The women start at Mont Sainte Anne. This is the first mass start 20km for most of the field. (Photo: Mario Walker)
Mont Sainte Anne (MSA) held the final pre-Christmas races in Canada over the weekend, with a 20km freestyle mass start Friday, freestyle sprints on Saturday, and 10km individual start classic on Sunday.
Fresh snow, steep hills, and temperatures comfortably below freezing greeted 400+ racers at a continental cup hosted by Skibec, Centre National d’Entraïnemente Pierre Harvey (CNEPH) , and Club Nordique MSA.
MSA is a popular racing destination, as Nakkertok’s Bronwyn Williams explained: “I love racing at MSA because the trails are amazingly challenging! For some other race courses you need to work hard to bury yourself but at MSA the courses go out of their way to destroy you and if you’re not careful they will. That’s what makes it so fun though because you are not just racing your competitors, but you are also trying to survive the courses.”
Friday
Winner Sasha Masson (#2) skiing patiently in the lead pack. (Photo: Mario Walker)
Sasha Masson (CNEPH) kicked off the weekend with a win in the 20km skate, finishing in 47:44.9, 6.2 seconds clear of four skiers: Orford’s Léo Grandbois, Montériski’s Alexandre Bourque and Xavier Lefebvre, and Big Thunder’s Conor McGovern.
“It was a good day overall,” Masson wrote to FasterSkier. “I played it safe and skied with the pack for a bit, then used my legs to work my skis on the flats and the downhills. Today, pushing over the top and in the downs was essential and allowed me to win.”
For the women, it was the U20 show with Kanata’s Helen McCulligh winning in 59:08.5, followed by MSA’s Ophélie Grandmont at 8.9 seconds and Whitehorse product Constance Lapointe at 9.8 back.
“It was a very fast day out on the course,” McCulligh told Nordiq Canada. “It was my first ever time racing a 20km, so I didn’t know what to expect going in.”
As in Davos two days later, the new distance caused some learning moments and a change from ‘normal’ tactics.
“We had a really big group of girls, a big pack stuck together for a long time.”
Saturday
Mats Halvorsen chasing hard in the semi-final. (Photo: Raphaël Payo)
Saturday brought a 1.1km skate sprint and a deeper field with the addition of many student athletes.
Chelsea’s U20, Ry Prior, now training with the Alberta World Cup Academy, won the Open men’s final in 2:20.53, ahead of CNEPH teammates Felix-Olivier Moreau at 1.58 back and Guillaume Pelchat at 3.25 seconds.
Chelsea’s U18, Tory Audet, continued her domination, skiing away from the group in each heat on her way to win in 2:35.94, 10.13 seconds ahead of Nakkertok’s Bronwyn Williams. Katherine Mason was third for Nakkertok, 12.54 behind.
Audet went with a straightforward tactical plan: “I didn’t think much about tactics,” she said. “I just tried to ski the course as fast and efficiently as possible due to the fact that it was a very short course.”
A very short course at MSA? There was a course change announced at 7:30am race day.
“The course ended up basically being a short 1km loop that had one really big uphill followed by a downhill and a loop of the stadium,” Williams explained in an email. “It was a wind tunnel through the end of the stadium and the snow wasn’t really fast because it was snowing. I found out pretty quickly that if I got out in front at the beginning, skied controlled until the middle of the big hill and then accelerated over the top of the hill and into the downhill that no one would be able to draft off me on the downhill and through the windy stadium. This tactic really helped secure my spot in the A final.”
Sunday
Tory Audet pushing to a snowy win in the 10km. (Photo: Raphaël Payo)
The 10km classic brought more fresh snow but the same women’s winner. Audet won in 36:15.9, ahead of Williams in second again at 25.6 back. Lappe’s Hannah Shields was third at 1:37.0.
“The 10km classic race yesterday was definitely one of the hardest races I’ve done,” Audet wrote to FasterSkier. “The course had some epic climbs and with the fresh snow we got, there weren’t any tracks going up any of the hills making it very difficult. I felt good, I think I paced my race very well, and my skis were awesome!”
Williams, one of three athletes older than U23 to reach the podium this weekend, was not expecting to repeat her 10km victory from the previous weekend.
“The race was two times a crazy challenging 5km course that had huge hills and finished with about 1km of flat double pole…the bane of my existence. Tory Audet, my friend and an incredible athlete, started 30 seconds behind me, so I decided my goal was to see how long I could stay ahead of her.”
The strategy worked to the end, with Williams finishing with 4.4 seconds to spare.
Felix-Oliver Moreau on the trail to victory. (Photo: Raphaël Payo)
For the men, Moreau moved up a step on the podium, winning in 32:13.1. Orford’s Nicolas Beaulieu was second, 4.6 behind to improve on his 6th in the sprint. CNEPH’s Mats Halvorsen was third at 12.7 back.
