MIDWAY, Utah – The action at the 2013 U.S. Cross Country Ski Championship heated up this morning when the senior men started off the day with the 30 k classic mass start. Six laps of the challenging 5 k loop at Soldier Hollow made for an exciting race as eighteen skiers were together in the lead pack for the majority of the race, but during the final kilometers only a handful of men were in contention for the national title. As they climbed Soldier Hollow’s fabled Hermode’s Hill for the final time it was Torin Koos (BSF) who made a decisive move to claim the national title with Erik Bjornsen (USST/APU) and David Norris (MSU) finishing second and third respectively. Check out our footage of the race.
Tag: Utah
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Toko: National Championship 20.30k Classic Report
Torin Koos with his 2nd Win of the Week (Toko wax, tools, and gloves) Last night it was just a bit overcast which kept things from getting as clear and cold as it has been recently, but it was still 4f at the venue 2 hours before the start, so the snow was still cold. Although the conditions were slightly different (no hoarfrost that needed to be skied in for example), our wax tests (both kick and glide) showed that the same products that had been performing the past two days continued to. The snow was quite abrasive and a 30k classic race including climbing up Hermod’s Hill 6 times meant that maintaining kick was critical. Green klister covered by Base Green binder offered the best kick and the best glide and was clearly the most durable as well. Yesterday we did a durability test on this combination and after 20k, it showed only a slight bit of wear on the heel only. The way we applied it was to iron the Green klister and put it outside to freeze well. This improves adhesion and makes it easier to apply the next layer which was Base Green binder. After applying the Base Green, iron the Base Green into the klister creating a mix of the two that has more klister on the bottom and more binder on top. Then create a smooth finish with the iron and let it cool again. Some coaches were covering this lightly in an effort to speed it up.For glide we went with HF Blue covered by JetStream Blue. We applied the JetStream Blue by ironing in the powder fairly quickly (150C and 10 seconds from tip to tail which heats the powder, but doesn’t leave the ski base black behind it. If black, it’ll be slower in the cold powdery snow). Then we did a speed layer of JetStream Blue corked on top. For the women, it was the same except a HF Blue/Red mix and JetStream Blue/Red mix (and for the rest of the day). The kick recommendation also held up all day – for those who need more kick, have the Base Green application slightly thicker.Feedback from coaches was very positive and it was a great day.For more photos, click here.
Rosie Brennan and Sophie Caldwell Battling (Both Gloves only). -
U.S. Nationals Men’s 15 k Freestyle Video
MIDWAY, Utah — The men’s 15 k freestyle at the U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships at Soldier Hollow in featured fierce racing on a challenging course. The 15 second interval individual start format kept a steady stream of racers, and as the top seeds came to the finish line it was Erik Bjornsen (APU/USST) that posted the fastest time and earned the national title. Watch our footage of the action.
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Photo Gallery: U.S. Nationals Women’s 10 k Skate
APU’s Kate Fitzgerald and Erika Flowers of the SMS T2 Team (behind) about halfway up Hermod’s on the last lap. Fitzgerald placed third and Flowers was eighth. FasterSkier’s coverage of the 2013 U.S. Cross Country Championships is brought to you through the generous support ofThe Memory Clinic in Bennington, Vt.
MIDWAY, Utah — Friday’s 10- and 15-kilometer freestyle races at Soldier Hollow were hardly a walk in the park. Racers had to tackle a modified 5 kilometer course, a slight variation of the 2002 Olympic 5 k that some thought was harder. Women went around twice, and the mental game was intensified by the individual start with skiers staggered at 15 seconds rather than 30. It made for a lot of chasing, some tricky passing situations and a lot of gritty racing. Take a look at some of the top women.
For a more extensive gallery, check out Bert Boyer’s collection.
The first starters in the 2013 U.S. Cross Country Championships women’s 10 k individual start prepare for the two-lap pain game. 
Sadie Bjornsen (APU/USST) among the early starters in Friday’s 10 k freestyle individual start at U.S. nationals at Soldier Hollow. 
Annie Pokorny (Middlebury) out of the start. She went on to place fourth. 
Rosie Brennan (APU) out of the start. 
Caitlin Gregg (CXC) starting out. She finished 10th. 
Eliska Hajkova (University of Colorado) out of the start. She went on to place ninth. 
Caitlin Patterson (CGRP) starts out. She ended up fifth for a personal-best at nationals. 
Erika Flowers (SMST2) takes off out of the start. She went on to place eighth. 
Kate Fitzgerald (APU) takes off from the start en route to a third-place finish. 
Mary O’Connell (Dartmouth) out of the start. She ultimately placed seventh for a career best at nationals. 
Some excited women at the start of Friday’s 10 k free. 
Sadie Bjornsen (APU/USST) sets a strong pace on the first of two laps in the women’s 10 k freestyle individual start on Friday at Soldier Hollow. She placed second in the event. 
Rosie Brennan (APU) leads a pack, including Middlebury’s Annie Pokorny (second from r) on the first of two laps in the U.S. nationals 10 k freestyle individual start at Soldier Hollow on Friday. Brennan went on to win by nearly 11 seconds. 
Middlebury College sophomore Annie Pokorny (r) and others, including Becca Rorabaugh (second from r) chase eventual winner Rosie Brennan (not shown) on the first lap. Pokorny ended up fourth and Rorabaugh was sixth. 
Monica Markvardsen (24), APU’s Becca Rorabaugh (28) and Anna Svendsen (21) of the University of Utah ski together on the first lap. 
Caitlin Gregg, 2013 U.S. nationals 10 k free Soldier Hollow 
Chelsea Holmes (SVSEF) on her first lap. 
Hajkova working the straightaway on the first lap. 
Fitzgerald (r) and Flowers ski together on a long straightaway on the first of two laps. 
O’Connell (Dartmouth) on her first lap. 
Bjornsen coming through the stadium after her first of two laps. 
Brennan (l), Clare Egan (c) of Craftsbury and Annie Hart (Dartmouth) come through the stadium after their first lap. 
Gregg (CXC) enters the stadium to start the second and final lap. 
Hajkova in the stadium after her first lap. 
Patterson enters the stadium for the first time. 
The straightaway before the second tier of Hermod’s Hill. 
Bjornsen works her way up Hermod’s Hill for the second and final time on Friday. 
Annie Pokorny (Middlebury) climbing Hermod’s for the last time on Friday. 
Rorabaugh about halfway up the final climb. 
Gregg pushing up Hermod’s for the last time on Friday. 
Caitlin Gregg 
Patterson (r) passes Hannah Peterson of Durango Nordic on the final climb. 
Fitzgerald (l) and Flowers work their way up Hermod’s for the last time. 
Fitzgerald and Flowers (behind) about halfway up Hermod’s on the last lap. 
O’Connell leads Taeler McCrerey of Summit Nordic up the long climb. 
