FasterSkier

Category: XCFeeds

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

  • Ski at Sunbowl & Strength

    We had a nice morning up at the Sunbowl with everyone getting out for 45 mins to an 1:30 on skate skis. There’s some nice terrain up on the mountain for us to ski without climbing straight up the alpine area and several people on the team checked out the nordic trails which are skiable, but still need a little more snow before we can call them “race ski worthy” conditions. After practice everyone grabbed lunch in the dining hall, headed to classes until 5:10pm and then hit the weight room for strength & floor core and a fun warmup game in the gym.

  • Classic 5/10 at Youth Olympic Games

    We had another beautiful day for skiing in Seefeld. The forcast was for temps dipping to -25C so yesterday they decided to delay the start until 10 am. The forcast was wrong so the wax techs had to scramble a bit this morning, but having warmer temps (into the 20’s) was nice for everyone other than the “techs.”
    Heather had a strong race and finished in 13th place. She had the good experience of following the girl who finished 4th for about a km and learned that she needs to improve her uphill skiing. Heather didn’t have bomber kick and that hurt a little too.
    Heather tucks down the hill from the stadium.

    Oh yea, Scott.
    Paddy skied a strong race and placed 16th. I think that Norway was the only country to place two skiers in front of him.

    The boys had 3 laps of a 3.3 km course so there was plenty of action. Each lap was rolling terrain with one killer climb followed by a steep downhill. The climb was only about 90 seconds long, but it started with a herringbone section and then leveled to just plain steep…
    At the finish. The Russians won both golds (congratulations to them) and a Japenese boy finished 2nd. No medals for Scandinavia which was a suprise to me.
    Time to replentish at the food tent. Several kins of pasta and potatoes…I guess they know that carbos are important.
    Heading to the bus and “home”… temps now around freezing 🙂
    Quiet after the storm.
    It is still an amazing view.
    We go on a 10 minute bus ride to “Congress” for lunch and dinner. At Congress, there are also many activities for the athletes. One of the goals is to increase global awareness so there are many different exhibits.

    Sign up!
    Workshops are offered.
    Here are the two views from outside Congress….

    The Hungary kids gather around the coin smasher.

    Our sprint race on Thursday will not start until 3:45 pm, so we will ski tomorrow afternoon. The forcast is calling for a snow/rain mix so I’m happy that it is a skate race!

  • Ready set GO !

    Well I’m glad to say that we finally got some snow here in central NY. It was the first weekend of the winter that our local multi-use facilities had enough snow to ski on !
    (First classic ski of the season, I mean race!)
    As with everyone else we have been dealing with Mother Nature being a real B*(&% this winter! But that’s how it goes, you have to make the best with what you have and move on.
    We had a great trip to U.S Nationals in Rumford, the results were not what we were hoping for but it was great to live the life for a week and to see everyone and everything that makes skiing so much more than just sport !
    (Our sweet cabin kitchen set up in Andover)
    (The living room)
    (Wax room entry way. TOKO and Madshus the only way to GO) !
    The Highschool scene here is in full swing and the kids have been killing it ! Due to the lack of snow we have been racing on a 1k man made loop atop the local alpine area. It’s great to have a place to race but the lack of terrain is going to make it interesting when the kids get on a real course ! I’m not sure which will be worse for them going up hill or down hill !
    (G-Man having nightmares of coaches corner after racing on the pancake)
    On the girls side Alyssa has been in a league of her own winning the 1st three races of the season ! Eric would of had the same outcome except for a miscount on his laps during the first race of the year. Now that he has gotten a counting lesson from his brother and many others he has been leading the way with big wins in the last two races !
    (E-Money leading the way thus far !)
    It’s always exciting to see how the kids are going to improve from one year to the next and I could not be happier with how EVERYONE is doing this year. The best result so far this year was an astounding 9 of the top 13 places for the guys ! and 5 in the top 10 on the girls side ! That’s a high percentage of RNR’ers a top the varsity results! !
    (We are not roller-skiing but it feels like it sometimes!)
    The Young Gun himself has also been knocking on the door of the JV races just missing the top spot in his first 3 races ! All in all everyone has been doing a great job !
    As always it’s not only a testament to the athletes but also to their parents, friends and coaches ! I still scratch my head each time the HF-L and Pittsford buses roll up to the races each sporting 2 buses full of kids something like 70 kids on each high school team and you see 2 coaches get out ! ! WTF ! 35-40 athletes per coach?? It’s amazing that they even get the kids to the race much less everything else they are doing on a day to day, year to year basis. The ability of the high school coaches is amazing and without them everyone would be in big trouble !
    Next Stop LAKE PLACID for our first JNQ of the season. Due to the for-mentioned lack of snow we have had to cancel the first 3 races so things are going to kick of in a big way in LP !
    We will have a full crew headed to LP and I can’t wait to see what happens !
    (Pack up the skis, we are on the road again)