This brings Canadian ski racing to a holiday pause, with lots of positives to look back on: all the Canadians who raced World Cup period 1 have at least one top 30 result, first-year senior Liliane Gagnon earned her first World Cup weekend in Davos, eight days of FIS racing happened at three Canadian venues, the Para National team collected a suitcase worth of World Cup medals, and Nordiq Canada has signed on with Abuse-Free Sport, a significant upgrade from the previous SafeSport program.
The 2022 FIS Junior/U23 World Ski Championships trip has been made possible through support from the National Nordic Foundation (NNF), which has identified this invaluable opportunity for developing athletes as one of its “Pillar Projects”. You can support the NNF and the next generations of America’s top skiers by making a donation here.
Friday at 2022 FIS Junior World Ski Championships in Lygna, Norway, marked the phase that Steve Fuller, on site to take photographs qua Flying Point Road, calls “the ‘groundhog’s day’ stage” of the championships. “Things are happening so fast that you’re not quite able to get caught up with each day before you get up and do it all over again,” Fuller wrote on Instagram.
Will Koch races to 13th in the 10 k classic during the 2022 Junior World Ski Championships in Lygna, NOR. (Photo: John McColgan)
Undeterred, the Americans headed out on course Friday morning for their seventh and eighth races in four days. The coaches and wax techs (see the back row in the lead picture of the relay story) prepped skis for their eighth championship race within less than 72 hours. At the end of the day, Russia took a combined four out of six podium spots; Canadian skiers Xavier McKeever and Jasmine Drolet placed sixth and eighth, respectively; and Will Koch and Sydney Palmer-Leger led the way for the Americans in 13th and 19th.
Women’s 5 k Classic
Let’s back up. The women again had the day’s first race, a 5-kilometer interval-start classic. The first starter headed out on course, over a single lap of yesterday’s 5 k course, at 11 a.m. The official results describe conditions as somewhere between moderate and perfect: air temp of -2 C, snow temp of -3 C. Skies were overcast for the women’s race, but the sun came out for the men; as USST Development Team Coach Greta Anderson told FasterSkier later Friday, conditions sped up noticeably by the afternoon.
82 starters later, Dariya Nepryaeva, who started at the sharp end of the field in bib no. 80, had logged the day’s fastest time, crossing the line in 14:30.1. She was closely followed by her compatriot, Elizabeta Bekisheva, in second, 2.9 seconds back. Emma Kirkeberg Mørk of Norway was close behind for third, 4.0 seconds back.
Sydney Palmer-Leger skis into the top-20 in the 5 k classic during the 2022 Junior World Ski Championships in Lygna, NOR. (Photo: flyingpointroad.com)
The day’s fastest North American finisher, and fastest Jasmine in the field, was Jasmine Drolet of Revelstoke, B.C., in eighth, 21.5 seconds back. She was followed in the North American standings by American Sydney Palmer-Leger (University of Utah/Park City, Utah) in 19th (+51.3), and Canadian Jasmine Lyons in 26th (+1:03.3).
“I felt pretty good. I really like classic skiing and my goal was to give it all I had,” said Drolet in a press release from Nordiq Canada. “You only ski the lap once, so the key was to just go hard the whole time. We had amazing conditions, perfect for classic skiing so it was a good day.”
Behind Lyons were the two Ninas, Nina Schamberger (Summit Nordic Ski Club/Leadville, Colorado) in 31st (+1:14.2) and Nina Seemann (Dartmouth Ski Team/Craftsbury, Vermont) in 36th (+1:23.0). Annie McColgan (University of Vermont/Bend, Oregon) was 40th (+1:27.3). Canadian athletes Sarah Cullinan (44th, +1:34.2) and Tory Audet (59th, +2:08.2) followed.
Annie McColgan races the 5 k classic in Lygna, NOR, her first start of the 2022 Junior World Ski Championships. (Photo: John McColgan)
McColgan radiated enthusiasm when she talked with FasterSkier following her first race at these championships. “It was nice to have everyone cheering out there, and my parents were here so it was really, really fun. It was really cool,” McColgan said.
McColgan also provided insights on the course, describing it as “a really interesting 5k” with plenty of rolling terrain, but not many opportunities for recovery. “There’s a lot of steep little hills that you just have to be really good at… But it also is 16 minutes long. So you kind of have to make that balance [with energy expenditure]. And then the final climb was so brutal.”
Men’s 10 k Classic
The men again had the day’s second race, starting a two-lap, 10 k interval-start classic race at 1 p.m. local time. Taking athletes’ distance points as an informal form chart, in a field with 101 athletes the podium finishes came, relatively unsurprisingly, from bibs no. 90, no. 100, and no. 101. The gold medal on Friday went to Russian Saveliy Korostelev, the penultimate athlete on the course. Korostelev posted the fastest split time at 3 kilometers, at 5 kilometers, and at 8 kilometers, crossing the finish line in 26:15.8.
