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Tag: Evelyn Dong

  • Diggins Takes the Long Road, Secures NorAm Sweep

    Diggins Takes the Long Road, Secures NorAm Sweep

    Rossland, British Columbia
    Jessie Diggins (CXC) waits at the finish for the rest of the mass-start field after winning Sunday's NorAm 9.9 k freestyle race in Rossland, British Columbia, by 1 minute, 14.9 seconds. She swept the first two weekends of NorAm Cup competition, winning both races in Sovereign Lake and Rossland.

    ROSSLAND, British Columbia — Emerging from a curved and wooded downhill into the open-aired Black Jack stadium, Jessie Diggins suddenly felt an unfamiliar pang of dread. Looking around her, the Central Cross Country and U.S. Ski Team member realized she was alone and not where she wanted to be.

    She hadn’t lost the race, but could have been out of it entirely.

    The leader of Sunday’s NorAm 9.9 k freestyle mass start, Diggins immediately pulled away from the 50-person pack. Toward the end of the 3.3 k loop, she had created a nearly 20-second gap on her closest competitors: teammate Jennie Bender, Emily Nishikawa (Alberta World Cup Academy), Evelyn Dong (Stella Racing) and Alysson Marshall (AWCA).

    Her speed nearly cost Diggins as she missed the lap turn and raced toward the finish line.

    “I was zoned out completely,” she said.

    On Saturday, Diggins skied that same part of the course several times in the sprint heats, but always turned right. It felt natural to go that way on Sunday.

    “I didn’t even think about it, and then I got right down to the stadium, and I went, ‘Oh!’ I actually put my hands up,” Diggins said.

    She quickly moved to correct her mistake, skating through a walking path back onto the course a few meters from where she should have turned. As she completed the lap and began to climb again, she told one of her coaches she went the wrong way. Then she considered the consequences.

    “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, not only have I completely embarrassed myself, but I just lost a lot of time,’ ” Diggins said. “And then I was thinking… ‘Am I gonna get DQ-ed? What if they take a minute off my time for that?’ ”

    Nearly 14 seconds ahead of her challengers, Diggins decided to push harder. She needed to extend the gap by at least a minute, she thought.

    Her head coach, Jason Cork, tried to get her to settle down on the second lap, telling Diggins she had at least 40 seconds on the others. She ended up being nearly a minute ahead.

    Skating into the stadium for the second time, Diggins found she was even farther ahead and won the race in 27:36.8. For a minute and 14.9 seconds, she waited at the finish for the others and proceeded to apologize to an official there.

    “I said, ‘Hey, I’m sorry, I’m an idiot,’ ” Diggins said. “I took the wrong cutoff, and I don’t know what the penalty is for that, but I’m sorry.”

    He told her it should be fine since she lost time there. While her outcome remained uncertain, Diggins celebrated with Bender, who notched her second podium in two days.

    NorAm Rossland
    Alysson Marshall (AWCA) at left edges Jennie Bender (CXC) for the second straight race at the NorAm Cup in Rossland, British Columbia, on Sunday. Marshall was second in the 9.9 k freestyle mass start, and Bender was third.

    For the second straight race, Bender placed third after Marshall in an all-out sprint to the finish. On Saturday, Marshall beat her by a leg in the 1.4 k final. On Sunday, Bender figured she had more time to get an edge.

    In the second lap, the chase group dropped Nishikawa and was down to Bender, Marshall and Dong. While Bender and Dong cooperatively switched leads — with Bender pulling on the course’s front side and Dong leading out back — Marshall held her position between them.

    In the final stretch into the stadium, Marshall found she had the strength to outlast the others and finished 0.7 seconds ahead of Bender. Dong crossed the line about seven seconds later in fourth.

    After the race, Marshall apologized to Bender as they put their warm-ups on.

    “I was scared I wasn’t going to be able to stay with them,” said Marshall, second to Diggins in three of the last four NorAm races.

    “I didn’t trust myself to lead. I thought I would blow up if I tried to push the pace so I was just trying to hang on,” she said. “Luckily I was able to recover enough in the last couple of kilometers to have a good finishing kick.”

    With third as Bender’s personal best by far in a distance skate (she previously placed 10th in a 10 k freestyle nearly two years ago), the 23-year-old said she also lacked confidence during Sunday’s race.

    “It’s always the fear, ‘If I let somebody in front of me, what if they keep going and I can’t follow?’ ” Bender said.  “There was definitely a little bit of that going on between the three of us.”

    In hindsight, Bender said she should have forced Marshall to lead and could improve on tactics overall.