  • Photos from Nationals: Eastern Cup weekend recap to follow

    It’s crazy to think that we’re past the mid-point of January already… It’s been a week since the end of Nationals, and we had another successful (if cold) weekend of racing at Titcomb Mountain in Maine. Full race report to follow, but for now here are some pictures of our girls at Nationals, courtesy of Anthony Cirelli (MK’s dad). Thanks!

  • Maine Weekend Recap

    Koby on the podium with the win!

    We had a great weekend up in Farmington, ME for the second Eastern Cups of the year. On Saturday afternoon, we had Katharine, Issy, and Hamish all racing in the open heats (top 30 racers overall). Despite getting knocked out in the quarters, each of them skied feisty races in their respective heats. Murph & Gino qualified for the junior heats (top 12 juniors not in the top 30) and skied well (see photo below of the two of them fighting it out in the B-final). Pip & Tess also got to mix it up with the rest of the J2s in the heats. Double pole specialist Pippin hammered around the course and skied her way into the J2 B-final. Racer of the day went to Tess who skied an aggressive semifinal, placing second, and earned herself a trip to the A-final.

    Gino & Murph rounding the turn for the finish in the B-final.
    A very happy Tess after the J2 A-final.

    On Sunday, for the freestyle distance race skiers did 3 (J2s), 6 (women) or 8 (men) laps around the base and up and down a steep section of Titcomb Mountain. Koby started things off on a high note for the team with his second win of the season in the J2 boys 5k. Koby skied a smooth race and got a nine second win over Ben Hegman. Hamish’s younger brother, Gavin, rounded out the podium with a great race for third place.

    Katharine on the podium in second place.

    Katharine, Tess, & Pip kept it going with 2nd, 12th and 14th place finishes for the girls. Katharine sandwiched herself on the podium between two CSU girls – Julia Kern & Zoe Snow.

    Interesting hair-do’s ladies… 🙂

    The older kids were led by Issy with a stellar 6th place result. Issy started off smooth and conservative – first lap in 30th place – and then picked it up on every lap, dropping her splits to 20th place, 17th place, and inside the top 10 for a few laps before settling in 6th as the second junior. Mollie and Kate skied well too – 35th for Mollie & 52nd for Kate (6th J1!). The field was full of the regular high school crew on the Eastern Cup circuit, plus the Green Team, a few girls from Sun Valley, and several college teams (Williams, Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, UNH).

    Gino set the pace for our boys, starting off with a few blazing fast laps behind Green Team skier Tim Reynolds. He stuck a solid pace for the rest of the race finishing as the 2nd J1 (31st overall). Corky skied a nice race for 55th place – steadily pacing the 8-lap race. Calvin was feeling a little under the weather and wanted to at least start and see how things went…and they went pretty well! Calvin finished 64th (9th J1) and charged up the hill each lap. Charlie (who had to ski two laps without a pole basket) and Murph rounded out the guys team with 79th and 85th place finishes. Hamish looked good for 3-4 laps, but had his back tighten up and made the smart call to pull the plug mid-way through the race.
    We were missing a few skiers this weekend due to illness so we’re looking forward to a nice long stretch of training and rest and getting everyone healthy before Stowe. Check out some nice photos of the weekend on Flying Point Road.
    We were woken up very early Sunday morning by the fire alarm in our hotel. While waiting for the OK to return to our rooms, Tyler shows us what he couldn’t live with out: a full backpack, wallet, cell phone & the Revived Films hard drive. Don’t want to lose all that Nationals footage!

    All tuckered out for the van ride home. 🙂

    Heather & Paddy have their first race tomorrow in Innsbruck – 5/10K classic race. Check up on them tomorrow morning on the YOG website when you wake up! Paddy will be wearing bib 43 (out of 49 racers) for his race (11:45am start/5:45am EST) and Heather will be bib 32 (out of 40 racers) for her race (10am start/4am EST). Racers appear to be seeded by FIS points in reverse order – lowest points go last.
    SMS senior Quincy Korte-King is competing for the Canadian snowboard team in Innsbruck this week and finished 5th in the women’s halfpipe on Sunday! Congrats to her!

