisted of each teammate skiing three alternate laps of a 1.2 kilometer loop. Team Rossignol's Karin Camenisch and Kate Pearson took second, 37 seconds back, and a mixed team of Tazlina Mannix (APUNSC) and Ida Sargent (Burke Mtn) took third. Team CXC lead the whole way and also posted the fastest split time on five of the six laps.
The CXC women, and the rest of the field, will get a bigger challenge in next week's Sun Valley SuperTour races when Kikkan Randall and the rest of the US Ski Team's World Cup contingent jump into the fray.
The men's race was a much closer affair, with three teams battling the entire way. In the end, the Alpina/XC Oregon team of Brayton Osgood and Marshall Greene had a blistering final lap to earn the win. Zack Simons and Colin Rodgers of FSx/Sun Valley came in second, and James Southam and Anders Haugen of Rossignol/APU earned third place.
Women's Results:
http://www.bsfnordic.com/forms/Team_Sprint_Women.pdf
Men's Results
http://www.bsfnordic.com/forms/Team_Sprint_Men.pdf
Photos by Ian Case:
