FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

A collection of live feeds from cross-country ski blogs around the web.

  • Slow going at the City of Lakes Loppet

    Ever have one of those races where every time you get into a tuck on a downhill you can do nothing but slowly watch the skiers you are with pull away from you on that downhill? That was my race on Sunday the City of Lakes Loppet. Granted, I didn’t have the legs to keep up with people very well on the uphills either. I started between Adam Swank and Andre Watt, and told them that I was going to let them pull ahead of me at the gun and just tuck in behind them, and that is what I did. This worked great, and got me out in around 10th place – which is probably about where I would hope to place at the Loppet if I had a great race and fantastic skis (I was seeded 17th if my bib is any indication). If nothing else it set me up to get in with a good group of skiers and hang with people as they went by.

    Unfortunately as skiers would come up around me, all I could do was watch them pull away. This wasn’t for lack of trying. After all, I know just about every skier in the top 50, and I know which ones I can normally ski with. So when skiers who I am usually skiing with or even ahead of at most races were gliding past me, I was pushing hard to keep up with them. This left me with pretty trashed legs by the 7 or 8k point, as I was working harder than I should have been that early in a 33k race.

    By the 10 or 15k point of the race I was skiing in no-man’s-land by myself. As the trail wound through the woods I could see the group a minute or two in front of me, and also a group of 5 skiers about a minute behind me. I knew that skiing by myself for the last 15 to 20k of the race was not ideal, but skiing alone did allow me to relax and focus on skiing smooth and just trying to get my legs to recover.

    With 10k to go in the race I had put a bit more distance on the group behind me, and my legs were starting to perk up again. My skis were still feeling slow, but I felt like I could begin to look ahead to a couple of skiers who had fallen off the group in front of me and slowly reel them in. After catching 3 skiers on the last lake, I was able to muster enough of a surge to separate myself from them early enough so as to not have it come down to a sprint on the home stretch.

    The race was good, the weather was great (i.e not sub-zero), and it is awesome to see so many people that are apart of the COLL festival. Kudos to everyone involved in putting this event on. Next year I just need to talk to Devin about my waxing first (and maybe put in a few more hours training over the summer too!)

    Vakava results from COLL:
    33k Skate:
    15th Derek
    26th Eugene
    27th Nate
    32nd Paul
    33rd Andrew K
    36th Ryan
    47th Dave C (age group win)
    89th Mark
    99th Jason
    4th Carolyn
    7th Angie (age group win)
    11th Bonnie
    12th Kathleen
    21st Katy
    25k Classic:
    6th Dave B (age group win)
    13th Andy S
    29th Brent
    71st Kevin
    3rd Cheryl (age group win)
    7th Michele

  • Slow going at the City of Lakes Loppet

    Ever have one of those races where every time you get into a tuck on a downhill you can do nothing but slowly watch the skiers you are with pull away from you on that downhill? That was my race on Sunday the City of Lakes Loppet. Granted, I didn’t have the legs to keep up with people very well on the uphills either. I started between Adam Swank and Andre Watt, and told them that I was going to let them pull ahead of me at the gun and just tuck in behind them, and that is what I did. This worked great, and got me out in around 10th place – which is probably about where I would hope to place at the Loppet if I had a great race and fantastic skis (I was seeded 17th if my bib is any indication). If nothing else it set me up to get in with a good group of skiers and hang with people as they went by.

    Unfortunately as skiers would come up around me, all I could do was watch them pull away. This wasn’t for lack of trying. After all, I know just about every skier in the top 50, and I know which ones I can normally ski with. So when skiers who I am usually skiing with or even ahead of at most races were gliding past me, I was pushing hard to keep up with them. This left me with pretty trashed legs by the 7 or 8k point, as I was working harder than I should have been that early in a 33k race.

    By the 10 or 15k point of the race I was skiing in no-man’s-land by myself. As the trail wound through the woods I could see the group a minute or two in front of me, and also a group of 5 skiers about a minute behind me. I knew that skiing by myself for the last 15 to 20k of the race was not ideal, but skiing alone did allow me to relax and focus on skiing smooth and just trying to get my legs to recover.

    With 10k to go in the race I had put a bit more distance on the group behind me, and my legs were starting to perk up again. My skis were still feeling slow, but I felt like I could begin to look ahead to a couple of skiers who had fallen off the group in front of me and slowly reel them in. After catching 3 skiers on the last lake, I was able to muster enough of a surge to separate myself from them early enough so as to not have it come down to a sprint on the home stretch.

    The race was good, the weather was great (i.e not sub-zero), and it is awesome to see so many people that are apart of the COLL festival. Kudos to everyone involved in putting this event on. Next year I just need to talk to Devin about my waxing first (and maybe put in a few more hours training over the summer too!)

    Vakava results from COLL:
    33k Skate:
    15th Derek
    26th Eugene
    27th Nate
    32nd Paul
    33rd Andrew K
    36th Ryan
    47th Dave C (age group win)
    89th Mark
    99th Jason
    4th Carolyn
    7th Angie (age group win)
    11th Bonnie
    12th Kathleen
    21st Katy
    25k Classic:
    6th Dave B (age group win)
    13th Andy S
    29th Brent
    71st Kevin
    3rd Cheryl (age group win)
    7th Michele

  • Editorial: Ranking Lists – What Are They Good For?

