We all work better when we work together—that would seem to be the credo being employed by American skiers these days. At the conclusion of US Nationals at Utah’s Soldier Hollow, American skiing has rarely looked better, whether internationally or domestically. The warm temps and blue skies of early week at the US Cross Country Ski National Championships gave way to, of all things, snow. Morning light came up on Soldier Hollow; snow drifted in...
Race day at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah offers a microcosm for the role the venue has played in US skiing. The once, and possibly future, Olympic venue is consistent, stark, and starkly consistent in its conditions, its terrain, and in the quality of the events the crew at the Soldier Hollow Nordic Center put on. The typical SoHo day starts dark, dry and frigid, before the sun crests the Wasatch Mountains and gives way...
The 2022 NENSA Summer Series hosted its first rollerski race of the season at the beginning of July. The Lost Nation Roll took place at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center on July 3rd, and by all accounts, was a huge success. Both men and women raced 10 k in an interval start format on the Outdoor Center’s paved rollerski loop. Coinciding with the Eastern Regional Elite Group (REG) camp, around 40 top Eastern juniors boosted the...
While World Cup Finals were underway in mid-March in Falun, Sweden, a second contingent of top American skiers was lining up roughly 2,000 kilometers south to race in the OPA Cup Finals in Sappada, Italy. Located along the northern edge of Italy near the Austrian border, the small town is nestled among the spectacular, jagged massifs of the Italian Dolomites, roughly an hour’s drive east of Toblach, which typically hosts the final stages of the...
By Rachel Bachman Perkins and Ben Theyerl Precipitation was no longer a threat for the final day of racing in Soldier Hollow on Friday, a 1.5-kilometer classic sprint offered alongside the 2022 U.S. Cross Country Championships, yet classified as SuperTour only. However, athletes still faced unseasonably warm weather as blazing sun brought temperatures into the low 50’s on course during the midday heats. Howling wind and rippling bibs could be heard as background noise as...
Team name and location: Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP, or Craftsbury); Craftsbury, Vermont Coaches: Pepa Miloucheva (head coach); Michael Gibson (biathlon coach); Nick Brown (assistant coach and wax tech); Ethan Dreissigacker (assistant biathlon coach) Current roster (skiing and biathlon): Braden Becker, Adam Martin, Akeo Maifeld-Carucci, Caitlin Patterson, Michaela Keller-Miller, Margie Freed, Annika Landis, Alex Lawson (skiing); Jake Brown (Luke’s brother), Raleigh Goessling, Hallie Grossman, Susan Dunklee, Kelsey Dickinson, Tara Geraghty-Moats, Clare Egan, Luke Brown (Jake’s...
The rain stopped just long enough for Caitlin Patterson and Jake Brown to savor their wins at the 2021 edition of the Climb to the Castle last Saturday in Wilmington, NY, near Lake Placid. Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP) swept the women’s podium; Caitlin Patterson edged Margie Freed for the win in 46:48.8, with her teammate just .7 second back in 46:49.5. Tara Geraghty-Moats placed third in 47:35.0. Brown, skiing for US Biathlon / CGRP,...
Under gray skies, runners and bikers lined up on Sunday, August 29th in Stowe, VT, to “Race to the Top of Vermont.” The 4.3 mile race climbs over 2,500 vertical feet up the Mt. Mansfield Toll Road at roughly an 11% average grade, this year finishing inside a cloud with wind whipping the finish line flagging. The event drew in nearly 300 participants with 215 runners taking on the focal challenge of making their way...
NCAA Skiing Championships (Jackson, N.H.): 15/20 k freestyle mass starts On the final day of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Skiing Championships in northern New Hampshire, the University of Utah pulled out a 16.5-point victory over the University of Colorado-Boulder (and finished 17.5 points ahead of the University of Denver) in the team standings, and the Petra Hyncicova, achieved their second-straight titles in as many nordic races this week. On a frigid Saturday morning in Jackson,...
FIS Cross-Country World Cup (Drammen, Norway): Classic sprints Just three days after 2017 Nordic World Championships ended in Lahti, Finland, World Cup cross-country skiers were back to their regular-season grind with 1.2-kilometer classic sprints on Wednesday in Drammen, Norway. In the men’s race, Norway stole the day with Eirik Brandsdal notching his first World Cup win since 2015 in Drammen, but Russia’s Sergey Ustiugov broke up the team’s total domination of the final with a...