  • Milano City Sprint

    World Cup action was back under way this weekend for me in Milano, Italy. The race venue was really cool. The races were held right downtown near the city centre inside the walls of an old castle. It was two laps of a small and flat 625 meter course. The weather was amazing all weekend. Overnight the temperature would go just below zero which helped firm up the track, and in the day time the sun was shining and the temperature was around 5.

    I felt like I had a really solid qualifier and finally broke my curse and made it into the heats in a city sprint. I qualified in 17th for the afternoon heats. 
    I had one of the best heats of my life. I was feeling really good and was skiing in 2nd most of the way. Coming into the last 50 meters, the leader Josef Wenzel started to drift to the left and took the lane that I was planning on taking into the finish. I ended up being stuck between Wenzel and Eirik Brandsdal with no lane to ski in. I had to let up and try and make a quick move behind Wenzel and pass on the right but there was no chance. After skiing 95% of the heat perfectly I got caught up in this mess. As it turns out, Brandsdal and Wenzel ended up winning the race finishing 1st and 2nd overall. I ended up finishing 14th. I was happy with my race, I know I am in great shape and can’t wait for the next race. 
    In other news, Chandra and Peri raced in the team sprint the next day and absolutely killed it out there and finished in 3rd!!!! It was one of the most exciting races that I have ever seen, so much broken equipment and lead changes. Two North American teams ended up on the podium, the Americans Kikkan and Jessie finished the day in 2nd! Congrats to all four girls!!
    After the race we drove up to Toblach/Dobiacco to meet up with Alex, Devon and Louis. We will be training there until Wednesday, then it is off to the grandmother land… ESTONIA!! 
    I’m excited for this race, I have a good feeling about this sprint coming up.
    L-R Eirik Brandsdal, Josef Wenzel, me!

  • Update from Paddy

  • Milan Sprint Recap

    The weekend after the Tour finishes will have smaller fields, and this was no different. Still, The Americans will take the results regardless of who else shows up. Here’s how the women’s finalists progressed during the day:

    Flat courses will tend to produce times like this, where the qualification round is quite fast, and then things slow down in the heats as tactics become more important. Still, the final turned out to be relatively fast. I didn’t watch the race (as usual) but I wonder if that was also tactics, with Kikkan (and maybe Ida) deciding to try to avoid dealing with navigating around people by simply pushing the pace. Semifinal 2 was slightly faster this time:

    The men’s times, with the flat course, ended up looking remarkably similar:

    Times were much faster in qualification than in the subsequent heats. Interestingly, Semifinal 2 was faster for the men as well:

    Related posts:

    1. <Liberec Sprint Recap
    2. <Otepää Sprint Recap
    3. <Drammen Sprint Recap


  • Double Win Today

    There is green grass in our front yard in Minneapolis and although it was great to be home for 4 days we set off this weekend to find natural snow in Hayward, Wisconsin and race the Seeley Classic.  Six years ago I moved to Hayward and Cresthill Resort and started my professional ski career.  It means a lot for me to race in the Hayward/Cable Community and it was fun to get back for one of the big Midwest marathons.  
    The storybook weekend started friday evening with a fantastic family ski on the Seeley Trails.  Groomed by volunteers and the funds raised through the Seeley Classic ski race the dog friendly trails are a real treat.  It was the first time the Caitlin and I had skied on natural snow in 2 weeks.  Lahti did what he does best and ran ridiculously fast as we attempted to race him on the downhills.  We finished our ski refreshed from the drive and ready for the big race.
    The Seeley Classic is a 42km classic marathon race on the Birkie trail with about 500 participants.  Unofficially called the classic citizen championships of the Midwest the race rose to a new level this year with  the addition of a $1,000 purse for the top male and female. The award was in memory of the late Garry Pennman one of the founders of the town of Seeley and the Seeley classic ski race.  Cailtin and I were very happy to both earn the win and the cash purse.  Results.  

    Enjoying the natural snow in Hayward, Wisconsin
    The CXC Team is spread around a bit this weekend and congratulations to the entire crew for a great weekend of racing.  Jessie Diggins finished 2nd in today’s World Cup Team Sprint, Santiago Ocariz won the Sissu Ski Fest Classical race, and my good friend Matt Liebsch won the Sissu Ski Fest Skate race.  Great work.

