Far away from the World Cup buzz in Quebec City there are NorAm races scheduled at Sovereign Lake Nordic in Vernon, British Columbia. A 10/15 k mass start classic and 10/15 k freestyle are on on tap, and the field is expected to be quite competitive between the domestic Canadian and American field on top of international skiers racing as a tune-up before the Canmore World Cup next weekend.
Despite the rain and warmth, the snow held out for the three SuperTour races at Bohart Ranch last week. We took quite a few photos to capture the action.
Norway's Petter Northug and Marit Bjørgen won World Cup mini-tours, while Tora Berger swept three biathlon races; JP Le Guellec made history for Canada by winning a biathlon World Cup. In North America, exciting racing in Bozeman and Canmore helped national teams decide which athletes to send to the upcoming Quebec and Canmore World Cups.
The lead nearly got away from her, but Sadie Bjornsen (APU/USST) was able to claw her way back from third to win the 10 k classic SuperTour in Bozeman by 17 seconds on Sunday. Chelsea Holmes (SVSEF) was second and Rosie Brennan (APU) took third.
Mats Resaland, a Norwegian at the University of New Mexico, won the final race in Bozeman on Sunday. The outcome separated the two major story lines of the day: the straight results, which were unusual, and the fight for the as-yet-unannounced Canmore World Cup team.
Knowing it could be his last chance to earn a trip to the biggest stage of his life, Reese Hanneman (Alaska Pacific University) pulled out his first career SuperTour win at Bohart Ranch on Saturday in the classic sprint, skiing a step ahead of the field to beat Nils Koos (Craftsbury Green Racing Project) and teammate Erik Bjornsen.
With five women in the top six, Alaska Pacific University pretty much cleaned up in the classic sprint in Bozeman, Mont. Sadie Bjornsen won a close finish with teammate Lauren Fritz; Corey Stock (Dartmouth) took third.
Let it be known, there’s a new queen on the SuperTour. On a sunny morning at Bohart Ranch, Sophie Caldwell (SMS T2) handily won the freestyle sprint, putting herself on top of the sprint rankings halfway through the Quebec World Cup qualifying period. Sadie Bjornsen skated to second place and Caitlin Gregg took third.
When it was all said and done — the qualifying, the heats, the nervous skiing around between races — Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation’s Reid Pletcher emerged on top of the freestyle sprint field in Bozeman, Mont., scraping by Erik Bjornsen (APU/USST) and Ryan Scott (SSCV Team HomeGrown) in the final meters.
While the U.S. SuperTour season has already started, the Canadians are just about to get warmed up -- and without much time to do so -- when the NorAm opener doubles as Canadian World Cup trials this weekend.
SuperTour racing kicked off on the West Yellowstone plateau with point-to-point 9k's and sprint prologues; the FIS and IBU World Cups started in Scandinavia, where the U.S. women made history and the Canadian men had a strong relay. Recap, reporting, photos, and results.
Images from Saturday’s 1.6 k freestyle prologue on the Whisky Trail. Though it wasn’t a full sprint, it sure didn’t look like anyone pushed themselves less.
FasterSkier had two cameras on location at the South Plateau to take in all the 9 k freestyle action.
WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. — Friday’s distance results in the first SuperTour of the season weren’t easy for everyone to swallow, especially not Ryan Scott of Ski & Snowboard Club Vail/Team HomeGrown. His coach Eric Pepper racked it up as a bad day. “He went out a little hard, blew up pretty hard [and] didn’t have great legs,” Pepper said on Saturday. Still, seeing he ranked 78th in the 9-kilometer skate individual start hurt. “That was...
Despite a degree of familiarity with the top of the podium, Sophie Caldwell (SMS T2) wasn't quite expecting to win the 1.6 k skate prologue so handily in West Yellowstone. She bested runner-up Anika Miller (Payette Lake Sports) by over four seconds; Caitlin Patterson (CGRP) finished third for her second bronze this weekend.
Weeks of altitude training clearly paid off for Matt Liebsch (Borton Volvo XC United) in the first race of the year. The pride of the Midwest won the SuperTour 9 k freestyle on Friday morning on a fast but challenging point-to-point course looking like he had gas left in the tank.
WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. – The distance course on the South Plateau wasn’t too bad if you didn’t think about it too much. The 9-kilometer freestyle race – the first of the 2012/2013 U.S. SuperTour series – netted a slight elevation gain of about 300 feet from start to finish. A course profile indicated that the terrain was rolling. No problem. Try racing it. The individual start began around 7,260 feet above sea level, which is...
There's only one nordic groomer in West Yellowstone and that's Doug Edgerton. Founder and president of the world-famous Yellowstone Track Systems, Edgerton let FasterSkier ride along while he groomed South Plateau early Wednesday morning.
A week ago, Yellowstone Ski Festival organizers saw the writing on the wall and started planning ahead. They might not get much snow, but they were going to get people to the white stuff somehow. For the first time, they offered a shuttle system to the South Plateau, which required some timely logistics.
It rained in West Yellowstone on Tuesday. There are thousands of people in town for a ski festival, and it rained. Against this backdrop, the festival organizers officially designated the South Plateau Whisky trail as the venue for the SuperTour distance race and bumped what is now a 9 k freestyle up to Friday. It wasn’t unexpected — the Rendezvous Trails have received little to no additional snow over the past few days and forecasts...