FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

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

  • WJC/U23 Assessment: Norway and Russia

    Continuing on in the vein of my post yesterday recapping the WJC and U23 results for the last several years for the US and Canada, this post will do the same for Norway and Russia. As before, I’m plotting the finishing rank, or place, of each skier and then tracking the median result in red. So “how far behind the leader” information is being lost here, but I feel like a lot of the discussion that happens surrounding WJC/U23 results tends to revolve around what place people finished.

    Not surprisingly, pretty darn good, at least to my jaded American eyes. Some picky Norwegians may note that while the median men’s distance performance remained roughly the same as last year, they saw fewer top fives. As I noted before the competitions started, the Norwegian junior women have been doing very well in the distance events, with occasional results outside the top 15 or 20, but only occasionally. Interestingly, both the junior men and women from Norway had a bit of an off year (for them) in sprinting in 2007-2008.

    After a fairly dominant performance in the distance events by the Russian junior men in 2008-2009, they’ve returned of late to just plain very good. After several years of fairly wide ranging sprint results by the Russian junior women, they’ve returned their median performance down to near 10th, and somewhat eliminated the occasional outlying poor result.

    Tracking the median for the U23 competitions can get a bit silly, as you can see, since these competitions can have smaller contingents from each country, resulting in somewhat less data, particularly on sprinting side of things. So I’m not going to comment much on these; you’re on your own drawing conclusions from these!

    Ok, I’ll make an exception: the Russian U23 men really nailed the distance races this year. There, now I’m done.

    Related posts:

    1. <Post-WJC/U23 Development: Norway
    2. <WJC/U23 Preview: USA and CAN
    3. <WJC/U23 Preview: USA and Canada (con’t)


  • The Return of the King

    The King Boreas race returned to St. Paul after a lengthy absence. It is really nice to add another local race to the ski calendar. Being able to leave home at 9, race at 10 and be home by 11:15 is a huge plus. When you throw in the fact that the highly efficient Ben Popp was the race director, you have the makings for a great day on the snow. Throw in temperatures close to 30 degrees and wow, what a fun event.
    The weather was much warmer than expected overnight and many racers were left scrambling in the minutes leading up to the start looking for warmer wax and structure tools. I got lucky here, and through no skill or planning on my part, had absolute rockets under my feet. From the start the pace was high, and Jacob Beste was flying. A lead group of about 6 formed with Jacob doing almost all of the work. After the first of 2 laps were complete, the elastic broke. At one time or another each of us in the lead group tried to latch on to Jacob’s Rossi orange suit, but alas, it was not be. He won solo, smoothly skating away, completing 15k in about 37 minutes.
    I was able to ski in with the lead pack of 4 and had might sights on trying my sprinting legs for a chance at second place. It did not go so well. I ended up 5th, last in the sprint. Hats off to the 3 others skier who absolutely torched me, you deserve it. Check the video clip found on Skinnyski.com and keep in mind that 2nd through 5th were all together with about 500 meters to go. Oh well, I will be looking for pointers from the team on sprinting at the next practice.
    Overall, a very nice race for me considering I am attempting to come back from arm surgery performed in November. Thanks to the Vakava coaches for their patience as I slowly come around to race fitness. A sincere apology to my teammate Paul Olson. I step on his pole on the 1st lap and pulled his strap right off his hand. He had to turn around, ski back to his pole and then attempt to catch back up. I felt terrible about it, and it’s made worse by the fact that Paul is probably the nicest guy on the team.

