Flora and Strandberg Maintain SuperTour Lead in Madison

Lars Flora and Kristina Strandberg continue to hold a tight grip on the Super Tour titles through the weekend sprints in Madison, WI.

Extremely warm temperatures in the mid-fifties melted all of the snow before the weekend, so local volunteers had to raid the snow fridge for backup coverage. The snow was trucked in one hour before the start and volunteers had the 500 meter course covered just before race time. “We were running a lot to warm up,” said Katie Ronsse by phone today. “It was incredible how fast they set the course up.”

Both races used the same 500m course, which included two small climbs and a hairpin corner on an out-and-back configuration. The snow was exceptionally warm and choppy as with most artificial conditions.

SuperTour leader Kristina Strandberg (Saab/Solomon Factory Team) and Nicole DeYong (Fischer) beat Martina Strusova (Rossignol) and Katie Ronsse (APUNSC) by a boot at the line on Saturday’s Skate sprint. Both teams had matching times through the semis and finals.

Heather Zimmerman (CXC) had an exceptional day, finishing third with Kristina Owen over teammates Maria Stuber and JoJo Winters in fourth. Team Lindsey (Lindsey Dehlin/Lindsay Williams USST) were unable to race while Lindsay Williams was dealing with complications from compartment syndrome.

Bryan Cook and Brian Gregg (CXC) won the mens’ final just ahead of David Chamberlain and Colin Rogers (Fischer/Craft), while Lars Flora and Mikey Sinnott (Saab/Salomon Factory Team) held a comfortable lead in front of Tyson Flaharty (Team FAST) and Sam Naney (CMRP).

Excitement in the men’s field included Chambo breaking a binding and skiing on mis-matched skis. As a result they missed a tag and fell back to fourth, but were still able to come back for a solid second place.