FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

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

  • Muddin’

    US Nationals Day 1 is in the books.  The race trail survived a couple days of warm temps and light rain.  It looks like it will stay cold now and conditions will only improve – with a lot of snow making and shoveling – throughout the week.

    The East is known for extremely variable weather conditions and yesterday’s race was no exception.  Despite the fact that the race trail was a lot more brown than white, the track was really fast, making for some fun classic sprinting.

    Leading the heat – Photo: Ian Harvey – Toko

    Toko’s Ian Harvey was on hand taking photos of the action.  We had 5 CXC athletes make the heats, keeping coaches Jason and Gus busy all day.  I’m pretty sure they were more exhausted than the athletes after the long day of racing.  The course finished with a long downhill and we opted to sacrifice a little kick for faster glide going into the stadium and it paid off.  Winning the B-Final was a nice consolation, but I’m looking forward to even stronger finishes in the days to come.

    Cruising into the finish – Photo: Ian Harvey – Toko

    No racing today.  Some of the athletes drove across state lines into New Hampshire for some skiing.  I opted to ski the 500m wax test loop for an hour or so.  There was practically no one at the race course today and the race trails were all closed.  Volunteers and race officials were out shoveling snow onto the course while snow guns blasted snow onto other parts.

    Race course: Highlighted. Needs shoveling: Highlighted.

    I was really impressed by how good the trail looked today.  Although it sounds like we’ll be competing on a short 3km loop, the trail should be in good shape.

    View of the stadium: perfect untracked corduroy

    Everything else might be bare, but the course looks like it’s in good shape.  Can’t wait to get out and race some more later this week!

  • TC Championship

    The first day with classic racing went really well for me. I had a fast start this time. The most important was a good starting position. I think that the sides are the best, and people should really struggle to get them, but surprisingly nobody realizes this. In fact it was the only place left when I came 5 min before the start. Most strong people started in the middle to get the shorter path so from my position I went without pushing with anybody. This helped me to get in the top 10 after the start without working too hard. After that I stayed where I was the entire race.
    On one downhill I somehow lost the skier in front of me. My skis were fast, but I could not keep them from sliding apart on the ice and that slowed me down I think. After that I got I bit lazy to ski fast on my own. But the pack behind me did not get me anyways. Finished 6th overall.

    Looking at the photos I actually found that the same sliding apart of the skis happened in my dp too. And my poles were not parallel to each other. Lots of things to work on even in the simplest of all techniques!
    Overall, I was very happy with my double pole. Not that it was fast, but that it did not make me tired. So I am expecting to have a great time in longer races like Mora Vasaloppet later in the season.
    On the second day of skating I was not that fast. I think I just have not got used to the on snow skiing yet. In fall I was fast on rollerskis, but now I am way slower than I was expecting. The major problem with my technique seems to be that I am staying too much behind and not falling forward. Without that I cannot fully use my upper body. Also, when I straighten the leg before the push I am doing too much vertical movement instead of just bringing the hip forward. So when I try to stay with fast skiers I end up overloading my legs very quickly. Well, now that I figured this out I can work on it.
    Vakava results:
    10th Derek
    14th Eugene
    21th Andrew
    26th Ryan
    36th Dave (age group win)
    3rd Kathleen
    5th Mary Beth (age group win)
    8th Cheryl
    12th Katy

  • Race Snapshot: TdS Continuous Pursuit

    If you’ve ever wondered why I haven’t attempted more statistical machinations to predict race results, today’s races are an example of why I haven’t.  Actually, I’ve spent a fair bit of time trying to build some models that will predict performance, but what I’ve learned is that skiers are too variable for reasonably simple models to make interesting predictions.  For instance, no one wil care much if I claim to be able to predict a skier’s finishing place in a WC to within 15 places; a prediction of 15th just means I’d be certain they’re going to finish in the top thirty.

