Some of the most competitive skiers in the U.S. SuperTour circuit give thanks and express appreciation for friends and family before, during and after their Thanksgiving ski sessions in West Yellowstone, Mont., one day before the SuperTour opens there on Friday.
BSF is looking a little bigger this year with more than a dozen athletes between its elite and post-grad teams (up from three elite-team members last year). "With the combination of a good group of college skiers, energy has been high and there has been a great atmosphere for training,” coach Andrew Morehouse explains.
To say that Jennie Bender had an inconsistent season is a bit of an understatement. She won her first national championship and dropped out of her first race within the same week this January, and in April finished last in the 30 k National Championship. Now, as she recovers from a herniated disk in her back, she's moving on from her team of the past three years at Central Cross Country to the Bridger Ski Foundation in Bozeman, Mont.
Russian Andrei Tiuterev and CXC's Jennie Bender took top honors in the Madison SuperTour city sprint on Sunday.
In front of the capitol building in downtown Madison, Wis., Rosie Brennan and Dmitry Ozerskiy out-sprinted a tight field for the first wins of this weekend's SuperTour.
Sophie Caldwell hung tough for second place in Sunday's skate sprint in Estonia, just 0.14 seconds out of first, for her best Scando Cup result. Jennie Bender had another solid day in 11th and three other American women made the top 30. On Saturday, Ben Saxton led the U.S. men in 33rd in the classic sprint.
Reese Hanneman won the 10 k classic race at Wirth Park on Saturday for his first career SuperTour distance win. He beat Mike Sinnott and Torin Koos in second and third, respectively. Rosie Brennan bested Jennie Bender by 0.6 seconds in the women's 5 k to take home stage four.
After a cold-induced delay in competition the Tour de Twin Cities continued on Friday in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with a classic sprint at Wirth Park. In conditions more amenable to racing, Mike Sinnott and Jennie Bender took home the titles in stage three.
Jennie Bender and Torin Koos skied away from their respective fields in Sunday's classic mass starts at Wirth Park to win the second stage of the Tour de Twin Cities, part of the SuperTour series.
And just like that, it's all over. U.S. Nationals drew to a close on Tuesday at Soldier Hollow with the completion of the freestyle sprint. As usual, there were a lot of leftover bits and pieces from the post-race interviews.
All six of the female finalists in the U.S. nationals skate sprint had a pretty good sense how the last race around Soldier Hollow would play out. Caitlin Gregg threw them for a loop, but Sadie Bjornsen responded, edging Sophie Caldwell and Jennie Bender for the win.
The women's classic sprint at Soldier Hollow was a nail-biter of a race, decided in the final meters of the A-final when Jennie Bender eked ahead of Sadie Bjornsen to take her first U.S. Nationals title. Click through our photos to relive the excitement.
Despite illness, disrupted training and frustration with her early season, Jennie Bender (Central Cross Country) will not quit. A mere month after disappointing results in Bozeman, she came from behind on Wednesday to win the classic sprint at U.S. Nationals. Sadie Bjornsen was second and Rosie Brennan third.
In Bozeman earlier this season, bibs had to be redistributed for SuperTour sprint heats once starters were already on lining up. More recently and catastrophically in Craftsbury, an Eastern Cup had to cancel its sprint heats and hold a second qualifier after cascading hardware failures wreaked havoc on results. Here's why we can't expect these problems to go away.
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...
The symptoms started at a July training camp with Central Cross Country (CXC) in northern Wisconsin. The runner-up from last year’s SuperTour series, Jennie Bender, 24, wasn’t feeling well. For two to three days at a time, she’d experience bouts of nausea. Then her neck felt sore, along with her jaw and teeth. One night, she tossed and turned with cold chills, and feared that she’d wake up a leper. The next day, she pushed...
Train With Birkie Champions! Matt Liebsch & Jennie Bender July 27-29 in Seeley, Wis. (Just ten miles north of Hayward) Imagine how much your skiing will improve by spending a weekend dryland training with Birkie Champions Matt Liebsch and Jennie Bender at the fastperformancetraining@gmail.com or, call 612-590-1427. CAMP SCHEDULE Friday, July 27, 2012: 3-5pm: Check in at Lenroot Lodge and Sawmill Saloon 5-6:15pm: Intro to the fundamental movements of Nordic skiing with Bill Pierce. Dryland skills and technique...
Birkie Classic winner will challenge Birkie Skate winner at Telemark Forest Mountain Bike Race (Press release) CXC Team member Jennie Bender, the 2011 Birkie Classic Winner and 2012 Birkie skate third-place finisher, will be entering the CXC Triple standings and she is looking to make up ground before the Birkie Trail Run in September. Both athletes have great fitness right now and it should be a battle to the finish. Modeled after the prestigious Norwegian Birkebeiner Trippel, the CXC Triple provides competitors with a year-round competition to...
Note: This is the fourth 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: Central Cross Country, known as CXC Team Coaches: Igor Badamshin (head coach), Andy Keller (assistant) Roster: Karl Nygren, Brian Gregg, Doug Debold, Adam Martin, Eric Wolcott; Jennie Bender, Caitlin Gregg, Nichole Bathe...
With the news that Jason Cork will be joining the U.S. Ski Team staff as the