After struggling to crack the top-30 on the World Cup last season, Canadian Perianne Jones knew she needed some time on the domestic circuit this year to get her feet back under her. “I’ve raced on the World Cup the last two seasons before Christmas—especially last season, I didn’t feel like I belonged,” she said. “I want to feel like I’m ready to race the World Cup when I’m on the World Cup.” If Jones...
Bill Demong, who has struggled on the World Cup so far this season, took a decent step up the result list in Saturday’s COC race in Park City/Soldier Hollow.
While the SuperTour kicked off two weeks ago, the Canadian domestic series, the Haywood NorAm/Teck Sprints begin this weekend at Sovereign Lake Nordic Center, in Vernon, British Columbia. This year the series opens with a classic sprint, and a 10/15 k freestyle race. Home to some of the best and most consistent early season skiing in the country, Sovereign Lake is a regular on the Haywood NorAm series. According to National Development Center (NDC) Thunder...
As a cross country skier, it’s tough to turn down a free trip to World Cups in Estonia, Russia, and the Czech Republic. Unless, of course, you’ve got a shot at racing at World Championships in Norway later on in the winter. That’s the case for Alaska Pacific University’s (APU’s) Holly Brooks, the current women’s SuperTour leader. Along with her teammate Lars Flora, Brooks’s finishes at the November races in West Yellowstone earned her start...
Last week, a new race format debuted on tough courses, with freezing temperatures as a backdrop. Reviews from athletes and coaches were mixed. The Ruka Triple, the three-day World Cup mini-tour in Finland? Nope. Try the SuperTour Sprint Showdown, the double qualifier held in West Yellowstone, MT, last Thursday. The event was the first of its kind in North America, and so far as anyone knows, in the world. Thus far, other countries have not...
FasterSkier photographer Win Goodbody once again captured the first efforts of the season (well at least the first time they had on a bib) for many of the racers in the men’s distance race at the SuperTour in West Yellowstone.
Initial administrative hurdles almost sidelined Torin Koos at the BUL-sprint at Gålå, Norway, Saturday, in which Koos earned second place after leading with 50 meters to go.
The Russian Ski Association (FLGR) has received high praise over the last two months for its work to combat performance-enhancing drug use. After being fined more than $180,000 this spring, the country escaped a second round of penalties at meetings of the International Ski Federation (FIS) in early November, thanks to its anti-doping efforts—which included changes in officials and coaches affiliated with scandals. “We know they are on the right track,” Gian Franco Kasper, the...
The women’s 5 k classic SuperTour may have been held in West Yellowstone on Saturday, but the top of the results sheet read like an event from Scandinavia, with international skiers claiming three of the top four spots. Kristina Strandberg (XC Oregon) edged out Holly Brooks (APU) for the victory, while fellow Swede Maria Graefnings (U of U) rounded out the podium, ahead of Czech Eliska Hajkova (CU). Strandberg capped an excellent stretch of racing...
Leif Zimmermann is one of only two athletes in West Yellowstone with European racing experience this winter. But he’s also one of two athletes coping with the effects of a transatlantic jet flight, making a pair of sensational performances this weekend even more impressive. With his 20-second victory in Saturday’s 10 k classic, Zimmermann (BSF) won for his third time in four years in West Yellowstone, less than one week removed from racing 4,500 miles...
View selected photos from today’s SuperTour classic race in West Yellowstone.
The early races of a season are when we are able to pore over the results, see whose careful planning and hard training has worked best, who made big improvements and whose priorities have changed, but they are also the time when we are once again reminded why we love this sport. Here is a visual reminder from the eyes of FasterSkier photographer Win Goodbody that no matter what the results say the efforts are...
View Selected photos from SuperTour women’s skate race in West Yellowstone here.
Popular opinion has crowned Tad Elliott (CXC) as the next prince of US distance skiing, and on another cold morning in West Yellowstone, Montana, Elliott added evidence that those hopes are not ill-founded. In his first start of the 2011 season, Elliott skied away from a challenging field of elite US and Canadian domestic racers, to claim a 14.5 second victory over Lars Flora (APUNSC) in the 15km freestyle. Leif Zimmermann (BSF/Madshus) was third, another...
You had to look hard, but the signs were there. Over the past two years, Kate Fitzgerald’s results had been steadily progressing, topping out with a 14th place at last year’s U.S. Nationals. A few weeks ago, she was nearly as fast as 2010 Olympian Holly Brooks in a time trial with her club, Alaska Pacific University (APU). And in Thursday’s double sprint qualifier, she finished third and fifth. Still, no one expected Fitzgerald’s victory...
View Selected Photos from the SuperTour Sprint in West Yellowstone It was a cold one! Also the sprint course was mostly uphill. There were some hurtin’ puppies out there at the end. Despite not being used at the World Cup level, I’m sure there are some merits to this race format. Click Toko US is now on facebook.
Thursday’s weather in West Yellowstone was a big improvement from earlier this week, but race timers still found themselves in a perfect storm during the season opening SuperTour races. Coaches and athletes were in the dark all afternoon Thursday, when results from the double sprint qualifier were delayed for hours due to timing snafus. Two different finish lines, a skeleton crew of volunteers due to the holiday, a tight racing schedule, and an overambitious timer...
With temperatures in the single digits for the SuperTour-opening double sprint qualifier in West Yellowstone, it was all about staying warm on Thursday. But Drew Goldsack did better than that—he was on fire. Goldsack, racing for the Canadian National Team and the Alberta World Cup Academy, skied to convincing wins in both competitions, showing that he has returned to form after a down Olympic year recovering from injury. In the morning classic race, he won...
A year ago, Holly Brooks (APUNSC) burst onto the SuperTour scene, finishing 1st, 2nd and 4th in the three West Yellowstone races, a performance that set her on the way to a spot on the 2010 Olympic Team. Twelve months later Brooks has gone from surprise to favorite, and lived up to expectations with dual victories in the SuperTour Sprint Showdown on Thanksgiving day in West Yellowstone. Brooks dominated the field on a frigid day,...
WEST YELLOWSTONE, MT – The road to Oslo starts here. In this unlikely town of 1,500 people that has withstood sub-zero temperatures and nearly two feet of snow over the last few days, the 2011 SuperTour race series is scheduled to kick off Thursday morning with a double sprint qualifier. After a 24-hour postponement due to cold and the foul weather that stranded timing equipment and officials 100 miles from the competition venue, highways have...