Continental Cup

DUNTROON, ONT. — Sara Renner began her comeback to the international podium with a gold medal in the women’s 10-kilometer cross-country skiing pursuit race, while George Grey shocked the field after skiing his way to the podium for the first time this year in the men’s 20-kilometer pursuit at the Haywood NorAm Series in Duntroon, Ontario on Thursday. The Olympic silver medalist Renner, who took last year off to have a baby daughter following an...

APUNSC continues to lead the Team SuperTour standings, but Rossignol made a big push over the weekend, moving from 4th 211 points back, to 2nd, 112 down. The University of Utah fell from 2nd to 3rd, despite strong individual finishes in the sprint. Top 5 Teams – Overall SuperTour Standings APUNSC 465 Rossignol 353 University of Utah 315 Factory Team 261 CXC 252 Full team standings can be found at the USSA website here. The...

Morgan Arritola of the US Ski Team won the women's 15km freestyle event at Soldier Hollow. Arritola edged USST teammates Tazlina Mannix (APUNSC) and Laura Valaas (APUNSC) by 4 and 7.9 seconds respectively. Arritola's previous best finish this season on the SuperTour was a 9th place in the 8km Classic in West Yellowstone. Mannix bested her third place from last weekend's 10km freestyle in Bozeman. Neither of the women raced in yesterday's sprint. SuperTour leader...

Even Sletten continued his run of strong performances on the SuperTour sprint circuit, taking his first victory of the season. Reid Pletcher (SVSEF) was second and Marshall Greene (Alpina/Madshus) took third. Sletten posted the fastest qualifying time by a significant 4.5 seconds and won each of his heats on the way to the top of the podium. In the women's race, Kjersti Boe found a way to better Sletten's performance, dominating every step of the...

After two weekends of racing, Garrott Kuzzy (CXC) and Laura Valaas (APUNSC) are leading the overall SuperTour Standings. Both Valaas and Kuzzy have two victories and have scored points in all four events. Valaas is also leading the women's sprint rankings, winning both races. She is second to the Factory Team's Kristina Strandberg (SWE) in the distance rankings. Kuzzy leads the men's distance category and is third on the sprint list, behind Even Sletten and...

The two young Canadian sprinting specialists, who have already cut some beginning tracks on the World Cup circuit, captured the Quebec skate-sprint titles of the Teck Cominco Sprints, which are held in conjunction with the Haywood NorAm series — the premier development cross-country skiing race circuit in North America. The 24-year-old Widmer, of Banff, Alta., who made his Olympic debut in 2006 and also qualified fourth in the sprint event at his first-ever World Cup...

Temperatures were painfully cold for the second day of SuperTour racing at Bohart Ranch near Bozeman, MT. But, the approximately 4km loop was in very good shape with good coverage and a firm base, and once again a very strong field showed up ready to go all-out in the fourth SuperTour race of the year, an individual-start 12km/16km freestyle. The women raced first, led by last year's distance SuperTour winner Caitlin Compton who has been...

After an off-weekend following the opening SuperTour events in West Yellowstone, MT, the SuperTour action picked up again with athletes from all over the country converging at Bohart Ranch, site of the 2002 US Nationals. The races were moved from the originally-planned location (Lindley Park in downtown Bozeman, MT) to the upper meadow of Bohart—about 20 minutes from Bozeman—where there was just enough snow to set some good classic tracks. There had been a moment...

Full photogallery available online at: www.bsfnordic.com Over the past seven days at Bohart Ranch in Bozeman, MT, conditions changed from mid-winter powder, to slush, to boilerplate ice, and finally to a powder-granular mix for the races. Conditions did not hinder Laura Valaas (USST/APU/Salomon), who sprinted to her second SuperTour victory of the season. In the men’s field, it was Snorri Einarsson (University of Utah) claiming the victory over tough-luck teammate Even Sletten. Finding the right...

CANMORE, ALTA. — Tasha Betcherman and Ivan Babikov won the women’s and men’s cross-country skiing Haywood NorAm pursuit races at the Canmore Nordic Center on Thursday morning. Tasha Betcherman, who has been a model of consistency on the Haywood NorAm series over the last two seasons, won her first race of the year in the women’s 10-kilometer mass start pursuit race after setting the time to beat at 31 minutes 16.6 seconds. Betcherman won a...

It is a little dated, but we have video footage from the opening SuperTour in West Yellowstone. Unfortunately the footage of the second women;s semi-final, and the finish of the men's A-final was corrupted. Related on FasterSkier: Yellowstone SuperTour Sprint Results Men's and Women's A-Finals Men's and Women's B-Finals Women's Semifinals Men's Semifinals Men's and Women's Junior Finals

Dasha Gaiazova and Ivan Babikov won the season-opening Haywood NorAm cross-country skiing race series at the Sovereign Lake Nordic Club near Vernon, B.C. on Saturday afternoon. The 23-year-old Gaiazova, who was a rookie on the World Cup circuit last year, overcame cold and windy conditions to complete the women’s 10-kilometer skate-ski race in a time of 31 minutes 16.7 seconds. “I appreciate these races so much more and having an opportunity to compete for podium...

From TeamToday…. “We had 60 degree days and sunny skies for our training camp in Park City. It was warm… Maybe a little too warm… Leading up to the first races of the year for the Continental Cup team no one wanted to talk about how warm it really is was for that time of year. On Monday of last week we were loading the vans to embark on the first trip of our race...

West Yellowstone, MT – Kristina Strandberg (Factory Team) skied away from the field, winning by 50 seconds over last year's SuperTour Sprint Champion Laura Valaas (USST/APUNSC). Polina Ermoshina, skiing for the UNiversity of New Mexico was third .2 seconds behind Valaas. Lindsey Williams (USST/NMU) was another .9 seconds back in 4th. Conditions were excellent – cold temperatures and a firm track resulted in relatively straightforward waxing. The course was held on a roughly 4+ kilometer...

Yesterday's article on the SuperTour Sprint in West Yellowstone incorrectly named Laura Valaas as last year's SuperTour Champion. Caitlin Compton was the overall winner in 2006-2007. Laura was the Sprint Champion. Our apologies to Caitlin.

The 2007-2008 SuperTour season began under cold sunny skies in West Yellowstone, Montana. Last year's women's SuperTour Sprint Champion Laura Valaas picked up where she left off, narrowly edging Switzerland's Karin Camenisch in a photo finish. On the men's side, CXC's Garrott Kuzzy skied a tactical final and used a blistering finish to take the top spot. Valaas and Camenisch posted the top times in the qualifying round, with Camenisch earning the poll position. Both...

After nearly a foot of snow fell on West Yellowstone, the SuperTour season will begin as scheduled. Friday, November 23: Individual Freestyle Sprint Saturday, November 24: 10/15km Classic This season, the SuperTour will award its millionth dollar in prize money.