FasterSkier

Tag: Sprint racing

  • Ogden and Weaver Take Sprint Honors at Craftsbury SuperTour Finals

    Ogden and Weaver Take Sprint Honors at Craftsbury SuperTour Finals

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    Ben Ogden, the Vermonter, taking the cake in the men’s sprint final. (Photo: Tryg Solberg / FasterSkier)

    CRAFTSBURY, Vermont — Craftsbury Outdoor Center kicked off the first of the SuperTour Finals races with a classic sprint on Friday. Yesterday’s weather brought gnarly, foggy, and temperatures in the 50s. Craftsbury’s grooming crew has been putting in long hours over the last few weeks to ensure that conditions would hold on through a warmup. Overnight, they prepared the 1.5-kilometer course that baked under the strong spring sun, creating saturated spring conditions even with temperatures below freezing. 

    Most of the top American competitors came to cap off their long race season, many of whom are freshly off the electric World Cup Finals. Following up huge events like the 2026 Olympics and the World Cup Finals in Lake Placid, one might think that races in the quaint Northeast Kingdom of Vermont would be a quiet, less competitive affair. Today’s competition couldn’t compete with the 10,000+ fans across the state border last weekend, but it proved to be a tight and fierce battle for sprinters to finish off their season.

    85 men and 63 women started the qualifier, representing an array of professional domestic teams, Canadians, Eastern Intercollegiate Ski Association (EISA), and junior racers. 

    Ben Ogden of SMS T2 won the men’s qualifier with nearly 3 seconds over Gus Schumacher of APU. Murphy Kimball, the 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Alaska – Anchorage, qualified in an impressive eighth, only getting beaten out by elder World Cup regulars. 

    U20 Murphy Kimball heading to an 8th place in the qualifier. (Photo: Tryg Solberg / FasterSkier)

    Erin Bianco of BSF won the women’s qualifier by over 3 seconds over second-place Canadian and Alberta World Cup Academy athlete Katie Weaver. Mia Gorman is a U16 athlete for the neighboring Mansfield Nordic Club who finished the qualifier in 27th, beating out all other junior women and making the heats with the big dogs. 

    Erin Bianco winning the qualifier by over 3 seconds. (Photo: Tryg Solberg / FasterSkier)

    Ogden moved comfortably through the heats, eventually winning the men’s final over APU teammates JC Schoonmaker and Gus Schumacher, who finished in second and third, respectively. 

    Men’s final starting at Craftsbury Outdoor Center. (Photo: Tryg Solberg / FasterSkier)

    Ben Ogden of SMS T2 was very happy about racing in his home state. “It’s a bit more chill” he said in comparison to the World Cup and Olympic stages that he’s been prominent on this season. Ogden also mentioned that, even though the race environment was low-key, the competition was stiff with the U.S.’s top skiers duking it out for the top of the podium. 

    In addition to representation from many different clubs throughout the heats, the women’s side saw a shake-up in the competition when the third qualifier, Lauren Jortberg of Mansfield Pro/NCPH, fell in the final. Canadian Katie Weaver and her Alberta World Cup Academy teammate Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt finished first and second. In an interview after the race, Weaver said “conditions were fun, crazy and a bit hectic.” 

    Canadians Katie Weaver and Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt embrace after their strong finish for first and second overall. (Photo: Tryg Solberg / FasterSkier)

    Emma Albrecht took the top domestic position in third place with her first Supertour win in a sprint race. Erin Bianco of BSF and Alayna Sonnesyn of Team Birkie rounded off the domestic podium. 

    Albrecht crossing the finishing line as the first American and 3rd overall. (Photo: Tryg Solberg / FasterSkier)

    Albrecht was very happy with her racing throughout the day: “The biggest feat for me is being competitive this late in the season.” When asked about her tactics in the heats with the warm spring sun softening the track, she said that she had to “find a rut and see it through.” 

    Logan Drevlov of Loppet Nordic Racing and Claire Serrano of Craftsbury won the junior heat finals. 

    Temps are forecasted to drop into the single digits overnight before 4 x 5 km team sprint competitions throughout the day. Tune in for more pictures and results tomorrow. 

     

    SuperTour Finals – Classic Sprint – RESULTS

    Full Photoset from Tryg Solberg – Classic Sprint 

    JC Schoonmaker (APU) and Kevin Bolger (Team Birkie) side by side in the heats. (Photo: Tryg Solberg / FasterSkier)

     

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  • On F1 Engines and Sprint Racing: The Importance of a Warm-Up

    On F1 Engines and Sprint Racing: The Importance of a Warm-Up

    Reese Hanneman in action in Canada.

