Liz Stephen certainly likes her hill climbs. Starting at a 2-minute, 26-second deficit in the pursuit start of the last stage of SuperTour Finals, she obliterated the field on the 6 k course to both win the tour and post the fastest time of the day by nearly two minutes. Kikkan Randall, who started the hill climb in the lead, settled for second after skiing off the course partway through the ascent.
It’s been almost two weeks since the Americans competing in Canmore found out they’d earned World Cup spots as part of the nation's group. The initial excitement now abated, the athletes racing the mass start classic and skiathlon on Thursday and Sunday want to ski within themselves and not let the bright lights of the World Cup get too blinding.
The lead nearly got away from her, but Sadie Bjornsen (APU/USST) was able to claw her way back from third to win the 10 k classic SuperTour in Bozeman by 17 seconds on Sunday. Chelsea Holmes (SVSEF) was second and Rosie Brennan (APU) took third.
WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. – The distance course on the South Plateau wasn’t too bad if you didn’t think about it too much. The 9-kilometer freestyle race – the first of the 2012/2013 U.S. SuperTour series – netted a slight elevation gain of about 300 feet from start to finish. A course profile indicated that the terrain was rolling. No problem. Try racing it. The individual start began around 7,260 feet above sea level, which is...
Ready or not, the 2013 SuperTour season is fast approaching. Here’s what you need to know about the domestic race scene this year. At this point, we’ve pretty much said everything we can about the twelve senior ski programs in the U.S. We ran a series throughout the summer highlighting each team’s past accomplishments and goals for the future. Read back through ‘em for comprehensive rosters and standalone previews (scroll down for links). Now that...
Note: This is the eighth preview in a quick-and-dirty series on U.S. elite teams. We asked coaches to send their 2012/2013 rosters and tell us what’s new for the coming season. We will be publishing additional reports over the next few weeks. Teams are presented in no particular order. Team: Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) Gold Team Coaches: Colin Rodgers (head coach), Clarke Sullivan (service tech) Roster: Simi Hamilton (U.S. Ski Team), Mike Sinnott,...
BEND, Ore. – It may have been spring at Mount Bachelor this weekend, but by the time Wednesday rolled around, it was more like winter. Snow had fallen overnight and stuck to the mountain’s flanks, and flurries continued to drift from the sky as the U.S. and Canadian national ski teams competed in relay races with several club teams. Canadian Olympian and current Alberta World Cup Academy coach George Grey skied the course before the...
CRAFTSBURY, Vt. – Shaking out the legs, clicking into their skis and moving their bodies just before the Friday’s 30-kilometer mass start at U.S. Distance Nationals, about 50 women looked straight ahead, all likely thinking the same thing. This is it. One more and we’re done. Some prepared for 20 times around a 1.5 k loop thinking each was a victory lap. Afterward, they’d be finished for the season. Four to five months of racing...
JAY, Vt. – Every uphill has to end at some point. But what if it’s a mountain, and what if you can’t see the top? Nearly 70 women and 90 men probably thought something along those lines as they ascended a 1.8-kilometer freestyle hill climb at the Jay Peak alpine resort on Wednesday. As part of the SuperTour Finals, the event was a pursuit with the mini-tour leader starting first and the rest of the...
Chelsea Holmes (SVSEF) may be used to racing at altitude, but that didn’t make the 5 k classic on Saturday at the Aspen SuperTour any less painful. “Oh my God, I felt like my heart was ripping out of my chest, all the time,” said Holmes after winning by 0.5 seconds in the individual start. Rosie Brennan (APU) was the runner-up for the second time in one day, as the classic sprint qualifier occurred earlier...
ASPEN, Colo. — Morgan Arritola (SVSEF) was officially back to full form on Sunday at the Owl Creek Chase. After appendicitis forced her to skip U.S. Nationals and subsequent SuperTours, she won the 21 k point-to-point mass start freestyle by nearly four minutes over Lenka Palanova (BNJRT). Chelsea Holmes (SVSEF) finished third (+4:48.6). “This was my kind of course: hard, uphill,” said Arritola. “I just went out as hard as I could—that’s kind of how...
ASPEN, Colo. — When Jennie Bender (CXC) went from sea level to over 8,000 feet in Aspen, Colo. on Thursday night, she didn’t quite know how her body would react when she began the classic sprint on Saturday. A 14.44-second victory definitely wasn’t what she expected. “I was going to take it out slower than I normally go; I wasn’t sure how the altitude would be,” said Bender. “But, I felt great—kind of surprised by...
Back in her stronger skate technique, Caitlin Gregg (CXC) started fast and didn’t let up while skiing to victory in the second stage of the Tour de Twin Cities. Gregg, who finished third in Saturday’s 5km classic, posted a 17-second win over Chelsea Homes (SVSEF). Maria Stuber (CGRP) was third, another 17 seconds behind Holmes in the 10-kilometer race. Racing in her adopted hometown, Gregg lives just a few blocks from the race venue. “Knowing...
After landing on the podium six times so far this winter, Jennie Bender (CXC) finally skied to the very top with her win at Wirth Park in Minneapolis, Minn on Saturday for the first race of the Tour de Twin Cities. In the 5 k classic, she ended up 10.3 seconds ahead of runner-up Rosie Brennan (APU); Caitlin Gregg (CXC) finished in third (+21.9). “I’m pumped to have a good start [to the Tour], but...
About halfway up Sun Valley’s Bald Mountain, Chelsea Holmes strained to see the top. Without much luck, she put her head down and poles forward, reciting a familiar mantra to push her to the finish. “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming,” a little fish sang out in her head. In her first time racing Idaho’s Baldy Hill Climb on Saturday, the 24-year-old Holmes wasn’t hallucinating. She actually felt pretty good scaling 3,140 vertical feet on...
Colin Rodgers, a longtime member of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) Olympic Development Team (ODT), has been named its head coach. He is taking over for Travis Jones, who stepped down this spring after three years on the job. “I am very fortunate for this opportunity,” Rodgers told FasterSkier in an interview. “I am going to be able to work with some great athletes that I already know really well.” A native of...
If there was anyone who deserved a beer after Saturday’s hill climb in Sun Valley, it was Kikkan Randall. After winning four straight races here—and the first three in the four-stage SuperTour Finals—Randall (APU/USST) had a whopping 1:23 head start over her nearest challenger in the four-kilometer hill climb up Dollar Mountain, which was handicapped based on results from earlier this week. Randall could have taken it easy. But that’s not the approach that gave...
After a lackluster season last year, Chelsea Holmes, a member of the new Far West Farm Team, had the best results of her career at the West Yellowstone Ski Festival over Thanksgiving weekend, finishing ninth in the classic sprint, fourth in the skate race, and eleventh in the classic race. Holmes, originally from Alaska, was a three-time NCAA qualifier for the University of Nevada (UNR) and an NCAA All-American in 2008. So she certainly has...
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...