    “I was thinking about the finish the whole last lap, like, ‘What is the best way to do this so I don’t screw myself over?’ ” Bender said with a laugh. “And I didn’t do it right, but whatever.”

    Dong said she didn’t have enough left at the end, either.

    “First, I think we were trying to chase Jessie down, and then we were just trying to beat each other up,” Dong said, jokingly. “Coming into this ‘U’-bend here, they just started breaking away. I just didn’t have it in me.”

    She said Marshall was “smart” for settling in.

    Marshall still felt the need to apologize.

    “I felt bad for not playing my part in this,” she said.

    Crossing the line in fifth, Kate Brennan (AWCA) successfully conquered her fear of Rossland’s course after she suffered a season-ending shoulder injury there last year. She went down on a short yet steep hill, which was the site of a major pileup in Saturday’s men’s sprint, and dislocated her shoulder for the fifth time. After struggling with races thereafter, she had shoulder surgery last February.

    “(Saturday) I was really kind of facing my demons,” Brennan said of the sprint race, in which she skied the hill four times and placed seventh overall. “I kind of cringed, like, ‘Oh no!’ … (but) it was more I wasn’t going to let it happen again, and that kind of fueled me to hammer into it.”

    Her teammate, Nishikawa finished 0.6 seconds after Brennan on Sunday in sixth, 1:41.4 seconds behind Diggins.

    “I felt great at the beginning of the second lap and I just tried to go,” Nishikawa said of challenging the chase group. “I went too early and I just kind of blew up. Live and learn.”

    Sara Hewitt (CXC) had her best performance of the season in seventh. She had not cracked the top 10 in a race since last year.

    “The more I raced, the better I felt,” Hewitt said. “I just needed one more lap and one more hill, and I think I could’ve gotten a couple more girls, too.”

    Alana Thomas (Nakkertok) was eighth after placing 10th in Saturday’s sprint. Annika Hicks (AWCA) was ninth for the second day in a row, and Marlis Kromm (AWCA) placed 10th after finishing sixth in the ‘A’ sprint final.

    At the end of the women’s race on Sunday, Diggins stood at the top of the podium with the outright win, free of penalties.

    “It is a violation and there are options for … a sanction, a penalty,” said technical delegate Ken Hewitt. “And we chose the least serious of them because she significantly disadvantaged herself by doing this.”

    “She took a longer route than she should have,” added Chief of Competition Ian Sibbald.

    “She penalized herself,” Hewitt said.

    Women’s NorAm freestyle distance results from Rossland

  • Marathons Are Front and Center for New All-Female Stella Racing Team

    Marathons Are Front and Center for New All-Female Stella Racing Team

    Dong en route to third place in the Lake Placid SuperTour 10 k skate in 2011.

    When the parade of brightly-colored spandex suits heats up the domestic circuit this year, competitors and spectators will see a new squad: Stella Racing. And while America’s first elite women-only team in more than a decade might be small, it will definitely be fast.

    Morgan Smyth, Evelyn Dong, and Zoe Roy decided to start a team based out of Salt Lake City, Utah, and have spent the spring and summer making it happen. Their rationale was pretty simple, according to Smyth.

    “I decided that I wanted to live in Park City but that I still wanted to race,” she wrote in an e-mail. “So we put together a team!”

    All three women had excellent seasons last year with their respective teams. Smyth finished on the podium at U.S. National Championships; she, Dong, and final team member Katie Ronsse took home a collection of SuperTour and NorAm podiums and top-tens. Roy was an NCAA All-American in her last year at the University of Utah, and represented Canada at the University Games in Turkey.

    While Roy ran out of eligibility at Utah, necessitating a move, it was a less obviously logical step for the other women.

    Ronsse and Smyth both had excellent 2011 race seasons representing APU; for Smyth, it was a return to the national stage after compartment syndrome surgery and illness limited her 2010 campaign, while Ronsse had what she called her “most enjoyable [season] as a competitive ski racer.”

    But Ronsse decided to go to graduate school, an idea that had been germinating for a long time. Dong, who had been a mainstay of the XC Oregon program in Bend, also felt like it was time to “try something new.” So, according to Dong, the idea of Stella Racing originated when she was visiting Roy in Salt Lake City last spring.

    Smyth collecting one of her many podiums of 2011 in the Lake Placid SuperTour 5 k classic.

    “I was thinking about moving away from Bend,” Dong said in an interview. “[Roy] had used up her eligibility for skiing in school and also wanted to keep skiing. So we sort of figured that starting a team wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

    Smyth, who had live in Park City before while she was on the U.S. Ski Team, quickly came on board, and the trio started trying to define their team and find sponsors. When Ronsse picked the University of Utah, the original team members said, “why not?” and added her to the squad, even though she hadn’t been looking to continue racing full-time.