Bjornsen approaches the finish line. 
Bjornsen exhausted after women’s 10 k freestyle individual start at U.S. nationals at Soldier Hollow. She ultimately placed second to APU teammate Rosie Brennan. 
Some of the early women’s finishers 
Rorabaugh stays strong through the finish 
Patterson brings it home for fifth place. 
Fitzgerald leads Flowers into the finish for third and eighth place, respectively. 
Winner Rosie Brennan (l) and runner-up Sadie Bjornsen embrace at the finish. 
Three APU teammates converse at the finish: Rorabaugh (l), Brennan (c) and Bjornsen. 
Volunteers organize bibs at the finish. 
Mr. and Mrs. Bjornsen cheer on their daughter, Sadie, who was second in the 10 k freestyle race at U.S. Nationals on Friday. Later that afternoon, their son, Erik, won the men’s 15 k for his first national title. 
Wiggy Brennan of Park City captures the moment as her daughter, Rosie, tops the podium in the 10 k freestyle race Friday in Soldier Hollow. Rosie races for APU and it was her first national title. 
APU sweeps the women’s 10 k freestyle podium with winner Rosie Brennan (c), runner-up Sadie Bjornsen (l) and Kate Fitzgerald in third. -
Brennan Makes Peace with Soldier Hollow, Leads APU 10 k Sweep
Rosie Brennan (APU) pushing up the infamous Hermod’s Hill for the last time at Soldier Hollow on Friday in Midway, Utah. The Park City native won the 10 k freestyle individual start by 10.9 seconds over teammate Sadie Bjornsen for her first national title. FasterSkier’s coverage of the 2013 U.S. Cross Country Championships is brought to you through the generous support of The Memory Clinic in Bennington, Vt.
MIDWAY, Utah — If there was ever a place for Rosie Brennan to win her first national title, just outside Park City, Utah, had to be it. That’s where the 24-year-old Alaska Pacific University skier grew up; it’s where her mom convinced her to try nordic in eighth grade.
It’s where Brennan said she “had a love-hate relationship” with Soldier Hollow throughout her ski career. How better to erase the memories of some tough-to-swallow results there than dominate one at U.S. Cross Country Championships?
With a podium finish already out of the way (Brennan was third in Wednesday’s classic sprint), she climbed two rungs higher on Friday, winning the women’s 10-kilometer freestyle individual start on the second day of nationals. More than a victory, it was an affirmation for Brennan, who spent two years on the national team from 2007 to 2009 and was known as a classic sprinter.
“It’s sweet to be home, but I’ve always struggled racing here,” Brennan said after her 10.9-second win over APU teammate Sadie Bjornsen of the U.S. Ski Team. “It’s really awesome to be able to excel at home.”
Brennan’s mom, Wiggy, celebrated with her. A Park City resident and volunteer at nationals, she said it was “very exciting” to see her daughter win. “I’ve watched a lot of races in my life,” she said with a laugh.
An all-APU podium at U.S. nationals on Friday. Rosie Brennan (c) won the 10 k freestyle individual start, Sadie Bjornsen (l) was second and Kate Fitzgerald placed third. Brennan, too, couldn’t have been much happier.
“To be honest I never thought I’d win a skate race,” she said. “Then starting in West [Yellowstone], I realized that the work I’d done this summer was finally starting to pay off, so it suddenly became my goal to start winning more skate races and now, I don’t know, maybe I even like it more.”
At the first SuperTour of the season in November, Brennan started off with a freestyle victory – her first – in a 10-kilometer freestyle individual start. With another staggered start on tap for Friday, she was excited going in.
“I actually really enjoy individual starts, I’m sort of an old-fashioned skier that way,” she said. “I like the grinding-individual mental game a lot. That’s sort of my strength.”
Brennan capitalized on what turned out to be a tough day for most, working hard in the early single-digit temperatures and resulting sluggish conditions. She said the conditions helped her pace the challenging course at Soldier Hollow (a slight variation from the Olympic 5 k with more climbing initially and a turnaround about three-quarters up Hermod’s Hill).
To survive and do well at nearly 6,000 feet above sea level, Brennan knew she’d have to keep her tempo low and power high throughout the two-lap race.
On the first loop, she caught teammate Becca Rorabaugh, who started 30 seconds ahead of her and ultimately placed sixth (repeating her result from Wednesday). Knowing Rorabaugh’s strength in downhills, Brennan followed her lead on the long descent before the massive climb up Hermod’s.
Meanwhile, Brennan was getting splits that she was a couple seconds behind Bjornsen. Then she started hearing she was ahead of her.
“The lead was slowly decreasing the whole time, particularly on the flats ’cause she’s a lot better there,” Brennan said. “The whole time I was thinking, ‘How can I make up seconds on the flats? There’s one more hill at the end. Just pick it up there.’ ”
She did, leaning hard as she V1ed up the two-tiered climb, and racing down the hill’s backside before the stadium for the nearly 11-second win.
“I’m so excited,” Brennan said. “My parents were here, I have lots of friends and family here, all my old coaches are here so it’s been really great.”
Rosie Brennan (l) and APU teammate Sadie Bjornsen embrace after the 10 k freestyle race at U.S. nationals on Friday. Brennan won and Bjornsen took second. One of the earlier starters in bib 25, five spots ahead of Brennan, Bjornsen said she didn’t have many splits to go off, but heard she was eight seconds behind her teammate just before her last time up Hermod’s. That motivated Bjornsen to give her all.
“I skied that hill with Rosie in a camp in October, and I remember she just flew by me like I was standing still,” Bjornsen recalled. “What she told me was, ‘You know what Sadie? You have to use your weight into your legs,’ and so all I was thinking about was taking big steps and putting my weight into each step so I was just giving it every last bit.”
At the finish, Bjornsen laid on the ground longer than she could ever remember doing. “Just like, eyes in the back of the head,” she said. “So I think I really pushed it at the end.”
A runner-up for the second-straight race at U.S. nationals after placing second to Jennie Bender (Central Cross Country) in the classic sprint, Bjornsen said she “kind of had a fire” fueling her from the start. Two days ago, Bender overtook her at the end of the A-final, winning by 0.3 seconds. Bjornsen, who won a national title in the 10 k classic race two years ago, wanted more.
“I had so much determination from that that I think I did the opposite of what I always do,” Bjornsen said of her pacing, in which she felt she went out too hard. “I was just having so much fun on the transitions, then I got to Hermod’s and all of a sudden I realized I had gone out too hard and started feeling the burn. I really struggled between 5 and 6 k. I think I lost a lot of it right there.”
Sadie Bjornsen (APU/USST) putting her head down up Hermod’s for the last time Friday in the 10 k skate race at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah. She ended up second to APU teammate Rosie Brennan. Even though she would retool her strategy next time, Bjornsen was pleased with her performance and even happier for Brennan.