    Anyhow, with today’s mass start pursuit race, the points are once again unusually low, so I’ve adjusted them for a somewhat clearer picture of how today’s race compares to each athlete’s past.  Once again, I’m using the method outlined here and here.  So keep in mind that the actual race points I’m plotting here are generally inflated compared to what you’ll find in the official results.  But all of the points I’ve used have been adjusted, so the comparisons within each athlete are reasonably fair.

    Related posts:

    1. <Race Snapshot: IBU WC 2 Men’s Pursuit
    2. <Race Snapshot: IBU WC 2 Women’s Pursuit
    3. <Race Snapshot: TdS Prologue


  • TdS Classic Sprint Recap

    Once again thanks to my data connection over at WorldofXC.com for the sprint splits data.  The overall picture for the women’s race is about what you’d expect:

    Petra Majdic basically crushed everyone in sight, and in fact the closest anyone really came to her was in qualification.  After a rough start to her season, this is pretty eye-opening.  The question now is which Petra Majdic is the “outlier”?  Was she skiing unusually poorly up to this point and this effort is more “normal”?  Or is it the reverse?  Is her form actually off this year and this particular race was just a day where she felt unusually good (or perhaps some others felt unusually bad)?

    I wish I had watched this one (and perhaps I’ll go track down some video), since from the descriptions I’ve read Kowalczyk’s descending “skills” were prominently displayed on this course.  If Kowalczyk could ski downhill reasonably well, would Majdic have skied away with this one so easily?

    Here’s a look at the difference between the two semifinals:

    Semifinal two was generally faster, if we ignore Majdic.  The semifinal two skier way off the back was Anna Haag, who’s not particularly known for her sprinting.

    As for the men:

    I’ve actually zoomed in on this graph somewhat, so several of those grey lines continue further up off the chart.  They belong to Jaks and Kummel (quarters) and Newell (semis).

    Again, with the more tactically inclined men, the heats became progressively slower as the day went on.  (Or maybe they’re just not as fit as the women!)  Oestensen, Petoukhov and Legkov really fell off in the final, while Jönsson and Kershaw might have benefitted slightly from slightly slower efforts in the semis than Cologna.

    Once I’ve acquired a larger collection of these sprint race data, it’ll be interesting to look for patterns.  I’m becoming curious how often it’s beneficial to have even a single slowish effort on the way to the final.  It’s one of those things where it’s obviously beneficial in real life, but the question is whether we’ll be able to actually see it in the data.

    Here’s how the men’s semifinals shook out:

    Like the women, semifinal two was faster.  Newell (semifinal one) was actually close to 30 seconds off the median time in his semifinal due to another crash, but I’ve zoomed in on this graph as well.

    Related posts:

    1. <Düsseldorf Sprint Recap
    2. <Recap: Davos Sprint
    3. <Recap: Davos Sprint Con’t


  • Big Smiles Down East in Rumford


    Yesterday marked a special day for MOD skiers. Certainly, the highlight was Torin’s top spot on the podium in the classic sprint. Being a big, powerful skier the sloppy conditions did not play to his strengths but our technique emphasis this year has paid off in a renewal of his older, flowy style which is allowing him to ski more economically and apply his prodigious horsepower with more discretion.

    This was amply demonstrated through the tough day as he skied very well paced and controlled in the qualifier and in each heat. Only really being caught napping by the young Erik Packer’s impressive surge to break up the pack on the big climb during the quarter final. Sun Valley’s Mike Sinnott afforded Torin with the next test in the A final when he made a similar move on the big climb. He and Torin broke open the pack but with a few strong, long strides Torin pulled into the lead over the top and continued to out pace Sinnott to the line.