    After some thought, I feel compelled to expand a bit on my post regarding the US National Ranking List (NRL). Actually, my thoughts on the subject apply to points lists and athlete ranking in XC skiing more generally.

    Ranking athletes via some numerical system can be both fun and necessary. It’s fun for skiing fans like myself who enjoy numbers and working with data. It’s sometimes necessary as a tool to inject some objectivity into distinguishing between high and low performing skiers. This tool can be used for many ends: seeding racers for start lists, selecting athletes for national teams, selecting athletes to participate in major events, identifying promising young athletes, etc.

    The US NRL recently came in for some (to my ears, mild) criticism. Specifically, since it is based on an athlete’s best four races over the previous 12 months, it is possible for skiers to remain ranked very high even though their performance this season has been underwhelming. The NRL has been a subject of dispute in the past, and I’m sure it will be criticized again no matter how it may be altered or improved upon.

    The specific “problem” in this case is rooted in the fact that ranking athletes by the average of their best four (or in FIS’s case, five) races over an entire calendar year makes it easy to ascend the ranking list rather quickly, but coming back down happens very slowly as races move outside the one year window. Two excellent races can rocket you up the rankings, but then they stick around for an entire year no matter how badly you ski from that point on.

    There are tons of (fairly simple) ways to fix this issue, but I’d rather people focus on a slightly different topic than the technicalities of points and ranking lists. Instead, I’d like to discuss what it means to use data to help one make a decision and how this pertains to using data in the world of XC skiing.

    There is an unfortunate tendency for people to expect data to literally tell them the answer to a question, unequivocally. I think people have a mental model of science that goes something like this:

    1. Scientist asks question.
    2. Scientist collects data.
    3. Data tells scientist what the answer to her question is.

    While not entirely false, this is badly misleading. The truth is something closer to this:

    1. Scientist asks question.
    2. Scientist collects data.
    3. Scientist uses her judgement on how to model the data.
    4. Scientist uses her judgement on how to interpret the results of their model.
    5. Scientist uses her judgement on how well (if at all) any of this answers their original question.

    Obviously, I’m being very simplistic here to make a point. To be sure, data can be an enormous help in answering questions. But it does not replace human judgement, it augments it.

    How does this relate to the NRL? When I hear cries for more purely “objective” criteria in XC skiing, I often get the sense that people want the data to make decisions for them. I think this is both lazy and dangerous. No ranking list, no matter how well designed, will perfectly capture the notion of skiing ability.

    Even so, the NRL isn’t “wrong”. It’s doing exactly what it was designed to do: rank people based on the average of their best four races over the past year. The “wrongness” stems from the perceived disconnect between the ranking list and what we want the list to tell us. It would be more productive, I think, for people to think about what it is you want the NRL to measure.

    It’s unreasonable to expect the NRL, as currently implemented, to reliably identify skiers who are performing the best right now. There will surely be some significant overlap between skiers ranked well on the NRL and skiers racing well right now, but we shouldn’t necessarily expect this given how the NRL and similar tools are designed. Also, despite our fondest wishes, it’s a stretch to expect these lists to accurately predict who will ski the fastest in the future. Generally speaking the person ranked 5th will usually ski faster than the person ranked 50th over the next few races, but how meaningful are the differences between 5th and 6th? 5th and 8th?

    The former problem is easily addressed from a technical standpoint by simply looking at races over a shorter time window, or down-weighting older races. You needn’t alter the NRL itself if all you want is a tool for athlete team selection. <1

    The latter problem is just inherent to the sport. The entire reason I include error bars in my athlete rankings for World Cup skiers is to point out the precision with which averaging each skier’s best N races can really achieve (not as much as we’d like). There isn’t really a ‘solution’; ski racing is variable, so predicting who’s going to ski fast next month (or next week, or next year) will always be a sizable gamble. No amount of statistical trickery will fix that.

    I draw two conclusions from this. First, attempts to design a perfectly objective team selection criteria using point systems and ranking lists will fail and will fail spectacularly. If you show me the most advanced, sophisticated ranking system in existence (e.g. ELO) I’ll show you ways in which it could potentially fail and probably does in practice. Ranking lists should be a guide for subjective, human-based decision making, not a rulebook for an automaton. The goal should be to design a system that better augments human judgement, not one that is intended to completely supplant it.

    Second, the flaws in the points lists and ranking systems we do use should be evaluated in terms of how likely they are to lead us to make wrong decisions. For example, the NRL was probably “wrong” to rank Caitlin Compton 3rd, for the purposes of selecting a World Championships team. Ultimately, though, she wasn’t selected for the team, so I’m left wondering what the big deal is. If we can identify and fix a perceived flaw in the NRL, fine. But perhaps we should only flip out about it to the extent that it leads to poor decisions. [2.Obviously, this last point depends on what we’re using the list for. We can’t have race organizers using their “discretion” to seed athletes differently if they think the current ranking list is wrong.]