“I knew she had a win; I said this earlier this year that she had it in her,” she said.
And with Kate Fitzgerald placing third (+38.2) to complete the APU podium sweep, she said it was simply an awesome day. Head coach Erik Flora, too, said it was incredible.
“Starting with Kikkan [Randall] this morning and Holly [Brooks] had another solid day for a classic prologue, so lot of good energy and the girls just tore it up,” he said, referring to Randall’s seventh place finish in the fifth stage of the Tour de Ski, a 3.3 k classic prologue in which Brooks was 38th.
Most of all, APU’s success came down to its team element, Flora explained.
“It’s my belief that everybody trains hard, everybody commits themselves to this, but the team is what makes it,” he said. “It gives you an advantage. Every day in the highs and the lows, you have friends you can share those with.”
Fitzgerald also enjoyed the upside, tying her best-national finish of third after last year’s classic sprint. While some felt the 15-second intervals clumped racers together making it harder to pass, Fitzgerald said she didn’t have any troubles and enjoyed the quick turnover.
APU’s Kate Fitzgerald (r) and Erika Flowers (Stratton Mountain School T2 Team) work their way up Hermod’s on the first of two laps in the 10 k individual skate race at U.S. nationals on Friday in Midway, Utah. Fitzgerald placed third and Flowers was eighth. “You always had someone around so you’re like, ‘All right, just follow that girl!’ ” she said after working to continually pick off people.
Fitzgerald spent the first lap keeping her heart rate in check, “trying not to go above the red line, especially up Hermod’s,” she said. There was no need to kill it in any one spot, just stay smooth.
Earlier this season in West Yellowstone, Fitzgerald’s blood sugar crashed during the 10 k, a similar distance race at altitude. She had the issue once before in a race, she said.
“Now I’m just eating a lot more carbs, which is awesome, I don’t have a problem with that,” Fitzgerald explained. “I am just really cautious about eating a ton for breakfast and dinner and things like that.”
Feeling good on Friday, she aimed to stay competitive and on-track with the split that she was in third or close to it for most of the race.
“I knew I was somewhere around podium so I was just trying to keep it steady and going,” she said.
Fitzgerald succeeded, and Annie Pokorny of Middlebury College shattered her previous best of 16th at nationals in fourth place, 2.3 seconds off the podium. After growing up in Park City, Pokorny moved to Washington and finished high school in Sun Valley. Racing at what felt like home at Soldier Hollow, she had hoped for a top 10.
Annie Pokorny (Middlebury) on her way to placing a career-best fourth at U.S. nationals in Friday’s 10 k freestyle individual start at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. “It was kind of one of those, ‘I know I can get a top 10; that would be friggen awesome!’ ” the 20-year-old sophomore said.
She had consciously worked to improve her skating since late November after placing 21st in the 10 k SuperTour opener in West Yellowstone. She met with her coach, Andrew Gardner, and told him she wanted to be better in the discipline.
“I think it’s finally starting to click,” Pokorny said. “Today was a really good day.”
After starting relatively easy then finding another gear to stick with Brennan, who passed her on the first hill, Pokorny had a sense of how well she did after finishing. But fourth? She didn’t initially believe it.
“I just like looked at the board and said, ‘All right, I’m gonna cool down and come back and see where I really finished,’ ” she said with a laugh. “When I came back, I was still in fourth and still really excited so it was a perfect day.”
Caitlin Patterson (Craftsbury Green Racing Project) was content with her best national finish of fifth (+42.4) despite feeling like she was missing a little “pop.” Her toes were part of the problem, she said.
“I think I got frostbite or frostnip on my toes when I was in Alaska so my feet are just frozen all the time now,” she said. “So that made it a little bit interesting.”
Rather than hurt, Patterson said they felt more like blocks of ice after racing in sub-zero temperatures at the Besh Cup two weeks ago. “But that happens,” she said.
“Today was fun,” Patterson added. “I usually can feel fairly well when I’m near the edge, the red line that I don’t want to cross at altitude, so I mostly focus on skiing really smooth and in a good rhythm and definitely a little bit conservative on the first lap, though I was hurting a little bit by the end.”
On the final climb, she looked up and saw about 10 people ahead of her and nearly came to a stop at the turnaround at the top.
“It’s a little bit too bad because I think I was pretty close to third,” Patterson said after finishing 4.2 seconds off the podium..
Rorabaugh was next in line, 49 seconds behind Brennan, for her third sixth-place finish in the last four races. She was seventh in the other, the Bozeman SuperTour 10 k classic mass start.
“I feel like it’s very consistent,” Rorabaugh said of Friday’s result. “I’d like to break through that a little bit. I think I was only 10 seconds out of top three today, which is pretty close, so I’m pretty happy.”
She recalled several different tactics throughout the day: “Annie Pokorny went out really hard and then survived, some people went out really hard and died.” She started conservatively and finished hard. “It worked for me,” she said.
Shooting for a top 30, Dartmouth College freshman Mary O’Connell, who raced for the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, achieved seventh (+51.0). She was previously 19th in a classic sprint at nationals last year before competing at Junior Worlds in Erzurum, Turkey.
“I wasn’t sure what my fitness was going to be but it went really well,” O’Connell said. “I was getting splits about being in the top 10, which I did not really believe at the time.”
— Audrey Mangan contributed reporting
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Toko: National Championship 10.15k Skate Report
Matt Gelso (3rd place) leading Erik Bjornsen (1st place). Although I did a really poor job today on the photos, this was probably our most successful day ever for wax. The wax tip of HF Blue covered by a mix of JetStream Blue powder and XCold powder, both ironed in together was super for the women. For the men, it was the same except a good application of JetStream Blue Bloc on top was even better. It was -9f this morning and there was an inversion, but not as strong as yesterday. The snow stayed very cold and was faster that one would think considering the temperatures. We added in the XCold powder to the blue powder because it was faster. It hardens the JetStream Blue up and makes the skis really slippery on the climbs especially.To do this, obviously after brushing out the HF Blue, sprinkle the JetStream Blue on the ski, then sprinkle almost as much XCold Powder and then heat it in really well like you are ironing HF Blue (a few passes with the iron on about 300f/150c). Then after it cools completely, lightly scrape it, brush it out with horsehair and then nylon polishing. You might need to scrub a bit. It is super durable and fast when conditions are cold and slow.