    Torin leads the A Final with former MODster Erik Bjornsen (in the ugly green suit);-)

    MOD alumni Sadie and Erik Bjornsen whom I have coached for the past umpteen years, but are now moved on to collegiate programs, both turned in top results as well. Sadie finished 4th (3rd US skier) in the ladies sprint while Erik powered to a very strong but unsurprising 4th place in the men’s race, just getting nipped for the podium in the final sprint to the line. So, despite some words in the press to the contrary, the little ski program from the little valley in Washington must have been doing somethings right. Only one other ski program in the US can boast of such strong results and they have more money than God and more skiers than you can count. So, yes, I am proud of my skiers'(both past and present)results.
    Sadie is all smiles too.

    With an unfortunate ski choice going into the qualifier MODster Sam Naney pretty much put himself into an untenable position. In these sloppy, red klister conditions the trade off between kick and glide is dramatic and slow skis take a huge toll. Sam drew the short straw in ski selection and, despite looking better than I’ve ever seen him in a classic sprint – strong and powerful – was doomed from the gun. But we are not counting him out for the skate sprint, as his superb speed and strength on this course should put him in a great position to turn some heads!

    I owe huge thanks to my skilled and dedicated wax crew: the perenial and the man to have on yoru kick wax table, Ben Husaby. Newcomer to our crew but super savvy, Justin Beckwith of Green Vally Mountain School over the hill in Vermont, and the female “fixer” extrodiniare Janice Sabilia. Together we put our motley crew of MOD, Bend Endurance Academy, GVMS and NENSA skiers on as good a skis as anyone had. Hat’s off to all of you. You were a big part of getting Torin to the podium. Once again the elves at Toko provided the juice to get the skis to top speed.
    For the techies out there: We ran on Toko Yellow Jetstream block covered with Toko Helix spray. Mark Waechter at Nordic Ultratune provided one of his i5 grinds that we have been finding super in wet saturated snow.

    Now let’s just hope the snow holds out for the rest of the week.

  • Nationals- Day One

    www.flyingpointroad.com photo- during the heats

    Yesterday marked the first day of 2011 U.S. Nationals here in Rumford Maine. I must say I have never raced on so little snow in my life, but race managers managed to throw together a super impressive race out there!

    The day started with a 1.4km qualifier where APU woman had an impressive showing with six skiers qualifying in the top ten. I ended up qualifying second, behind Holly Brooks, and then close behind were Morgan, Katie, Fitz, Becca and Ky! The mens qualifier was stacked with APUers as well. Lars Flora won the heats, with Reese Hanneman close behind. Results posted at: http://www.chisholmskiclub.org/2011_us_nationals/results.htm
    At 12:45 when the heats began, the snow was turning into puddles, tracks were disappearing, and the dirt was showing through. Regardless everyone threw down pretty damn hard and had tons of fun. Because the only snow that Black Hill has right now is placed on the sprint course, there wasn’t many options for warming up on besides going up and down the short alpine run. This made things a bit tough- but everyone seemed to remain positive and have fun.
    I went through the heats with the plan of attacking from the start and going from there. All my heats were pretty fun as I had between 2 and 4 of my teammates in each heat- which made me feel right at home 🙂 By the A-Final heat when I lined up with 3 other APU girls, I was starting to feel the effort catching up to me. I was able to get out of the start quick and keep my eyes on Holly Brooks throwing down every last bit of energy. As I pushed over the top of the last hill I headed down the hill in second place. From there things switched around a bit with varying ski speeds before we put out every last bit of energy down the double pole finish. I crossed the line 4th, 3rd american…. which meant APU swept the podium!!! My first Nationals podium ever 🙂

    Top 4 Americans!
    Big thanks to the wax techs and coaches for bombs skis! And congrats to the boys squad for rockin as well!