    The women decided to focus mainly on marathons, although they will begin the season with the SuperTour races in Montana. After U.S. Nationals, Smyth and Dong will hit up the Boulder Mountain Tour, the Owl Creek Chase, and the American Birkebeiner, then head to Europe for Worldloppet action.

    “We figured there was a niche there for a women’s marathon team,” Dong told FasterSkier.

    Roy, a Canadian citizen, will be focusing more on the NorAm circuit in an attempt to make it to Europe for OPA Cup racing. Ronsse will also be on her own schedule. As a full-time student, she won’t be able to race as often as her teammates and is planning to do just a few competitions.

    Ronsse at the 2011 West Yellowstone SuperTour.

    “I have definitely entered into a new routine, but after a full day of studying I love to rip around outside on the trails,” Ronsse wrote in an e-mail. “If I can together with the other StellaRacing ladies and hammer around with them– it’s a double-bonus! I’ll be one of their biggest fans, and up for just about any good workout or ski clinic that’s organized when they’re back in town.”

    But for the team as a whole, marathons are the focus. And what was originally a decision made out of pure fun and interest has turned out to be a good business move, too.

    “There’s more money in [marathons] and our sponsors, like Toko and our ski sponsors, like to see that too,” Dong said. “So it definitely helps that we’re a lot more visible in that realm.”

    So far, Stella Racing is relying heavily on local benefactors. Dong acknowledged that it was a tough time to start a team, but that the Park City area had been good to them.

    “We’ve had ups and downs,” she said. “We’ve had some things that fell through, but the local sponsors are really pulling through for us. So we’re hoping to start there, and we’re going to be able to do some racing just because of them.”

    She also thanked the athletes’ individual ski sponsors and Toko.

    “Ian Harvey of Toko is helping us out a lot,” Dong said. “[Toko] gave us a kick in the butt to get us going when we had really stalled.”

    Harvey, who is the U.S. Brand Manager for Toko, said that supporting the women was a no-brainer for him.

    Roy racing at western collegiate regional championships.

    “The women on the team are enthusiastic and kind of emit a love of skiing and outdoor sports,” he wrote in an e-mail. “As a father of two girls, I really appreciate role models like this being available to the general public. I want the team to succeed both in terms of getting good results but also in ‘reaching’ a lot of people.”

    Overall, the team has been surprisingly successful in setting up in the midst of a recession.

    “I think financial support is always limited in ski racing, but we are lucky to have a few key sponsors, such as Toko, that are making the team possible,” Smyth said.

    It’s some of the only support they will receive. The team will not have a coach this year, which was both a financial necessity and a choice. With years of elite racing experience under their belts, the women did not seem troubled by being self-coached.

    They also won’t have consistent race support. Dong said that they would be contracting wax technicians at each race rather than retaining a single person for the entire season.

    For now, they are enjoying the last weeks of fall. Dong said that the squad had an excellent summer of training and was prepared for the season.

    “[Park City] is pretty sweet,” she told FasterSkier. “The trails are probably some of the best for training, like running and bounding. And the mountain biking is unreal here.”

    Smyth (left) and Ronsse (2nd from right) with teammates Holly Brooks and Sadie Bjornsen after finishing 3rd and 5th in the classic sprint at 2011 US Nationals. Photo: flyingpointroad.com
  • Gundersen, Compton Win the Birkebeiner; Uhl, Bender are tops at Classic Birkie

    Gundersen, Compton Win the Birkebeiner; Uhl, Bender are tops at Classic Birkie

    The 2011 Birkebeiner (Photo: Brett Morgan)

    The 38th annual American Birkebeiner, held in sub-zero and single-digit temperatures with record particpation, saw two sprint finishes to crown the men’s and women’s Birkie freestyle champions and a pair of UVM alums ski to sizable victories in the Birkie Classic on Saturday.

    Norwegian Tore Martin Gundersen won the 50K Birkie Freestyle race with a time of 2:00:32.8, furiously outsprinting his nearest opponent, Benoit Chauvet of France, by less than a second.  Twenty seconds later, third through twelve places were decided in less than ten seconds.  Andrey Tyuterev of St. Petersburg, Russia took the final spot on the podium in thir dplace.  Bryan Cook of CXC was the top American in fifth overall, with CXC teammate Brian Gregg the second American in seventh place.