  • The Return of the King

    The King Boreas race returned to St. Paul after a lengthy absence. It is really nice to add another local race to the ski calendar. Being able to leave home at 9, race at 10 and be home by 11:15 is a huge plus. When you throw in the fact that the highly efficient Ben Popp was the race director, you have the makings for a great day on the snow. Throw in temperatures close to 30 degrees and wow, what a fun event.
    The weather was much warmer than expected overnight and many racers were left scrambling in the minutes leading up to the start looking for warmer wax and structure tools. I got lucky here, and through no skill or planning on my part, had absolute rockets under my feet. From the start the pace was high, and Jacob Beste was flying. A lead group of about 6 formed with Jacob doing almost all of the work. After the first of 2 laps were complete, the elastic broke. At one time or another each of us in the lead group tried to latch on to Jacob’s Rossi orange suit, but alas, it was not be. He won solo, smoothly skating away, completing 15k in about 37 minutes.
    I was able to ski in with the lead pack of 4 and had might sights on trying my sprinting legs for a chance at second place. It did not go so well. I ended up 5th, last in the sprint. Hats off to the 3 others skier who absolutely torched me, you deserve it. Check the video clip found on Skinnyski.com and keep in mind that 2nd through 5th were all together with about 500 meters to go. Oh well, I will be looking for pointers from the team on sprinting at the next practice.
    Overall, a very nice race for me considering I am attempting to come back from arm surgery performed in November. Thanks to the Vakava coaches for their patience as I slowly come around to race fitness. A sincere apology to my teammate Paul Olson. I step on his pole on the 1st lap and pulled his strap right off his hand. He had to turn around, ski back to his pole and then attempt to catch back up. I felt terrible about it, and it’s made worse by the fact that Paul is probably the nicest guy on the team.

  • The Return of the King

    The King Boreas race returned to St. Paul after a lengthy absence. It is really nice to add another local race to the ski calendar. Being able to leave home at 9, race at 10 and be home by 11:15 is a huge plus. When you throw in the fact that the highly efficient Ben Popp was the race director, you have the makings for a great day on the snow. Throw in temperatures close to 30 degrees and wow, what a fun event.
    The weather was much warmer than expected overnight and many racers were left scrambling in the minutes leading up to the start looking for warmer wax and structure tools. I got lucky here, and through no skill or planning on my part, had absolute rockets under my feet. From the start the pace was high, and Jacob Beste was flying. A lead group of about 6 formed with Jacob doing almost all of the work. After the first of 2 laps were complete, the elastic broke. At one time or another each of us in the lead group tried to latch on to Jacob’s Rossi orange suit, but alas, it was not be. He won solo, smoothly skating away, completing 15k in about 37 minutes.
    I was able to ski in with the lead pack of 4 and had might sights on trying my sprinting legs for a chance at second place. It did not go so well. I ended up 5th, last in the sprint. Hats off to the 3 others skier who absolutely torched me, you deserve it. Check the video clip found on Skinnyski.com and keep in mind that 2nd through 5th were all together with about 500 meters to go. Oh well, I will be looking for pointers from the team on sprinting at the next practice.
    Overall, a very nice race for me considering I am attempting to come back from arm surgery performed in November. Thanks to the Vakava coaches for their patience as I slowly come around to race fitness. A sincere apology to my teammate Paul Olson. I step on his pole on the 1st lap and pulled his strap right off his hand. He had to turn around, ski back to his pole and then attempt to catch back up. I felt terrible about it, and it’s made worse by the fact that Paul is probably the nicest guy on the team.

  • Nordic Ultratune February 2011 Newsletter

    A lot more than I can post here. It’s a ten page newsletter with lots of good information.
     Take a look (click here).

  • Nordic Ultratune February 2011 Newsletter

    A lot more than I can post here. It’s a ten page newsletter with lots of good information.
     Take a look (click here).

  • Nordic Ultratune February 2011 Newsletter

    A lot more than I can post here. It’s a ten page newsletter with lots of good information.
     Take a look (click here).

  • Nordic Ultratune February 2011 Newsletter

    A lot more than I can post here. It’s a ten page newsletter with lots of good information.
     Take a look (click here).

  • Revived Films Latest Video From Weston

    click

  • Animated WJC Results History

    I had fun making those animated charts for World Cup points the other day, so I thought I’d try using the same charts to look at World Juniors. All I’ve done is tally up “World Cup” points for each nation and each year, scoring each (individual) race using the traditional WC point scale. Then I divided each tally by the total number of such points awarded that year (since the number and type of races has changed over the years). So each point represents a single nation, with the x and y coordinates being the proportion of total “points” earned by that nation, that year.