    Mike Matteson getting after it!
    Races are postponed until wednesday because of the lack of snow… but good news is its supposed to cool down and they are going to start making snow. 
    Here is a link to the front page of Alaska Daily News today!
    http://media.adn.com/images/pdf/A1/anchorage_01_03_11.pdf

    APU Ladies Team

  • Man-Crush on Kersh

    The first three stages of the 2011 Tour de Ski have forced me to finally admit, to myself and to the Nordic Commentary Project’s vast global readership, that I have a giant man-crush on Devon Kershaw. Lest you judge me, I offer a defense of my stance on the man who is now solidly established as North America’s best male cross-country ski racer.First and foremost, he’s fast as hell. His results at

  • Stonegrinds by Cyclova XC Available at Out There – in Rice Lake, WI

  • US Nationals 2011: Slush Cuppin’

    My weeklong domestic ski season kicked off today with the US Nationals Classic Sprint in scenic Rumford, Maine. With little snowpack and temperatures reaching up to 47 degrees, made for a unique battle between fatigue, technique, tactics and the elements. Fortunately, my coach Scotty J. and teammate Sam have been prepping for days exactly like this. In addition to long the expert help in the waxroom I got from Ben Husaby, Janice Sibilia and Justin Beckwith, this was all the measure I needed to come out on top today. To everyone, from the snow shovelers out on the trails of Black Mountain, to the fans and friends back home, thank you.

    Through the rounds of racing it was really cool to see how well some of the young ‘ens were skiing. Mikey Sinnott of Sun Valley made a beautiful move to splinter the final pairing to pieces. I was particularly impressed, though, with Erik Packer’s stride-and-glide on the climbs. And from all those summer workouts back in the Methow Valley I knew the younder Bjornsen’s got more than a little talent in this ski racing game.

  • US Nationals 2011: Slush Cuppin’

    My weeklong domestic ski season kicked off today with the US Nationals Classic Sprint in scenic Rumford, Maine. With little snowpack and temperatures reaching up to 47 degrees, made for a unique battle between fatigue, technique, tactics and the elements. Fortunately, my coach Scotty J. and teammate Sam have been prepping for days exactly like this. In addition to long the expert help in the waxroom I got from Ben Husaby, Janice Sibilia and Justin Beckwith, this was all the measure I needed to come out on top today. To everyone, from the snow shovelers out on the trails of Black Mountain, to the fans and friends back home, thank you.

    Through the rounds of racing it was really cool to see how well some of the young ‘ens were skiing. Mikey Sinnott of Sun Valley made a beautiful move to splinter the final pairing to pieces. I was particularly impressed, though, with Erik Packer’s stride-and-glide on the climbs. And from all those summer workouts back in the Methow Valley I knew the younder Bjornsen’s got more than a little talent in this ski racing game.

  • National Championships 2011: Torin on Top

    The weather was soggy and the snow dirty but Torin was all smiles after taking the National Championship Sprint Title today in Rumford, Maine. It was cool to see the newest addition to the team ski smooth and smart all day, and pull away over the final climb to win going away.

  • Great Day for SMS at Sr. Nationals

    Results are just coming out… but it was a stellar day for SMS skiers today at the classic sprint race in Rumford.br /Skyler Davis was top Jr and 3rd OVERALL!br /Heather Mooney was top Jr. and 8th OVERALL. Alums Morgan Smyth and Sophie Caldwell were 3rd and 6th overall.br /Alums Isabel Caldwell and Megan Killigrew were 4th and 5th for Jrs. and also in the top 20 overall.br /Cam Mcdermott and Paddy Caldwell both placed in the top 5 for J1’s…br /br /Yahoo!!!!!div class=”blogger-post-footer”img width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4680416899705879324-846085571085319339?l=smsxc.blogspot.com’ alt=” //div

  • Race Snapshot: TdS Classic Sprint

    Great day for North America, overall.  Fantastic races by Kershaw and Harvey and strong efforts by Freeman and Randall (for a classic sprint, not her specialty, certainly not Freeman’s).  Newell probably isn’t thrilled with his 12th place, given how much stumbling around it sounded like he did during the semis, but it’s not a terrible result for him.