  • CyclovaXC at the 2012 Sisu Marathon

    What a great time we had at the 2012 Sisu marathon!  First and foremost, it was great to make the arduous drive up to Ironwood and watch as the roads and villages became more and more utterly submerged with glorious SNOW!  In all honesty, I’ve been suffering from a few dents to my enthusiasm as this ridiculous brown winter continues to stubbornly PERSIST, but getting up to Ironwood gave me a good solid snow fix that will last me until the next big Wisconsin snowfall (which should be soon).
    I have to hand out some props to Mitch and Micah who came along to do their first ever ski race and acquitted themselves marvelously (which means they didn’t have a massive crash and stab each other in the kneecaps with their ski poles at the beginning of the race).  They both successfully completed the 21 k event, and I’m pretty sure we could have talked them into doing the 42 k, but that just didn’t seem like a good choice for a person’s first ever ski race.
    The above picture is Micah and I on the awesome bus that Sisu had for us to get to the start area at ABR.  My thoughts at this moment were that CyclovaXC needs a bus like this that we can use to take our intrepid skiers up for training days on the Birkie trail, etc.  I’m going to work on allocating some funds for that purpose.

    Here’s Frank and Mitch on the bus as well.  You’ll notice that Mitch is smiling here but he wouldn’t be smiling about 20 minutes later when he looked into his clothing bag only to realize that he’d forgotten his ski boots back in Frank’s car.  Fortunately, the 21 k didn’t start until TWO HOURS after the 42 k, so he had plenty of time to catch a bus back, get his boots, and come back out to the starting area.  Heck, he had so much time that he would have made it even if he’d been in the 42 k.
    That was the only thing that went wrong for our immediate crew, and since he made it back with ample time to spare, it was a totally acceptable problem to have.
    Here’s Dwayne and Frank in the ABR warming hut that I wasn’t even aware existed until they ushered us into it upon our arrival.  Dwayne had a great race despite the fact that he was running around frantically looking for his pole just before the gun (he found them with about 30 seconds to spare and kept the adrenaline pumping throughout the day I think).
    The start of the classical race.  I took this picture from a distance and had to zoom in for the skiers to fill the frame, that’s why it’s a little pixilated.
    More from the classical start.


    Dwayne beginning his 42 k race.

    Here are Frank, Allan and Adam.  I believe we had a total of 9 CyclovaXC skiers at the race.  Great turnout!  Just a little while after this image was taken, Adam and Allan would be laying at the bottom of a massive crash with Allan’s ski pole digging deeply into Adam’s knee (they’d both get up to complete the race, although Allan would go on to break a ski, and throw 30 of the 80 lbs of equipment he was carrying to the ground in disgust).  Nobody’s saying anybody was responsible, the only explanation that I heard was that Allan “hit a soft spot.”  Frank, anticipating that something like that might happen, had lined up about ten feet away from Allan, and thus escaped the carnage to begin his race free and clear.
    There’s me waiting for the race to begin.
    All and all I have to say that the Sisu marathon is a fantastic event.  The snow was a little bit slow and the trail was just a little bit soft which made for a tough ski, but it was terrific to simply be out on snow and getting some much needed k’s under the belt.  For those of you who haven’t done the Sisu marathon, it’s really one to put on your calendar.  The first half of the trail is extremely challenging with some fairly technical descents.
    If we don’t get some snow here pretty soon, we might all be headed up to ABR quite a big over the upcoming weeks.  Tomorrow I’ll tell you all about the hotel that you don’t want to stay at when you go there.

  • Nove Mesto

    Another World Cup week is in the books here in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.  After starting off with a disappointing Individual race, I rebounded with two solid races in the sprint and pursuit.  I finished 11th in the sprint but … Continue reading →

  • Nordic Combined Pictures from YOG’s

    Paddy and Heather had a day “off” today, but the nordic combined and biathlon skiers had races. Here are a couple of pictures from the NC race. They do a pursuit based on the single jump. They skied 4X2.5 km laps and it was exciting to watch. The lead changed several times and it was a sprint to the finish for a gold.
    Thje guys in 2nd and 3rd here went on to place 2,1.
    Colton (our US skier) hammers a short uphill before heading up to the finish.
    I didn’t get to the finish in time to get close, but if you look closely, you can see the upraised arms.

    Paddy will write a report soon!

