EISA Race Weekend #4: February 10-11. It was the 102nd Dartmouth Winter Carnival, but without the snow to host the nordic races of the themed “Sweetest Carnival Ever” had to be moved to the Trapp Family Lodge, the same location as last weekend’s races hosted by UVM. The race line-up was in the NCAA format of 5/10 individual start skate on Friday and 15/20 mass start classic on Saturday. Dartmouth and UVM continued their rivalry...
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...
As the sunlight sliced through rows of majestic trees in Nové Město na Moravě, Czech Republic, Sunday around noon, a few of the Norwegians could have afforded to soak up the scenery in the women’s 4×5 k relay. They probably didn’t, though. Marit Bjørgen finally lifted her head to look around as she entered the stadium to seal the Norwegian win. With a nearly 40 second lead, Bjørgen as the Norway I anchor threw up...
With every seemingly spontaneous sprint to the front of Saturday’s World Cup classic race in Nové Město na Moravě, Czech Republic, Devon Kershaw appeared as eager and energetic as a kid in a candy shop. Naysayers or nervous Nellies might have questioned the Canadian’s strategy in the 30 k mass start. The head coach of the Canadian national ski team, Justin Wadsworth wasn’t worried. Kershaw simply followed the plan the two carefully crafted before the...
As the saying goes, you can’t win them all and some races downright hurt. Maybe that’s not the adage, but it’s the truth. Several Americans felt an unfamiliar burn associated with disappointment on Saturday after finishing outside the top 30 in their respective World Cup mass starts in Nové Město na Moravě, Czech Republic. U.S. Ski Team rookie Jessie Diggins led the women’s squad, placing 33rd in the 15 k classic race. Kris Freeman was also...
Life on the World Cup is one giant judgment call. Each day brings new decisions and, sometimes, unforeseen challenges. With little time, athletes and coaches often make up their minds and go with it. That’s about all they can do. The spontaneity often leads to uncertainty – as is the case with this weekend’s World Cup in Nové Město na Moravě, Czech Republic. Several teams will probably do as the U.S. Ski Team plans and...
There’s something to be said about consistency. Canadians Graham Nishikawa and Michael Somppi might say it’s a little annoying. With repeat results, the two can’t be too upset with their performances in recent Alpen and Scandinavian Cup races. Both Senior Development Team skiers, Nishikawa and Somppi finished the same as they did in their previous races. At the Alpen Cup in Switzerland on Sunday, Nishikawa of the Alberta World Cup Academy was fifth in the...
Any high-level racer will tell you experience is key, but sometimes it’s just as important to take in the moment. Ask Mike Sinnott, a member of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Gold Team who recently competed in a couple of World Cups. Six days after placing 37th in the Moscow freestyle sprints for his second-best individual World Cup result, Sinnott made his first Scandinavian Cup start this year on Wednesday in Madona, Latvia. There,...
The third weekend of EISA qualifiers were combined with NENSA’s TD Bank Eastern Cup races and held at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vermont. The collegiate competitors topped the combined field on each day of individual start races, with only three Eastern Cup competitors cracking into the top ten. The podium saw no new faces this weekend, as Middlebury’s Patrick Johnson took both men’s races, Dartmouth’s Sophie Caldwell won the 5k classic race, and...
When Friday didn’t go according to plan for all of the Americans on the Nordic Combined World Cup, they were happy to have Saturday to shoot for better results. When the team sprint went better on the second day of competition in Val di Fiemme, Italy, with the two U.S. teams cracking the top 10, the four members were even more excited for Sunday. If trial and error told them anything, they figured they’d have...
The art and appeal of racing usually boils down to the unexpected. One can guess who will win, pick the favorites and anticipate the moves, but nothing is ever over ’til, well, it’s over. In two entirely different pursuit races Sunday in Cantley, Quebec, the odds and work ethic played out for the Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA). In the men’s 30 k classic pursuit, Graeme Killick and Jesse Cockney set out to aidi teammate...