    What might a cross-country ski racer learn from a 1,400 pound chunk of high-tech composite, space-age metals? As it turns out, there are more similarities than you might think, and the answer is: a lot.

    Formula One (F1) cars are some of the most advanced pieces of machinery man has ever created. Their engines are nothing short of engineering marvels, and define the limits of combustion-engine performance. Although the engine itself is relatively small, they can run at nearly 20,000 rpm to reach their peak power, and this unbelievable power-to-weight ratio is one of the trademark characteristics.

    It is no wonder that incredible amounts of resources, personnel, money, and time are poured strictly into the science of warming up these multi-million-dollar engines before a race. When that last red light winks off, they must immediately be capable of firing over 300 times per second, without failure. The engine temperature must be impossibly high before the race has even begun.

    Surprisingly, the human body is very similar. It is, after all, a heat engine, our system of lungs, heart, muscle, and blood a very versatile machine, converting chemical energy into many forms of mechanical work. And just like those F1 cars, it runs best when piping hot.

    For almost as long as I have been ski racing, my warm-up routine has been guided by some serious misconceptions. Well, perhaps “guided” is too strong of a word. When I think about it, I never really had much of a plan on race morning—I would go out, ski around for a while at an easy pace, and maybe throw in a few pickups if I was really feeling good.

    The lack of structure showed. When it comes to sprinting, the qualifier has always been my Achilles heel. If there was an award for the ratio of saddest-prelim-to-best-final-result, I would have won it every weekend. As an older junior, I would routinely struggle to qualify within the top 30 at Junior Nationals, then often ski myself onto the podium in the afternoon. Because USSA and FIS points are both based on the prelim time, this meant that my points profile was, to put it nicely, disastrous. And when racing at the World Junior Championships, U-23’s, or U.S. Nationals, I would often miss out on the heats because I couldn’t get myself into the qualifying group.

    I can confidently say that nearly all of those struggles can be blamed on one culprit: my warm-up.

    It should have been more obvious, since I would ski better as the heats progressed. I knew I had the capacity. I knew I had the power, the speed, and the agility. But for years, I had been toeing the start line with a cold engine.

    When I joined the APU team this spring, I brought coach Erik Flora a list of things I wanted to improve over the course of the season. For all practical purposes, my list had one line—it said “Sprint Qualifying.” With Flora’s help, I have formulated a simple and effective warm-up that is getting me to the line hot, and ready to ski as fast as possible.

    Below, I will outline the basics of my new, extensive warm-up—including some random notes and explanations.

    Arrive at Venue

    T-90 minutes: 20 to 30 minutes of super-easy skiing. (I’ve been skiing around with my down coat over my normal warm-ups, plus super-thick gloves and a warm hat, even if it’s balmy out, to keep myself skiing slowly. Everyone knows that feeling, where the first 15 minutes of movement just feel awful. The point of this is just to get all of my blood flowing slowly, without actually making my muscles do a lot of work.)

    T-60 minutes: Light stretching, grab my bib, check with coaches about skis and course, eat a PowerBar, etc. (I like to walk around a little bit and take care of all the necessary race-day business after I have already skied for a while.)

    T-50 minutes: 15 minutes of level one skiing. (If the course is open, jump on it at this point and take a reconnaissance lap or two. It’s hard to ignore all of the hammer-heads, but I think it’s important to go your own pace. Going too hard at this point doesn’t usually pay off.)

    T-30 minutes: One entire lap at conservative level three. (The pace on this one is also important; it is actually more difficult than you might think to stay down in level three here. This should be a distinctly different pace than the one you want to be skiing in the race.)

    T-25 minutes: Ski around at level one for 5 minutes.

    T-20 minutes: One entire lap at sprint race pace. (This might sound ridiculous. But your body needs it. This lap will probably be really painful, feel slow, and be generally depressing. However, that is the point. You want to open up the valves completely, moving the body past that terrible feeling. If you skip this step, then you will feel equally horrible during the prelim instead. This was the biggest step I was missing—I was afraid that feeling poorly was a bad sign, and that I shouldn’t be making my body tired prior to racing. Also, I have a hard time getting myself to complete a full lap at this pace, but I think it’s crucial to go all the way around. If there are skis to test, do it during this lap, while moving at race speed.)

    T-15 minutes: Ski around at level one for five minutes. (I usually swing by the stadium and the wax table, gulp a PowerBar gel and some drink, double-check that I have my bib on, double-check that I don’t look like an idiot, etc.)