    Going forward, it seems most productive to me to (a) decide what you want to measure, as precisely as you can, (b) develop the best method you can for measuring that quantity and then (c) stipulate that it will be used only as a guide for decision making, not followed to the letter.

    In that light, the process that John Farra described in the above linked FasterSkier article seems rather sensible to me. I was particularly struck by his mentioning that they started with the specific events at WSC and worked backwards from there. One area of improvement might be to look at better ways of organizing, displaying and analyzing data that highlight specific strengths/weaknesses in particular techniques or events, since the NRL currently doesn’t help much with this. But generally, I applaud the basic philosophy: data as tool and guide, not as a rulebook.

    1. Using shorter time windows involve a sticky trade-off in that it then becomes crucial for athletes to attend every top NRL race. Every athlete would need to get four distance and four sprint races by early January. If everything goes well, this may not be a problem. But weather can interfere causing races to be canceled, so it would be risky to skip any. There were essentially 7 distance races and 6 sprints available to domestic skiers this season through US Nationals (although two of those “sprints” were only qualifiers). That doesn’t leave a lot of margin for error. <↩

    Related posts:

    1. <Athlete Rankings: What’s In Your Bucket?
    2. <More Ranking Graphs…
    3. <Gadflies & Punching Bags


  • Olympiatoppen

    I traveled to Oslo, Norway on Wednesday evening and arrived at the Olympiatoppen (the Norwegian Olympic Training Center) on Thursday morning. If you are a skier trying to get some good training in, this is the perfect place to do it. There are literally hundreds of kilometers of ski trails right out the door, many that connect to the Holmenkollen trails, which is great for us, as we are preparing for the World Championships which will be held on those very trails. It’s dorm room living and buffet food, a strength facility which is huge, and a train that runs into town every 15 minutes. Its really quite perfect and very easy living. Today we get a few more U.S. athletes, but up until today Simi, Morgan, Pete and I have been the crew. We all had some hard intervals this morning which we did on the World Champs courses. Last night we prepped for them by watching the Women’s 30K race from last year on these courses, which really is quite a race to get you psyched up for some hammering. Tomorrow we have some easy distance and then Wednesday we will drive up to Beitostollen, Norway where we will race a Scandinavian Cup mini tour on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

    Pete, Mo and I walking the streets of Oslo last night after a great dinner and afternoon in town. We met up with one of my Norwegian friends from my Burke days who gave us a tour of the Old City, the Architecture Museum and some coffee shops!
    Locals on the train after the daily ski. Routine. Pretty sweet.
    View from the ski trails yesterday. Double tracked classic trails are definitely my favorite and there are tons of them here. Really pretty.
    A few pumped people during yesterdays ski.
    All pictures are from Simi, as I have yet to break out my camera! Whoops! More soon.

  • Olympiatoppen

    I traveled to Oslo, Norway on Wednesday evening and arrived at the Olympiatoppen (the Norwegian Olympic Training Center) on Thursday morning. If you are a skier trying to get some good training in, this is the perfect place to do it. There are literally hundreds of kilometers of ski trails right out the door, many that connect to the Holmenkollen trails, which is great for us, as we are preparing for the World Championships which will be held on those very trails. It’s dorm room living and buffet food, a strength facility which is huge, and a train that runs into town every 15 minutes. Its really quite perfect and very easy living. Today we get a few more U.S. athletes, but up until today Simi, Morgan, Pete and I have been the crew. We all had some hard intervals this morning which we did on the World Champs courses. Last night we prepped for them by watching the Women’s 30K race from last year on these courses, which really is quite a race to get you psyched up for some hammering. Tomorrow we have some easy distance and then Wednesday we will drive up to Beitostollen, Norway where we will race a Scandinavian Cup mini tour on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

    Pete, Mo and I walking the streets of Oslo last night after a great dinner and afternoon in town. We met up with one of my Norwegian friends from my Burke days who gave us a tour of the Old City, the Architecture Museum and some coffee shops!
    Locals on the train after the daily ski. Routine. Pretty sweet.
    View from the ski trails yesterday. Double tracked classic trails are definitely my favorite and there are tons of them here. Really pretty.
    A few pumped people during yesterdays ski.
    All pictures are from Simi, as I have yet to break out my camera! Whoops! More soon.

