10k/5k classic update:
Thursday’s weather was clear and sunny but much cooler than previous days. Temperatures were down in the -15c range, which made for easy waxing, firm tracks, and tough racing. For the most part both the women’s and Men’s races were a step in the right direction for team USA.
The Russian women were at it again finishing with 2 in the top 3. USA’s Lindsey Weier had a spectacular race placing 19th and once again extremely close to a top 15 finish. Just to give you an idea of how close these races are, in 19th place Weier was only 36 seconds out on 2nd. Alison Crocker, USA, also had a great race finishing 31, just 14 seconds ahead of Kristina Tygstad-Saari, USA. Kristina commented that she was not prepared for the extremely frigid temperatures and started slow because she was cold. Nonetheless she finished strong and had solid result.
1. Malvalenhto, Mona-Lisa FIN 15:23
2. Vorontsova, Ekaterina RUS 15:49
3. Plotzskaja , Elena RUS 15:54
19. Weier, Lindsay USA 16:25
31. Crocker, Alison USA 16:48
42. Trygstad-Saari, Kristina USA 17:02
58. Williams, Lindsay USA 17:41
The men’s 10k was another close race and again the Russians had 2 in the top 3. USA’s Leif Zimmermann, Ryan Foster, and Bryan Cook all had awesome races finishing 26, 44, 51 respectively. Leif was only 1 minute off the podium finishers with his 26 place finish. Ryan Foster and Bryan Cook raced great and were also very close to a top 20 finish and were only within 5 seconds of each other.
Unfortunately things didn’t go my way for the last three K’s of the race. After the first 5k I was running around 10th and only a few seconds out of 6th. By 7k I was still in the hunt skiing within 12-15th . At 8k I was fading a little bit, and fell breaking my pole. With 2 k of uphill left I was in a trouble. After some bonking and having to stop to put on a pole I had lost over 1:30 by the finish. Although I ended up 51st , my splits to 8k were inspiring and showed that we can ski with the rest of the world.
1. Dementiev, Eugeni RUS 27:40
2. Koschevoy, Yevgeniy KAZ 28:09
3. Bulgakov, Maxim RUS 28:11
26. Zimmermann, Leif USA 29:47
42. Foster, Ryan USA 30:25
44. Cook, Bryan USA 30:30
51. Newell, Andrew USA 30:50