    T-10 minutes: Two to three all-out sprints, about 15 seconds long. (This is just to get those big muscles snapping fast. It shouldn’t hurt, or be tiring. The idea is to move at speeds that exceed race pace.)

    T-5 minutes: Walk to the start pen. At this point, the warm-up is over, and it’s up to you to go fast!

    Of course, all of these times, lengths, distances, and paces are just suggestions. Basically, it’s like this: start out really easy for a while, then ski a tiny bit faster for a while, and then ski sort of hard for a few minutes, then ski super hard for a few minutes, and then go all out for a few seconds. There you are, revving hot and ready for the best qualifier of your life!

    Next time you arrive at the venue with a sprint day ahead of you, just imagine yourself as a world-class race car. Okay, okay, maybe none of us can put out the astronomical power numbers that those fire-breathing autos might. But compared to the rest of the human population, we are indeed finely-tuned racing machines. And we have to be plenty warmed up in order to show it.

  • Randall, Newell Offer Sprint Fueling Strategies

    Kikkan Randall racing the classic sprint at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

    On race morning, with all its accompanying nerves, it’s hard enough for cross-country skiers to choke down a single meal. But for sprinters, that’s a scenario that sometimes must be repeated three more times before the day is over.

    With races sometimes stretching over several hours, from a qualifying round through three heats, sprinters know that a steady intake of food and drink is crucial to maintaining high energy levels—though that’s easier said than done, between pre-race butterflies and post-race nausea.

    To get a sense of just how they meet their nutritional demands, FasterSkier caught up with Andy Newell and Kikkan Randall—two Americans who also happen to be two of the best sprinters in the world.

    For Newell, preparation for a weekend of racing actually begins two nights prior to his first event, when he begins a carbo-loading regime. According to Newell, that’s because the human body burns more carbohydrates in sprints than in any other race format.

    To meet his needs, he said that he doesn’t adjust portion sizes—just ratios.

    “I might skip out on a bunch of vegetables or salad, and try to eat more carbohydrates two nights and the night before,” he said. “Usually, we do a pretty hard workout the day before a race, so you want to be pretty loaded up with carbohydrates in order to make it through that…You don’t want to be already in carbohydrate-deficit before going in.”

    Randall said that she’ll also have some kind of snack before bed time the night prior, like cereal. Race morning brings a standard breakfast, though she said that she is always sure to finish hers at least three hours before her start. She’ll also sip sports drink until heading out on course.

    Andy Newell

    Post-qualifier is when the work really begins—and it’s also when the feeding gets tougher.

    “The last thing you want to do is eat. I just try to grab my drink belt and stumble out,” Newell said.

    But between the prelims and the start of the heats, sprinters usually have at least an hour off, and during that time, they force themselves to down some kind of food.

    Randall said that she’ll usually eat a small sandwich, with honey or jam on bread, while Newell said that he’ll eat a banana or an energy bar. He said that he also will sip some type of sports drink continually—as much as three liters over the course of the day, if he goes all the way through to the finals.

    Both athletes also caffeinate before the rounds, which can give an extra edge. Many Europeans opt for good old Coca-Cola; Newell said he tried that, but ended up with an upset stomach. Instead, he takes the drug in pill form, while Randall said that she prefers “gel blasts” made by PowerBar, one of her sponsors, which she’ll eat through the semifinals and finals.

    Sometimes, there’s good food provided by organizers in the athletes’ tent, but Randall said that it’s usually too rich, so she doesn’t depend on it. She brings key nutrition products to Europe from the U.S., while things like sandwiches she plays by ear.

    “It’s definitely a challenge over here,” she said. “Some of the guys get whatever sports drink they can find…sometimes it’s hard to come by, and it’s different every time.”

    When the heats are over, it’s time to replenish energy stores as quickly as possible, even though all the racing doesn’t exactly work up an appetite.

    “After a sprint race, most of the time, you feel like crap,” Newell said. “You’re usually not hungry.”

    Still, he said, he’ll force something down—some kind of recovery shake or drink within 20 minutes, and then a big dinner. More carbohydrates are in order if there’s another race the next day, as well as some protein to repair torn muscle fibers.

    Newell and Randall have both developed their own regimes, but the World Cup travels to many different venues—and timetables for sprint races are rarely are the same week-to-week. That means that their systems aren’t set in stone.

    “It’s definitely been a long process—I can remember going to Junior Nationals, doing my first few sprints, and having no idea you needed to eat during the race,” Randall said. “I’m still figuring [it] out a little bit.”