  • Olympiatoppen

    I traveled to Oslo, Norway on Wednesday evening and arrived at the Olympiatoppen (the Norwegian Olympic Training Center) on Thursday morning. If you are a skier trying to get some good training in, this is the perfect place to do it. There are literally hundreds of kilometers of ski trails right out the door, many that connect to the Holmenkollen trails, which is great for us, as we are preparing for the World Championships which will be held on those very trails. It’s dorm room living and buffet food, a strength facility which is huge, and a train that runs into town every 15 minutes. Its really quite perfect and very easy living. Today we get a few more U.S. athletes, but up until today Simi, Morgan, Pete and I have been the crew. We all had some hard intervals this morning which we did on the World Champs courses. Last night we prepped for them by watching the Women’s 30K race from last year on these courses, which really is quite a race to get you psyched up for some hammering. Tomorrow we have some easy distance and then Wednesday we will drive up to Beitostollen, Norway where we will race a Scandinavian Cup mini tour on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

    Pete, Mo and I walking the streets of Oslo last night after a great dinner and afternoon in town. We met up with one of my Norwegian friends from my Burke days who gave us a tour of the Old City, the Architecture Museum and some coffee shops!
    Locals on the train after the daily ski. Routine. Pretty sweet.
    View from the ski trails yesterday. Double tracked classic trails are definitely my favorite and there are tons of them here. Really pretty.
    A few pumped people during yesterdays ski.
    All pictures are from Simi, as I have yet to break out my camera! Whoops! More soon.

  • Olympiatoppen

    I traveled to Oslo, Norway on Wednesday evening and arrived at the Olympiatoppen (the Norwegian Olympic Training Center) on Thursday morning. If you are a skier trying to get some good training in, this is the perfect place to do it. There are literally hundreds of kilometers of ski trails right out the door, many that connect to the Holmenkollen trails, which is great for us, as we are preparing for the World Championships which will be held on those very trails. It’s dorm room living and buffet food, a strength facility which is huge, and a train that runs into town every 15 minutes. Its really quite perfect and very easy living. Today we get a few more U.S. athletes, but up until today Simi, Morgan, Pete and I have been the crew. We all had some hard intervals this morning which we did on the World Champs courses. Last night we prepped for them by watching the Women’s 30K race from last year on these courses, which really is quite a race to get you psyched up for some hammering. Tomorrow we have some easy distance and then Wednesday we will drive up to Beitostollen, Norway where we will race a Scandinavian Cup mini tour on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

    Pete, Mo and I walking the streets of Oslo last night after a great dinner and afternoon in town. We met up with one of my Norwegian friends from my Burke days who gave us a tour of the Old City, the Architecture Museum and some coffee shops!
    Locals on the train after the daily ski. Routine. Pretty sweet.
    View from the ski trails yesterday. Double tracked classic trails are definitely my favorite and there are tons of them here. Really pretty.
    A few pumped people during yesterdays ski.
    All pictures are from Simi, as I have yet to break out my camera! Whoops! More soon.

  • Cambria Reports from Sweden

    divspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: -webkit-xxx-large; “p class=”MsoNormal” style=”-webkit-user-drag: none; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; “span style=”-webkit-user-drag: none; “span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: small; “Today is our last day in Sweden! As sad as we are to leave, I don’t think any of us predicted such an amazing two weeks. Between training on some of the most beautiful trails we’ve ever seen, exploring the cities of /span/spanspan style=”-webkit-user-drag: none; “span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: small; “Östersund and /span/spanspan style=”-webkit-user-drag: none; “span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: small; “Örnsköldsvik, meeting and living with 11 new teammates and racing against the best kids in the world, it made for a totally unforgettable two weeks./span/span/pp class=”MsoNormal” style=”-webkit-user-drag: none; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; “span style=”-webkit-user-drag: none; “span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: small; “This past weekend we had three races; a sprint on Friday, a distance race on Saturday and a relay on Sunday. It was an awesome three days, and as a whole, our team ended up with some insanely good results. The highlights were Logan qualifying fourth in the sprint, Paddy crushing to end up eighth/spanspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: small; ” in the skate 10k and the boy’s relay team of Logan, Paddy and Forrest mixing it up with the best to end up fourth. Not only were we all psyched with the results, it was just getting to participate in such a cool event that was enough to get us all fired up./span/span/pp class=”MsoNormal” style=”-webkit-user-drag: none; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; “span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: small; “Here are some pictures from the trip./span/pdivspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: small; “br //span/div/span/diva onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TVAluomjoBI/AAAAAAAAGWc/wb1DJmAp3dI/s1600/mg_2644.sized.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 400px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TVAluomjoBI/AAAAAAAAGWc/wb1DJmAp3dI/s400/mg_2644.sized.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570994222160650258″ //aCam in the skate race.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TVAlmnhzpBI/AAAAAAAAGWU/4WzZd-HgQP0/s1600/mg_2167.sized.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 400px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TVAlmnhzpBI/AAAAAAAAGWU/4WzZd-HgQP0/s400/mg_2167.sized.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570994084433339410″ //aPaddy had an awesome relay and tagged off 1.2 seconds out of the lead.br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TVAlZiar8NI/AAAAAAAAGWM/7sENrK3Xplc/s1600/Picture%2B9.png”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 301px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TVAlZiar8NI/AAAAAAAAGWM/7sENrK3Xplc/s400/Picture%2B9.png” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570993859722997970″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TVAlH9xENaI/AAAAAAAAGWE/CWgGGbaYhx4/s1600/Picture%2B6.png”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 337px; height: 314px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TVAlH9xENaI/AAAAAAAAGWE/CWgGGbaYhx4/s400/Picture%2B6.png” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570993557826975138″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TVAlAXCmnOI/AAAAAAAAGV8/iir3ieeX3aY/s1600/Picture%2B5.png”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TVAlAXCmnOI/AAAAAAAAGV8/iir3ieeX3aY/s400/Picture%2B5.png” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570993427172465890″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TVAk1Yea0SI/AAAAAAAAGV0/AA9pVFUVxZg/s1600/Picture%2B4.png”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TVAk1Yea0SI/AAAAAAAAGV0/AA9pVFUVxZg/s400/Picture%2B4.png” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570993238579007778″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TVAkp33Q4pI/AAAAAAAAGVs/iB8BseOTfn0/s1600/Picture%2B3.png”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TVAkp33Q4pI/AAAAAAAAGVs/iB8BseOTfn0/s400/Picture%2B3.png” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570993040846283410″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TVAkeIHeA4I/AAAAAAAAGVk/fqoL6aSaezc/s1600/Picture%2B2.png”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 301px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TVAkeIHeA4I/AAAAAAAAGVk/fqoL6aSaezc/s400/Picture%2B2.png” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570992839050789762″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TVAkOzVUYgI/AAAAAAAAGVc/Vux0HJXUJj0/s1600/Picture%2B1.png”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 301px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TVAkOzVUYgI/AAAAAAAAGVc/Vux0HJXUJj0/s400/Picture%2B1.png” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570992575773696514″ //abr /span class=”Apple-style-span” style=” ;font-family:Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:13px;”p class=”MsoNormal” style=”-webkit-user-drag: none; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; “span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: small;”br //span/p/spandiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4680416899705879324-6367925478543784660?l=smsxc.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

