Category: XCFeeds

A big week of racing in Sun Valley, Idaho is underway!!! The men’s 50k classic National Championship race kicked off the series yesterday. Unfortunately, the guys awoke to freshly fallen snow with temperatures hovering around 30 degrees, making for difficult waxing conditions. They skied 7 laps on a relentless course with a total of 4491 vertical feet of climbing! Whoa! Talk about a tough race!!! Just to give you an idea of how hard it was, 10 guys dropped out!! Congrats to the guys who hung in there and finished the race! Way to go!

Today was the women’s 30k classic National Championships. Luckly we woke up to quite different conditions that the previous day. Instead of clouds and snow, we had blue skies and sun!!! Instead of soft slow tracks, we had solid fast tracks. Instead of warm temps with slippery conditions, we had cold temps with bomber kick conditions. To say the least, the women lucked out with a perfect Sun Valley day of skiing! This however did not make the race easy. The pace was pushed right from the start…within the first couple kilometers of the race the field of skiers had already broken up. A lead pack of five girls took off, with girls strung out behind. I maintained 10th-11th place for the first couple laps and managed to move into 9th by the end. It was a tough day of race but fun none the less.

A beautiful sunny day at Lake Creek

Making my way up one of many hills

My number one fans, Noi and Rob

We have a day off tomorrow and then the Super Tour Final takes off on Tuesday! This will include:

Tues: 2.8/3.3k skate prologue
Wed: 10/15k classic race
Thurs: off
Fri: Classic sprint
Sat: 5k skate hill climb

Its going to be a tough week of racing but I am excited and ready for it. Lets hope for some sun and some good ski conditions!

A view out the kitchen window

Keep you posted!

A big week of racing in Sun Valley, Idaho is underway!!! The men’s 50k classic National Championship race kicked off the series yesterday. Unfortunately, the guys awoke to freshly fallen snow with temperatures hovering around 30 degrees, making for difficult waxing conditions. They skied 7 laps on a relentless course with a total of 4491 vertical feet of climbing! Whoa! Talk about a tough race!!! Just to give you an idea of how hard it was, 10 guys dropped out!! Congrats to the guys who hung in there and finished the race! Way to go!

Today was the women’s 30k classic National Championships. Luckly we woke up to quite different conditions that the previous day. Instead of clouds and snow, we had blue skies and sun!!! Instead of soft slow tracks, we had solid fast tracks. Instead of warm temps with slippery conditions, we had cold temps with bomber kick conditions. To say the least, the women lucked out with a perfect Sun Valley day of skiing! This however did not make the race easy. The pace was pushed right from the start…within the first couple kilometers of the race the field of skiers had already broken up. A lead pack of five girls took off, with girls strung out behind. I maintained 10th-11th place for the first couple laps and managed to move into 9th by the end. It was a tough day of race but fun none the less.

A beautiful sunny day at Lake Creek

Making my way up one of many hills

My number one fans, Noi and Rob

We have a day off tomorrow and then the Super Tour Final takes off on Tuesday! This will include:

Tues: 2.8/3.3k skate prologue
Wed: 10/15k classic race
Thurs: off
Fri: Classic sprint
Sat: 5k skate hill climb

Its going to be a tough week of racing but I am excited and ready for it. Lets hope for some sun and some good ski conditions!

A view out the kitchen window

Keep you posted!

A big week of racing in Sun Valley, Idaho is underway!!! The men’s 50k classic National Championship race kicked off the series yesterday. Unfortunately, the guys awoke to freshly fallen snow with temperatures hovering around 30 degrees, making for difficult waxing conditions. They skied 7 laps on a relentless course with a total of 4491 vertical feet of climbing! Whoa! Talk about a tough race!!! Just to give you an idea of how hard it was, 10 guys dropped out!! Congrats to the guys who hung in there and finished the race! Way to go!