    On the international side, the men’s semis were dominated (in numbers, if not the results) by the Russians and Swedes.  Norway can’t be thrilled with that.  As usual, more diverse on the women’s side, with Majdic finally shaking off whatever was holding her back earlier in the season.  Also, Krista Lahteenmaki is quickly becoming an interesting skier to watch.  Will this be a one season hot streak, or will she be a superstar in a few years?

    Related posts:

    1. <Race Snapshot: IBU WC 1 Women’s Sprint
    2. <Race Snapshot: Davos WC Classic
    3. <Race Snapshot: Davos WC Sprint


  • US National Championships: Classic Sprint

  • US Nationals

    . . .start tomorrow!  Classic sprint at 10am.  Follow along here.

    final prep before the races

    Sunday, Jan 2: Classic Sprint

    Tuesday, Jan 4: Classic 15km

    Thursday, Jan 6: Skate 30km Mass Start

    Saturday, Jan 8: Skate Sprint

  • Telemark Lodge: Rumors of Progres But Still No Money

  • We WILL Race Tomorrow…!

    I’ll admit, the snow conditions in Rumford are a bit sketchy.  Today during “race prep” I think we were skiing on an inch of compressed, translucent slush.  The necessary tactics required a whole new set of agility…. the ability to dodge this, dodge that, etc, etc.

    Despite the lack of snow and temperatures soring into the mid 40’s, I am certain that we are going to have a high qualify race tomorrow.  There is no doubt in my mind that the race organizers, the TDs, and John Farra (USSA Nordic Director) will come up with the best, viable option possible.

    Needless to say, the APU team is ready to make it happen! Luckily there is snow from the last storm to move onto the trail. (This was yesterday) 

    Covering the “brown streak”

    We had some fun with the shovels too! 
    Team APU with our shovels. Coach Erik Flora figured out some shoveling stats that he shared with us today.  He calculated that if every athlete registered for US Nationals “prepped” (meaning shoveled and spread) snow on 5 meters of the distance course, we would have a covered distance course!  This calculation brings a whole new meaning to my grandmother’s saying, “Many hands make light work.”  I know that folks on my team, myself included, have worked too hard all year to have these races not happen.  I am confident they will – and that they’ll be great! 

    If you’re not ready, Reese Hanneman is!

    Today on the upper part of the sprint loop that we shoveled yesterday

    Last night we had all our teammates over for homemade lasagna New Years Eve dinner.  Because our team is so big, we’re staying in three separate locations. It’s sweet to have a big crew but logistically tough.  It was fun to get everyone together to welcome the new year, even though we went to bed early 🙂 

    There was one rule for the “Party.”  Each person had to wear one piece of “flare” and one piece of “APU.”  Here is Forrest demonstrating his flare….. 
    RACE ON! 
    More soon
    Sincerely, 
    Holly 🙂 

  • We WILL Race Tomorrow…!

    I’ll admit, the snow conditions in Rumford are a bit sketchy.  Today during “race prep” I think we were skiing on an inch of compressed, translucent slush.  The necessary tactics required a whole new set of agility…. the ability to dodge this, dodge that, etc, etc.

    Despite the lack of snow and temperatures soring into the mid 40’s, I am certain that we are going to have a high qualify race tomorrow.  There is no doubt in my mind that the race organizers, the TDs, and John Farra (USSA Nordic Director) will come up with the best, viable option possible.

    Needless to say, the APU team is ready to make it happen! Luckily there is snow from the last storm to move onto the trail. (This was yesterday) 

    Covering the “brown streak”

    We had some fun with the shovels too! 
    Team APU with our shovels. Coach Erik Flora figured out some shoveling stats that he shared with us today.  He calculated that if every athlete registered for US Nationals “prepped” (meaning shoveled and spread) snow on 5 meters of the distance course, we would have a covered distance course!  This calculation brings a whole new meaning to my grandmother’s saying, “Many hands make light work.”  I know that folks on my team, myself included, have worked too hard all year to have these races not happen.  I am confident they will – and that they’ll be great! 