Will Koch leads the American junior men with a 13th place finish in the 10 k classic during the 2022 Junior World Ski Championships in Lygna, NOR. (Photo: flyingpointroad.com)
Korostelev enjoyed a hefty advantage over silver-medal finisher Niko Anttola of Finland, who finished 21.4 seconds back. Anttola ranked one to eight seconds behind Alexander Ivshin of Russia at all intermediate checkpoints, but skied the final two kilometers just barely faster. When Ivshin, the day’s final starter, crossed the line, he had fallen 0.8 seconds behind Anttola and had to settle for third.
Put another way, Russia came within a second of going 1–2 in both the men’s and women’s races. They instead had to settle for first and second in the women’s race, and first and third in the men’s.
Shortly behind the podium, Xavier McKeever of Canmore, Alberta, skied a strong race to finish sixth, 52.4 seconds back of Korostelev and roughly 30 seconds off the podium. It was McKeever’s best international result since, well, Tuesday, when he was fifth in the men’s 30 k mass start skate. McKeever’s sixth today tied Palmer-Leger’s sixth, from Tuesday’s women’s 15 k skate, for the second-best North American individual result of these championships.
“I am stoked to be in the top-10 again,” McKeever told Nordiq Canada in a press release. “I was getting splits that I was close to the podium in the first lap, but I just couldn’t keep the high pace that I started with. Honestly, I feel like the podium is still a fair bit away, but today just motivates me more to make the steps toward being able to contend for a medal. … I have been able to build my confidence over the course of this season. After last year, it was instrumental for me to refocus on putting in the hard work each and every day, which I think has helped me race with more confidence than ever before.”
McKeever was followed by his countrymen Max Hollman (Thunder Bay) in 17th (+1:28.8), Derek Deuling (Whitehorse) in 19th (+1:31.5), and Thomas Stephen (Calgary) in a tie for 26th (+1:40.0).
Brian Bushey races the 10 k classic during the 2022 Junior World Ski Championships in Lygna, NOR. (Photo: John McColgan)
Will Koch (University of Colorado/Peru, Vermont) led the way for the Americans, finishing in 13th (+1:23.4). He was followed by Alex Maurer (University of Colorado/Anchorage, Alaska), also 26th (+1:40.0); Brian Bushey (University of Utah/Waitsfield, Vermont) in 36th (+2:00.2); and Finn Sweet (University of Vermont/Waterbury, Vermont) in 47th (+2:11.3).
Thoughts from the coach
Greta Anderson is in Lygna at her third World Juniors as a coach or tech, her first since assuming her current coaching position with the U.S. Ski Team. (Disclosure, Anderson was this reporter’s coach in APU Masters in 2014–15, and has remained a close personal friend ever since.)
Asked what she saw about today’s races, Anderson noted, “They were really fun to watch. Between FIS live timing and back split, the radios were pretty lively. One thing I did learn this year, and this is more than I’ve seen in the past, is that our athletes – every single one has the raw speed to compete at this level. We’re working on the durability portion of it. I think the top athletes in these races often are running negative splits in a big way; I would have to sit down and look at percentages. I’m sure we’ll do that at some point in time. But you know, the speed is there early on, we have very good placement, and then we need to figure out how to speed up just a little bit more. But that’s, you know, that’s been a big step for us as a country.
“Will Koch, obviously very, very strong today. Brian Bushey came out on the top end of ten places being within four seconds, or eight places within four seconds maybe. So you know, really phenomenal. … Annie McColgan had her first ever World Juniors race today. And that’s always really fun and special to watch. I think often athletes come away seeing like, ‘wow, there’s another level,’ and it can be really motivating for the following year.”
Sydney Palmer-Leger leads the junior women during the 5 k interval start classic. (Photo: John McColgan)
Turning to Schamberger, Anderson observed that the 16-year-old has “had a pretty heavy week of racing so far. She’s had three starts, and the first day was not what she wanted. And the second day she had the gift of getting redemption the very next day, which I think is one of the best things athletes can have. And she was really happy with how she skied the relay, a big smile on her face. And then a really good race today. It’s fun to watch athletes – the moment that they realize they’re skiing at that level. Because we know they can do it, and we watch it, but that aha moment of ‘Oh, okay, in the world, this is where I am.’ That moment is really cool. It’s one of my favorite parts of my job for sure.”
Anderson also described the environment at the venue more broadly, highlighting the effects of vocal parental support. “There’s quite a few parents here from the U.S.,” she said.
“And Americans are really loud compared to other countries, and it’s probably taken as obnoxious, but I really appreciate it. We can always hear the Americans. It’s fun to stand by them and listen to them get all excited. Next to the parents during the relay is one of my favorite places to stand.”
In that vein, Anderson concluded, “I look around, and I’m so proud to be an American coach. I’m so proud of the American skiers; there’s not a single other nation I would – I’m really glad that I work for our staff. And I think our athletes are really glad that they ski for the U.S.A. I don’t think they look around and think, like, ‘I wish I was on that team,’ or, ‘I wonder what that team is up to.’ We’re definitely in that, ‘We’re Americans and we’re here to beat you. Or at least die trying’ mode. And that’s pretty fun.”