  • Weekend Wrap From Around the World

    divbr //divWe had a very busy weekend of racing. Skyler and Heather were mixing it up with some World Cup skiers while racing in Scando Cup races in Estonia. Paddy and Cambria were competing in Sweden on the J1 Trip and the rest of the group raced in the Eastern Cup races at Stowe.divIn Estonia, Skyler raced in the classic sprint on Saturday and Heather in the 10 km classic on Sunday. Word has it that the US skiers decided to double pole the prelim in the sprint and apparently that was a mistake…opps…no doubt it was a good tough d-pole regardless! Heather had an excellent race finishing in 22nd place, just over two minutes out in her 10 km. It was a great way for her to finish her trip!/divdivbr //divdivIn Sweden, the US J1 team was butting heads with the top J1’s in Scandinavia. Of course we are proud that Paddy and Cambria led the US in the distance race (8th and 18th), but the whole team did really well. As a group, they were much closer than they have been in recent years. Consider that Paddy was 34 seconds out of first in the 10 km skate, Logan qualified 4th in the sprint, the boys relay team was 4th (with a broken pole…and..they were 1.2 sec out of first after the second leg). The girls all had good relay legs (Cambria was 13 seconds out in 3 km). Great job by the whole team and special thanks to the coaches. The only bummer was that Jack Hegman dislocated his shoulder in the sprint race. We wish him a speedy recovery!/divdivbr //divdivFor more news from the J1 trip, click on the link on the top right of this blog./divdivbr //divdivMeanwhile, stateside, UVM and the Trapp Family lodge hosted 2 great Eastern Cup events. On Saturday there was a combination college carnival/EC race under perfect conditions. Our team was led by Tyler Foulkes who crushed the J2 field and won by over 30 seconds! After some “thunder snow” Saturday evening we had our fingers crossed for the classic race on Sunday… the forecast was for light snow with a high in the low 30’s. The weather Gods were nice and the temps held steady in the upper 20’s so we had another day of good racing. The team skied well..good solid results all around and we headed home for a well deserved rest day./divdivHere are some pictures that Herve Pelletier took at Stowe on Saturday. Thanks Herve!/divdivAlso…special thanks to all of the parents for providing great lunch food for the weekend :).br /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_xv-V0-YI/AAAAAAAAGVU/WzBFVx4yxPY/s1600/Tyler_DSC0359.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 353px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_xv-V0-YI/AAAAAAAAGVU/WzBFVx4yxPY/s400/Tyler_DSC0359.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570937070571288962″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_xWpAHLuI/AAAAAAAAGVM/2pZURZ3f5Fs/s1600/Rachel_DSC0392.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 266px; height: 400px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_xWpAHLuI/AAAAAAAAGVM/2pZURZ3f5Fs/s400/Rachel_DSC0392.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570936635346333410″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_xQaEKatI/AAAAAAAAGVE/Afdi8YNRRkE/s1600/Murph_DSC0739.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 227px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_xQaEKatI/AAAAAAAAGVE/Afdi8YNRRkE/s400/Murph_DSC0739.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570936528257575634″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_xKwia2SI/AAAAAAAAGU8/Es-Q0KaBDx4/s1600/Meg_DSC0374.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 308px; height: 400px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_xKwia2SI/AAAAAAAAGU8/Es-Q0KaBDx4/s400/Meg_DSC0374.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570936431210846498″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_xE6uyrOI/AAAAAAAAGU0/14y7JvJoNdM/s1600/Matt_DSC0526.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 306px; height: 400px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_xE6uyrOI/AAAAAAAAGU0/14y7JvJoNdM/s400/Matt_DSC0526.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570936330867879138″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_w9OuDzYI/AAAAAAAAGUs/iyxLjC0dSrI/s1600/Mac_DSC0642.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 290px; height: 400px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_w9OuDzYI/AAAAAAAAGUs/iyxLjC0dSrI/s400/Mac_DSC0642.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570936198794562946″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_w0UhgrII/AAAAAAAAGUk/e6VH0U4SdUc/s1600/Issy_DSC0484.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 266px; height: 400px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_w0UhgrII/AAAAAAAAGUk/e6VH0U4SdUc/s400/Issy_DSC0484.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570936045733719170″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_wurAGzSI/AAAAAAAAGUc/Ss8P54iV4LI/s1600/Hallie_DSC0453.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 296px; height: 400px;” src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_wurAGzSI/AAAAAAAAGUc/Ss8P54iV4LI/s400/Hallie_DSC0453.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570935948688411938″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_wkIeaVzI/AAAAAAAAGUU/mG7W5jN2aVo/s1600/Cobbie_DSC0609.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 283px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_wkIeaVzI/AAAAAAAAGUU/mG7W5jN2aVo/s400/Cobbie_DSC0609.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570935767621588786″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_wepBhVaI/AAAAAAAAGUM/UosAv6XIKrQ/s1600/Chase_DSC0535.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 254px; height: 400px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_wepBhVaI/AAAAAAAAGUM/UosAv6XIKrQ/s400/Chase_DSC0535.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570935673279567266″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_wYH-xqQI/AAAAAAAAGUE/9yUDZFe5Bjc/s1600/Charlie_DSC0586.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 288px; height: 400px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_wYH-xqQI/AAAAAAAAGUE/9yUDZFe5Bjc/s400/Charlie_DSC0586.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570935561330469122″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_wR-QCwsI/AAAAAAAAGT8/qkM6c57F4lI/s1600/Brooke_DSC0506.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 311px; height: 400px;” src=”http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_wR-QCwsI/AAAAAAAAGT8/qkM6c57F4lI/s400/Brooke_DSC0506.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570935455639323330″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_wLspF-GI/AAAAAAAAGT0/A5m8qeb-mhQ/s1600/Bridger_DSC0554.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 293px; height: 400px;” src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_wLspF-GI/AAAAAAAAGT0/A5m8qeb-mhQ/s400/Bridger_DSC0554.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570935347833337954″ //abr /a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_wEjnY_7I/AAAAAAAAGTs/Ph5rHeREcfg/s1600/Austin_DSC0783.jpg”img style=”display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 274px; height: 400px;” src=”http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H2SCM3lmKm8/TU_wEjnY_7I/AAAAAAAAGTs/Ph5rHeREcfg/s400/Austin_DSC0783.jpg” border=”0″ alt=”” id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570935225151193010″ //abr //divdiv class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4680416899705879324-184510618009806461?l=smsxc.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

