Coming straight from a national team training camp, Petter Northug Jr. (NOR) welcomes Pietro Piller Cottrer (ITA), Anders Soedergren (SWE) and Jack Mae (EST) and other international racers in the 3-race Tour de Troendelag events next week.
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Continental Cup
Continental Cups are one step below the World Cup. Each year the top ranked male and female skiers in each Continental Cup series qualify to race on the World Cup. The use Continental Cup series is the SuperTour. The Canadian series is the Nor-Am.
CXC Gears up for 2011
Maddy WendtJune 14, 2010
Big changes to the team roster and the coaching staff are this spring’s news for the Central Cross-Country Ski Association (CXC). 18 athletes and three coaches will comprise the 2011 team for one of North America’s largest and fastest-growing clubs. Vacating the post of head coach that he held since the formation of CXC in 2006, Bryan Fish has accepted a position with the US Ski Team (USST) as Continental Cup coach. Jason Cork will...
Champions may be made in the summer, but if Matt Gelso is any proof, they don’t have to be made on rollerskis. Gelso, the 2010 NCAA champion in the 10 k classic, detests rollerskiing. It’s dangerous, he says, and it can cause compartment syndrome. And it hurts his elbows. “If there’s one thing that’s going to make me quit skiing, it’s going to be too much rollerskiing in the summer,” Gelso said. But while collegiate...
The 2010-2011 Cross Country Canada (CCC) Race Events Calendar, while still in draft stages, is heavy on new formats. Three mini-tours are slated for the upcoming season, and while none of them are completely finalized, it would mark the first time in NorAm and Canadian history that such races would be held—much less three in one season. But tours have risen in popularity around the world since the inception of the Tour de Ski in...
Gaiazova Takes a Gentle Climb to the Top
Kieran JonesJune 1, 2010
Dasha Gaiazova exploded onto the North American cross-country scene this past season. She dominated the Nor-Am Cup Circuit, earning seven victories, and never once did she step off the podium in her 11 starts in North America. Gaiazova also made her mark on the international arena, collecting 63 World Cup points. After being an alternate at the Turin Games in 2006, she earned her first Olympic starts for the Canadian team in Vancouver in the...
The Central Cross-Country Ski Association has announced the roster for its elite race team – CXC Team Vertical Limit. 18 athletes including seven women and eleven men will don CXC black for the 2010-2011 race season. The men’s team is led by Olympian Garrott Kuzzy, who was not re-nominated to the US Ski Team. Kuzzy will be racing exclusively for CXC as he looks for a berth on the World Championship team. He is joined...
Simi Hamilton’s duct-tape days are over. After a spectacular winter that included an appearance at the 2010 Olympics and a national championship, the newly-minted U.S. Ski Team (USST) member begins the 2010-2011 season with a big jump in support and a long-term plan. Gone are the days of
June is still a week away, but the 2011 ski season is already lurking just around the corner, ready to pounce on any who spend too much time relaxing this spring. There are only 26 weeks (184 days) until the first SuperTour in West Yellowstone, and the season-opening Continental Cup races in Finland are even sooner – just 171 potential training days until these first FIS races. As the name would suggest, the calendar is...
There are very few coaches for whom taking a job with the U.S. Ski Team (USST) is a step down in intensity. But after 300 days on the road last year as head coach of the Central Cross Country (CXC) program, that might just be the case for Bryan Fish. Last week, Fish was announced as the USST’s new Continental Cup coach, completing a USST staff reorganization that began in April when Chris Grover took...
The nation’s biggest clubs have likely seen an influx of applications this spring, after the U.S. Ski Team (USST) cast off several athletes and eliminated its domestic waxing staff. But there was at least one athlete who didn’t throw his hat into the ring: Noah Hoffman. Instead of joining a heavyweight club like Alaska Pacific University or Sun Valley, Hoffman will stay affiliated with his home program, the Aspen Valley Ski Club (AVSC). “I reviewed...