U.S. Ski and Snowboard Development Team Coach Greta Anderson encourages athletes during the men’s 30k distance race during the 2022 U.S. Cross Country Championships in Soldier Hollow. (Photo: Tobias Albrigtsen / @untraceableg)
Racing continues tomorrow with skate sprints for U23 athletes, both genders, before wrapping up Sunday with both men’s and women’s U20 skate sprints and the U23 mixed relay, sending athletes and techs out with three races, two techniques, and a combined sixteen sprint heats on the final day of racing. Groundhog’s Day, indeed.
Liliane Gagnon leads the women’s 10km at the Eastern Canada Cup at Mont Sainte Anne. (Photo: Stéphane Barrette/Nordiq Canada)
The Eastern Canada Cup series wrapped up in Mont Sainte Anne (MSA), Québec, with distance racing for over 300 skiers each day. As with Westerns, the second weekend brought results and execution a little higher in the athletes’ focus, but the almost universal use of the words ‘fun’ and ‘excitement’ remain a reflection of a return to racing after a season without.
MSA is just outside Québec City and is very accessible for most population centres in the province. It is a destination venue that is famous for challenging trails and a few brutal climbs that reflect 1991 homologation standards. Races are hosted by Club Nordique Mont Ste Anne on trails owned by the alpine resort. This is the home base of the Centre National d’Entraînement Pierre-Harvey (CNEPH).
“The race organizers and volunteers did a great job today, the course was challenging but fun and the conditions were good despite the rain we got the day before.” — Étienne Hébert
Saturday: Individual Start Classic 5km/10km
The women kicked off the weekend with a 5km race of truth and it was CNEPH’s U20 Liliane Gagnon setting the standard in 14:00.7. Chelsea’s U18 Tory Audet was second at 7.5 seconds back, collecting her second senior podium of the season. Last weekend’s double winner Laura Leclair was third (+16.7), putting a second CNEPH suit on the podium.
“I had a very good day!” Gagnon wrote to FasterSkier. “I surprised myself which is awesome. I knew the form was good, but I didn’t expect the race I pulled off. 5km classic individual starts are usually my biggest fear and I proved myself wrong.”
Gagnon was one of many who had process goals top of mind.
“I usually have trouble with individual starts because I don’t start fast enough. Today my goal was to start off quick and ideally keep that speed all through the race and I think I did a pretty good job. I really tried to stride long on the “false flats hills” and push hard on the top of the hills and I think it paid off!”
Liliane Gagnon in the 5km classic. (Photo: Stéphane Barrette/Nordiq Canada)
“I had a great race,” Audet wrote. “We had awesome glide but our kick was not ideal. The conditions were fast, which made this specific course very exciting. This course had a lot of uphills, which are my favourite! Uphills gives me the feeling of accomplishment every time I crest a new hill, and that motivates me for the next one!”
Enthusiasm flows from Audet, who at sixteen was affected more than many by a season without learning from real races.
“During my race, what stayed in the back of my mind was that a faster and more experienced skier started one minute behind me. I was driven to maintain that one-minute gap between us.”
That skier starting one minute behind Audet was Leclair, who wrote “Today was an overall good day. I think I lost seconds in the last portion of the race but I’m happy with the first half. Skis were good and conditions were super fast. Happy to be racing at my second home.”
Leclair is a Chelsea member, giving her the chance to race at both ‘home’ courses this month.
Julian Smith on his way to another victory. Coach Timo Puiras is visible on the left. (Photo: Stéphane Barrette/Nordiq Canada)
National Team Development Centre Thunder Bay’s Julian Smith his strong start with a third win in the new season, finishing the 10km in 23:51.7. CNEPH’s Phil Boucher was 24.7 seconds back, edging out TBay’s Pierre Grall-Johnson in third at 30.3.
Boucher was fresh from the US SuperTour in Cable, where he was third in the 15km classic and won the 15km free.
“My day was ok,” he wrote. “I was just not fast enough to win. Skis were good and my pacing was too. I just didn’t deliver the result that I was supposed to.”
Grall-Johnson had a more optimistic outlook on his day.
“Fun day today,” Grall-Johnson wrote, “first 10km of the season. Those are always hard distances, I am definitely feeling the fatigue of the past few months but still happy with how I pushed today… I think today was all about maintaining a high speed through the full lap, keeping the power high on the false flats and really pushing hard into the downhills. Our NTDC skis were awesome today, so looking forward to tomorrow.”
5th place Étienne Hébert, another CNEPH skier, explained the ‘return to racing’ experience.
“Definitely not a bad race in any way, my distance racing has clearly improved this year and getting consistent top fives and podiums early on helps build up confidence for the rest of the season. The race organizers and volunteers did a great job today, the course was challenging but fun and the conditions were good despite the rain we got the day before.”