    In her first Birkebeiner, Caitlin Compton of CXC broke the women’s 50K Freestyle course record today and took first place with a winning time of 2:15:26.0.  APU’s Morgan Smuth and XC Oregon’s Evelyn Dong kept it close all the way to the line finishing just three and eight seconds off Compton’s pace for second and third place, with the top three finishers all dipping beneath the previous course record set by Rebecca Dussault in 2010.

    “It was great to see [Caitlin] take the win, as she led a lot of the race and really pushed the pace in the last 10k,” said Smyth, who was racing in her first 50K.  “She did a lot of the work, it was a well deserved win.”

    Finishing alongside its freestyle counterpart, the Birkie Classic was contested, and saw two University of Vermont alums picking up victories.  2010 Birkie Classic Champion Jerguen Uhl (VTXC) defended his title, pulling ahead of Karl Nygren (CXC) and Eric Wolcott (CXC).

    Uhl’s former UVM teammate Jennie Bender, skiing for CXC, grabbed the women’s Birkie Classic title by an impressive seven minutes over Kerrie Fabius of Thunder Bay, Ontario.  Hilary Patzer of St. Paul, Minnesota took third, another minute and 40 seconds back.

    “It was great!” Bender told FasterSkier of her first ski marathon. “My wax was great… it was definitely abrasive, but the CXC coaches did a great job.  I skied with a lot of the men and kind of jockeyed back and forth.  It was freezing outside, but it felt pretty awesome.”

    Ned Zuelsdorff, Executive Director of the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation, said skiers from 19 foreign nations, including Latvia, Israel and Denmark, and 47 U.S states, including Hawaii, North Carolina and Alaska, had great conditions for the 38th anniversary event.

    Honorary Starter, John Schmitt, the voice of Birkie for 19 years welcomed the largest field of skiers ever in the American Birkebeiner’s 38-year history. He sent over 8,850 skiers on their way beginning at 8:00 a.m.

    Temps hovered around 10 degrees below zero at the start as 21 waves of skiers left the starting gates.

    The American Birkebeiner is modeled after the Norwegian Birkebeiner Rennet, which in turn was inspired by the historic rescue of the infant who would become a celebrated king, Haakon Haakonsson IV. The race symbolically re-creates the flight of the prince, carried on skis by warriors called birkebeiners for their protective birch bark leggings.

    Long time friends Gale Otterholt and Marv Franson assumed the roles Torstein and Skervald, the Birkebeiner warriors who rescued the infant Prince Haakon (H?-ken). Otterholt a retired pharmacist and college professor and has completed 33 Birkies and also from Eau Claire, Franson, a retired Dean and Electronics Instructor, has skied 34 Birkies.

    Long time Birkie skier and friend of the Warriors, Gretchen Lindgren, dressed as Inga from Varteig, mother of Prince Haakon, while her grandchild Finnley assumed the role of the cherished prince.

    The men dressed in full Birkebeiner regalia including helmets, shields and their wooden skis skied to the finish line to the clang of cowbells from the thousands of spectators who lined Hayward’s Main Street.

    Gretchen skied the full 54 kilometers dressed in a traditional Norwegian dress and cloak, on wooden skis and carried Prince Haakon on her back for the trip up Hayward’s Main Street.

    “The historic re-enactment, fast race course and the largest field ever made the Birkie’s 38th anniversary one for the books,” Zuelsdorff said. “We couldn’t be more pleased.”

    For race day results, log on to www.birkie.com.

  • Not a Bad Morning: Brooks Makes APU Women Two for Two

    Not a Bad Morning: Brooks Makes APU Women Two for Two

    Holly Brooks (APU) – Skating to victory.

    Saturday morning wasn’t a bad one for APU Head Coach Erik Flora.

    Just before 9:30 a.m., his athlete Kikkan Randall won a World Cup sprint race in the Czech Republic. And by 10:30, his team had already racked up win number two, as Holly Brooks skied to a dominating victory in the 10 k freestyle SuperTour in Lake Placid.

    Brooks said she learned of Randall’s victory moments before starting her own race, and harnessed that energy on her way to a shellacking of the women’s field.

    “I’m pretty fired up,” she said. “I found out like five minutes before I came out here, so it was a pretty good distraction…I was thinking about that out on course.”

    Kate Fitzgerald (APU) was second, with XC Oregon’s Evelyn Dong taking her first SuperTour podium of the year, with a third-place finish. But three days after being named to the American team headed to World Championships in Oslo, Brooks was in a league of her own, topping Fitzgerald by 55 seconds, and Dong by 1:34.

    “Heading over to Norway—I feel like I theoretically should be able to put time on the domestic field,” Brooks said.

