With their wins in today’s classic sprints, Phil Widmer and Rebecca Dussault both swept the Madison SuperTour weekend. Both the men and women chose to double-pole the soft course around Madison’s Capital Square.
In a repeat of yesterday’s dominating performance, Dussault qualified first, won her semi-final looking relaxed, then skied away from the rest of the women in the A final. After her the results sheet was identical to the day before, with Maria Stuber (CXC Team Vertical Limit) narrowly edging teammate Audrey Weber for second. Hannah Dreissigacker (Craftsbury Green Racing Project) was fourth. The six-woman field made for an odd format, with a 4-woman A final and 2-woman B final. In the B final MWSC’s biathlete Beth Ann Chamberlain edged out Craftsbury’s Chelsea Little for fifth.
The men’s qualifier was more hotly contested affair than the women’s, if only because out of the twenty one starters, only eight moved on to the heats. Canadians Phil Widmer and Sean Crooks led qualifying, followed by teammate Julien Nury. After Nury was Steinbock Racing’s Chris Cook, CXC’s Matt Liebsch and Brian Cook and Craftsbury’s Tim Reynolds. SuperTour distance leader Bryan Gregg grabbed the coveted eighth spot, leaving Salomon/Far West’s Ian Case on the outside with unlucky number nine.
The semi-finals were hotly contested. Pre-race favorites Chris Cook and Sean Crooks both missed spots in the A final. CXC was well represented, with Bryan Gregg and Brian Cook joining Widmer and young Julien Nury, who coach Eric Bailey called one of Canada’s best sprinters. In the end Widmer and Nury broke from a hard-charging Brian Cook to take first and second, with Cook again settling for third. Gregg followed in fourth. In the B final Matt Liebsch and Sean Crooks battled all the way to the line, with Crooks narrowly beating the CXC skier. Tim Reynolds took home seventh overall and Chris Cook eighth.
