I’m holed up in a little place called Telemark, WI catching a few minutes on the interenet while the guys are waxing and warming up for their race. Today is a 15k classic for guys and 10k for girls. (more…)

straight up results:

Marshall: 2nd

Zach: 10th 

Evelyn: 7th

10k skate for women, 15k for men. 2.5 K loop, you do the math. I can’t say this is my favorite type of course to ski but it makes it fun and interesting. Short steep hills and twisty turns made for a pretty fast course, except for the fact that the sky opened up at the start of the guys race and dumped snow for the entire ordeal. For the women’s race however, the man-made snow held fast and I managed to inadvertently catch air over the crest of one of the compression hills each lap. At 15 sec intervals, I had expected a more packed course but the race organizers did an excellent job of keeping things from collapsing into complete mayhem by staggering the seeds by half hour chunks or so. Marshall is kicking me off the internet now so more updates later. 

The Great Nordeen (Bend, OR):

Well, it’s a little belated but Tim and Colin hung around in the midwest last weekend to compete in the Capital Square Sprints in downtown Madison, WI.  This is definitely the coolest ski race in the country, with snow trucked around most of the capital building of Wisconsin.  Lots of spectators, racing in the dark, and narrow tracks.  In addition to the normal races, Friday night started with an attempt at the 100m world record.  Tough conditions prevented a new record but Colin finished 2nd in 12.43 about half a second off the world’s best time.  Tim was 8th in 13.25.

Saturday was the sprint relay in which Colin and Tim paired off to finish 9th.

Sunday in the individual race Colin finished 2nd in the B final to end of 6th.  Tim got impeded on the narrow course during the qualifier when a skier going the opposite direction went wide into his lane, yet still finished a decent 13th.

Meanwhile, the rest of us headed home and enjoyed beautiful skiing in Bend for a week.  Now, Brayto, Evelyn, Zach, and I have returned to the midwest for more Super Tour racing.  This weekend at Mount Itasca, MN and the next supposedly in Telemark, WI.  I say supposedly because the snow is pretty minimal there at this point while other places in the midwest now have great skiing.

Marshall, Taylor and I “previewed” the Great Nordeen course yesterday. I use the term somewhat loosely, because neither Marshall nor I will actually be racing the Great Nordeen, so really it was just a nice ski. In case you’re wondering, the course goes from Sunrise baselodge (about 6500′) to Wanogo snowpark (about 5400′) over 36k. (more…)

This time of year, XC Oregon racers head in all sorts of directions, racing all over the country.  Here’s where a number of us will be racing in the upcoming weeks:

Jan. 13th: Gunnar Hagan 30km Classic near (at?) Snowqualmie Pass in Washington (Levi, Jason?)

Jan. 13-14: Capital Square Sprints in Downtown Madison, WI (Tim, Colin)

Jan. 20th: The Great Nordeen– 36km Free right here in Bend  (lots of team members including our newest female addition Taylor Leach)

Jan. 20: Pepsi Challenge 48k Skate– Giant’s Ridge, MI (Ben)

Jan. 20-21st: Mount Itasca Super Tour–near Grand Rapids, MN (Brayton, Zach, Marshall) (more…)

Actually, it was worse than mediocre.  It was just bad.  A 7th in the team sprint and 21st in the classic race might not sound that terrible but I was expecting quite a bit better.  Given my early season results, I figured a top 10 in the individual races should have been well within my reach.  Instead I finished minutes behind skiers that I frequently beat. (more…)

Most have probably seen all the results by now but here’s the scoop on the XC ORegon teams.

• Evelyn raced with Corey Coogan, fellow Alpina/Madshus athlete, and finished 9th in her semi-final.
• Zach raced with Dave Chamberlain, cruising to 3rd in their semi and advancing.  In the final, they were well poised in the lead pack but Zach got tangled up and fell on the climb forcing them to have to work extra hard to catch back on to the group.  They still finished a strong 9th
• Marshall and Brayton raced together and finished 4h in the same semi as Zach, despite Brayton’s pole exploding and having to stop to get a spare.  Pete Vordenburg, US Ski team coach, saw Brayto break it and came running to give him another pole but on the hard icy course he slipped and fell hard, dropping the pole in the process and Brayton had to pick it up off the ground and sprint back to catch the front group.  In the final, they finished 7th, 12 seconds behind the winners and only one second behind the US Ski Team pairing of Kris Freeman and Andrew Johnson
• Colin raced with a Rossi teammate, finishing 8th in his semi
• Wes paired with XC Oregon alum, Erik Jacobson to finish 12th in their semi

Brayto 10k Classic

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2nd race of the week yesterday in sloppy spring conditions. Course progressively deteriorated as the temperature hovered around 37 F and was subjected to some 450 racers. The dirt on course quickly slowed skis after the first kilometer of racing. As for XC Oregon, Brayton had a strong race, finishing 7th overall. Zach was 28th and I was 36th. Evelyn beat me by one spot (in the women’s race of course) in 35th.

Congrats to Charlie Smith from MBSEF who was the first junior finisher in the race and probably will make the World Juniors team.

Next up: Classic Sprint on Saturday followed by a Skate Sprint Relay on Sunday.