Today was the women’s 30k classic National Championships. Luckly we woke up to quite different conditions that the previous day. Instead of clouds and snow, we had blue skies and sun!!! Instead of soft slow tracks, we had solid fast tracks. Instead of warm temps with slippery conditions, we had cold temps with bomber kick conditions. To say the least, the women lucked out with a perfect Sun Valley day of skiing! This however did not make the race easy. The pace was pushed right from the start…within the first couple kilometers of the race the field of skiers had already broken up. A lead pack of five girls took off, with girls strung out behind. I maintained 10th-11th place for the first couple laps and managed to move into 9th by the end. It was a tough day of race but fun none the less.

A beautiful sunny day at Lake Creek

Making my way up one of many hills

My number one fans, Noi and Rob

We have a day off tomorrow and then the Super Tour Final takes off on Tuesday! This will include:

Tues: 2.8/3.3k skate prologue
Wed: 10/15k classic race
Thurs: off
Fri: Classic sprint
Sat: 5k skate hill climb

Its going to be a tough week of racing but I am excited and ready for it. Lets hope for some sun and some good ski conditions!

A view out the kitchen window

Keep you posted!

A big week of racing in Sun Valley, Idaho is underway!!! The men’s 50k classic National Championship race kicked off the series yesterday. Unfortunately, the guys awoke to freshly fallen snow with temperatures hovering around 30 degrees, making for difficult waxing conditions. They skied 7 laps on a relentless course with a total of 4491 vertical feet of climbing! Whoa! Talk about a tough race!!! Just to give you an idea of how hard it was, 10 guys dropped out!! Congrats to the guys who hung in there and finished the race! Way to go!

Today was the women’s 30k classic National Championships. Luckly we woke up to quite different conditions that the previous day. Instead of clouds and snow, we had blue skies and sun!!! Instead of soft slow tracks, we had solid fast tracks. Instead of warm temps with slippery conditions, we had cold temps with bomber kick conditions. To say the least, the women lucked out with a perfect Sun Valley day of skiing! This however did not make the race easy. The pace was pushed right from the start…within the first couple kilometers of the race the field of skiers had already broken up. A lead pack of five girls took off, with girls strung out behind. I maintained 10th-11th place for the first couple laps and managed to move into 9th by the end. It was a tough day of race but fun none the less.

A beautiful sunny day at Lake Creek

Making my way up one of many hills

My number one fans, Noi and Rob

We have a day off tomorrow and then the Super Tour Final takes off on Tuesday! This will include:

Tues: 2.8/3.3k skate prologue
Wed: 10/15k classic race
Thurs: off
Fri: Classic sprint
Sat: 5k skate hill climb

Its going to be a tough week of racing but I am excited and ready for it. Lets hope for some sun and some good ski conditions!

A view out the kitchen window

Keep you posted!

A big week of racing in Sun Valley, Idaho is underway!!! The men’s 50k classic National Championship race kicked off the series yesterday. Unfortunately, the guys awoke to freshly fallen snow with temperatures hovering around 30 degrees, making for difficult waxing conditions. They skied 7 laps on a relentless course with a total of 4491 vertical feet of climbing! Whoa! Talk about a tough race!!! Just to give you an idea of how hard it was, 10 guys dropped out!! Congrats to the guys who hung in there and finished the race! Way to go!

Today was the women’s 30k classic National Championships. Luckly we woke up to quite different conditions that the previous day. Instead of clouds and snow, we had blue skies and sun!!! Instead of soft slow tracks, we had solid fast tracks. Instead of warm temps with slippery conditions, we had cold temps with bomber kick conditions. To say the least, the women lucked out with a perfect Sun Valley day of skiing! This however did not make the race easy. The pace was pushed right from the start…within the first couple kilometers of the race the field of skiers had already broken up. A lead pack of five girls took off, with girls strung out behind. I maintained 10th-11th place for the first couple laps and managed to move into 9th by the end. It was a tough day of race but fun none the less.

A beautiful sunny day at Lake Creek

Making my way up one of many hills

My number one fans, Noi and Rob

We have a day off tomorrow and then the Super Tour Final takes off on Tuesday! This will include:

Tues: 2.8/3.3k skate prologue
Wed: 10/15k classic race
Thurs: off
Fri: Classic sprint
Sat: 5k skate hill climb

Its going to be a tough week of racing but I am excited and ready for it. Lets hope for some sun and some good ski conditions!

A view out the kitchen window

Keep you posted!