Next up are the mass start distance classic races. The major challenge is going to be durability. It is extremely abrasive out there and the courses go up Hermod’s hill each lap (4 laps for women and 6 for men). I think many racers are going to have bare bases after even just two laps. We tested green klister ironed in, then frozen (hardened), then covered by base green binder which was then ironed into the klister and smoothened with the iron. This yielded both the best rated kick and the best rated glide of everything we tested and was the most durable. I think it’s going to be the ticket as there was no wear. We will test more for durability tomorrow as we will have more time to do this. Until Sunday then!For a few more photos, click here. Next time I will find a better spot with fewer people. -
U.S. Nationals Women’s 10km Freestyle Video
MIDWAY, Utah – It was a frigid morning on the trails of Soldier Hollow for the women’s 10km freestyle race at the 2013 U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships. After two grueling laps around a challenging course on slow snow it was the APU squad that gathered on all steps of the podium. Here is a look at some of the action.
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U.S. Nationals Classic Sprint Video – Senior Men
MIDWAY, Utah – Round by round the senior men displayed both their impressive power and tactics as the nations best battled their way through to the A-Final. Watch how things unfolded.
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U.S. Nationals Classic Sprint Video – Senior Women
MIDWAY, Utah – The most exciting finish of the first day of racing at the 2013 U.S. Nationals was without-a-doubt the Senior Women’s A-Final. Check out how the rounds played out for the women.
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U.S. Nationals Classic Sprint Video – Junior Women
MIDWAY, Utah – With many of the top junior women advancing from the qualification into senior women’s heats the rest of the juniors battled to be crowned best of the rest. Check out how the A and B Finals played out.
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U.S. Nationals Classic Sprint Video – Junior Men
MIDWAY, Utah – As the shadows grew long and temperatures fell, the junior heats intensified yesterday afternoon. In the men’s race it was Sun Valley’s Kevin Bolger that gapped the rest of the A-Final to earn top honors. Here is a look at the action in the finals.
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U.S. Nationals Notes and Quotes: Classic Sprint Edition
Skyler Davis (SMS T2) and Torin Koos (BSF/Rossignol) matched stride for stride on the last climb during the heats. MIDWAY, Utah – Tactics were the name of the game in Wednesday’s classic sprint at Soldier Hollow on the first day of racing at the 2013 U.S. Cross Country Championships. Some of the best didn’t have them completely dialed in, and with that, they failed to move on.
U.S. Ski Team member Erik Bjornsen, who finished eighth after being eliminated in the quarterfinals, racked it up as a learning experience. At least racers like him will have another shot on Tuesday with the skate sprint – and they’ve got two distance races before that. But enough about the future, let’s get to what we didn’t fit in Wednesday’s race recaps.
On tactics:
“I thought I could break some people on this first uphill, and that wasn’t the case. I went out hard and lead it over the top, and Torin [Koos] and Matt [Gelso] were right behind me and they slingshotted past me like everybody said they would.
I think everybody’s learned that you can’t be leading over that hill unless you really have a gap. Skyler Davis did it a couple times today, but there wasn’t a lot of other people, well the girls were, but that’s a little different. Number one thing is not lead over the top.” – Erik Bjornsen (Alaska Pacific University/USST), 21st
“The beginning is probably the most rough because it’s where the panic sets up coming around the turn, you really can’t drop back too much. … On the down you just need to be top three. So I seemed to catch up on the downhill. I passed Sophie [Caldwell] and I was like, ‘Woah, OK.’ ” – Jenny Bender (Central Cross Country), women’s winner
“The qualifier was really funny. I didn’t do any double-poling warmup, and for the first time, it didn’t feel good and I was concerned about it. But then once we got into the heats the first quarter, I tried tactics but I was a little frustrated because even though we’re back in the U.S. and could be skiing easy, it’s good practice to go hard. So then in the semi, I was like I’m just gonna go for it.” – Sadie Bjornsen (APU/USST), 2nd
“I was just trying not to be the leader at the top of the hill, basically. The draft was so important that it was important to be around second or third on the downhill to make sure you get the advantage in the draft. And then just having a strong double pole; it’s a long finishing stretch. … Because of the way it skis tactically, it was nice to relax. Normally when girls race, we just go as hard as we can the whole time and last one standing wins sort of thing. So it was fun to ski in there and move a little bit and then just really give it over the top of the last hill into the finish.” – Rosie Brennan (APU), 3rd
“[I] definitely tried to get behind people because that’s such a key point to get that draft. And yeah it was just trying to hang in there in the finishing stretch. For sure, it’s a lot longer, like, you can see the finish, but then its like am I there yet? But it’s a great finish for sure.” – Kate Fitzgerald (APU), 4th
“All today I knew my strength was not necessarily the double-pole finish, so throughout the day I tried to put some time in on the hills and I felt great for most of it. My arms just felt dead on that final stretch. … Usually my strategy is not to lead, this is more for skate sprints because I have a pretty good finish kick so I hold on the end of that. But classic sprinting is a little different, especially for the double-pole finish.” – Sophie Caldwell (Stratton Mountain School T2 Team), 5th
On whether or not to use skate skis:
“Qualification was good, it was really cold and I decided to still use the skating skis to use the upper body. It wasn’t the best choice, but I wanted to take that opportunity to know that I could do that in the final, and I ended up opting to go with the kick wax instead. Obviously it was a pretty good choice.
