Due to the lamentable conditions in West Yellowstone, there’s a chance that the SuperTour freestyle sprint originally scheduled here this weekend will end up taking place at Bohart Ranch instead. The Bozeman venue is already set to hold a SuperTour classic sprint and mass start on December 1 and 2. Bridger Ski Foundation director and race organizer Dragen Danevski said on Tuesday that he was confident Bohart could pull off a third race, which...
WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. — With another day gone by and no more significant accumulation on the Rendezvous Ski Trails, the West Yellowstone organizing committee is in the process of figuring out what races the South Plateau trail could handle. The logging road a few miles outside town is being considered as the first backup option to hold the SuperTour sprint and 10/15 k freestyle on Friday and Saturday should the weather continue to be uncooperative....
Ready or not, the 2013 SuperTour season is fast approaching. Here’s what you need to know about the domestic race scene this year. At this point, we’ve pretty much said everything we can about the twelve senior ski programs in the U.S. We ran a series throughout the summer highlighting each team’s past accomplishments and goals for the future. Read back through ‘em for comprehensive rosters and standalone previews (scroll down for links). Now that...
After months of training and anticipation, the nordic sports opened their seasons around the world this weekend with races around the world. Established veterans had several dominating performances, but there were new faces on the podiums as well, signaling that when World Cup racing starts next weekend, things could be pretty interesting. In Bruksvallarna, Sweden, the Swedish, Canadian, and Slovenian national teams butted heads in a three-day race series. One of the biggest surprises was...
Devon Kershaw had a good start in Bruksvallarna, Sweden today. So did Daniel Richardsson. But in the end, for both the Swedes and the Canadians, it was steady pacing that garnered skiers a top finish: Johan Olsson bested Richardsson for the win, and Ivan Babikov placed third for Canada while Kershaw faded to tenth. At 4.6 k into the 15 k, interval-start skate race, the second competition in the opening series of FIS races, Richardsson...
It may have been a relatively relaxed tune-up race, but there was no lack of depth in the field that showed up for the FIS classic sprints in Muonio, Finland, on Friday. Kazakhstan produced an impressive sweep of the podium; Alexey Poltoranin, a traditionally strong sprinter, led the charge while compatriots Nikolay Chebotko and Denis Volotka (KAZ) followed close behind. American Andy Newell, who led much of the final heat, finished fourth after a slight...
If you’ve been checking the Rendezvous Ski Trails Festival website about weather and conditions that are beyond anyone’s control. “We’re waiting,” begins a Thursday grooming report. “waiting for snow, waiting to see what’s coming…waiting, waiting, waiting.”
When Peru’s first Winter Olympian asks you to help him out, you say yes. At least that’s how Leif Zimmermann reacted last year. The two were acquaintances when Roberto Carcelén, a Peruvian cross-country skier who made the Vancouver Games at the age of 39, told Zimmermann – a Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF) skier and 2006 Olympian – about his Inca Runners company. Still racing the occasional SuperTour, NorAm and national championship at the age of...
While it was great to hear from several top skiers on the Canadian and U.S. nordic ski teams on Friday, we weren’t able to fit everything into the recaps of the men’s and women’s time trials. Here are some extras and outtakes from the WinSport Frozen Thunder Classic, an unofficial sprint showdown between North American teams in Canmore, Alberta. (Original race stories with link to results: women) On pre-race problems: I was PO’ed because I...
There’s only so much warming up one can do on a 1.8-kilometer course with more than 70 other people using it. That’s why Chandra Crawford spent part of her 45-minute prep before the WinSport Frozen Thunder Classic at the Canmore Nordic Centre dancing with Jessie Diggins. While the first unofficial race of the season and certainly the largest sprint in North America so far tested both Canadian and U.S. national team skiers, it also brought...
Andy Newell didn’t have time to make a game plan. It all came kind of naturally. The 27-year-old U.S. Ski Team veteran (who also skis for the Stratton Mountain School T2 Team) was pretty busy worrying about whether he’d have enough time to warm up for the inaugural WinSport Frozen Thunder Classic on Friday, and how late that school bus he was following was going to make him. Turns out he had just enough time...