    Kate Fitzgerald (APU) – second place

    After Friday’s suffer-fest at the Olympic Jumping Complex, which sent the women up and down a lung-busting climb three times, Saturday’s race put athletes to a different type of test.

    The five-kilometer loop laid out on the biathlon trails at Mt. Van Hoevenberg didn’t include any big hills. But consequently, it didn’t have many descents, leaving few places for athletes to recover.

    “There was no rest,” Fitzgerald said. “You had to work the whole time.”

    Brooks dispatched Friday’s course with a ten-second margin over her nearest challenger, but she said that she still preferred the biathlon trails, which were made even more difficult by cold temperatures and a few fresh flakes of snow.

    “I love these kinds of races, where it’s just slow and constant work,” she said. “I feel like that’s kind of my best thing—if you’re just at high threshold the whole time.”

    It showed, as Brooks powered to a 25-second lead over Fitzgerald by the four-kilometer mark, which widened as the race went on.

    With two straight victories this weekend netting her a total of $1,500, Brooks heads home to Alaska on Sunday for a month of training with the APU women, including Randall.

    This time last season, Brooks had already been at her peak for a month and a half, which left her at less than her best for racing in February and March. But this season, she and Flora stuck to a heavier training load deeper into the winter, with an eye on Oslo.

    “Last year, we came from a position where the goal was to qualify for the Olympics, and so she had to race fast all fall, and have kind of peak form at U.S. Nationals,” Flora said. “This year, since we knew she was going to enter strong and be in the mix, we pointed more of the training toward the championships…She’s held training a little longer, so I think the good racing is on its way.”

    Brooks’s calendar for the rest of the winter is beginning to fill out—she said that she would not race again until beginning her campaign in Norway. For Fitzgerald, however, the next few months were less certain.

    After collecting her second podium in two races, and her third of the year, Fitzgerald is also flying back to Alaska in the next few days. She had her final chance to compete at the U-23 World Championships last season, so instead of going to Estonia for the next two weeks, she’s heading back to catch up on school at APU.

    Evelyn Dong (XC Oregon) claiming her 1st SuperTour podium of the season

    Fitzgerald said that she’s interested in doing some longer distance races later this year, but is also considering a trip to Europe for domestic-level competition.

    “I’m for sure thinking about it—and I’m kind of thinking of seeing how funding will go,” she said. “I’m…not really a planner. If a door opens, then I’ll go for it.”

    Dong, in third, said she had no idea that she was in the mix for the podium. With few club coaches remaining in the east after last week’s U.S. National Championships in Rumford, ME, most splits were going to the athletes racing in the college carnival.

    Dong said she felt “a little tired” on Saturday, and it’s clear that some of the other women did, too—many of them had raced six times in the last two weeks, between the competitions in Maine and Lake Placid.

    Dong now heads home to Oregon, with many other top athletes also piling into buses and cars to travel following Saturday’s competitions. The SuperTour continues next weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota with the Midwest Grand Prix. The CXC Team Vertical Limit will be out in force at that event, but many of the remaining top women will be elsewhere—Brooks, Fitzgerald and Smyth training in Alaska, and top junior and U-23 athletes racing in Estonia.

    Women’s SuperTour – 10km Freestyle – Results

  • Toko Photos of West Yellowstone SuperTour Skate Race

    Toko Photos of West Yellowstone SuperTour Skate Race

    Evelyn Dong – XC Oregon. Photo: Toko.

    View Selected photos from SuperTour women’s skate race in West Yellowstone here and the men’s race here.

  • Where Ski Cultures Merge

    Where Ski Cultures Merge

    BEND, Ore. – Kristina Strandberg moved to Bend from Sweden. Evelyn Dong moved to Bend from the East Coast. And Chisa Obayashi just recently transplanted herself in Bend all the way from Hokkaido in Japan. They all have been training with the XC Oregon program director and coach John “JD” Downing.

    “The three of them are in pretty identical positions, in three different ways. Evelyn is just on the cusp of a breakthrough, Chisa is on the cusp of making the Japanese national team, and Kristina has raced on the Swedish World Cup team,” Downing said.

    Perfect match

    Obayashi, 25, first came to Bend in June, but the initial set-up happened earlier this spring.

    “I tried the SuperTour in the spring, and Peter Hale, the racing manager for Madshus USA, introduced me to some club teams in the USA. I chose Bend and XC Oregon, and JD accepted me,” Obayashi recalled.

    Downing was excited to welcome Obayashi to Bend and explained that the chemistry with the women on the team could not have been better.

    “Chisa and Kristina really hit it off and trained together daily. The design of our program is perfect for that,” he said.

