Out like a Lion: the old adage seems to apply to March in Duluth, Minntesota. At the end of March—during the only true snowstorm that season has delivered to Duluth—the last race of the 2024 SuperTour season and Spring Nationals was set to be a ten lap, 40 kilometer mass start skate race. It was a big race, marking a big end to a big season for a pair of America’s best young skiers.
In the Men’s race, John Steel Hagenbuch skied to an emphatic end on a season that reads like a dream. Back in the frosty days of early December, the Dartmouth Ski Team junior went to the World Cup held in Ostersund, Sweden and skied to his first career top 15. From there, he became US National Champion, World U23 Championship medalist, and an NCAA champion too. In the closing moments of Tuesday’s 40 k skate, he marked a move made by Craftsbury Ski Club’s Jake Brown, came out of the final downhill at Spirit Mountain, and came across one final line with another National Championship to his name.
On the Women’s side of the field, the one to watch as of late has been Alaska Pacific University’s Novie McCabe. She’s established herself as a consistent presence in the World Cup’s top 30, a trajectory that’s charted towards the front of the field with each passing week. A U23 World Championship highlighted by a fourth place in the 20 k skate mass start in February translated to form that led to an 11th place in the final 20 k skate race on the World Cup in Falun this season. Then, in Duluth, she has been nothing short of amazing. A win in the 10 k classic Thursday, a win in the classic sprint, a runners-up podium finish with teammate Renae Anderson on Sunday, and a long-range, solo victory through the wind and snow that left her two minutes ahead of second-place finisher Sydney Palmer-Leger.
Men’s 40 k Skate Mass Start
Ahead of Sunday’s Team Sprint at Spring Nationals, a round of wet snow started to fall onto the race course at Spirit Mountain, and by the 9am start of Tuesday’s 40 k skate, it hadn’t stopped. It only added to the challenge of a four kilometer loop that traversed the base of Spirit Mountain, featuring two distinct climbs over the course of ten laps.
The set-up of the course had a clear-cut impact on how the Men’s field approached it. Through each lap, the opportunity opened up for an attack on the climb that wound its way out of the stadium for nearly a kilometer. A distinct group of leading skiers emerged including University of Utah’s Joe Davies, US Biathlete and Craftsbury Ski Club skier Jake Brown, Canadian Antoine Cyr, APU’s Scott Patterson, and John Steel Hagenbuch.
The quintet remained in tight contact through the last half of the race, with Davies and Patterson picking up the pace through the later laps. Notably, Cyr and Hagenbuch rarely went to the front of the group to lead, alluding to both skiers’ dynamism as sprinters. With a winding downhill running into a clear-cut sprint finish, both seemed determined to make sure the group remained together into the final kilometers of the race.
At the base of the climb, Davies ticked up the pace, before Brown blew it wide open. The Minnesota native got a clear break from the group, but found one skier who was with him as they crested the first of two climbs on course: Hagenbuch.
Another break saw Patterson and Cyr behind the Brown/Hagenbuch group. Suddenly, a four-way race for three podium spots was on. Brown led through the second climb on course, and into the long, winding downhill that led back to the stadium. Hagenbuch waited until the base of the hill, and then put in his own move, gaining a second gap over Brown that would remain to the finish-line. Hagenbuch crossed in first with Brown in second. Behind the two leaders, Cyr opened a sprint at the base of the Spirit Mountain stadium crossing in third overall, with Patterson fourth. The race for the podium left everyone happy, however, as Cyr’s result did not factor into the US Nationals standings. Patterson’s place behind Cyr still netted him a third place; a great send off for the Alaskan veteran following his recently announced retirement from World Cup skiing.
Women’s 40 k Skate Mass Start
McCabe sensed the same course dynamics as the Men’s field had earlier in the day at Spirit Mountain: lots of laps, and lots of hills to attack. She picked the sixth time up the first climb to pull away from a front pack of three containing the University of Utah’s Sydney Palmer-Leger and Sun Valley’s Mariah Bredal, came through the next split five seconds ahead, and then proceeded to grow the gap to over two minutes in the last 15 kilometers of racing to take first place.
Sydney Palmer-Leger gained her own advantage over Bredal in following McCabe’s move, and kept a firm grip on second place. Bredal rounded out the podium in third place, with her own gap over Alayna Sonneysn (SMS T2) in fourth, and Ava Thurston (Dartmouth Ski Team) in fifth.
US Spring Nationals 40 k RESULTS
Ben Theyerl
Ben Theyerl was born into a family now three-generations into nordic ski racing in the US. He grew up skiing for Chippewa Valley Nordic in his native Eau Claire, Wisconsin, before spending four years racing for Colby College in Maine. He currently mixes writing and skiing while based out of Crested Butte, CO, where he coaches the best group of high schoolers one could hope to find.