You can say a lot about Marty Hall—and, in fact, most of it has probably already been said. The former coach of the American and Canadian national cross-country ski teams is an outspoken and prolific observer of the sport today, but that’s nothing new. He famously implied that the Russians were doping at the 1988 Olympic Games, and an Ottawa newspaper story upon his departure from the Canadian squad referred to him as the “opinionated...
The symptoms started at a July training camp with Central Cross Country (CXC) in northern Wisconsin. The runner-up from last year’s SuperTour series, Jennie Bender, 24, wasn’t feeling well. For two to three days at a time, she’d experience bouts of nausea. Then her neck felt sore, along with her jaw and teeth. One night, she tossed and turned with cold chills, and feared that she’d wake up a leper. The next day, she pushed...
Coaching a college team which you yourself are part of might not seem like the best way to learn the tricks of the trade – or to become a better athlete, for that matter. And yet that was the situation in which Piotr Bednarski found himself in the late 1980’s at Cornell University in upstate New York. From there, he has gone on to be one of the most successful coaches in the Midwest, across...
Caitlin Gregg’s 2012 season couldn’t be considered a disappointment – she finished second in the American Birkebeiner by just 0.4 seconds to her friend Holly Brooks, notched four SuperTour wins, landed third in the overall standings, and twice stood on the podium at U.S. Nationals. And yet the 2010 Olympican, 2011 Birkie winner, and 2007 SuperTour leader found herself considering life after skiing come spring, when roster and coaching changes rocked her CXC team. As...
This is the fourth and final preview in a quick-and-dirty series about Canadian national-training centres. We asked coaches to send their 2012/2013 rosters and tell us what’s new for the coming season. Teams were presented in no particular order. Team: Callaghan Valley Training Centre (roster and five junior males, this team doesn’t have a single woman, and Manhard explained why. “With one coach for a centre, it was very difficult balancing the boys training and social...
This is the third preview in a quick-and-dirty series about Canadian national-training centres. We asked coaches to send their 2012/2013 rosters and tell us what’s new for the coming season. We will be publishing additional reports over the next few weeks. Teams are presented in no particular order. Team: Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) Coaches: Chris Jeffries (head coach/women’s coach), Mike Cavaliere (racing director/men’s coach), George Grey (women’s assistant coach), Stefan Kuhn (universal coach/men’s assistant), Jeremy Hecker (summer intern), Rob Soffer (strength...
After a few years of experimentation with the controversial sprint qualifiers, the format is on its way out of the national calendar. Two venues that held early-season SuperTour sprint qualifiers last season are holding full heats this November, and are currently completing trail work to ensure their courses meet International Ski Federation (FIS) homologation standards. The Rendezvous Ski Trails in West Yellowstone and Bohart Ranch in Bozeman, Mont., expect their sprint courses to be ready...
This is the last of several previews in a quick-and-dirty series on U.S. elite teams. We asked coaches to send their 2012/2013 rosters and tell us what’s new for the coming season. Teams were presented in no particular order. Team name: Alaska Pacific University (APU) Nordic Ski Center Coach: Erik Flora (head coach/director) Roster: Kikkan Randall (U.S. Ski Team A-team), Holly Brooks (USST B-team), Sadie Bjornsen (USST B-team), Becca Rorabaugh, Rosie Brennan, Kate Fitzgerald, Erika...
Maybe it was the transition to full-time racing or the fact that Zoe Roy was competing in her home nation last season. It could’ve been the back-and-fourth flights across the U.S/Canadian border, or one team’s hospitality that helped Roy reach new heights on the NorAm circuit. Whatever it was, she wasn’t fighting it. After spending some 20 years in Bend, Ore., Roy, who turned 25 on Sunday, is moving to Canmore, Alberta. Starting Aug. 1,...