What made the difference between 5th and the podium? “The guys in front on me just had a better day on Saturday.”
Tony Cyr leads from the start of the 15km. (Photo: Stéphane Barrette)
Sunday was a sun day on the course and delivered the first mass start in 20 months for most of the skiers present. The excitement and the broken poles were real.
Antoine (Tony) Cyr, who returned from World Cup Period I with two top twelve results and a cold, pushed the pace early before finishing alone in 37:48.3.
“Tony started with a strong pace,” Boucher wrote, “and after that we just tried to drop each other by a big enough gap in the hills so that the other didn’t catch up on the flats. I bonked first, so I got second…”
“[The] skate race was good!” Grall-Johnson wrote of being the only non-CNEPH skier in the top eight. “It was one of those races that just flowed through. Antoine took it out a hard pace and then by the top of the first hill there were only three of us with a gap to the next pack, and then we just created a bigger gap over the rest of the first 5km. Tactics weren’t the deciding factor yesterday, I was very content to let Phil and Tony do most of the work and I just had to respond whenever they picked up the pace or tried to attack. At the beginning of the third lap Antoine and Phil pulled away from me on a long working section. I managed to catch back up to Phil who also had a little bit of an explosion and we skied together until he broke me going up a very steep hill with just about 1km to go.”
Behind the trio, there was a lot more action.
“Sunday’s 15km mass start was simply really fun,” Hébert wrote about his fourth place from a trio of chasers. “I skied the two last laps with my teammates Leo Grandbois and Felix-Olivier Moreau. Those laps were very strategic and exciting, lots of tactics involved to fight for that fourth spot. The start of the race was terrible for me, I got tangled up with other skiers and boxed behind which meant that the first lap was only about getting back in touch with the chasing group.”
***
Gagnon won the women’s 10km in 30:42.1, continuing the CNEPH Sunday domination with Leclair second at 12.9 back. Nakkertok’s Zoë Williams was alone in third at 25.6 seconds behind.
“My day was awesome!” Gagnon wrote. “Really did not expect taking another win today, but very happy that the race feeling is coming up strong.
“My teammate Laura and I really worked through this one together,” Gagnon continued. “Maybe not the best tactic all through the race but it ended working out pretty well and we got a lot of experience from it. I knew when I was going to ‘attack’; I was ready to go hard in that last hill, last kilometre and did exactly that.”
Williams had a plan for the mass start.
“Tactically my plan had been to chill for the first lap behind the leaders,” she wrote to FasterSkier.
Plans change, especially in mass starts.
“Unfortunately my pole got broken right off the start which separated me from the lead pack, but I had a lot of fun working with Bronwyn to reel people back in! (And big shout out to Gilles Bérubé for the super smooth pole hand off!)”
The ‘Bronwyn’ mentioned is Bronwyn Williams, 4th today, 3rd in the Nakkertok sprint last weekend. She’s also Zoë’s younger sister.
Audet pulled out early after experiencing back pain. Her youth didn’t stop her from making the wise choice as Trials approaches.
“Being up in the mix with the senior racers has been a goal of mine and I’m surprised that this is what I am doing,” Audet wrote. “I really enjoy racing with them, they have a lot more experience than I do and it is a lot of fun to race and learn from them.”
Brazil’s Jacqueline Mourao was the leader of a large group of ‘other nation’ athletes vying for an Olympic quota spot, finishing 6th (+1:28.1). Mourao, now 46, is a seven-time Olympian who rose to prominence as a mountain biker and started skiing in 2005 while renting a basement suite from Pierre Harvey.
After a season without racing, we now have four Canada Cup weekends to use to judge the state of skiing in Canada.
With male athletes who have raced the US SuperTour and World Cup period 1, there is a basis for speculation on where Canada fits into world rankings.
Boucher left the Cable SuperTour with a 1st, 3rd, and 16th results, the last coming in the sprint. Cyr recorded 11th, 12th, 32nd, 56th, 42nd, 36th, and a DNF in three World Cup weekends. Antoine Briand skied two SuperTour weekends, finishing 2nd and 26th in sprints, 27th and 33rd in distance. Boucher, Cyr, and Briand all train together at CNEPH which gives Boucher a unique perspective.
“Tony is in a league of is own in Canada right now,” Boucher wrote. “He is skiing well and his race efforts are so consistent. He is skiing at a World Cup level, which I have been struggling to do over the past year. That being said, I don’t need to compare to Tony to know if I am at a World Cup level – my results from last year speaks from themselves and, sadly, the answer is no. I don’t feel fast enough to get a decent result on a World Cup event.”
Phil Boucher on his way to second place in the classic. (Photo: Stéphane Barrette/Nordiq Canada)
We can already see that splitting NorAms into Western and Eastern Canada Cups has reduced travel, and travel costs for racers and teams. This is good.