  • A Tribute to Ullr

    The way winter should be.

    Woke up this morning to yet another foot of snow and made first tracks behind the Pisten Bully.

    Woke up this morning to yet another foot of new snow and made first tracks behind the Pisten Bully.

    Ski jump construction by the BKLers for practice on a powder day 2 weeks ago.

    Ski jump construction by the BKLers for practice on a powder day 2 weeks ago.

    Lauren sledding down Elinor's field a couple weeks ago on a scoop shovel. We did do some actually shoveling too to perfect almost spotless trails for the marathon.

    Lauren sledding down Elinor's field on a scoop shovel. We also did some actual shoveling to perfect trails for the marathon.

    Hannah testing out her "new" tele skis and boots from the Outdoor Gear Exchange. Lucas has made a habit of grooming our summer bounding hill in front of the house for this purpose.

    Hannah testing out her "new" tele skis and boots from the Outdoor Gear Exchange. Lucas has made a habit of grooming our summer bounding hill in front of the house for this purpose.

    The Craftsbury solar array, freshly cleared of snow. Getting to the panels to clear them involved wading through waist deep snow.

    The Craftsbury solar array, freshly cleared of snow.

    Getting out of the driveway before the snowplow came was a challenge.

    Driving out before the snowplow comes can be a challenge.

    The view out our window today.

    The view out our window today.

  • A look back

    Yesterday I went out on the course at Trapp’s to take photos of our guys racing in the 10 km skate and I realized that I still had photos on my camera from Nationals that had not yet made it on to my computer. Whoops! So here is a brief visual journey through a few, as yet un-blogged about events from the last month.

    Hannah in a skate sprint heat on the last day of Nationals. She ended up 10th!

    Hannah in a skate sprint heat on the last day of Nationals. She ended up 10th!

    Tim leading a heat in the skate sprint at Nationals. He qualified 5th!

    Tim qualified 5th in the skate sprint at Nationals. Here he is leading a heat up the major climb on the course.

