Madeleine Williams of the Canadian National Team won today’s SuperTour 5K classic race in West Yellowstone. Holly Brooks (APU) was today’s fastest American in second place just under six seconds back, followed by Shayla Swanson and Dasha Gaiazova (Canadian National Team), and second American Rosie Brennan (Dartmouth).
Today’s race was the last one for the women this week in West Yellowstone. The weather forecast called for a little snow and temps in the mid twenties, but early in the morning the sky was clear and the sun was out to stay. It was a gorgeous day at the venue, and the skiing was still fast.
Madeleine Williams skis for the Alberta World Cup Academy, and is skiing her first ever races at West this week. A racer who like hill climbs better than the longer sustained skiing available on this short course, Williams still managed to perform.
“The second hill was really killer. I’m normally a climber – I have a pretty high turnover.”
Williams also did well on Wednesday’s technical and long classic sprint course, placing fifth, 8 seconds back.
“I do well with longer races, and with a longer sprint. It’s really nice to be out here with so many people, and to ski with new people for a change.”
Holly Brooks of APU had another terrific race, demonstrating that she is clearly the fastest American in both skating and classic skiing.
“I was a little out of rhythm at first. It’s half the distance of yesterday, so you know you are supposed to go fast, but it’s hard to get into the rhythm.”
Brooks is adamant about the quality skis she enjoys from her wax techs. “I had awesome skis again. I have the hardest working coaches in the business.”
Although Holly has brought plenty top performance to the table this week, she says she never feels like she’s going to go fast until she gets moving.
“I have this thing where I didn’t feel great, but once you get up to speed I start to feel it.” When asked if she’s just a better second-day racer, she says that’s standard procedure for her.
“It was like that in the classic race, the skate race, and today, too. It’s just the way it is.”
Dasha Gaiazova of the Canadian National Team has also had a great week of races. She describes each race as a hard effort, but yesterday’s longer race as the toughest.
“Today was tough. But yesterday was harder.”
Bozeman resident and Canadian National Team member Shayla Swanson finished fifth today. Swanson says that the Canmore athletes had a little adjusting to do for the courses out here, but welcomed the addition of a larger hill on today’s course.
“I like that hill. I think that’s a good hill. I was talking with my other teammates about how much we train on hills so often, so today was pretty good for us.”
All of the Canadians seem to have enjoyed their fast skis this week.
“I had really good skis. I lost some time on a portion coming into the finish, I’m not sure what happened there, but they were pretty good. I tried to get out of the tracks on the downhill parts. When my feet aren’t in the tracks I feel like it’s a little harder to be strong with a double pole. It was definitely faster outside the tracks.”
Rosie Brennan of Darthmouth finished fifth, which rounds out a good week of races for her.
“Today was better than yesterday for me. I had pretty good skis, too. This was a good race to improve on.”
This concludes the SuperTour races for the women at the West Yellowstone Ski Festival. Next week the SuperTour goes to Bozeman, where a full skate sprint will be at Lindley Park and Bohart Ranch will host a 10K classic race.
See you there!
