CRAFTSBURY, Vt. – In shades of red, blue, green and white, six highly competitive women stood at the start line at the SuperTour Finals on Tuesday waiting for their signal to get after the 1.6-kilometer classic loop one more time. On one end of the A-final lineup stood World Cup sprint champion Kikkan Randall, who flew in from Europe on Sunday. On the other, her World Cup teammate and distance specialist, Liz Stephen soaked up...
MONT SAINTE-ANNE, Québec — Whipping along the first of two downhills on a chemically enhanced sprint course at Canadian Ski Nationals on Thursday, Chandra Crawford could feel the vibrations in the stadium. Everyone there could. A helicopter soared directly ahead, swaying above one end of the 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint loop to the other for an unrivaled viewpoint of the nation’s cross-country skiing finale. Spectators buzzed that the mayor of Québec was inside. In fact, it...
All American Birkebeiner coverage is brought to you through the generous support of SkiErg. HAYWARD, Wis. – Rounding one of last corners in the American Birkebeiner 50-kilometer skate race, Holly Brooks felt a pang of familiarity. Stronger than déjà vu, the 29-year-old from Anchorage, Alaska, knew she had been in a similar position in the same race before. From Brooks’ standpoint, finishing second in the 2009 Birkie by one-tenth of a second to Rebecca Dussault of...
All American Birkebeiner coverage is brought to you through the generous support of SkiErg. Birkie Elite Sprints are available to watch
All Madison SuperTour and American Birkebeiner coverage is brought to you through the generous support of SkiErg. MADISON, Wis. – At the first 90-degree turn on the four-corner course around Capitol Square, Jennie Bender almost came to a stop. Standing up, she scanned her three competitors in the women’s A-final at the SuperTour 1 k freestyle sprint on Sunday. The Central Cross Country (CXC) Elite Team skier was looking for one in particular. Bender eventually drew...
All 2012 Madison SuperTour and American Birkebeiner coverage is brought to you through the generous support of SkiErg. MADISON, Wis. — Jennie Bender of Central Cross Country (CXC) won another qualifier in the second straight day of sprints around Wisconsin’s state capital, posting the fastest time in 2:04.0. After winning Saturday’s classic sprint qualifier by more than 6 seconds, Bender had less of a gap on Sunday. Hilary McNamee of Maine Winter Sports Center was...
All 2012 Madison SuperTour and American Birkebeiner coverage is brought to you through the generous support of SkiErg. MADISON, Wis. – Two hours seems like a lot of time between qualifiers and heats, but when it comes down to it, sprints are sprints. They’re restless from start to finish. Between the SuperTour 1 k classic races at the heart of Wisconsin’s state capital on Saturday, some athletes killed time by running around downtown. Others, like...
All Madison SuperTour and American Birkebeiner coverage is brought to you through the generous support of SkiErg. MADISON, Wis. — Jennie Bender of Central Cross Country (CXC) did as she intended in Saturday’s 1 k classic sprint qualifier, the first race of the Madison SuperTour, posting the fastest time by 6.1 seconds. Bender won the city sprint qualifier in 2:18.7, ahead of Hannah Dreissigacker (Craftsbury Green Racing Project) in second. Hilary McNamee (Maine Winter Sports...
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. — 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...
A top-five was all she needed to secure the overall win, but Jennie Bender (CXC) skied beyond that in Sunday’s 15 k freestyle pursuit at Green Acres, the final event of the five-race Tour de Twin Cities. The first athlete out of the gate, Bender finished third to teammate Caitlin Gregg (CXC), who won the pursuit by over a minute and a half and finished the Tour in second overall. Rosie Brennan (APU) was second...
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,...
With her second win out of three races in the Tour de Twin Cities on Wednesday, Jennie Bender (CXC) now leads the five-stage event. The 1.4 k freestyle sprint prologue was held under the lights at Wirth Park in Minneapolis, Minn., and was the final race of the Mayor’s Challenge phase of the Tour. Lauren Fritz (APU) was the runner-up and Bender’s teammate Caitlin Gregg (CXC) was third. “I really wanted to get today,” said...
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...
RUMFORD, Maine — With falling snow and six trips up Black Mountain’s infamous ‘High School Hill’ the ladies’ 20km classic mass start was exciting. Through the race the lead pack decreased from a mass to just five and by the time the skiers finally crossed the line it was the US Ski Team/CXC’s Jessie Diggins who got there first to win another title. Check out how it unfolded.
RUMFORD, Maine — The stadium at Black Mountain held its collective breath as spectators waited for the lead pack of the women’s 20 k classic mass start to come through for the last time at the U.S. Cross Country Championships. The question in everyone’s mind was, could Jessie Diggins (CXC/USST) pull off yet another win? The race came down to tactics — the top five women stayed in a tight group for the first five laps,...
RUMFORD, Maine – A cold and windy day on the trails of Black Mountain resulted in tactical sprint races on Tuesday. When the boots finally crossed the finish line it was a CXC sweep of the podium, check out how it went down. Contributing camera work by Evan Dethier.
RUMFORD, Maine – Standing opposite of six bodies storming toward the finish at the 2012 U.S. Cross Country Championships on Tuesday, a spectator a few hundred meters away might have struggled to pick out a specific racer in the Central Cross Country crew. There were three of them in the women’s 1.4 k freestyle sprint A-final at the Black Mountain on Tuesday — all in red, all blond and all at the front of...
ROSSLAND, British Columbia — Emerging from a curved and wooded downhill into the open-aired Black Jack stadium, Jessie Diggins suddenly felt an unfamiliar pang of dread. Looking around her, the Central Cross Country and U.S. Ski Team member realized she was alone and not where she wanted to be. She hadn’t lost the race, but could have been out of it entirely. The leader of Sunday’s NorAm 9.9 k freestyle mass start, Diggins immediately pulled...
ROSSLAND, British Columbia — Some 2,500 kilometers or 1,550 miles away from Wisconsin, the Central Cross Country (CXC) ski team was feeling a little travel-weary as it rolled into Rossland on Monday. After almost five weeks on the road, some of its members decided to remedy their bodies and minds with a distance ski on the Rossland-Paulson classic-only trail. A little confusion led Jessie Diggins and Jennie Bender to the wrong trail, Seven Summits, where...