    If you’re not ready, Reese Hanneman is!

    Today on the upper part of the sprint loop that we shoveled yesterday

    Last night we had all our teammates over for homemade lasagna New Years Eve dinner.  Because our team is so big, we’re staying in three separate locations. It’s sweet to have a big crew but logistically tough.  It was fun to get everyone together to welcome the new year, even though we went to bed early 🙂 

    There was one rule for the “Party.”  Each person had to wear one piece of “flare” and one piece of “APU.”  Here is Forrest demonstrating his flare….. 
    RACE ON! 
    More soon
    Sincerely, 
    Holly 🙂 

  • We WILL Race Tomorrow…!

    I’ll admit, the snow conditions in Rumford are a bit sketchy.  Today during “race prep” I think we were skiing on an inch of compressed, translucent slush.  The necessary tactics required a whole new set of agility…. the ability to dodge this, dodge that, etc, etc.

    Despite the lack of snow and temperatures soring into the mid 40’s, I am certain that we are going to have a high qualify race tomorrow.  There is no doubt in my mind that the race organizers, the TDs, and John Farra (USSA Nordic Director) will come up with the best, viable option possible.

    Needless to say, the APU team is ready to make it happen! Luckily there is snow from the last storm to move onto the trail. (This was yesterday) 

    Covering the “brown streak”

    We had some fun with the shovels too! 
    Team APU with our shovels. Coach Erik Flora figured out some shoveling stats that he shared with us today.  He calculated that if every athlete registered for US Nationals “prepped” (meaning shoveled and spread) snow on 5 meters of the distance course, we would have a covered distance course!  This calculation brings a whole new meaning to my grandmother’s saying, “Many hands make light work.”  I know that folks on my team, myself included, have worked too hard all year to have these races not happen.  I am confident they will – and that they’ll be great! 

    If you’re not ready, Reese Hanneman is!

    Today on the upper part of the sprint loop that we shoveled yesterday

    Last night we had all our teammates over for homemade lasagna New Years Eve dinner.  Because our team is so big, we’re staying in three separate locations. It’s sweet to have a big crew but logistically tough.  It was fun to get everyone together to welcome the new year, even though we went to bed early 🙂 

    There was one rule for the “Party.”  Each person had to wear one piece of “flare” and one piece of “APU.”  Here is Forrest demonstrating his flare….. 
    RACE ON! 
    More soon
    Sincerely, 
    Holly 🙂 

  • Race Snapshot: TdS Pursuit

    These race snapshot graphs are quite a bit different from usual.  First, today’s pursuit is essentially an old style two day pursuit with the techniques reversed (skating yesterday, classic today).  So the stage results from today include yesterday’s time (minus the bonus seconds from yesterday).  Hence, my race snapshot graphs won’t compare today’s stage to a particular technique, since today’s result includes racing from both, but isn’t a continuous pursuit.

    The other change stems from the fact that if you check out the raw results from today you’ll notice that the points awarded were unusually low.  This is something that we’re used to seeing in mass start races and continuous pursuits, where the pace is often artificially slow, allowing skiers deeper in the field to remain close to the leader.  In fact, the points were so low today that I decided it made more sense to adjust them using my equivalent percent back (EqPB) method (outlined here and here).  This means I’m essentially treating today’s race as a mass start event, which isn’t technically true.  It also means that while the order of the athletes is unchanged, the points plotted here are not the official FIS points awarded to the athletes!  Generally speaking they are somewhat inflated.  But after comparing these with the same plots using the raw FIS points, I’ve decided that these give a more accurate view of how people did today compared to their past performances.

    And of course, nice job Devon Kershaw!  <sarcasm> But remember folks, according to the geniuses at FIS, today’s race wasn’t really a World Cup race, so this doesn’t really count as a World Cup podium result for the Canadian.  Aw, shucks!  </sarcasm>

    Related posts:

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