    Kristina Strandberg during a dryland workout in Bend, Ore. (Photo: The Center)

    Independent and flexible

    “Our program is pretty much perfect for Chisa in that it is so athlete-driven. It lets the athletes dictate how they train, and because the program is so athlete-based, I as the director didn’t really do much for Chisa on a regular basis besides making sure the logistics were covered and match her up with training partners,” Downing said.

    Downing explained that self-reliance has been part of his coaching philosophy since the XC Oregon program was established 12 years ago, and that the independence helps athletes excel.

    “Chisa could easily have flourished in a more structured training environment as well, but I think she really benefitted from seeing how independently athletes train here and how they can take advantage of the support when it’s there,” Downing said. “Bend is an amazing place to train, and one of the best places in the world for skiers.”

    On her first visit, Obayashi stayed for three weeks. She arrived just as the snow season was transitioning into dryland. She didn’t mind at all, as Bend has plenty to offer no matter what the time of year.

    “I really like Bend. Bend is a great place for training. It has the best weather, and it has some really nice roller ski courses and big mountains,” Obayashi said. She ended up training a lot with Strandberg – much more than Strandberg had imagined to start with.

    “She is pretty much a self-coached athlete, and after one of her first camp workouts, she wondered what I was doing the next week. So I sent her my training plan for the week and I figured she could pick out which workouts she wanted to join me for. But then she just said that the plan looked great and did all of it with me,” Strandberg said with a laugh.

    In love with Bend

    In fact, Bend was such an amazing place for Obayashi this spring that she e-mailed Strandberg from a New Zealand training camp this summer and wondered if she couldn’t come and stay with her for, say, four weeks this September.

    Chisa Obayashi teaches Lars Flora how to make sushi from scratch. (Photo: Kristina Strandberg)

    “You always start to wonder when someone comes to stay with you for several weeks, how on earth that is going to go. We don’t exactly have the largest house in town. But she is the easiest house guest ever. She immediately told us she likes housework and likes to cook, and she did a lot of both,” Strandberg said, mentioning that homemade sushi and Japanese specialties often landed on her dining table.

    Mutual benefits and lasting impressions

    “Kristina and Evelyn taught me some training methods and ways to weight train,” Obayashi said. “They are very strong and have very strong spirits. I have a lot of respect for them, and want to train to become as strong as they are.”

    While Strandberg and Dong might have taught Obayashi a lot about their training methods and sent her home with some new tricks – most importantly, more focus on heavy strength training – Obayashi certainly left her impression on the Bend girls too.

    “Skiing with Chisa was valuable, because she has perfect technique every minute she is out there,” said Dong. “She is never sloppy, even when we’re just going easy. You can tell she puts a lot of hours into perfecting every detail. That’s probably the thing that stuck out the most and hopefully will stick with me the most,” Dong noted.

    Obayashi inspired Strandberg and Dong in ways that go far beyond the trails.

    “She is incredibly polite and expressed such gratitude whenever she got help. She was always nice and kept her stuff in meticulous order. Even on training camps when things start to go everywhere for all of us, Chisa kept her stuff neat and packed away,” Strandberg said.

    Now what?

    For the upcoming season, the three skiers are in very similar positions. They all have to prove their potential to earn spots on their respective teams, and they all dream big.

    Strandberg, 35, will try to make the Swedish World Cup team again this season, but she knows it will be hard.

    “It’s a very hard team to get onto at this point, and it will be more interesting for the coaches to pick a 20-year-old than a 35-year-old, everything else being equal,” Strandberg explained. “But I will race hard and do my best, and if I make it, it would be fantastic.”

    Obayashi will go to Muonio, Finland, with the elite ski team from Japan. “I want to get a chance to race at the World Championships in Oslo and get a good result,” she said.

    However, to make it to Oslo, Obayashi will need to have all the stars aligned for her.

    “She has to ski really well to make it to the World Cup,” Strandberg said. “She’s a distance racer, but she hopes to make it to the World Championships this year. It would be amazing if she did.”

    Dong, 25, also has her eyes on Oslo.

    “My goals for the season? I’m aiming big. I want to go to the World Champs and make top 30,” she said.

  • Osgood, Trygstad-Saari Take Day One of Aspen SuperTour

    Brayton Osgood (Bend, OR) and Kristina Trygstad-Saari (Bozeman, MT) skied to victory in the 5/10K classic races in the opening day of the Aspen Valley Ski Club SuperTour.  The former Dartmouth College skiers each captured their first SuperTour title of the season, with Osgood winning a tight race over a competitive men’s field, while Trygstad-Saari opened up nearly a thirty second lead over a fairly spread out women’s field.