“I think it would’ve been an OK choice to go with skating as well, but I just had the idea that I know how to win this on the kick wax.I had a pretty good idea that I would race against some of the other guys in the heats, and I was like, ‘OK, this is where they’re gonna be really good, but I think I can do this better than them.’ ” – Torin Koos (Bridger Ski Foundation/Rossignol), men’s winner (qualified third on skate skis, won A-final on classic boards)
“I double poled most everything until that last hill and when Torin [Koos] came up beside me, he was afraid I was on no-wax skis so he’s like, ‘Are you double poling?’ because he figured if I was double poling he needed to be leading going into that. I didn’t answer him, but he quickly figured it out when I started striding.” – Erik Bjornsen, who stuck with classic skis
On feeling good:
“In Bozeman, I finished a heat and I wanted to weave around like this (wavers on her feet), and today I felt back to normal. I was kinda jazzed, like, ‘Oh, this is a good sign. I don’t feel completely dead.’ So you know, one heat at a time.” – Bender
“I felt good today. I’m really low on racing. I’ve only done two sprints and both those the health was not good. I was just trying to race for qualification reasons. So this is kind of like a start to the season because it’s only the second of the year. I’m really looking to build on this. … My health’s good. Coming back into race shape. ” – Koos
“I’ve been feeling better. We had some races at home [in Sun Valley, Idaho] and I’ve been getting some rest and feeling pretty good. Ready for the 15 k, for sure.” – Mike Sinnott (Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation), 2nd
“[These] last five days are the best I’ve felt all year so I have to take that as a real good sign for the next week and the next couple weeks.” – Skyler Davis (SMS/USST), 4th
“I’m pretty excited that’s the best I’ve done at nationals ever. I find it ironic because I didn’t think classic sprinting was my forte. … Maybe as a team we did enough double-pole sprinting this summer, … but this summer my goal was to work on my distance racing and my threshold.” – Becca Rorabaugh (APU), 6th
“I was feeling pretty well, been out at altitude for a while so didn’t hurt as much as Bozeman or Yellowstone because those were really bad.” – Ben Saxton (F.A.S.T. Performance Training), 5th
“I was feeling really good at home [in Durango, Colorado], had a great holiday and had some awesome training. My twin brother’s up here helping me test with Team HomeGrown. I had a great holiday training with those guys and had a few down days the last couple days, but feel like I’m coming back now. It’s the best classic sprint qualifier I’ve ever had, just missed the top 30 so I’m stoked.” – Tad Elliott (Ski & Snowboard Club Vail/Team HomeGrown/USST), 39th
“I felt good, I felt powerful. The [SuperTour] races in Bozeman and West Yellowstone were pretty similar to this, but those races I felt pretty weak and I didn’t have the speed. I felt like I had the speed today and whatever it was it just didn’t work out.” – Tyler Kornfield (University of Alaska Fairbanks), last year’s national classic sprint champ, 42nd in Wednesday’s qualifier
On keeping results in perspective:
“I was pretty frustrated after the races in Montana, but I mean, it’s a long season. This happened before, it happens to everyone. You just need to get through it, stay focused stay calm and relaxed. … I’m going to have to adjust my goals, but I still have big goals.” – Kornfield
“I did have some people, a few this summer, that I got angry at who told me to write the year off. I’m pretty stubborn so having something you can’t control is extremely frustrating no matter what it is, but at the same time, to come to terms with what you can’t control is an interesting process. I think that’s what I’ve been: more relaxed and I’ve come into a lot of races with a neutral mentality. I still have goals, but it’s possibly been helpful because I had no expectations.” – Bender
“I always just try to go into races with, I mean, just be myself and we’ll see how the rest of it plays out. A lot of factors on the day, skis and tactics and everything, worked really well for me. The next sprint will be a lot different and next meet will be different. Just changes it up, I guess.” – Saxton
On Soldier Hollow:
“I did my first World Cup here, my first Olympics here, my first national championship here, and so I was looking forward to coming back. It kind of feels like it’s coming full circle, and it’s really cool that it’ll be this year and next because no matter what, the organizers here do a phenomenal job. The course is always in very fair shape. As an athlete it makes you feel like what you do is respected.” – Koos
“It’s great. That’s a great course, it’s a fantastic venue, you know, racing with a bunch of my friends. … These bibs are not as tight as the ones in Rumford (puts on podium bib). That’s nice. Good-fitting bibs are nice.” – Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess (Bend Endurance Academy), 3rd
“SoHo always pumps out a lot of snow and you can see, it’s pretty wild. The course is in great shape, two feet of snow everywhere pretty much.” – Leif Zimmermann (BSF), 48th
“I knew some of the guys wanted to keep skiing in Europe; I wanted to be here, though. That was kind of the plan all along. If I was really killing it early season that might have been an option, but knowing how good Noah [Hoffman] and Kris [Freeman] are doing, they go the Tour [de Ski] starts and I’m here. Both win-win situations. I’m happy to be here and these are big races. I always want to try do well at national champs.” – Elliott
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No Stranger to SoHo, Koos Gets Redemption in Classic Sprint
Torin Koos (Bridger Ski Foundation) leads the A-final of the classic sprint up the second of two climbs on the 1.3-kilometer course on Wednesday. Koos went on to win his fourth sprint title, seventh overall, ahead of Skyler Davis (second from left), who was fourth, Mike Sinnott (c) in second, and Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess (l) in third. FasterSkier’s coverage of the 2013 U.S. Cross Country Championships is brought to you through the generous support of The Memory Clinic in Bennington, Vt.
MIDWAY, Utah – Unlike many of the blank slates surrounding him, young minds with open expectations at one of their first U.S. Cross Country Championships, Torin Koos had a lot to think about Wednesday.
Here he was, 32 years old and skiing for the umpteenth time at the Soldier Hollow nearly 6,000 feet above sea level. The 1.3-kilometer sprint course remained largely the same since his previous visits: rolling terrain with a long slingshot finish. Without any sizable trees in sight, there was no place to hide, no place to slack.
The former U.S. Ski Team member, now with the Bridger Ski Foundation and Rossignol, didn’t see himself falling behind anyhow. Nope, he had come to win, like always. Even after being sick for the start of the season. Even after being disqualified in last year’s U.S. nationals classic sprint – which ruined his run for his fourth straight national title – Koos was thinking positive and looking ahead.
“I tried not to think about that stuff last year,” Koos said after winning Wednesday’s sprint for his seventh national title, second in a classic sprint. “I know what happened in that race [last year] and I know that is absolutely just part of racing, and many things like that happened to me, I feel, even in that same race. It was a decision that was made. I don’t really agree with that, but that’s in the past.”
Torin Koos of the Bridger Ski Foundation/Rossignol (c) atop the 2013 U.S. Nationals men’s classic sprint podium, with Mike Sinnott (Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation) in second and Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess (Bend Endurance Academy) in third. Standing in the stadium at Soldier Hollow, the site of the 2002 Olympics where Koos raced his first World Cup, Olympics and national championship, he smiled and soaked up the “now.” He had made a plan and executed it, he said.
The five men skiing behind Koos in the A-final – Skyler Davis (USST/Stratton Mountain School T2 Team), Mike Sinnott (Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation), Dakota Blackhorse von-Jess (Bend Endurance Academy), Ben Saxton (F.A.S.T. Performance Training) and Alex Howe (Craftsbury Green Racing Project) – weren’t exactly surprised that he took it. The three-time Olympian had challenged them from the beginning, double poling hard up the first gradual climb then continuously leading over a straightaway at the top.
Knowing that the most-used tracks were icing up, Koos opted for an outside lane up the second hill – a tactic he figured no one else would think of. Davis apparently did, skiing right behind Koos up the last climb and getting the benefit of some extra kick. Meanwhile, Koos put on the jets.
“I looked back and saw I had three or five meters, not very much, but I had the little bit of the climb [left] and I knew I had good skis so I tried to put in a little spurt up through the horseshoe,” he said. “I was able to get a little bit of a gap and hold it to the finish line.”
Davis tried to hang on, thinking he’d come up with a way to pass Koos on the long descent into the stadium, but he was caught off guard coming out of the screaming downhill corner.
“We all switched lanes for some reason,” Davis said. “I kind of got off balance then I got back on balance, went into the inside lane, double poling I was in second, third, second, third and then I was just gassed out.”
Skyler Davis pays tribute to his fallen friends, including Charlie Smith, a former nordic racer from Bend, Ore. Davis settled for fourth while Sinnott edged Blackhorse-von Jess, the top qualifier, for second.
“I really wanted to win today,” the usually upbeat Davis said, looking at the ground. “A couple of my friends passed away so I was racing for them today.”
