With 17 US skiers competing in the La Feclaz OPA race, we showed our colors well today in the 5/10k mass-start skate race…yes, it was a mass start! We woke up to some flurrying snowflakes, but it didn’t accumulate to much. When we arrived at the venue 1 1/2 hours before the race, all the girls in the car looked at each other, wondering if we were even in the right place. There were very few signs of a race, very few people and the course wasn’t even set up yet! As we sat in the car waiting to start our warm-up, we watched volunteers set up the course and began to see more and more people arrive. That relieved our worries.br /br /div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/S5O_obdaTCI/AAAAAAAAAlU/vwg8pMpJfp0/s1600-h/Europe+2010+076.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/S5O_obdaTCI/AAAAAAAAAlU/vwg8pMpJfp0/s320/Europe+2010+076.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445907075707849762″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-style: italic;”Half of the crewbr /br //span/divAt race time, 33 women lined up at the start. Last night in our team meeting, we discussed the importance of standing your ground and defending your space. I knew that tip was going to be key to my success today. Within a couple of kilometers, girls were getting tangled up, loosing poles and falling. I tried my best not to get caught up in that mess and not to get pushed around. Whenever there was an opening to pass, I took advantage of it. I knew this race was going to be a good race for points…I kept that in my head as I was racing in a cluster of 10 girls and reminded myself that every second counts. I sprinted to the finish with a pack of girls and ended up 11th. How they figured out who got which place, I’m not sure, but I am happy with my result.br /br /The men’s race was fun to watch as well! There was a lot of the same racing tactics and tangling going on. Our men skied strong and represented well. Here is a list of the results for the US team:br /br /div style=”text-align: center;”a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/S5O_ov_P4fI/AAAAAAAAAlc/b2FBE75Ugbk/s1600-h/Europe+2010+070.jpg”img style=”margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bfd1dFDmRWA/S5O_ov_P4fI/AAAAAAAAAlc/b2FBE75Ugbk/s320/Europe+2010+070.jpg” alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445907081218482674″ border=”0″ //aspan style=”font-style: italic;”Line of men as they climb a hillbr //span/divspan style=”font-style: italic;”span style=”font-weight: bold;”5K Womenbr /10. Caitlin Compton 15:01.7br /11. Nicole De Yong 15:02.0br /14. Sadie Bjornsen 15:03.0br /19. Taz Mannix 15:17.3br /22. Katie Ronsee 15:28.9br /25. Becca Rorabaugh 15:35.1br /br /10k Menbr //span/spanspan style=”font-style: italic;”span style=”font-weight: bold;”12. Brian Gregg 22:08.8br /13. Mikey Sinnott 22:12.8br /20. Mike Hinckley 22:18.4br /22. Noah Hoffman 22:19.0br /31. Sylvan Ellefson 22:57.1br /34. Marshall Greene 23:03.7br /36. Brayton Osgood 23:05.6br /47. Sam Naney 23:48.8br /53. Peter Kling 24:38.3br //span/spanbr /Clink