    Brayton Osgood, shown here at the Classic Sprint at US Nationals, Photo courtesy of Chris Hall, Fischer Sports USA
    Brayton Osgood, shown here at the Classic Sprint at US Nationals. Photo courtesy of Chris Hall, Fischer Sports USA

    In the men’s 10K classic race, the top seven racers all finished within one minute of one another.   Osgood, racing for XC Oregon, skied to a 9-second victory (28:24.8) over fellow Dartmouth alum and current Bridger Ski Foundation athlete Glenn Randall (28:33.8) on the trails at the Aspen Valley Ski Club.   Steinbock Racing’s Chris Cook was third in 28:35.7, just 1.9 seconds off Randall’s pace.  Noah Hoffman placed fourth, 26 seconds back in 28:51.1, while Sun Valley’s Michael Sinnott took fifth in 29:07.7 and edged Sylvan Ellefson (29:09.1), skiing for Team HomeGrown, to sixth place.  The win is Osgood’s first major victory of the season.

    Kritina Trygstad-Saari racing in the Classic Sprint at US Nationals, Photo courtesy of Rob Whitney
    Kritina Trygstad-Saari racing in the Classic Sprint at US Nationals, Photo courtesy of Rob Whitney
    In a relatively small women’s field, Trygstad-Saari found enough speed over the 5K course to distance herself from second place finisher Nicole DeYong.  Trygstad-Saari, skiing for BSF, crossed the line in 16:05.1, 24 seconds faster than Sun Valley’s DeYong (16:29.8), while XC Oregon’s Evelyn Dong claimed the final step of the podium with a time of 17:21, good enough for third place.  A tight trio of 16-year-old junior racers claimed places four through six with Durango Nordic’s Alicia Rose Pastore claiming fourth in 17:29.7, only nine seconds behind Dong.   Steamboat Springs athlete Haley Piske (17:29.8) took fifth place, one tenth of a second behind Pastore, with Steamboat teammate Michaela Frias 1.6 seconds back in sixth place with a time of 17:31.4.   Like Osgood, this is Trygstad-Saari’s first win of the season, as the 25-year-old improves upon her silver medal performance at the Bozeman SuperTour 10K classic in December.

    The Aspen SuperTour continues Sunday with the 21K Owl Creek Chase.

  • Simons, Dong Take Boulder Mountain Tour Titles

    Sun Valley, ID — Zack Simons successfully defended his Boulder Mountain Tour title, while Evelyn Dong improved on her third place finish in 2009 to take the title in 2010.

    Simons captured the title in a tight race that saw the top four places separated by less than three seconds. Edged to second place was Didrik Smith, finishing just three-tenths of a second behind Simons. Marshall Greene, 1.4 seconds off Smith’s pace, finished third.

    The Steinbock Racing Team had reason to celebrate, placing three athletes in the top eight with Simons in first, Andrew Johnson in fifth, and Carl Swenson taking eighth.

    In the women’s race, Dong skied away from the field, putting a 27 second gap on second place finisher Zoe Roy at the finish. Chelsea Holmes finished third, eight seconds off Roy’s pace.

    In both the men’s and women’s races, three junior racers skied to solid results in the top ten. 19-year-old Erik Fagerstrom, originally from Eden Prairie, MN, found himself just short of the podium with a fourth place finish, while Marshall Opel, 18, from Bozeman was nipped at the line by Swenson and took ninth. Liza Goodwin, 19, from Keene, NY skied to an impressive sixth place result in a competitive women’s field.

    The 30km Boulder Mountain Tour is one of the classic American ski races. Starting up at Galena Lodge, the point-to-point course winds for 32km down the valley to finish at the Sawtooth National Recreation Headquarters, 1100 feet lower. Because the significant elevation drop makes for fast skiing, the field usually stays tightly bunched, with a large pack of elite skiers at the front.

    Nearly 700 racers completed the 35th Boulder Mountain Tour, with an additional 130 racers taking part in the “Half Boulder” 15k event.

    Complete Tour Results

  • Saab Salomon Factory Team Talk Birkie Fever!

    Saab Salomon Factory Team

    The Saab Salomon Factory Team has plenty of experiences with the American Birkie. It has been the focal point for our team for the past 15 years.  With a new sponsor and new flashy black suit [they] have Birkie veterans and rookies coming to throw down on Saturday.  Here is an inside look at what’s on the mind of Saab Salomon Factory Team members in the days leading up to the race.


    Andy Gerlach- What is your all time favorite Birkie moment on and off the race course?

    My favorite moment is every year when the race is over and I can say “The skis ran well, the feeds went as planned, no poles were broken and we won!”