On his white ski gloves, he had written their names: “B. [Brian] Chase”, “Z. [Zachary] Wells”, and “C. [Charlie] Smith”.
While their deaths were separate, they had all come in the last week, Davis said. Chase and Wells were his friends from Vermont, and Smith was an NCAA bronze medalist who raced for the University of Nevada-Reno.
Blackhorse-von Jess, too, fought back emotions when talking about Smith, who shared his hometown in Bend, Ore. At the same time, Blackhorse-von Jess also used it as motivation for securing his fourth national podium, the first in a classic sprint.
“He’s definitely in many people’s thoughts this week, which is cool,” Blackhorse-von Jess said, adding that the support of his family watching him race for one of the first times in five or six years was uplifting.
His defining moment Wednesday came in his semifinal, when he fell in the scrub zone shortly after the start.
“The first thought was, ‘Expletive, coach is gonna kill me!’ The second thought was, ‘Mmm, I can probably get this back,’ ” Blackhorse-von Jess said. “Luckily I have really smart teammates who were at the first turn and they were like, ‘You’re fine, you’re gonna roll back into them, be relaxed,’ and that helped a lot. I stayed really calm and it was good.”
The finish of the men’s A-final at the U.S. nationals classic sprint on Wednesday at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. Torin Koos (second from r) won, followed by Mike Sinnott (second from l), Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess (l) and Skyler Davis (r), respectively. Blackhorse-von Jess did, in fact, catch up and went on to place second to Sinnott in the heat. In the final, the two chased Koos to the line.
“I got close to second, got real close,” he said. “Mikey and I had a really good battle. It was a lot fun. You want to be disappointed, but I raced hard and there’s nothing else you can do so I’m excited.”
Sinnott was also pleased – even though it was his third consecutive silver at nationals in the classic sprint.
“Happy birthday to Sylvan [Ellefson] is the first thing I want to say,” he said of his friend, who skis for Ski and Snowboard Club Vail and Team HomeGrown and placed 12th on Wednesday. “I would’ve liked to climb one more place up, but I was pretty happy. … It’s nice to have some good heats in this year.”
It was also good practice to be in them with someone like Koos. After qualifying in fourth behind Blackhorse-von Jess, Davis and Koos, respectively, Sinnott won both his quarterfinal and semifinal, but had to step it up once more in the A-final.
“Torin and Skyler went out a bit harder than I had done in the other heats and then Torin just picked it up on the hill,” Sinnott said. “It was a lot more of a kind of fast pace, real sprint race.”
Torin Koos (BSF/Rossignol) pulling out the victory at U.S. nationals on Wednesday in the classic sprint ahead of Mike Sinnott (SVSEF) in second, Dakota Blackhorse-von Jess (BEA) in third and Skyler Davis (USST/SMS) in fourth. The fifth- and sixth-place finishers, Saxton and Howe, respectively, felt similarly after making the A-final at senior nationals for the first time.
“At the risk of sounding like a fan boy, there are like posters of all these guys in my room that you get at expos or whatever and I was racing them today,” said Saxton, 19, currently taking a post-grad year to train in Wisconsin.
“My goal coming in was to qualify for senior heats so I was pretty excited to go past that,” he said. “It was just sprint racing, especially at Soldier Hollow, it’s a really tactical course and anything can happen and coaches gave us wicked fast skis.”
But fast skis can only get you so far, and when Koos and Davis initially took off, Saxton was a bit slow on the uptake and had to catch up before the second climb. Working his way up the inside lane, he started to slip and fade back again.
“Barring any miracle skis, it was not going to pull me back to contact on the downhill,” Saxton said. “I just double poled really hard and Alex gave me a great finish and it was really fun.”
Howe, 23, who recently graduated from the University of Vermont, had previously placed 21st in a classic sprint at nationals in 2009. Heading into Wednesday, he hoped to make the heats “and ski more than one,” he said.
Howe went on to place second in his quarterfinal and decided to go for it in the semi in hopes of advancing further. He did, but realized he was a bit drained at the start of the final. He resolved to hang toward the back and try to push at the end.
“Both times when we turned to striding on those two hills my legs were absolutely toast,” Howe said. “By the time I got to the bridge [near the finish], I was like maybe I’ll be able to catch [Saxton] but there was no way.”
Moving forward, Howe has his sights set on distance races and surpassing his expectations after an pneumonia sidelined him for six months this summer.
“Prior to that I wasn’t in the best shape going into the summer so I think I beat myself up going into that,” he said. “I just remember it being 95 degrees outside, and I was sitting inside underneath a blanket shivering. I had to go the hospital. … Hopefully that’s behind me.”
And as for his new standard: “I just like to think of it as I’m back doing more of where I should be,” said Howe, a 2008 Junior Nationals sprint champion. “I’m a little more focused now than I have been in the last couple years, putting my energy more toward what it should’ve been toward.”
Men’s heat results | Qualifying results
–Audrey Mangan contributed reporting
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Pre-Nationals Photos from Soldier Hollow
Soldier Hollow on Jan. 1, 2013. Site of the 2002 Olympics and most recently, 2013 U.S. Cross Country Championships (Jan. 2-8). FasterSkier’s coverage of the 2013 U.S. Cross Country Championships is brought to you through the generous support of The Memory Clinic in Bennington, Vt.
MIDWAY, Utah — On the eve of the 2013 U.S. Cross Country Championships, actually New Year’s Day, some coaches and skiers still lingered on the course at Soldier Hollow — some testing skis, others casually cruising around the 1.4-kilometer loop. Wednesday morning, this venue will be packed with more than 400 racers and representatives from all over the nation.
But for a look at Soldier Hollow on Tuesday afternoon, check out the following slideshow.
Races start with a classic sprint at 10 a.m., followed by a freestyle individual start on Friday, classic mass start on Sunday and freestyle sprints on Tuesday. For more information, visit the event website.
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Winter’s in the Air
Soon it begins. On Tuesday I will be traveling to Sweden to start another winter of World Cup biathlon racing. It means four months living out of a duffel bag and braving airports almost every week… The thrill of putting on a race bib and standing on a start line in front of TV cameras and screaming spectators… Weathering the tremendous ups and downs that are biathlon’s emotional roller coaster… Laughing at the antics of teammates, wax techs and coaches every night at dinner… And skiing, on snow, everyday. I can’t wait!
The first World Cup biathlon race of the season takes place in Ostersund, Sweden on Sunday, November 25th (9:30 am eastern US standard time). It is a mixed relay, meaning that we will have two women and two men competing together on one team. You can watch it live on your computer by going to Biathlon World TV. Put it on your calendar.
In the meantime, watch replays from last year on Biathlon World TV to get fired up. The 2011/2012 World Cup 9 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia has some good ones- scroll to the right and click on the one titled “pursuit women replay”.
