Holly Brooks (APU) wasn’t sure how to approach the first OPA cup of her life on Friday, but for Saturday’s 5 k classic she had a better feel for what to expect. Friday’s effort yielded a silver medal and one second’s separation from gold, and Saturday’s race was even closer. Brooks won the individual start race by 0.2 seconds over Barbara Jezersek (SLO), and third-place finisher Alenka Cebasek (SLO) was 0.9 behind. Brooks started directly...
QUEBEC CITY – As Alana Thomas stood in the finish pen on the Plains of Abraham and looked back beyond the line, she smiled as Perianne Jones cruised down the final stretch. The Canadian National Team member was going to win by a mile – or maybe a kilometer, figuratively speaking in Canadian terms. While Jones didn’t quite have a full lap on the 11 other teams in the open classic relay at the Canadian...
While their compatriots were gutting it out in the World Cup Finals prologue in Falun, a handful of U.S. athletes were contesting the same format at OPA Cup Finals in Toblach, Italy. Friday’s 2.5/3.3 k freestyle event was the first in a series of three races in Italy. Holly Brooks (USA) turned in the top performance for the U.S., coming in second place to Slovenia’s Alenk Cebasek, who won by one second. Brooks has gone...
The field strength may have paled in comparison to the World Cup, or even a Scando Cup event, but a win is a win and a podium a podium, especially on European snow. A group of American skiers posted strong results over the weekend in two days of Swiss Cup racing, led by Becca Rorabuagh’s win in the 10k classic on Sunday. Rorabaugh was also 3rd in Saturday’s 10k freestyle while Tad Elliott, fresh off...
Off Camber is a video series available only on FasterSkier. Conceived of and created by APU skiers Reese Hanneman and Erik Bjornsen, this series is made possible by the support of Episode 1 | Episode 3. Off Camber reports from the Scando Cup. Meet the skiers, hear from the coach, watch race footage, hear more from the coach.
All Madison SuperTour and American Birkebeiner coverage is brought to you through the generous support of SkiErg. MADISON, Wis. – At the first 90-degree turn on the four-corner course around Capitol Square, Jennie Bender almost came to a stop. Standing up, she scanned her three competitors in the women’s A-final at the SuperTour 1 k freestyle sprint on Sunday. The Central Cross Country (CXC) Elite Team skier was looking for one in particular. Bender eventually drew...
All Madison SuperTour and American Birkebeiner coverage is brought to you through the generous support of SkiErg. MADISON, Wis. – Finland’s Jari Joutsen could have been mad or at least frustrated with a split-second lane change that forced him out of his spot into another skier in the A-final of the SuperTour 1 k freestyle sprint on Sunday. After the race as he stood next to Philip Furrer, the Swiss who claimed the victory, Joutsen smiled....
All 2012 Madison SuperTour and American Birkebeiner coverage is brought to you through the generous support of SkiErg. MADISON, Wis. — Jennie Bender of Central Cross Country (CXC) won another qualifier in the second straight day of sprints around Wisconsin’s state capital, posting the fastest time in 2:04.0. After winning Saturday’s classic sprint qualifier by more than 6 seconds, Bender had less of a gap on Sunday. Hilary McNamee of Maine Winter Sports Center was...
All 2012 Madison SuperTour and American Birkebeiner coverage is brought to you through the generous support of SkiErg. MADISON, Wis. – Two hours seems like a lot of time between qualifiers and heats, but when it comes down to it, sprints are sprints. They’re restless from start to finish. Between the SuperTour 1 k classic races at the heart of Wisconsin’s state capital on Saturday, some athletes killed time by running around downtown. Others, like...
All Madison SuperTour and American Birkebeiner coverage is brought to you through the generous support of SkiErg. MADISON, Wis. – Most of the men in the SuperTour classic sprints on Saturday probably didn’t have a clue who Jari Joutsen was. He certainly had an international reputation with several World Cup top-30 results. Yet to the 22 others in the 1 k sprint around Madison’s Capitol Square, Joutsen was just another competitor – one Finish skier...