    After the last race at Nationals Chelsea, Hannah, and I stayed in Maine for one extra day to volunteer at a Fast and Female event at Gould Academy in Bethel. Fast and Female is an organization that was started by Canadian Olympian Chandra Crawford with the goal of getting girls to stay involved with sports. (Check out Chelsea’s Fasterskier article about it here.) The whole day in Bethel was all about being active, having fun, and getting girls psyched about skiing. It was a great day!

    Chelsea leading her group through one of the stations.

    Chelsea leading her group through one of the stations.

    I led a "bean-bag biathlon" station. If you missed, you had to do push-ups.

    I led a "bean-bag biathlon" station. If you missed, you had to do push-ups.

    Maybe I've been in Craftsbury too long, but I hadn't heard of zumba until this day. It was...interesting.

    Maybe I've been in Craftsbury too long, but I hadn't heard of zumba until this day. It was…interesting.

    The whole crew. 130 + girls and 30 + instructors!

    The whole crew. 130 + girls and 30 + instructors!

    And finally, a shot I grabbed at yesterday’s UVM Carnival / NENSA Eastern Cup race at Trapp’s.

    Ben Koons, Pat, and Matt coming into the finish.

    Ben Koons, Pat, and Matt coming into the finish.

  • Lindsley and Landgraf Hitting it at Badger

  • Race Snapshot: IBU WC 7 Men/Women Pursuit

    More strong racing from Lowell Bailey and Sara Studebaker.

    Related posts:

    1. <Race Snapshot: IBU WC 1 Men/Women’s Pursuit
    2. <Race Snapshot: IBU WC 2 Women’s Pursuit
    3. <Race Snapshot: IBU WC 5 Pursuit


  • USA J1 Nordic Team 2011-02-06 18:53:00

  • USA J1 Nordic Team 2011-02-06 18:53:00

  • The Athletes Report- Vol. VII

    Today was the last stage of our three-day race series in Örnsköldsvik; the relay. Needless to say, we were all psyched to get our game faces on and show those Europeans our best. It was a great day. The USA women all had great races with Marion, Cambria and Annie coming in 6th and Hannah, Sharmila and Stella soon after in 7th. But the story of the day was our USA-1 men’s team. The race kicked off with Logan scrambling, he got off to a rough start but hung in there and slowly got to the front… As he came into the stadium he was in first place, right in front of a massive Norwegian. He tagged off to Paddy who again mixed it up with the very best J1s in the world and hung right in there with the Finnish and Norwegian number one teams, tagging off to Forrest. Forrest kept USA in third until he broke a pole in the last kilometer, but hung in there and brought in the USA men in fourth place. It was probably the most exciting race I’ve ever seen and a really amazing way for us all to end the series! -Cam

    The athletes all really took it to the next level today. Some of the best skiing I have seen in recent or distant memory. Us coaches were still waxing for most of the girls race, but I was really impressed with how these girls kept contact with the front Norwegian and Swedish teams throughout the race, and while from the outside the results look somewhat typical for these races, they are far from typical. Both our teams beat the Swedish II team, and both Est I and II. Estonia is not messing around here, they are strong skiers, and our girls just beat them straight up. Impressive.
    The boys race was even more spectacular- Logan and Dylan scrambled for the Americans, and right off the start on the first hill out of the stadium a Swede fell in the track directly in front of Logan, placing him in dead last at the top of the first hill. By the time I saw him about half a K later, he was in about 6th, in a pack with most of the field except the Norge and Suomi A teams who had a 6 second lead. The next time I saw him, 2k after that, he was in second in a pack with the Norwegians and Fins, about 10 seconds up on the next group of racers. Paddy came around next, looking smooth and strong (as always!) and keeping right on the heels of the Norwegian, except when he kept passing him! Forrest did a stellar job anchoring the team, keeping close contact with the NOR and FIN teams, and eventually joined by the SWE I team. Unfortunately, with 300m to go, Forrest’s pole broke and the fading Finnish skier was able to get back by. A fourth place at these very competitive championships is usually an incredible result, but today it was no mistake that the USA team was in the lead for most of the race, and while still happy with their skiing, it was a bittersweet result for the boys. The USA II team was missing a third leg due to Jack’s accident, but the organizers found us an ambitious club skier to jump in and race with us. He was really excited to race for the stars and bars, and had lots of fun due to the great skiing by Dylan and Peter, skiing tight in a pack of Fins and Swedes. Now we are back in Ostersund, and its way past my bedtime, so I’m going to get a little rest before taking the Alaskans to the airport tomorrow morning. One last note before I sign off- Ostersund is a really cool place if you’re a nordic skier. Tonight Pete and I were filling up a rental car before returning it at a random gas station in town, and these two really fit people walked by me twice on my way in to pay. When I got back out Pete was all excited and said “did you just see Emil Johnsson and Anna Haug??” (they were buying firewood). Then an hour later we went out to dinner at a thai restaurant and shortly after sitting down, world renowned nordic skiing physiology researcher H.C. Holmberg randomly parks his car right outside the window where we were sitting. So we invited him in and he ate with us and chatted about skiing technique and training philosophy for two hours! Pretty cool stuff here.
    -Matt