I have spent the past week at home in Craftsbury trying to catch up with friends and family and get organized before the long winter away.
A few items that are coming with me to Europe this year that I didn’t have last year: a travel size guitar, a sunlamp, maple syrup, a foam roller, a German grammar workbook and a 3D puzzle.The Outdoor Center is closed for the fall off season, so it has been quieter than normal, but I have had no problem staying busy. Even though the GRP skiers are away training in Canmore, I have had a great time getting to know the new GRP rowers. We even trained together in the gym one morning- I did strength circuits while they lined up 7 or 8 rowing machines next to each other for an interval workout.
Dinner with the rowers and friends at Faraway FarmThe Outdoor Center started blowing snow last week, which meant I got to dust off an old pair or rock skis and carve some turns. Later in the week we had 15-20 BKL kids and juniors swarming over the pile like ants. It doesn’t matter how old you are, the season’s first snow never loses its magic.
Davis took the first sledding runs down “Mt. Craftsbury” (photo: Judy Geer)Ida was also around for a few days before heading to Europe for the cross country World Cup season. We visited our elementary school together to talk to Barton’s seventh graders about training, racing and traveling the world. The most interesting question we were asked: “Have you ever seen a lion?”
I also visited my high school, St. Johnsbury Academy and talked to the students about what it takes to chase after big goals. Watch the YouTube video
I never got around to writing a blog post about our recent national team training camp in Utah (3 weeks in late October/ early November) but here are a couple pics:
The US Women and guest star Andrea Henkel from Germany enjoying Utah’s mountains (photo: Hannah Dreissigacker). Read about what it has been like to train with and get to know an Olympic champion over the past few years here
Some of “Jonne’s Angels” enjoying our last week in Utah (photo: Armin Auchentaller). For more camp pictures and a recap from Utah, check out Hannah’s blog post here
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For Germany’s Olympic Champion Andrea Henkel, Americans are “A Second Team”
Germany’s Andrea Henkel (second from right) with American biathletes (l-r) Sara Studebaker, Susan Dunklee, Annelies Cook, and Hannah Dreissigacker in Utah last week. (Dreissigacker courtesy photo) Soldier Hollow, the Utah venue that played host to the nordic events at the 2002 Olympics, is no stranger to big-name athletes. Just a few weeks ago, World Cup sprint champ Kikkan Randall was there training with the cross-country national team. The medal-winning nordic combined team skis there regularly.
But last week, Utah had a visit from another of the nordic world’s most recognizable athletes: Germany’s Andrea Henkel, who joined the U.S. biathlon team for a part of their annual fall camp in Utah. Henkel, who enters the 2012 season as the most decorated woman currently on the World Cup circuit, hadn’t returned to Soldier Hollow since she won two gold medals back in 2002.
“It’s nice to come back,” she told FasterSkier in an interview on Wednesday. “It has been lots of good memories, fun memories too, not just about the races. When you have a good time somewhere it’s nice to come back and just enjoy it.”
Despite the high quality of the Soldier Hollow trail system, neither the FIS cross country World Cup nor the IBU World Cup have returned to Utah since those Olympics, a fate that seems likely to befall the Vancouver venues as well.
“Biathlon is a European sport,” Henkel said. “I would like it if we came to the U.S. more, but you often get the question, ‘what is biathlon?’ They just have no idea of it, or that there was some [American] who was leading the World Cup, even.”
Sara Studebaker (USA) and Andrea Henkel (GER) in the mixed relay at 2012 World Championships. Time recently spent with the Americans and at the former Olympic site has made Henkel muse on the support for programs in countries like the U.S., where biathlon doesn’t get top billing. In her own home country, it’s the most popular winter sport, and biathletes, especially those as successful as Henkel, are followed by the media as closely as if they were Hollywood celebrities.
“It’s hard for teams who don’t get real respect,” she said of conditions on this side of the Atlantic. “Maybe having more World Cups in America would make it better for them. It would be nice to have more World Cups in America – maybe the future will bring it.”
With the schedule often set far in advance, it seems unlikely that any World Cups will return to the States while Henkel is still competing. But by all appearances, the future is bringing the German star her a fourth Olympic appearance, which will give her the chance to see a venue in another surprising place: the Black Sea, where Sochi is situated.
And the magic, and medal potential, is still there. Although the 2012 season was so often a battle between Henkel’s teammate Magdalena Neuner and Belorussian Darya Domracheva, Henkel took a win of her own in Oslo. It was her 16th regular-season victory to go with one individual Olympic gold, four individual world titles, and five relay wins at championship events.
That longevity – and Henkel’s humble attitude about it – seems incredible to the U.S. women she was training with in Utah.
“As we travel around Salt Lake and the Heber Valley, she has been reminiscing about that experience,” national team member Susan Dunklee, who now battles Henkel on the World Cup, wrote in an e-mail. “I am impressed not only at how long she has been competing in biathlon, but how long she has been competing at the highest level. During the Salt Lake Olympics, I was stressing about the upcoming Vermont State High School Championships… biathlon wouldn’t be on my radar for another six years.”
U.S. as a Second Home
More overdistance fun. Photo: Dreissigacker. Henkel estimates that she began visiting the U.S. four or five years ago, after she started dating American biathlete Tim Burke. At first, she would train on her own or with the men’s team. Back then, the women were intimidated and shy around Henkel, but that broke down in the coming years as the trips to Lake Placid began racking up and Henkel started to spend more time training with the women.
“Before I met her, Andrea had seemed so larger than life, but when I met her, I couldn’t believe how small she actually was,” Dunklee wrote. After a few years, Henkel and her personality became part of the team: “She is known for blunt honesty. She tells it like it is, and it is refreshing to hear her opinions.”
Things changed for Henkel in 2010, when her teammates Kati Wilhelm, Simone Hauswald, and Martina Beck all retired. Although she’s had plenty of teammates retire in the course of her career, Henkel said the post-Vancouver rush was the toughest: the four women were the same age and had trained and competed together for years. Between that and the impressive length of Henkel’s career, it’s easy to see why she began looking for new ideas to stay engaged in her training.
“I have been doing this for a while, and I have to get my motivation from something,” she said. “It’s been so long that if I have the same focus year in and year out, I would be tired already or maybe I wouldn’t be doing it anymore, even.”
Henkel says that the Americans are “like a second team,” and the feeling is mutual. Dunklee thought that the sense of camaraderie was one of the biggest benefits Henkel might get from training with her team. The German system is different in that there are multiple training centers around the country and the national team comes together mainly for camps, which are generally short – just one week.
“The last couple years, the US women’s team has become very close,” Dunklee wrote. “Andrea fits right in with that. Besides training with us, she has joined us for shopping trips on rest days, volunteered her home kitchen for birthday cake baking, and shared an occasional bottle of wine with our team and staff. Of course I want to beat her on race day, but I am also psyched when she does well. Our whole team is.”