Nearing the halfway point of the 10 k freestyle interval start at the Eastern Canadian Championships on Saturday, Emily Nishikawa heard a motivating split time: she was 10 seconds out of first. For different skiers under various circumstances, that might come as a surprise or a letdown. For Nishikawa, it told her exactly how to ski the second lap in order to beat Alberta World Cup Academy teammate Alysson Marshall. Hard. Fortunately, the 22-year-old Yukon...
Note: This recap has been updated to include quotes from third-place finisher Harry Seaton. Heat after heat, Jesse Cockney may have been racing around the same 1.4-kilometer sprint course in Cantley, Quebec, but in his mind, he was at the U23 World Championships on Friday. Cockney, 22, had been trying to visualize what it would be like in Erzurum, Turkey, ever since he officially qualified for the U23 trip in mid January. It helped that...
Alysson Marshall has a pretty good idea what her strengths are in any given race. Power up the hills, charge down them and conserve energy wherever possible. The 23-year-old Alberta World Cup Academy skier played Friday’s 1.4 k freestyle sprint accordingly, pacing herself to a qualifying win in 3:31.19 on the first day of the NorAm mini tour in Cantley, Quebec. She was 2.61 seconds ahead of the next fastest woman, Andrea Dupont of the...
For the better part of the last three months, the Canadians, like many national ski teams, have spent a lot of time together. Fortunately for the three men currently on the World Cup circuit, they seem to get along pretty well. Self-dubbed the “3 Amigos” on Twitter, Devon Kershaw, Alex Harvey and Lenny Valjas spend much of their free time goofing around and posting pictures of their collective shenanigans while traveling Europe. They must fit...
(Note: This recap has been corrected to include that Devon Kershaw previously made the podium in a World Cup freestyle sprint in 2006.) Maybe it was the frigid temperatures that scarcely rose above 2 degrees Fahrenheit, -17 degrees Celsius, on Thursday. Maybe it was Moscow. Maybe it was Canadian head coach Justin Wadsworth’s promise of a Hawaii trip if all went well. Devon Kershaw said he wasn’t sure what possessed him on Thursday, but it...
The second weekend of EISA racing was hosted by the University of New Hampshire (UNH) at the Jackson Touring Center. Friday held classic sprints and Saturday held 15 and 20 k mass start skate races. Dartmouth won the weekend’s team scores over UVM by grabbing all four individual titles and an impressive nine out of the twelve podium spots, though UVM snagged the remaining three. Heavy precipitation on Thursday night dumped snow onto a very...
Jennie Bender wasn’t sure what the noise was, but she remembered it from watching the men’s race before the women’s 5 k classic mass start at Green Acres Park in Lake Elmo, Minn., on Saturday. As far as she knew, the horn meant go. And so, in the fourth of five stages at the Tour de Twin Cities SuperTour event, Bender reacted. The multi-stage leader from Central Cross Country (CXC) skied to a commanding lead,...
“Young Briton Beat Northug.” “Andrew Musgrave Outdistanced Norwegian Cross Country Elite.” So read the headlines in Norway on Thursday after Andrew Musgrave (GBR) snuck his way into second place in the opening event of the country’s national championships in Voss, Norway to Martin Johnsrud Sundby (NOR), who took the win by 1:07.1 in the 15 k individual freestyle. Ansnes Ron Frederick (NOR) placed third (+1:22.5), and in another noteworthy finish, 40-year-old Thomas Alsgaard (+1:23.3)...
The first races of the Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association (EISA) were hosted by Bates College and held at Black Mountain in Rumford, Maine – the same location that hosted the US Nationals just two weeks ago. It was the first showdown of the year, and every team wanted to establish their place on the ranking list. Continuing their rivalry from last year, the University of Vermont (UVM) and Dartmouth (DAR) battled for the top team...