Athletically, Tad Elliott and Torin Koos don’t have much in common. At 21, Elliott is a distance specialist, and still developing. Koos is a sprinter, and at 29, he’s in the latter half of his career. The two things they do share? Both had hopes of making the 2010-2011 U.S. Ski Team—and both were left off the roster. As part of a shift in strategy under new Head Coach Chris Grover, the team announced last...
Gaiazova and McMurtry Lead Canadian Sweep as FasterSkier Continental Cup Skiers of the Year
FasterSkierApril 20, 2010
Continental Cup Skier of the Year The Continental Cup Skier of the Year presented one of the biggest challenges of the 2010 FasterSkier Awards. Strong contenders from both the US and Canada entered the mix, with few head-to-head races to clarify the situation. Also complicating matters is the fact that the 2010 Canadian NorAm schedule featured many fewer races than the US SuperTour in 2010. Continental Cup Skier of the Year (women): Dasha Gaiazova (CAN). ...
Before this year’s mini-tour in Fort Kent, and even before the inaugural Tour de Ski in 2007, there was the Colorado International Spring Series (CISS) in 2004 and 2005. CISS was a stage race much like those coming into vogue today, and it was one of the first of its kind—if not the very first. Nathan Schultz, now the owner of Boulder Nordic Sport, had the idea for the event, and FasterSkier caught up with...
There were 43 entries in the FasterSkier SuperTour Finals “Pick the Podium” contest. Participants picked the top-3 in each of the SuperTour Finals races as well as the overall standings. Points were awarded as follows: First place in a race – 5 points Second place in a race – 3 points Third place in a race – 1 points Pick the whole podium for a race and get an additional 5 points. First place overall...
Since Kikkan Randall began Sunday’s 5 k hill climb with a 1:30 advantage over CXC’s Rebecca Dussault, the biggest question was not who would win. Rather, it was why Randall was racing in the German national team’s suit. Turns out she traded for it after the Olympics were over. But regardless of the reason, it didn’t get in the way of her skiing, as Randall rolled to another victory in the mini-tour in Fort Kent....
Today’s 7 k men’s hill climb in Fort Kent was scripted to end with an exciting finish. It didn’t disappoint. At the bottom, Andy Newell (USST) started the day with a 1:20 advantage over Ivan Babikov (Canada), one of the best pure climbers in the world. By the time they arrived at the top, Babikov had made up all the time. But he couldn’t shake Newell, who had saved just enough for the one kilometer...
A third of the way through the finals in Saturday’s classic sprint in Madawaska, Ida Sargent (CGRP) was doing something that nobody else had done over the last two days: giving Kikkan Randall (APU) a run for her money. At the bottom of the course’s main climb, Sargent shot past Randall out of the draft, then went stride for stride with the Alaskan up the first half of the hill. Randall ultimately pulled away over...
Andy Newell (USST) and Torin Koos (USST) are the two best male sprinters in the United States. But not until this frigid March day, in one of the furthest-flung corners of the country, did they finally go head-to-head in the classic sprint at the 2010 SuperTour Finals in Madawaska. It was worth the wait. After a qualifying round, a quarter, and a semifinal heat, the battle came down to a double-pole drag race in the...
It’s a difficult prospect after a half-dozen personal bests, a World Cup podium, and a front-page article in the New York Times sports section, but Kikkan Randall just keeps finding ways to impress this winter. After grinding out a victory in Wednesday’s 30 k just three days removed from competing in Europe, a better-rested Randall delivered an Alaska-sized beatdown to her competitors in Friday’s 7 k classic mass start race, the opening event of the...
On his way to the line for what he thought would be a second-place finish in Friday’s men’s 10k classic mass start, Andy Newell (USST) came across a surprising sight: Canadian skier Ivan Babikov skiing backwards in a parallel lane. Babikov had missed the sign where the finish split off from the lap lane, and was backtracking. In the process, Newell cruised by to take the victory, with Lars Flora (APU) and Torin Koos (USST)...