    As before, there’s really only a single data point for each nation for each year, but this Google chart API move the points smoothly between them. And they require Flash. Men first and the women below. Important: I’ve been noticing that the “Trails” option grinds the whole animation to a halt for me, so I’d recommend unchecking that option before you start playing around with these.





    Related posts:

    1. <Post-WJC/U23 Development: Norway
    2. <Japan’s Junior Skiers
    3. <WJC/U23 Preview: USA and CAN


  • Latvija

  • Latvia!

    Yesterday morning we drove from Otepaa, Estonia, to Madona, Latvia, where our next two races will be. All I knew about Latvia before today was that it is located directly below Estonia on a map. After driving through a relatively unpopulated country side, complete with large, empty looking concrete apartment buildings, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was beginning to envision that we’d be staying at a hotel similar to the Linnel, but it turned out to be quite the opposite! It looks like big log house, and when we came in, we found incredibly nice rooms, and a fun wooden spiral staircase going upstairs! We had lunch at a small café, which was in another grey concrete building, but inside incredibly well decorated, there were couches at all the tables, and the food was really good! So far, even though on first sight Latvia looked like it might not be as nice as the previous places we’ve been, its turned out to be surprisingly pleasant!br /br /Two days ago was the last day of Junior Worlds, which included the junior relays as well as the U23 pursuit races. Since I wasn’t in the relay, I got to cheer all day, which was a lot of fun. The sun came out, and it was a perfect day! Both the relay teams beat their places from last year by one (girls were 7th and the boys were 10th).br /br /This morning we had a skate sprint here in Latvia. Ida and Jessie skied really well, finishing 4th and 5th! I qualified 22nd, and ended up 4th in my quarterfinal for 20th overall. It was a really fun, fast course, only 1k for us! There were only 33 women racing, but there were over 100 men!! Skyler qualified 38th, and was 2nd junior, behind a kid who has been top 20 in world cups. Tomorrow we have a skate 10/15k, and then we drive from here to Joulumae, Estonia, where there is a classic sprint on Saturday, and a classic 10/15 on Sunday!br /br /br /

  • King Boreas, the Ski Race

    Boreas was famed to have described Minnesota as a winter paradise. After racing the King Boreas 15km skate race at Phalen park, I believe there is no better descriptor than “winter paradise”. The course was fun, well groomed, and gently rolling. Two laps around the twisting course was just enough to keep the racers in close proximity for spectators. Follow this link for a sneak peak at the race highlights.


    The men started in mass, followed by the women one minute later. This format made for some interesting maneuvering by the lead women. I have to admit, it was really fun passing so many skiers! Because everyone was in the same situation, it didn’t bother me much that our speed was compromised by this format. Hats off to the men! They were very well behaved. We just had to mention our presence and the word relayed up stream for the men to move to their right so we could easily pass. We even received cheers and words of encouragement from many of those we passed. This made a very good impression on the ladies of the race. Thank You!

    Like most Midwest races, the post-race cool down was like a reunion of old friends. I was fortunate enough to have made some new friends as well. Fun fun times.

    With all our new snow, Minnesota’s winter wonderland doesn’t seem to be in jeopardy. Sometime in July I’ll think back to January and how beautifully white the St. Paul area was, and like King Boreas I’ll look “forward to the time when summer’s warmth would once again relinquish its hold on the realm and the frosty atmosphere of winter would prevail.”

    For more information on the legend of King Boreas see http://www.stpaulwintercarnival.com/legend.html

  • King Boreas, the Ski Race

    Boreas was famed to have described Minnesota as a winter paradise. After racing the King Boreas 15km skate race at Phalen park, I believe there is no better descriptor than “winter paradise”. The course was fun, well groomed, and gently rolling. Two laps around the twisting course was just enough to keep the racers in close proximity for spectators. Follow this link for a sneak peak at the race highlights.


    The men started in mass, followed by the women one minute later. This format made for some interesting maneuvering by the lead women. I have to admit, it was really fun passing so many skiers! Because everyone was in the same situation, it didn’t bother me much that our speed was compromised by this format. Hats off to the men! They were very well behaved. We just had to mention our presence and the word relayed up stream for the men to move to their right so we could easily pass. We even received cheers and words of encouragement from many of those we passed. This made a very good impression on the ladies of the race. Thank You!

