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wax truck

Making the Grade: A, B, and D Teams. What’s the Difference?

Every fall the U.S. cross-country ski team announces its new roster. But there are teams within the team which makes it a little complicated to figure out exactly who belongs where. With designations of A, B, and D teams. The method for how members are selected to these teams is well documented, and it’s all contained in a public document on the U.S. team’s website. But as you’ll see, that process is going to change...

An accountant, a summer flooring salesman and an Estonian helped Diggins deliver bronze. Here’s how.

ZHANGJIAKOU — Patrick Moore is a cheerful accountant from Edmonton, Alberta. Tim Baucom spends his summers working sales for a Vermont plank flooring company. Oleg Ragilo runs a cosmetic shop in Estonia with his wife. Jessie Diggins, the American cross-country ski star, couldn’t have won her Olympic bronze without them. Moore, Baucom and Ragilo all belong to America’s nine-member ski service team here — a mix of mostly paid staff and a couple of volunteers like Moore....

U.S. Ski Team Locks In for Waxing, Winning with New Wax Truck

  Since 2008 when Sweden arrived on the World Cup scene with a full-scale, blue-and-yellow-wrapped wax truck, it didn’t take long for the other major cross-country ski nations to not only keep up with the Joneses but surpass them. 2009 saw Norway arrive and begin lording over the wax-truck world with a succession of vehicles. As only Norway might do on the nordic-resource amenities side of things — Norway out Norway-ed itself. Its World Cup...

Nordic Nation: Wax-Truck Road Trip with Tim Baucom (While Andrew Morehouse Pilots)

$600,000 dollars of precious wax truck (that amount includes the taxes on the truck), as well as something like 600 pairs of skis. That’s a lot of XC schwag. And a lot of eventual ski cleaning. (See below.) And just to be safe, we also dialed up Baucom on Day 2 of their three-day journey to Davos. It’s always a good idea to check back in — new pricey truck, irreplaceable skis and two of...

Bjoergen’s Boards and the Olsson Brothers: Inside Norway’s Wax Truck

The Norwegian wax truck is anything but subtle. A jet black tractor trailer with the visages of Petter Northug, Marit Bjoergen, and Therese Johaug painted with the Norwegian tri-colors and twisted into various expressions of comical aggression, the vehicle travels the World Cup circuit, the workplace of 10 to 12 committed technicians. Arch-rivals Sweden and Norway are the only two nations to possess such a convenience, the product of a passionate national following (and the...