All Madison SuperTour and American Birkebeiner coverage is brought to you through the generous support of SkiErg. MADISON, Wis. — Jennie Bender of Central Cross Country (CXC) did as she intended in Saturday’s 1 k classic sprint qualifier, the first race of the Madison SuperTour, posting the fastest time by 6.1 seconds. Bender won the city sprint qualifier in 2:18.7, ahead of Hannah Dreissigacker (Craftsbury Green Racing Project) in second. Hilary McNamee (Maine Winter Sports...
All Madison SuperTour and American Birkebeiner coverage is brought to you through the generous support of SkiErg. MADISON, Wis. — In his SuperTour debut, Jari Joutsen put forth a strong showing for Finland, winning the men’s 1 k classic sprint qualifier in 1:55.1. The 33-year-old, who skis for Vetelin Urheilijat, beat Skyler Davis of the U.S. Ski Team and Stratton Mountain School (SMS) by 1.1 seconds. Davis was the second-fastest qualifier on the snow-covered streets surrounding...
All 2012 Madison SuperTour and American Birkebeiner coverage is brought to you through the generous support of SkiErg. MADISON, Wis. — Here’s a look at how SuperTour race organizers make a city sprint possible in downtown Madison. Starting at 6 p.m. on Friday, some 90 trucks carted manmade snow from an energy facility about a mile or two from Wisconsin’s State Capitol and dumped it on the city streets surrounding the square. Madison’s Don Miller Subaru...
Last year, the world’s best biathletes got a taste of northern Maine when the World Cup made stops in Fort Kent and Presque Isle. This season, the top racers are staying firmly ensconced in Europe. But instead of letting the sport get too comfortable on what could be considered its home turf, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) sent their eponymously named IBU Cup circuit across the Atlantic, and for the last week the “second World...
Chelsea Holmes (SVSEF) may be used to racing at altitude, but that didn’t make the 5 k classic on Saturday at the Aspen SuperTour any less painful. “Oh my God, I felt like my heart was ripping out of my chest, all the time,” said Holmes after winning by 0.5 seconds in the individual start. Rosie Brennan (APU) was the runner-up for the second time in one day, as the classic sprint qualifier occurred earlier...
In case you missed the action in Aspen, Colorado this weekend, check out the video below of the men’s 10 k classic on Saturday. The individual-start distance race followed the sprint qualifier by about two hours and featured two laps of a rolling 5 k course at over 8,000 feet. Matt Gelso (SVSEF) took home the 10 k title; Leif Zimmermann (BSF) was second and Vegard Kjoelhamar (CU) finished third. 10 k classic results
The field wasn’t as deep as usual and the stakes weren’t quite as high, but the final NorAm weekend at Parc National du Mont-Orford left participants with plenty to talk about. They skied atypical courses, some saw crashes and everyone braved unbearable temperatures at the two-day event. Some notched their first wins of the season; others raced with old rivals. While Kevin Sandau of the Alberta World Cup Academy had already locked up the top regional spot and...
ASPEN, Colo. — The third time was the charm for Leif Zimmermann (BSF) at the Owl Creek Chase on Sunday. He had finished third in Aspen twice before, but for the 2012 edition he claimed the top spot in the 21 k mass start freestyle by 37.9 seconds over Matt Gelso (SVSEF). Pat O’Brien (CGRP) outsprinted Josh Smullin (Rossignol/SSCV) for third (+1:15.6). After what Zimmermann said was a disappointing week at U.S. Nationals in January,...
ASPEN, Colo. — Morgan Arritola (SVSEF) was officially back to full form on Sunday at the Owl Creek Chase. After appendicitis forced her to skip U.S. Nationals and subsequent SuperTours, she won the 21 k point-to-point mass start freestyle by nearly four minutes over Lenka Palanova (BNJRT). Chelsea Holmes (SVSEF) finished third (+4:48.6). “This was my kind of course: hard, uphill,” said Arritola. “I just went out as hard as I could—that’s kind of how...
ASPEN, Colo. — On a bluebird morning in Colorado, the Aspen Nordic Festival kicked off on Saturday with a two-stage classic day; a sprint qualifier in the morning followed by a 10 k individual start for the men two hours later. Karl Nygren (CXC) started the weekend off by posting the fastest sprint time by 2.85 seconds, followed by Dylan McGuffin (CGRP) in second and Pat O’Brien (CGRP) in third (+3.21). The 1.4 k sprint...