Just a month into his tenure as governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker made a bold political move: he proposed a bill which would limit the rights of union workers to use collective bargaining. With a strong Republican majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the bill appeared poised to pass. On Thursday, Senate Democrats boycotted: they didn’t come in to work, meaning that the Republicans didn’t have a quorum to hold a...
APU teammates Holly Brooks and Lars Flora maintained the top spots in the overall SuperTour standings, despite skipping the last five races in the Midwest. Brooks continues to hold a significant margin over another APU skier, Kate Fitzgerald, on the women’s list. Fitzgerald also skipped the recent Midwest swing of the US Continental Cup circuit. Maria Stuber (CXC), however, not only raced, she raced fast, and has climbed into the third spot overall. On the...
The Mayor’s Challenge SuperTour at Wirth Park (Minneapolis) was this last weekend, and we (CXC) were pretty excited with our results in both the classic and skate: In four races, we had four 1sts, two 2nds, and two 3rds — plus a few more finishes in the top-six, which pay out prize money. Races were held in frigid conditions, with a mix of man-made and natural snow, including a small amount which fell Friday night....
Just over a week ago, FasterSkier traveled to Lake Placid for two days of SuperTour action. The events doubled as an EISA college carnival. Saturday featured a 6/10km classic individual start race held at the Lake Placid Jumping Complex. A midweek storm earlier in the week dumped plenty of snow on the trails at the planned venue – the Olympic trails of Mt. Van Hovenberg. But organizers chose to keep the races at the foot...
Whether or not home-course advantage has much impact in cross-country skiing, the CXC Elite Team had no problem defending their local snow. SuperTour racing moved to the Midwest for the Mayor’s Challenge – two days of racing in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Last week combined an EISA collegiate carnival with the Lake Placid SuperTour, and this week was similar, swapping out the Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA) for the EISA. The races are also Junior Olympic Qualifiers...
Noah Hoffman hadn’t won a major domestic race in…well even he wasn’t sure…maybe the Owl Creek Chase two or three years ago, Junior Nationals…? But the youngest member of the US Ski Team, who has had considerable success racing in Europe, left no doubt about who would stand on the top of the podium on a cold snowy day in Lake Placid. This was in fact his first significant US victory since the Owl Creek...
Saturday morning wasn’t a bad one for APU Head Coach Erik Flora. Just before 9:30 a.m., his athlete Kikkan Randall won a World Cup sprint race in the Czech Republic. And by 10:30, his team had already racked up win number two, as Holly Brooks skied to a dominating victory in the 10 k freestyle SuperTour in Lake Placid. Brooks said she learned of Randall’s victory moments before starting her own race, and harnessed that...
Lars Flora finally got the hard course he was looking for. After the two distance races at last week’s U.S. national championship were held on relatively pedestrian courses—to Flora’s disappointment—Friday’s SuperTour race in Lake Placid, a 10 k classic, featured five trips up an unrelenting, steep climb: a full kilometer from the landing of the town’s Olympic ski jumps, all the way up to the take-off point. Flora (APU) made the most of the challenge,...
As the SuperTour heads to Lake Placid, the ski community can learn a lot if it just takes a minute to look around. Two-time winter Olympic venue? Check. A love of sports bordering on the insane? Check. More snow than Rumford? Check. But one of the best lessons might be about giving back to the community. Olympic biathlete Haley Johnson, who was born and raised in the Lake Placid area, returned to her hometown after...
SuperTour action continues this weekend, as the domestic circuit moves from Rumford, ME, to Lake Placid for races on Friday and Saturday. Organizers are expecting between 325 and 350 athletes competing in a 10 k/6 k classic and a 15 k/10 k freestyle, headlined by competitors from the U.S. Ski Team and the Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Club. With two hours until entries closed at noon on Wednesday, Noah Hoffman (USST), Lars Flora (APU),...
If the men who skied eleven laps in Thursday’s national championship 30 k were hoping for some longer loops in next weekend’s SuperTour in Lake Placid, event chair Ethan Towsend has some disappointing news: unless Mt. Van Hoevenberg receives a huge dose of snow from an impending storm, it’s likely that one of the two competitions will have to be moved to a two-kilometer loop. The SuperTour, scheduled for next Friday and Saturday, includes two...
The last-year junior from the Methow Valley is using US Nationals as an opportunity to secure his ticket to the Junior World Championships in Estonia. Only the top five juniors in the country are named to the team.
HOUGHTON, Mich. – Registration for the 2011 USSA Michigan Tech Super Tour Event presented by Portage Health is now open. The event, January 28-30, will feature races for youth through professional skiers and everyone in between. All races are at the Michigan Tech Nordic Training Center, host of the 2006 Junior Olympics and the 2007 and 2008 U.S. National Championships. “Michigan Tech is proud to host the 2011 USSA Michigan Tech Super Tour Event presented...
Last week, a new race format debuted on tough courses, with freezing temperatures as a backdrop. Reviews from athletes and coaches were mixed. The Ruka Triple, the three-day World Cup mini-tour in Finland? Nope. Try the SuperTour Sprint Showdown, the double qualifier held in West Yellowstone, MT, last Thursday. The event was the first of its kind in North America, and so far as anyone knows, in the world. Thus far, other countries have not...
FasterSkier photographer Win Goodbody once again captured the first efforts of the season (well at least the first time they had on a bib) for many of the racers in the men’s distance race at the SuperTour in West Yellowstone.
The women’s 5 k classic SuperTour may have been held in West Yellowstone on Saturday, but the top of the results sheet read like an event from Scandinavia, with international skiers claiming three of the top four spots. Kristina Strandberg (XC Oregon) edged out Holly Brooks (APU) for the victory, while fellow Swede Maria Graefnings (U of U) rounded out the podium, ahead of Czech Eliska Hajkova (CU). Strandberg capped an excellent stretch of racing...
The early races of a season are when we are able to pore over the results, see whose careful planning and hard training has worked best, who made big improvements and whose priorities have changed, but they are also the time when we are once again reminded why we love this sport. Here is a visual reminder from the eyes of FasterSkier photographer Win Goodbody that no matter what the results say the efforts are...
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...
Thursday’s weather in West Yellowstone was a big improvement from earlier this week, but race timers still found themselves in a perfect storm during the season opening SuperTour races. Coaches and athletes were in the dark all afternoon Thursday, when results from the double sprint qualifier were delayed for hours due to timing snafus. Two different finish lines, a skeleton crew of volunteers due to the holiday, a tight racing schedule, and an overambitious timer...
