Skinnyski Series Update

We are 4 races into the 7 race Minnesota Skinnyski Series, so I thought I would give an update on where Vakava Racing stands at this point.

Team Competition:
Where did all the teams go!?! Do Vakava and Peter’s Cheaters have such a dominant rivalry that we scared off all other competitors? I know that Muven–Gruven has been taking this year easy, but I expected them to at least enter a team. Gear West had also expressed interest in entering a team at the beginning of the year, but they are also absent. Even skinnyski.com didn’t bother entering a team in the skinnyski series! And so we are left with only 3 teams, and with 3 races to go each team seems to have separated itself pretty decisively, almost to the point where it may not even matter how many skiers from each team show up to the Finlandia (like it usually does). This is supposed to be the most exciting category of the skinnyski series (see this recap from November, or this story from the series website). Heck, the skinnyski series trophy even has its own facebook page – and it currently has more friends than there are people competing for the teams in the competition! Boo to everyone who didn’t even try to field a team.

Team standings after 4 races:
Vakava/FinnSisu 2331
Peter’s Cheaters 1841
Hoigaards/Breadsmith 1254

Overall competition:
Men: Vakava coach Dave Christopherson is eligible to win the overall title again, and since he is probably the fastest 60 year old in the country, this competition is not even a fair fight for the rest of the field. After age adjusting his times Dave has been the fastest skier in each race by 4:25, 3:18, 1:56 (by far the closest anyone has been this year – fellow Vakava skier Dave Bridges), and 4:04. This competition is over assuming Dave skis any of the other races in the series. Other Vakava skiers: Eugene in 5th.
Women: The women’s overall competition is a Vakava party at the top. Vakava skiers currently hold 3 of the top 4 places, and Cheryl’s lead looks almost as safe as Dave’s, since she has been the age-graded champion at 3 of 4 races. Fellow Vakava skier Angie is within striking distance, but she will probably come up agonizing short. Kathleen is 4th, Katy is 11th.

Skier of the year:
This is the “most improved” competition. Vakava is doing well here too: Dave is in 2nd, Cheryl is in 3rd, Kathleen is in 7th, Angie is in 13th. So far nobody is pulling ahead in this competition, and it is more a representation of who has skied the most races. This category will shake out quite a bit more in the next 3 races. Non-Vakava skier Jason Delebroux is looking good with 3 races completed, and Elaine Nelson and Sam Oftedahl are looking good with 2 races completed. If these skiers compete in more races they could pull ahead of current leader Richard Anderson, who will get bonus points if he completes all the races, but his lead is more about quantity than quality so far.

Age group competitions:
Vakava skiers currently leading their age groups: Kathleen, Angie, Cheryl, Eugene, Dave C.
Vakava skiers in 2nd: Katy, Mary Beth, Nate, Mark.
Vakava skiers in 3rd: Carolyn, Dave B.

Go team!