  • Gunde Svan on Pain……

    One of my friends sent me an incredibly nice email, commenting on my blog and specifically, this line that I used to express my feelings about the Tour:  

    “The pain of racing is temporary and the pain of quitting lasts forever”


    He had a great story about Gunde Svan, a story that I think is worth sharing: 
    “Many years ago at the Holmenkollen 50k, Gunde Svan fell on the first 25k lap and hurt his arm badly. It turned out it was broken. He could not use the arm, so he skied the rest of the lap with one pole and his hurt arm tucked inside his bib. When he came into the stadium everyone thought he would quit. However, he continued without stopping and completed the 50k with one pole. After the race he was interviewed by the TV guys who asked him why did not quit. He told them if he had done that he would probably do it again and again….and that would surly end his skiing carrier. Good call and you could argue that was his best race ever. Today heprobably still ranks as one of the top 10 XC skiers of all times.”

    Busy day for me as it’s my “travel day” to Ramsau.  Traveling outside of the team isn’t quite as easy and when you are with the team… I have to take 2 taxis, three trains and one bus in order to get to Ramsau. I’m crossing my fingers it all works out. One pole distance camp starts tomorrow! I hope you all enjoyed your weekends! Ciao! More soon…. Holly 🙂 

  • World Junior Trials – Whistler

    Filed under: Race Updates

  • Rossland NorAm

    One months and zero blog posts later, Blackjack is still going strong. Fortunately, our racing results have far eclipsed our success at keeping an up to date blog. So, to make up for lost time, we will bring you a brief summary of each weekend of racing, along with some photos. First up…

    Rossland NorAms-December 17-18

    Blackjack got a chance to show off for Canada’s skiing community and host some great, hotly contested races. Racing kicked off Saturday with the freestyle sprints, on a challenging course that started with a mostly uphill section before descending around a hairpin corner into the finish. The action was exciting and close all day long, with plenty of crashes on the hairpin. David led the way for the Blackjack men with a 14th place finish, narrowly missing out on the semifinals. Peter and Shawn(raced up) were close behind in 23rd and 24th place respectively. Blackjack racer Geoffrey Richards(now racing for CVTC) impressed with a 2nd place in the A Final for Junior Men. Susanne and Jill also raced up and had strong 15th and 18th placings.

    Racing continued Sunday with freestyle mass start races, 15k for the men and 10k for the women. The course was deceptively hard, with long gradual climbs and long transition sections where huge time could be lost. David had one of the fastest races of his life to finish 15th for open men, just narrowly outsprinted by Knute Johnsgaard to finish 2nd for Junior Men! The fact that David has been racing so fast this season is really encouraging to the rest of the team and it’s great to see him take the next step in his racing. (Note: making airplane noises while you’re skiing clearly makes you go faster…) Peter(21st), Shawn(23rd), Julien(25th) and Nick(26th) also had strong races and brought the hurt out on course. In the women’s race, the pack quickly broke apart as Jessie Diggins pushed the pace early. Jill(14) and Susanne(17) fought hard throughout the race and posted strong finishes while racing up a category.

  • Rossland NorAm

    One months and zero blog posts later, Blackjack is still going strong. Fortunately, our racing results have far eclipsed our success at keeping an up to date blog. So, to make up for lost time, we will bring you a brief summary of each weekend of racing, along with some photos. First up…

    Rossland NorAms-December 17-18

    Blackjack got a chance to show off for Canada’s skiing community and host some great, hotly contested races. Racing kicked off Saturday with the freestyle sprints, on a challenging course that started with a mostly uphill section before descending around a hairpin corner into the finish. The action was exciting and close all day long, with plenty of crashes on the hairpin. David led the way for the Blackjack men with a 14th place finish, narrowly missing out on the semifinals. Peter and Shawn(raced up) were close behind in 23rd and 24th place respectively. Blackjack racer Geoffrey Richards(now racing for CVTC) impressed with a 2nd place in the A Final for Junior Men. Susanne and Jill also raced up and had strong 15th and 18th placings.

    Racing continued Sunday with freestyle mass start races, 15k for the men and 10k for the women. The course was deceptively hard, with long gradual climbs and long transition sections where huge time could be lost. David had one of the fastest races of his life to finish 15th for open men, just narrowly outsprinted by Knute Johnsgaard to finish 2nd for Junior Men! The fact that David has been racing so fast this season is really encouraging to the rest of the team and it’s great to see him take the next step in his racing. (Note: making airplane noises while you’re skiing clearly makes you go faster…) Peter(21st), Shawn(23rd), Julien(25th) and Nick(26th) also had strong races and brought the hurt out on course. In the women’s race, the pack quickly broke apart as Jessie Diggins pushed the pace early. Jill(14) and Susanne(17) fought hard throughout the race and posted strong finishes while racing up a category.

