Toko: Mass Start 20/30km Report

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Air and snow temps were around 28f starting early this am.  There was a very light snow that fell intermittently all day which amounted to a total of about an inch of new snow that stayed on the surface of the firm manmade base.  Our first test showed that JetStream Red was our best topcoat at that moment. Clearly, the temperatures were going to warm up a few degrees though during the day.  There is always a big difference between 28f and 33f in terms of what the snow does.  In the first test we did, JetStream Yellow was not in our top 3, but I suspected it would be a little later as it’s a great wax in new (non transformed) snow that is starting to glaze up to glazing, but not yet wet.  This is it’s sweet spot which is what we found today.  We tested again later during the men’s race and found that JetStream Yellow was our best wax which continued throughout the rest of the day.  We also tested application methods and found that a speed layer of JetStream Bloc sped up the JetStream prepared skis.  This is also not a surprise as we find this normally in new snow conditions, especially falling snow conditions.

One thing that struck me today is how happy I am with the Toko line. Our wax line performs extremely well obviously, but also, it is fairly predictable (the hard part is that snow is not always what it seems).  This is so important as conditions during a race are most commonly different from how they are an hour or two before the race begins which is when most people do their wax testing and selection.  I know this line through and through such that if I can predict the snow conditions (especially when I have tested such that I know what is currently running), I can pick a wax that will run very well.  If Toko were a more complicated and less versatile line, it would make these calls so much more difficult.  I think many people fall into the rut of testing and seeing only what is working at the moment rather than testing, seeing what is running, anticipating the changing conditions, and making the call.  If a person only goes with what is currently running and the conditions are changing, it’s a pretty sure thing that the wax job easily could have been better.