    Like most Midwest races, the post-race cool down was like a reunion of old friends. I was fortunate enough to have made some new friends as well. Fun fun times.

    With all our new snow, Minnesota’s winter wonderland doesn’t seem to be in jeopardy. Sometime in July I’ll think back to January and how beautifully white the St. Paul area was, and like King Boreas I’ll look “forward to the time when summer’s warmth would once again relinquish its hold on the realm and the frosty atmosphere of winter would prevail.”

    For more information on the legend of King Boreas see http://www.stpaulwintercarnival.com/legend.html

  • King Boreas, the Ski Race

    Boreas was famed to have described Minnesota as a winter paradise. After racing the King Boreas 15km skate race at Phalen park, I believe there is no better descriptor than “winter paradise”. The course was fun, well groomed, and gently rolling. Two laps around the twisting course was just enough to keep the racers in close proximity for spectators. Follow this link for a sneak peak at the race highlights.


    The men started in mass, followed by the women one minute later. This format made for some interesting maneuvering by the lead women. I have to admit, it was really fun passing so many skiers! Because everyone was in the same situation, it didn’t bother me much that our speed was compromised by this format. Hats off to the men! They were very well behaved. We just had to mention our presence and the word relayed up stream for the men to move to their right so we could easily pass. We even received cheers and words of encouragement from many of those we passed. This made a very good impression on the ladies of the race. Thank You!

    Like most Midwest races, the post-race cool down was like a reunion of old friends. I was fortunate enough to have made some new friends as well. Fun fun times.

    With all our new snow, Minnesota’s winter wonderland doesn’t seem to be in jeopardy. Sometime in July I’ll think back to January and how beautifully white the St. Paul area was, and like King Boreas I’ll look “forward to the time when summer’s warmth would once again relinquish its hold on the realm and the frosty atmosphere of winter would prevail.”

    For more information on the legend of King Boreas see http://www.stpaulwintercarnival.com/legend.html

  • A different kind of race.

    It’s a big ski weekend in Minneapolis.  The City of Lakes Loppet is expecting over 10,000 skiers which might exceed Birkie numbers.  And if that is not enough check out Caitlin and her dog Lahti. 

     

    Caitlin and Lahti

    Click on this  for the channel 5 Eyewitness News story and video on Caitlin. 

    Brian is in Sun Valley, Idaho for the Boulder Mtn Tour.

  • Stonegrinding Season = Busy Times For Cyclova XC!

  • Mayor’s Challenge

    If garrottkuzzy.com is the only place you go for ski news, you might think that I’ve been taking a lot of rest days lately.  On the contrary; I’ve been busier than ever and really enjoying some of the best skiing I can remember in the Midwest.  I say the Midwest, because I’ve spent almost equal time in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan over the past few weeks.  The USSA SuperTour has been in Minneapolis and Houghton, and I was even able to unpack my bags at home in Hayward for the first time in almost three months last week.

    Ideally, I’d love to go back and write a daily commentary.  Instead, I’ll share a few of my favorite shots, starting with the Mayor’s Challenge at Wirth Park in Minneapolis where we competed in a 10km Skate and 15km Mass Start Classic.

    Photos: Skinnyski.com

    This photo sums up the weekend.  Cold, hard, fast tracks, Salomon podium sweep, and professional  race organizers and volunteers.

    skinnyski.com

    Over 500 participants competed over the weekend, including Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak – hence: Mayor’s Challenge.  That’s the largest SuperTour event of the season by about 50 skiers over last weekend’s St Lawrence Carnival in Lake Placid.

    skinnyski.com

    The pack was basically shoulder-to-shoulder all weekend.

    skinnyski

    . . .with some serious CXC Team domination.

    skinnyski.com

    skinnyski.com

    Post-race interview with Ahvo of Finn Sisu who keeps us fit in the summer with Marwe roller skis and keeps our skis fast in the winter with some great ski grinds.

    Of course, seeing our women’s team flying was a real treat as well.

    g.kuz photo

    Hometown hero Caitlin Compton running away with the win. . .

    L.kuz photo

    . . .and the big check!  Did I mention it was cold???

