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U.S. Nationals Men’s 30 k Classic Mass Start Video

The action at the 2013 U.S. Cross Country Ski Championship heated up this morning when the senior men started off the day with the 30 k classic mass start. Six laps of the challenging 5 k loop at Soldier Hollow made for an exciting race as eighteen skiers were together in the lead pack for the majority of the race, but during the final kilometers only a handful of men were in contention for the national title. As they climbed Soldier Hollow's fabled Hermode's Hill for the final time it was Torin Koos (BSF) who made a decisive move to claim the national title with Erik Bjornsen (USST/APU) and David Norris (MSU) finishing second and third respectively. Check out our footage of the race.

Last night it was just a bit overcast which kept things from getting as clear and cold as it has been recently, but it was still 4f at the venue 2 hours before the start, so the snow was still cold. Although the conditions were slightly different (no hoarfrost that needed to be skied in for example), our wax tests (both kick and glide) showed that the same products that had been performing the past two days continued to.

U.S. Nationals Men’s 15 k Freestyle Video

The men's 15 k freestyle at the U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships at Soldier Hollow in featured fierce racing on a challenging course. The 15 second interval individual start format kept a steady stream of racers, and as the top seeds came to the finish line it was Erik Bjornsen (APU/USST) that posted the fastest time and earned the national title. Watch our footage of the action.

Although I did a really poor job today on the photos, this was probably our most successful day ever for wax. The wax tip of HF Blue covered by a mix of JetStream Blue powder and XCold powder, both ironed in together was super for the women. For the men, it was the same except a good application of JetStream Blue Bloc on top was even better. It was -9f this morning and there was an inversion, but not as strong as yesterday. The snow stayed very cold and was faster that one would think considering the temperatures. We added in the XCold powder to the blue powder because it was faster. It hardens the JetStream Blue up and makes the skis really slippery on the climbs especially.