  • The Athletes Report- Vol. VII

    Today was the last stage of our three-day race series in Örnsköldsvik; the relay. Needless to say, we were all psyched to get our game faces on and show those Europeans our best. It was a great day. The USA women all had great races with Marion, Cambria and Annie coming in 6th and Hannah, Sharmila and Stella soon after in 7th. But the story of the day was our USA-1 men’s team. The race kicked off with Logan scrambling, he got off to a rough start but hung in there and slowly got to the front… As he came into the stadium he was in first place, right in front of a massive Norwegian. He tagged off to Paddy who again mixed it up with the very best J1s in the world and hung right in there with the Finnish and Norwegian number one teams, tagging off to Forrest. Forrest kept USA in third until he broke a pole in the last kilometer, but hung in there and brought in the USA men in fourth place. It was probably the most exciting race I’ve ever seen and a really amazing way for us all to end the series! -Cam

    The athletes all really took it to the next level today. Some of the best skiing I have seen in recent or distant memory. Us coaches were still waxing for most of the girls race, but I was really impressed with how these girls kept contact with the front Norwegian and Swedish teams throughout the race, and while from the outside the results look somewhat typical for these races, they are far from typical. Both our teams beat the Swedish II team, and both Est I and II. Estonia is not messing around here, they are strong skiers, and our girls just beat them straight up. Impressive.
    The boys race was even more spectacular- Logan and Dylan scrambled for the Americans, and right off the start on the first hill out of the stadium a Swede fell in the track directly in front of Logan, placing him in dead last at the top of the first hill. By the time I saw him about half a K later, he was in about 6th, in a pack with most of the field except the Norge and Suomi A teams who had a 6 second lead. The next time I saw him, 2k after that, he was in second in a pack with the Norwegians and Fins, about 10 seconds up on the next group of racers. Paddy came around next, looking smooth and strong (as always!) and keeping right on the heels of the Norwegian, except when he kept passing him! Forrest did a stellar job anchoring the team, keeping close contact with the NOR and FIN teams, and eventually joined by the SWE I team. Unfortunately, with 300m to go, Forrest’s pole broke and the fading Finnish skier was able to get back by. A fourth place at these very competitive championships is usually an incredible result, but today it was no mistake that the USA team was in the lead for most of the race, and while still happy with their skiing, it was a bittersweet result for the boys. The USA II team was missing a third leg due to Jack’s accident, but the organizers found us an ambitious club skier to jump in and race with us. He was really excited to race for the stars and bars, and had lots of fun due to the great skiing by Dylan and Peter, skiing tight in a pack of Fins and Swedes. Now we are back in Ostersund, and its way past my bedtime, so I’m going to get a little rest before taking the Alaskans to the airport tomorrow morning. One last note before I sign off- Ostersund is a really cool place if you’re a nordic skier. Tonight Pete and I were filling up a rental car before returning it at a random gas station in town, and these two really fit people walked by me twice on my way in to pay. When I got back out Pete was all excited and said “did you just see Emil Johnsson and Anna Haug??” (they were buying firewood). Then an hour later we went out to dinner at a thai restaurant and shortly after sitting down, world renowned nordic skiing physiology researcher H.C. Holmberg randomly parks his car right outside the window where we were sitting. So we invited him in and he ate with us and chatted about skiing technique and training philosophy for two hours! Pretty cool stuff here.
    -Matt























  • Race Snapshot: Rybinsk Freestyle Sprint

    Better late than never, I suppose. As you might expect from the Rybinsk events, a lot of people ended up doing better than they usually do. The few exceptions seemed to be John Kristian Dahl, Natalia Korosteleva and Aino-Kaisa Saarinen, although I’m not sure how close to top form Saarinen is at the moment.

    Related posts:

    1. <Race Snapshot: IBU WC 1 Women’s Sprint
    2. <Race Snapshot: Liberec Freestyle Sprint
    3. <Race Snapshot: IBU WC 5 Women’s Sprint


  • Presque Isle World Cup

    I had higher hopes for feeling good today in the Mixed Relay after yesterday’s Sprint, but my legs had another idea. Even though its a short course and a short race, only 6km total and the 2km loop took a little over 5 minutes, I wasn’t able to nail down the rhythm in shooting and skiing. Regardless, every race is a challenge and good practice for the next one. Plus, its a Relay and the Team put in a great effort. And to even top that the crowd loudly cheering for the US Team was unparalleled today.  Tomorrow’s Pursuit will be fun and its a good way finish off the week in Presque Isle. 
    USBA’s Press Releases from Presque Isle •••••
    A view of the range, finish area, stands and lodge after zero.
    The women’s field moments after the start.
    Jeremy anchored the team and brought us back within “flower” contention with Sweden.
    Just got this photo from my aunt in Switzerland where my family was watching the race on Eurosport. That’s my cousin Aleksander’s hand pointing to me when Sara tagged off. 
    It looks a little sparse from the view, but the vast majority of the crowd crammed on the other side to watch the range, tag zone and finish.
    Men’s and Women’s Pursuit races are tomorrow: 10am and 12pm.
    www.biathlonworld.com

  • Krenz At Badger State (Go Packers!)