“I think it is pretty clear that splitting the Canadian field in two circuit results in a less competitive field,” Boucher wrote. “We can compare the 15km mass start skate in Cable since it was pretty much the same kind of course. In the super tour, we had a leading pack of approximately 15 guys and this weekend we were 3 battling for the win.
“So I’d say splitting the Canadian circuit is bad for the depth of the field of our Canadian races, but it doesn’t mean that the level of competition is not high. We still have great skiers in both Canadian circuits. It would just be more fun and more exciting to race against all the best skiers in the country.”
Less depth in fields, especially in sprint heats, is probably not good. FasterSkier is following this closely.
Up Next
There are both new and familiar faces to watch from December, but the real test will be when the entire country meets at the Olympic Trials in Canmore from January 6th to 11th. This is the selection event for Beijing, U23/U20 World Championships, and World Cup period 4, which means most athletes have something to chase.
Canada has Olympic quota spots for four women and three men, and unofficially the three men’s spots were allocated based on World Cup period 1 results. With so few Olympic berths up for grabs, the focus will shift to earning World Cup starts for older skiers.
“I’m feeling reassured for trials, simply because last season was kind of a black period and I didn’t know we’re I stood. Now I know the shape is there, it’s going to be very stressful weekend, with a lot at stake but I’m confident the preparation is good and I’ll be ready.” — Gagnon
“Only thinking about racing, I think it will be an incredible event and I can’t wait to race for the win on the tough Canmore courses.” — Hébert
“With Trials being held in Canmore, I am sure the volunteers will put on another great event. The courses are something to behold in Canmore with demanding climbs and technical descents. I am sure the athletes will all be excited to race hard, and the spectators will surely be there looking on with anticipation. I think as long as everyone follows covid protocols and respects regulations, everyone should be able to compete, coach and spectate while feeling safe.” — Smith
For most of the roughly 600 individual skiers who have raced one or more Canada Cups this month, the return of racing is the return of measuring progress and the return of learning.
“I had no clue how to pace myself, there were tough climbs and I don’t have a lot of experience, and hadn’t raced on a course this difficult in 2 years.” — Audet
Racing in Canada, Racing at Home
“Racing in Canada is always fun! Skiing with teammates and with family and friends cheering you on is always fun. It’s a familiar feeling and it’s feels good to start off the season that way and hopefully later moving on to the big races in Europe.” — Gagnon
“A lot of excitement again this weekend. There was good support from parents and friends cheering on the side of the course which brought good vibes through the weekend. We also got lucky with weather, especially on Sunday with a beautiful sunny day. In Mont Sainte-Anne, the race organizers always have to deal with RCR, the group that owns the mountain, who often don’t even do the minimum to give skiers decent trail conditions all winter. So, the Club Nordique Mont Sainte-Anne organizing an event like they did last weekend really shows the commitment of the volunteers and the community around the mountain.” — Hébert
“It feels amazing to be back on the race course again! I have really missed racing and with a couple tough years of sickness and injury simply getting back on the start line is an incredible win. Some things have for sure changed, but honestly, at the heart of things it’s still the same. It doesn’t matter who’s on the race course for me; the goal is always to go as fast as I can between the start and finish line and figure out what I can change for the next race to go even faster!!” — Williams
“The weekend in MSA was exciting. The conditions were superb and the race organizers did a great job. There were lots of spectators respecting covid precautions and cheering loudly! The 10km classic interval start was fast and furious with quick conditions and great waxing by our staff! Sunday was fun to race a mass start and started off with a blistering pace and a course full of long uphills!” — Smith
The men’s sprint final at Eastern Canada Cup #1 on Nakkertok trails. (Photo: Robert Smith)
Once again, there was a great weekend of racing on the Nakkertok trails in Gatineau, QC. It was almost like the pandemic pause hadn’t happened: lots of racers, live results on Zone4, great support for media.
But it isn’t really just Nakkertok. ENGNE, a coalition of local clubs, puts on great races using Nakkertok trails and the NakkerTrak snowmaking magic.
“The mood at this weekends races was super fun!,” wrote Laura Leclair. “Even if it was pouring rain on Saturday, people were very happy to put a bib back on. Super grateful towards all the volunteers who stand in the rain in order to run the event smoothly!”
Leclair is a CNEPH team member from Chelsea Nordique, one of the ENGNE host clubs and a double winner. Her thoughts were echoed by National Team Development Centre (NDC) Thunder Bay’s Julian Smith, who also won both events.
“The race went really well today, it was super fun, the volunteers put on a really good event. It was really wet and rainy this morning, but that actually made it for a really fast day.”
A number of athletes wanted FasterSkier to know that the volunteers got the worst of the Saturday rain before the athletes were on course. Smith put it best:
“I want to thank the organizers profusely because they were true champions. It was a terribly miserable day to stand still outside for 10 or more hours and they did so with smiles and cheers!”