    It was pretty sweet to have my sister Laura on hand with her enthusiastic cheering section and awesome support (putting up with a house full of boys) all weekend.

    Houghton report coming tomorrow. . .

  • The Athletes Report- Vol. IV


    Todays Installment: Sharmila and Hannah…

    Wad up! We’re in Sweden! Today we said goodbye to Ostersund and left on our trek for Ornskoldsvik. The packing turned out to be quite an ordeal and may have taken longer than the actual car ride. We had to fit eighty-some pairs of skis into the decked out minivan with two DVD players. Too bad there wasn’t room for us; we were stuck in the Minibus. After chugging the rest of the yogurt and fighting over the odds and ends of the bread left in the cabins, we were on our way.

    The drive was eventful – we experimented with Buff trends,taught Marion, Hannah, and Cambria how to Tic Tac Toe, fought over the tunes, and toured a Swedish gas station. We were weary of the sandwiches that had been chillaxin there on the shelf all day, but lo and behold, those sandwiches were good stuff! Turns out even Sweden’s sandwiches are classier than ours. Chicken and pesto, and the guy heated them up for us so they were all melty. Yum, yum. Later in the ride we got to meet the Swedish po-pos. Apparently we were driving too slowly on the icy two-lane highway, and after riding our bumper, the Po Po made the move to pass not one, not two, but all three of our vehicles. He didn’t care about the terrain, he didn’t care about the speed, he didn’t even care about oncoming traffic. He was going to pass us, and pass us he did.

    We knew we had arrived as we drove into Ornskoldsvik. This city is hoppin. Everything is lit up, even the ski jump that curves underneath a highway for landing. We were pumped about the hotel until we opened the doors to our three-person rooms. There was one European twin bed (2/3s a normal twin) and a couch. “Are you for real?” we thought. But yet again, Sweden surprised us. They pack a lot of room into these little rooms! There are two beds in the couch and secret drawers in the bench. Our towels are even nice and warm because they are hanging on fancy hot-water pipes. Although Sweden has everything, Dylan says they are lacking one thing, but if you want to figure out what that is, you’ll have to visit the pool.

    We check out the race trails tomorrow!

  • The Athletes Report- Vol. IV


    Todays Installment: Sharmila and Hannah…

    Wad up! We’re in Sweden! Today we said goodbye to Ostersund and left on our trek for Ornskoldsvik. The packing turned out to be quite an ordeal and may have taken longer than the actual car ride. We had to fit eighty-some pairs of skis into the decked out minivan with two DVD players. Too bad there wasn’t room for us; we were stuck in the Minibus. After chugging the rest of the yogurt and fighting over the odds and ends of the bread left in the cabins, we were on our way.

    The drive was eventful – we experimented with Buff trends,taught Marion, Hannah, and Cambria how to Tic Tac Toe, fought over the tunes, and toured a Swedish gas station. We were weary of the sandwiches that had been chillaxin there on the shelf all day, but lo and behold, those sandwiches were good stuff! Turns out even Sweden’s sandwiches are classier than ours. Chicken and pesto, and the guy heated them up for us so they were all melty. Yum, yum. Later in the ride we got to meet the Swedish po-pos. Apparently we were driving too slowly on the icy two-lane highway, and after riding our bumper, the Po Po made the move to pass not one, not two, but all three of our vehicles. He didn’t care about the terrain, he didn’t care about the speed, he didn’t even care about oncoming traffic. He was going to pass us, and pass us he did.

    We knew we had arrived as we drove into Ornskoldsvik. This city is hoppin. Everything is lit up, even the ski jump that curves underneath a highway for landing. We were pumped about the hotel until we opened the doors to our three-person rooms. There was one European twin bed (2/3s a normal twin) and a couch. “Are you for real?” we thought. But yet again, Sweden surprised us. They pack a lot of room into these little rooms! There are two beds in the couch and secret drawers in the bench. Our towels are even nice and warm because they are hanging on fancy hot-water pipes. Although Sweden has everything, Dylan says they are lacking one thing, but if you want to figure out what that is, you’ll have to visit the pool.

    We check out the race trails tomorrow!