RUMFORD, Maine – A firm and fast track in addition to a finish stretch that greeted the racers with a hard wind created a race that was full of tactics today on the trails of Black Mountain for the US Cross Country Ski Championship. Here is a look at the ladies’ action.
Note: Due to a change in the results from the women’s sprint qualifier, this article has been updated. RUMFORD, Maine — Twenty-four hours after the 2012 U.S. Cross Country Nationals were originally scheduled to start, the women in the 1.4 k freestyle sprint qualifier found themselves racing on completely different conditions on Tuesday – and no one was complaining. The second to start, Jessie Diggins (Central Cross Country) posted the fastest qualifying time in 2:58.84,...
RUMFORD, Maine — A look at the freestyle sprint course on Black Mountain, about 1 1/2 hours before the start. The women’s 1.4 k qualifier kicks off at 9 a.m. and the men start the 1.6 k qualifier at 10 a.m. Video: Athletes were busy warming up on the sprint course and some coaches had been testing wax since before dark.
RUMFORD, Maine — The old adage “If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute,” was overheard many times at Black Mountain on both Sunday and Monday, but waiting around all morning didn’t change the fact that Sunday night’s rain put a serious damper on U.S. Nationals. News broke early Monday morning that an overnight downpour had soaked the artificial snow at Black Mountain and forced race organizers to postpone the scheduled freestyle sprint indefinitely....
RUMFORD, Maine — Due to significant rain on Sunday night, all races at U.S. Nationals have been put on hold until further notice. The freestyle sprint race that was supposed to begin Monday morning has been postponed, and the race jury will meet later today to revise the schedule in more detail. According to an email sent out by Media Director Craig Zurhorst at 6:17 am Monday morning, the manmade snow on the course had...
RUMFORD, Maine — If sprint days are known for being unpredictable, the outcome of Monday’s freestyle sprint at U.S. Nationals is especially difficult to foresee. There are a handful of strong skiers in the lineup, it rained on Sunday night, and the high stakes will undoubtedly make everyone aggressive out on the course. Though the racing season has been in full swing since the end of November, Monday will be the first time a lot...
RUMFORD, Maine — The sun was out at Black Mountain on Sunday, and with the skate sprint set to start on Monday morning at 9:00 am, U.S. Cross Country Championships are practically upon us. The only trails open on Sunday were the overlapping 1.4 k and 1.6 k courses, and with nearly 400 athletes on the sprint start list, the loop was packed all morning. Athletes could be seen getting in their final pickups off...
On the eve of U.S. Nationals in Rumford, Maine, FasterSkier’s Audrey Mangan talks about the conditions and the atmosphere in at Black Mountain on Sunday.
Note: This article has been updated. Peering up at a sign inside a pizza joint in Colville, Wash., Sam Tarling saw an opportunity. Like so many other spontaneous offers 21-year-old Dartmouth College racer seized to get out West, Tarling jumped at the chance to eat for money. With an evening to kill and a stomach of steel, Tarling reasoned he couldn’t lose. The defending NCAA 10-k champion trumped similar challenges in the past. Three quarters...
Photos from Haywood NorAm freestyle mass starts (women 10 k, men 15 k). Check out Dan Roycroft’s gallery for more photos from Sunday’s mass start.
Photos from the NorAm Teck freestyle sprints in Rossland, British Columbia, on Dec. 17, 2011. Special thanks to Dan Roycroft (AWCA).
For the World Cup athletes, Thursday’s announcement by the U.S. Biathlon Association of team nominations for the second period of racing brought no surprises. Just as in the last weekend of World Cup racing in December, three women (Sara Studebaker, Annelies Cook, and Susan Dunklee) and four men (Lowell Bailey, Jay Hakkinen, Tim Burke, and Leif Nordgren) will represent the U.S. on the trails. But the real excitement of the day came from the selection...
ROSSLAND, British Columbia — There had been a few slips and trips and a couple of wrong turns along the way, but as competition drew to a close on Sunday, race organizers were pretty content. Crashes like the one that nearly took out every man in the fourth quarterfinal heat, and course confusion, which happened to at least two racers in the mass start, were not all that uncommon, said Rossland NorAm Chief of Competition...
After completing the second weekend of NorAm Cup series in Canada, some of Sunday’s top racers talked about their start to the season and what they’re looking forward to in the new year. From Rossland, British Columbia, where the Black Jack Ski Club hosted two days of freestyle events with sprints on Saturday and a 10/15 k mass start on Sunday.
ROSSLAND, British Columbia — It’s not that Kevin Sandau’s not a team player. He just puts the pedal down when he feels like it. One of four Alberta World Cup Academy skiers seeded in the top eight of Sunday’s NorAm 15 k freestyle mass start, Sandau pushed the pace early as he tried to break free of the 73-man field. It didn’t exactly work at first, but the man in the green leader’s jersey kept...
ROSSLAND, British Columbia — Emerging from a curved and wooded downhill into the open-aired Black Jack stadium, Jessie Diggins suddenly felt an unfamiliar pang of dread. Looking around her, the Central Cross Country and U.S. Ski Team member realized she was alone and not where she wanted to be. She hadn’t lost the race, but could have been out of it entirely. The leader of Sunday’s NorAm 9.9 k freestyle mass start, Diggins immediately pulled...
ROSSLAND, British Columbia — Some 2,500 kilometers or 1,550 miles away from Wisconsin, the Central Cross Country (CXC) ski team was feeling a little travel-weary as it rolled into Rossland on Monday. After almost five weeks on the road, some of its members decided to remedy their bodies and minds with a distance ski on the Rossland-Paulson classic-only trail. A little confusion led Jessie Diggins and Jennie Bender to the wrong trail, Seven Summits, where...
ROSSLAND, British Columbia — Anyone who caught a glimpse of Jesse Cockney on Saturday probably saw him smiling — except for when he was racing, in which case he was concentrating. The first day of NorAm freestyle competition at Black Jack Ski Club started out well enough for the 22-year-old Alberta World Cup Academy skier, as Cockney won a sprint qualifier for the first time in his life. The fifth to start on a 1.6...
ROSSLAND, British Columbia — The thing about competitive ski racing is, one has to be prepared for the unexpected. It’s not as if Jack Carlyle, a junior racer for Thunder Bay’s national development center (NDC), could have anticipated his bags would be stolen in the 15 minutes they were outside his house, but he dealt with it. NDC head coach Eric Bailey, who was supposed to drive him to the airport, told Carlyle to sit...
VERNON, British Columbia — Mike Cavaliere had a pretty distinct idea of what he wanted the Alberta World Cup Academy to look like when he developed the training center just over four years ago. With several AWCA athletes zipping around in the Canadian national team’s unmistakable neon jackets and four Olympians assisting them at last weekend’s NorAm opener at Sovereign Lake, things appeared to be going as planned. If anything, Cavaliere, a 2006 Olympic coach...