Luckily for these volunteers, Sunday brought sunshine for an individual start.
***
Canada is in a sense divided by Thunder Bay, though it is not equidistant from the eastern and western borders. The west has more space, but the east has more people. Sovereign Lake draws volunteers from the local population of 43,000, noticeably smaller than Ottawa/Gatineau with 1.3 million. The population difference also affects the number of athletes, with 12 million Canadians living close enough to drive to Nakkertok for a weekend. As in, almost a third of all Canadians.
Nakkertok hosted about 480 racers, continuing the trend as the largest event on the continental cup circuit in North America.
Thunder Bay is neither east nor west, but is within flying distance from both. The only races in driving distance are in the US.
NDC TBay sent their team west for WCC 1&2 before heading east for ECC 1 – 4. This will give the viewers a few hints about the relative strengths of the two solitudes.
FasterSkier is trying to bring the Eastern Canada Cup to life from a sunny Sovereign Lake parking lot while this reporter’s partner is doing yet another double workout day at ladies camp. Both Western Canada Cups were held at my home venue, which makes it easy to capture athletes before or after their cooldown ski, record video of the race itself, talk to officials, and feel the vibe from the volunteers, the parents, the siblings, and a few hundred recreational skiers who have never seen a race before. So how is this going to work? And how can it be better for Eastern Canada Cup 3&4 next weekend? Or for the National Championships in Canmore in January?
Pre-pandemic, the key to getting good content remotely was to email questions to the athletes at the magic time when they could read the message at the venue, then reply at the first convenient pause with wifi, often the airport. When a ‘surprise’ athlete made the podium, it was usually someone FS had been tracking. Now we have a Tory Audet earning her first FIS points and her first senior podium on the same weekend.
Luckily, Julian Smith helped FasterSkier out with some videos that bring the weekend closer.
Saturday: Free Technique Sprints
Saturday started with a downpour on the volunteers setting up, but the action heated up quickly as most racers got their first race in a bib in twenty months. The men raced first, unusually.
Pierre Grall-Johnson leads Étienne Hébert early in the sprint final. (Photo: Robert Smith)
CNEPH’s Étienne Hébert won the qualifier in 2:39.86 in his first official race, edging out two TBay skiers who had raced WCCs the previous weekend: Smith by 1.15 seconds and Pierre Grall-Johnson-Johnson by 2.03
In the heats, it was the Smith show again, winning all of his heats. Hébert took second in his first sprint day, ahead of Grall-Johnson-Johnson who, like Smith, had done all three rounds at Westerns the week before.
“I felt strong but a little stiff in the qualifier which maybe have been due to warming up in as much water proof clothing as possible,” Smith wrote to FasterSkier. “But the heats, the skis were running fast and the body felt snappy.”
Hébert was thrilled to be racing again.
“It’s amazing to finally put a bib back on and race against the other Canadian athletes. Stress levels were somewhat high before the sprint but it quickly got replaced with excitement. Having the possibility to race, especially before Olympic trials, is great and I want to say that Nakkertok did an amazing job this weekend. We train all year as a team for those moments when you get to put the CNEPH suit on and show everyone how fast we are. This weekend was only the start and we’re all excited for MSA next weekend.”
MSA is Mont Sainte Anne near Québec City, the home of CNEPH, and like Nakkertok, a keystone race venue in Canada.
“Saturday’s sprint had a lot of positives,” Hébert wrote about the results. “I got to see that my form was really good and that I can already compete at a high level. Tactics can still be improved but that will come with simply racing more.”
“Tactics was the key factor in the sprint on Saturday. Pierre and I had a gap on the rest of the field after the first climb but Julian got back in touch before the last downhill and used the slipstream to get ahead. thought I could just stay behind [Grall-Johnson] until the finish and pass him but he slowed down too much on the second climb which allowed Julian to come back.”
Grall-Johnson had his own view of the final on his home trails.
“Knowing the course very well, as I grew up on it, I was pretty confident in what tactics were best but these races are always good opportunities to try out new ones,” Grall-Johnson-Johnson wrote. “In the final I decided to go out hard from the start and see if I could create some separation, I was able to get a few meters on the first climb but had a pole go deep through the snow which almost made me crash with loaded legs and then on the second climb I had very little energy so I was caught and then conceded in the downhill due to a very advantageous draft going into the finish. Overall though happy with a third place.”
Laura Leclair wins the final, just ahead of Shaylynn Lowen (Photo: Robert Smith)
Leclair won the qualifier in 2:55.08, just ahead of CNEPH teammate Liliane Gagnon at 0.29 seconds back. TBay’s Bronwyn Williams and Shaylynn Loewen followed at 2.96 and 3.25 behind.
In the heats, Leclair won her quarter, came second in her semi, and then edged Loewen for the win.
