One months and zero blog posts later, Blackjack is still going strong. Fortunately, our racing results have far eclipsed our success at keeping an up to date blog. So, to make up for lost time, we will bring you a brief summary of each weekend of racing, along with some photos. First up…
Rossland NorAms-December 17-18
Blackjack got a chance to show off for Canada’s skiing community and host some great, hotly contested races. Racing kicked off Saturday with the freestyle sprints, on a challenging course that started with a mostly uphill section before descending around a hairpin corner into the finish. The action was exciting and close all day long, with plenty of crashes on the hairpin. David led the way for the Blackjack men with a 14th place finish, narrowly missing out on the semifinals. Peter and Shawn(raced up) were close behind in 23rd and 24th place respectively. Blackjack racer Geoffrey Richards(now racing for CVTC) impressed with a 2nd place in the A Final for Junior Men. Susanne and Jill also raced up and had strong 15th and 18th placings.
Racing continued Sunday with freestyle mass start races, 15k for the men and 10k for the women. The course was deceptively hard, with long gradual climbs and long transition sections where huge time could be lost. David had one of the fastest races of his life to finish 15th for open men, just narrowly outsprinted by Knute Johnsgaard to finish 2nd for Junior Men! The fact that David has been racing so fast this season is really encouraging to the rest of the team and it’s great to see him take the next step in his racing. (Note: making airplane noises while you’re skiing clearly makes you go faster…) Peter(21st), Shawn(23rd), Julien(25th) and Nick(26th) also had strong races and brought the hurt out on course. In the women’s race, the pack quickly broke apart as Jessie Diggins pushed the pace early. Jill(14) and Susanne(17) fought hard throughout the race and posted strong finishes while racing up a category.