Cool overnight temperatures led to fabulous skiing for the womens 15 and 30 km race this morning in Sun Valley. Waxing was straight forward (some sort of binder covered by some sort of blue) and the racing was exciting. In mass start races, you never know what the early pace will be. Today it became obvious right away that this would be a 30 km race (not a 28 km tour with a 2 km sprint finish). The lead pack broke away early and, like yesterday, a crafty veteran skied comfortably in the lead group and saved enough to drop everyone on the last big climb. Today it was Kikkans turn to win, but she was pushed quite hard by NCAA winner Maria G. (from Utah), Jr sensation Jessie Diggins and Morgan Aritola.
Heather and Hallie are both coming off of colds so they cheered today. They will do the 4 race series that starts on Tuesday.
Click on any picture to enlarge it.
The lead pack.
Nice day eh?
Izzy strides the hill.
One of the fun things about these races is seeing all of our alums here racing and coaching. Here is Parker ’08.
Maddie (SMS ’07) skiing for the Utes.
Looking north towards Galena.
Looking south towards Baldy.
Morgan took it out strong and broke the pack by 5 km.
Amy hammers up a hill in the 30.
Izzy and Annie are all smiles after finishing 1,2 in the 15 km.
Womens 30 km podium.
Jr girls podium, Izzy (sms ’10), Annie and Kinsey.

The first race at Sun Valley was held Saturday morning under cloudy skies. The men raced 50 km and Jrs raced 25 km.
Here are a bunch of SMS and Burke kids who went out to watch.
We arrived Friday afternoon and the 50 km was Saturday morning. Austin decided to jump in the Jr race (25 km). Everyone else opted to cheer (this is actually what the coaches recommended). Austin skied a solid race, but noticed the altitude. (Every time he tried to go fast, he would quickly tire).
Paddy enjoyed the day.
The trail loops around the open valley. The course was quite tough (total climb around 4500 feet).
Revived films gets to work.
Sun Valley? Today it stayed overcast and in the high 20’s. This was actually welcome by all of the racers and wax techs because the conditions stayed quite consistent and in the hard wax range. Most people had solid kick throughout the race.
The pack about 1/2 way through. The pace was steady throughout the race and the pack remained pretty big until Noah pushed the pace on the 4th lap (he got reeled back in) and then Glen hammered on the start of the 5th lap. Glenn opened up a 25 second lead, but a group of 7 pulled him back in. The combination of attackes from Noah and Glen, blew apart the pack and there were lots of “hurting dudes” for the 6th and 7th lap.
Kris Freeman skied a strong, smooth, smart race and picked up the pace with 4 kms to go. No one could quite manage to hold on and he came home with a solid 20 second (or so) victory.
Gus K is here coaching CXC.

The last races at Falun were something, pretty much laying waste to the fields. Here’s the finish area as the also-rans come in from the women’s 10k:The race was the end of the great Petra Majdic’s career, which led to some silliness, like Kowalcyzk’s headband:Madjic’s suit:and the donation of some home-making supplies to the Slovene:I can’t quantify this, but the XC skiing news streams seem to

The last races at Falun were something, pretty much laying waste to the fields. Here’s the finish area as the also-rans come in from the women’s 10k:The race was the end of the great Petra Majdic’s career, which led to some silliness, like Kowalcyzk’s headband:Madjic’s suit:and the donation of some home-making supplies to the Slovene:I can’t quantify this, but the XC skiing news streams seem to

The last races at Falun were something, pretty much laying waste to the fields. Here’s the finish area as the also-rans come in from the women’s 10k:The race was the end of the great Petra Majdic’s career, which led to some silliness, like Kowalcyzk’s headband:Madjic’s suit:and the donation of some home-making supplies to the Slovene:I can’t quantify this, but the XC skiing news streams seem to

The last races at Falun were something, pretty much laying waste to the fields. Here’s the finish area as the also-rans come in from the women’s 10k:The race was the end of the great Petra Majdic’s career, which led to some silliness, like Kowalcyzk’s headband:Madjic’s suit:and the donation of some home-making supplies to the Slovene:I can’t quantify this, but the XC skiing news streams seem to