Liliane Gagnon leads Laura Leclair in the final. (Photo: Robert Smith)
“I was pretty confident in Saturday’s final heat,” Leclair wrote to FasterSkier. “I knew that my teammate (Liliane Gagnon) and I could work together in order to position ourselves in the front. I knew we were stronger in the last uphill and Lili and I were able to make a gap between the other skiers.”
“Unfortunately, Lili fell in the last corner (I swear I did not tackle her ) so I was alone for the last downhill. The other girls caught up because of draft, but I was able to take the win.”
Williams took third, followed by Chelsea’s U18 Tory Audet, who qualified 5th. Audet also lead the list of new names to watch. Twenty months without racing is a long time in the development of junior skiers, which means more welcome surprises are coming.
Sunday: Classic Interval Start 10km/15km
Julian Smith (yellow bib) skis beside Étienne Hébert (73) in the 15km classic. (Photo: Robert Smith)
Smith won the 15km in 35:21.3, giving him four wins in four race days, and then summarized the event in a short sentence to FasterSkier.
“The weekend was a blast!”
Smith later added a little more detail: “The Sunday weather could not have been more different. -4 and bright sunlight was a welcome change and the track was set for a blistering 10/15km for the seniors.”
Grall-Johnson was a close second, 4.6 seconds back.
“Today it was a relatively flat course with lots of laps so I double poled 90% of the race other than the stride zone,” Grall-Johnson wrote. “It was a great fight between Julian and I today, we were going back and forth in the lead, unfortunately Julian pulled away in the end but despite a crash on the first lap I was happy with how I was able to refocus and push mentally.”
Hébert was third at 25.1 seconds back, changing podium places with Grall-Johnson.
“The last two laps of 2.5km is where the order of the podium got decided,” Hébert wrote. “Julian and Pierre finished stronger than I did. We were, all three of us, really close after 10km, inside 10sec I think. I’m looking forward to a course with more climbs because striding felt really good but my muscles got stiff in the double pole which definitely caused me to lose some time.”
Laura Leclair poling to victory. (Photo: Robert Smith)
The women’s 10km also had a double winner, Leclair in 28:05.3.
“I am not usually a classic skier but I worked hard on my technique this summer and I am super happy to see it paid off,” Leclair wrote. “I felt really good, the conditions and skis were super fast and I just went for it. For some reason I didn’t get any split during the race so I wasn’t sure where I was but I just skied my best.”
The next three places were U20 athletes: Audet at 25.8, Gagnon at 32.5, and Big Thunder’s Sarah Cullinan at 54.3.
Gagnon is well known to Canadian fans and raced at U20 World Championships in Vuokatti last season.
Tory Audet on her way to her first open podium. (Photo: Robert Smith)
Audet, who recently turned 16, has less public history as a skier.
“This was my first U20 podium, and my first FIS pointed race,” she wrote. “I was only eligible for a FIS license last year, and since there were no races, this was my first FIS pointed race.”
In her first weekend, she raced up in U20/Open and it paid off for her with a 4th in the sprint and 2nd.
“Having not done a sprint in over a year, and never with older athletes, I had no clue what to expect. My goal was just to race fast and see how far I could get. I knew the trails quite well and had raced them in previous years, which was good because I knew what to expect.
“As for race tactics, I have limited experience in sprints so at the beginning of the day, I didn’t have any tactics. It was not until I hit semis and made the mistake of leading the pack that I started to think about tactics. I was drafted on the hill and I lost my spot in the finals, but regained it as a lucky loser. When it came to the final, I decided to try a different strategy: to get out in 3rd or 4th and draft off everyone. It was was really fun because I got to observe everyone else’s tactics, to see the lines they were taking, and learn from their extensive experience.”
With U20 athletes on the podium at both Eastern and Western Canada Cups this weekend, it is clear the next generation made good use of a season without races.
Sprinting heats: Robert Smith caught the reactions to a crash. (Click to enlarge.)
Oh
No
Wait
What
All Good
Getting In The Mood For Racing
“Everyone just seems to be happy racing again and I think that really helps in making the events fun. Its the first time many of the volunteers have helped with racing events, either for a long time or just first time ever so obviously you have to be patient and understand that everyone is a bit rusty but overall energy is great!” — Grall-Johnson
“I could feel that everyone at the venue was really excited to be there. Saturday’s weather was suppose to be horrible but we got kind of lucky with the worst of the rain falling before the qualifier. Despite this, athletes and everyone else at the venue had big smiles on. Seeing everyone again after a year and a half was exciting. I got to see the athletes and coaches from Monteriski, my home club, and all the competitors I didn’t see for the entire pandemic. Excitement is really the mood that was present last weekend.” — Hébert
“I am super stoked to be racing back in Canada again. It was great to be at home in front of friends and family and super cool to see how everyone has been training!” — Leclair
“Our wax techs did an incredible job so a huge shout out to our staff and the organizers [who] put on a great event for a second day. It is just so exciting to be racing in Canada again, and having friends and family cheering from the sidelines makes it even more special.” — Smith