  • Rossland NorAm

    One months and zero blog posts later, Blackjack is still going strong. Fortunately, our racing results have far eclipsed our success at keeping an up to date blog. So, to make up for lost time, we will bring you a brief summary of each weekend of racing, along with some photos. First up…

    Rossland NorAms-December 17-18

    Blackjack got a chance to show off for Canada’s skiing community and host some great, hotly contested races. Racing kicked off Saturday with the freestyle sprints, on a challenging course that started with a mostly uphill section before descending around a hairpin corner into the finish. The action was exciting and close all day long, with plenty of crashes on the hairpin. David led the way for the Blackjack men with a 14th place finish, narrowly missing out on the semifinals. Peter and Shawn(raced up) were close behind in 23rd and 24th place respectively. Blackjack racer Geoffrey Richards(now racing for CVTC) impressed with a 2nd place in the A Final for Junior Men. Susanne and Jill also raced up and had strong 15th and 18th placings.

    Racing continued Sunday with freestyle mass start races, 15k for the men and 10k for the women. The course was deceptively hard, with long gradual climbs and long transition sections where huge time could be lost. David had one of the fastest races of his life to finish 15th for open men, just narrowly outsprinted by Knute Johnsgaard to finish 2nd for Junior Men! The fact that David has been racing so fast this season is really encouraging to the rest of the team and it’s great to see him take the next step in his racing. (Note: making airplane noises while you’re skiing clearly makes you go faster…) Peter(21st), Shawn(23rd), Julien(25th) and Nick(26th) also had strong races and brought the hurt out on course. In the women’s race, the pack quickly broke apart as Jessie Diggins pushed the pace early. Jill(14) and Susanne(17) fought hard throughout the race and posted strong finishes while racing up a category.

  • Rossland NorAm

    One months and zero blog posts later, Blackjack is still going strong. Fortunately, our racing results have far eclipsed our success at keeping an up to date blog. So, to make up for lost time, we will bring you a brief summary of each weekend of racing, along with some photos. First up… Rossland NorAms-December […]

  • Double Win

    There is green grass in our front yard in Minneapolis and although it was great to be home for 4 days we set off this weekend to find natural snow in Hayward, Wisconsin and race the Seeley Classic.  Six years ago I moved to Hayward and Cresthill Resort and started my professional ski career.  It means a lot for me to race in the Hayward/Cable Community and it was fun to get back for one of the big Midwest marathons.
    The storybook weekend started friday evening with a fantastic family ski on the Seeley Trails.  Groomed by volunteers and the funds raised through the Seeley Classic ski race the dog friendly trails are a real treat.  It was the first time the Caitlin and I had skied on natural snow in 2 weeks.  Lahti did what he does best and ran ridiculously fast as we attempted to race him on the downhills.  We finished our ski refreshed from the drive and ready for the big race.
    The Seeley Classic is a 42km classic marathon race on the Birkie trail with about 500 participants.  Unofficially called the classic citizen championships of the Midwest the race rose to a new level this year with  the addition of a $1,000 purse for the top male and female. The award was in memory of the late Garry Pennman one of the founders of the town of Seeley and the Seeley classic ski race.  Cailtin and I were very happy to both earn the win and the cash purse.  Results.

     

     

    Enjoying the natural snow in Hayward, Wisconsin
    The CXC Team is spread around a bit this weekend and congratulations to the entire crew for a great weekend of racing.  Jessie Diggins finished 2nd in today’s World Cup Team Sprint, Santiago Ocariz won the Sissu Ski Fest Classical race, and my good friend Matt Liebsch won the Sissu Ski Fest Skate race.  Great work.

  • Sara Studebakerova

    Hello from Czech! We’re currently in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, site of the 2013 World Championships, for World Cup 5. The post-Christmas World Cups can so far be summed up in one word: windy. Oberhof, Germany (site of World Cup 4) is known for it’s wind, and while the women’s sprint was relatively calm, our stay there saw all kinds of weather. So far, Nove Mesto is proving to be the same. Everyday we’ve come to the range to find the same wind from the left side, often with big gusts. Yesterday, during the women’s sprint, the weather added lots of snow to the mix in the middle of the race. It seems anything can happen here…but that’s biathlon, right?

    We’ve all been getting used to our Czech names (which consist of the announcer adding -ova to the end of all the women’s names) and it will be strange to be Sara Studebaker again next week when we head to Antholz. I’m looking forward to it…we’re hoping for some sun!