    Chad Giese- You grew up in the heart of Birkie country and raced the course numerous times. What is the key part of the course to execute perfectly on Saturday?

    The start.  If you miss the break, you are stuck in the group you are with for the rest of the race.  Be in position to make the break.  That is the key to a good Birke.


    Evelyn Dong- Do we refer to you as the Birkie King or Queen? What did it mean to win the Birkie last year and your thoughts on a repeat?

    I don’t think I’m referred to as the Birkie Queen. I hope not.  Winning the Birkie was a huge boost for me last year. I’ve been known as a distance specialist and winning the Birkie legitimized everything. I’d love to repeat this year but I’m definitely up against tougher competition. Plus I’ve been injured and sick more than usual this year.

    Kristina Standberg- For being a dominant classic skier, would you like to see the Birkie Elite Wave be classic?  After watching you win the last five Supertours, will your skate demons be put to rest come Saturday by winning the ultimate North American Skate Race?

    I would love to race a classic Birkie! Not only because it would be better for me personally, but also since the “original Birkie” (the Norwegian Birkiebeiner) is a classic race. Some of the marathons in Europe are raced classic and skate on alternating years and I think that’s a pretty good system.  I’ve been working hard with my skate technique and I think I’m finally starting to see some results. It would be a fantastic feeling to be the first lady across the finish line on Main Street in Hayward!


    Fabien “The Wax Tech” After participating in the Birkie for the first time last year, what is the most important part of the course to wax for?  Is it key for the wax team to eat the Blondeau’s family Fondu the night before the Birkie?  I here it brings good luck to the team.

    To me, it’s important to wax for the second half of the race! In February, the days are getting warmer by 10:00am, it’s important to have good skis for the second half with a lot of flat and downhill! So I would advise to wax for the second half with something colder and harder underneath.

    I think it is important to feed well before a long and hard 50k like the Birkie. So a fondue with good French cheese is one of the best way to get energy for a full race! Of course, it is always nice to have a nice dinner together and hopefully this will give us a good luck to have great results on Saturday.


    Tad Elliot- Following in the footsteps of Carl Swenson as a pro mtn biker and skier, how does your background prepare you for your first Birkie and who is your pick for the Tour of California win?

    My mountain bike back ground will hopefully help me with my fist Birkie because I will be more comfortable at racing for around two hours and in a pack. I don’t have too much experience at long distance racing on skis so I am going to prepare for the Birkie just like a Mountain Bike Race…hopefully it works.

    My pick for the tour of California race is, Durango Home Boy, Now Boulder Home Boy, Thomas Danielson. I will also be watching Christian Vande Velde! Hopefully Garmin Chipotle will take home the win.


    Mike Sinnott- As a first time Birkie entrant, what are your thoughts going into the biggest race in America?   Have you ever tried a pickled turkey gizards and are you thinking of breaking the record?   I mean total pickled turkey gizs post birkie night?

    I’m pretty excited, and surprisingly not very nervous- although that will no doubt build as the people begin to show up.  I’ve been slowly attending larger and larger events, and each time it’s cool to see the enthusiasm of the Nordic Community.  So, shockingly, I’m looking forward to the chaos and whatever other whirlwind that comes.  It should be fun.  I think someday I’d like to comeback and ski from the middle of the 10th wave, just to experience the swarms of humanity. But, that’s before I have seen it in action, so… What?  Gizzard is my favorite dish!! Even though wild turkey gizzard is a little gamy, I can still put back my fare share.

    I was lying before. Don’t make me eat one of those.


    Laura McCabe- Describe your first experience or memory with the Birkie?

    My first Birkie was in 1991 or 92, I was in in awe from the start, with the excitement of the big crowds, the singing of the National anthem and the energy surrounding me. I remember being astonished with all the spectators and the funny costumes you skied by on Bitch hill. I remember the struggle in passing trains of men, but also the positive reactions that always came from their mouths. The lake was grueling and there was a big head wind though the pain was quickly diminished as you turned down Main Street to the roar of the crowd. I cannot remember what my place I was that year but it was an experience that will not be forgotten.


    Rebecca Dussault-  Here is a simple bet.  If you win the Birkie you will make a comeback for the 2010 Olympics?  Will you take it?

    Bet? You Bet. I already have the wheels all moving in that direction regardless of what goes down at the Birkie.  We’ve been praying about it as a family and trying to search our hearts and see if this is where God wants us to be.  Right now, considering that Sharbel is totally healthy it seems more likely than not.  If I don’t hit any unforeseen roadblocks then I’ll be there, will you?

    See you on Saturday.