Veterans Train Different
And while the U.S. women have never been as strong as the Germans, they have improved over the last few years into a faster group that has more to offer Henkel in terms of training.
Henkel skiing her way to a mass start win in Oslo, Norway on last season. Photo: NordicFocus/Fischer. “The team had started changing already when I started coming here,” Henkel said, noting that the hiring of dedicated women’s coach Jonne Kahkonen had helped substantially. “It’s good training.”
Of course, it helps that biathletes like Dunklee have had one of the sport’s biggest stars to learn from. Initially, the American worried that if she spent too long skiing around behind Henkel, she would be annoying. As she has gotten to know the German better, she’s no longer as nervous about that. And besides trying to pick up specific technique, the U.S. women say that Henkel’s attitude in general is something to emulate.
“She is one of the world’s most talented and most experienced biathletes,” Dunklee wrote. “She has high expectations for herself but also lots of perspective, which keeps her even keeled. Her professional attitude towards training and racing rubs off on our team and that has been a very positive thing… and having her around sets the bar higher and gives us a measuring stick. It’s awesome!”
Henkel’s German coaches don’t mind when she travelled to the States: “they know that I train very hard, and they trust that I’m working,” she said. Henkel talks to them regularly while she’s gone to assess what she should be doing for training. Although her plan is different than the Americans’, she tries to jump in with them as much as possible if the day’s goals line up well enough, simply because it’s easier.
But that doesn’t always happen. Henkel has been competing at the World Cup level since 1995, more than ten years longer than Studebaker and Dunklee have even been biathletes.
“The German’s have a slightly different philosophy than we do, but Andrea’s training is different more just because she’s been training for a lot longer than most of us,” wrote Sara Studebaker. “She’s at the point in her career where she has the endurance and the volume, so speed and intensity are more important in her plan than the endurance piece.”
As such, Henkel often jumps in interval workouts and time trials; last week she swept the two time trials at Soldier Hollow that were used to pick athletes to send to the World Cup. She told FasterSkier that she was surprised she did so well; even for such an experienced athlete, flying across eight time zones is no small thing, and she arrived recovering from a cold and initially struggled to adjust to the altitude.
“I was shooting really badly in the beginning,” Henkel laughed. “It got better in the last few days, and skiing was okay I think. I didn’t prepare for the race, but not everybody could. For me it was good to race again, to go this speed. So it was good for my motivation and my mind.”
2013: Still Nerves, Still Pressure
Henkel flew home to Germany on Sunday, and in a week she’ll head to Muonio, Finland, for final World Cup preparations with her team. Then, she’ll fly to Ostersund, Sweden, and stay with the Americans again for a few days before the first World Cup races. When she hits the start line, she’ll have butterflies.
“The first race is the one I’m the most nervous about,” she said. “You get to figure out what you have done already for the last year, and see where you are, what you can do and what you can’t do anymore.”
Henkel crossing the line for gold as the anchor leg of the German relay at 2012 World Championships. Photo: NordicFocus/USBA. For instance, one thing that has changed over the years is Henkel’s shooting speed and accuracy. These days, she says, she’s less “comfortable” on the range, although she’s always working to change that. In big races, though, she still seems to have nerves of steel: at World Championships in 2012, it was Magdalena Neuner who had to hit the penalty loop in the women’s relay, while Henkel anchored the team to a 28-second win with perfect shooting.
And for Germany, that’s important. At the end of last season Neuner retired at age 25, leaving a big gap in the roster. For so many years, the German women have been the team to beat in relays; Henkel grew up, athletically, in a climate where if you couldn’t podium, you wouldn’t even have a shot at making a relay team.
“We had a very strong team in 2010, the strongest team we ever had,” Henkel said of the squad that hadn’t even included Neuner. “ At that time I think the coaches expected that every race, somebody would be on the podium. We shouldn’t expect this anymore so much. The new team is very good and we can still have some podiums and good relays, but it won’t be like it was in 2008 to 2010.”
In terms of day-to-day life, Henkel said that Neuner’s retirement didn’t affect her much; even last year, Neuner was doing some training on her own with her coach. She’s more concerned with trying to minimize the pressure put on her by Germany.
“I know that now, for sure, they expect that somebody will be [doing well] and they expect that person will be me,” she said. “Luckily there is also Tina Bachmann, who is able to go to the podium.”
As Dunklee had said, Henkel has high expectations for herself, so the pressure is as much internal as anything else. But, the star explained, she’s just doing the best she can.
“I don’t want to push myself too much in terms of pressure,” she said.
Although the World Cup schedule is much the same from year to year, there are small changes that can break up the monotony for a career athlete, and this year has an extra special opportunity: the first chance to compete on the trails in Sochi, where Henkel will chase her fifth Olympic medal.
“It’s not often that we see something new,” Henkel said. “But last year we saw something new with Nove Mesto, and this year we will see Sochi. I have seen some pictures already, and I’m really excited to go there and check it out. Hopefully the tracks there will be good for me!”
What does that mean?
“I’d like it to be more challenging than Vancouver was, for example,” she explained. “But still doable. And the range should be not too easy, but doable. You need to have a little challenge in both the shooting and the skiing.”
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Goodbye Park City, Hello Frozen Thunder: Canadians Fine Tune Training
The Canadian men’s national ski team during a training camp in Park City. From left to right: Mike Somppi, Kevin Sandau, Graham Nishikawa, Alex Harvey, Brent McMurtry, and Devon Kershaw with U.S. Ski Team member Noah Hoffman. (Graham Nishikawa courtesy photo) It’s safe to say the Canadian cross-country teams enjoyed their stay in Park City, Utah. Between their tweets and Instagrams of bluebird days and college football games, it’s not hard to see why.
While the Canadian women headed south on Saturday for a few days of training in St. George, Utah, the men’s World Cup team and senior-development skiers remained at a higher altitude at Park City during their second week of camp. On Tuesday, the men flew back to Canmore, Alberta, where they would likely get on snow at Frozen Thunder by the end of the week.
In all, six women and 10 men participated in the Canadian National Ski Team’s final dryland camp of the season. Women’s World Cup team members Perianne Jones, Chandra Crawford and Dasha Gaiazova trained with development and Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) athletes Alysson Marshall and Emily Nishikawa, and Amanda Ammar (independent). The men’s World Cup team (Devon Kershaw, Alex Harvey, Ivan Babikov and Lenny Valjas) did every workout with the development/AWCA skiers: Graham Nishikawa, Kevin Sandau, Jess Cockney, Graeme Killick, Michael Somppi, and Brent McMurtry.
The Canadian men during a dryland camp in Park City, Utah. From l to r: development-team members Kevin Sandau and Mike Somppi, and World Cup athletes Devon Kershaw and Alex Harvey. (Graham Nishikawa photo) “The camp overall has been amazing,” Nishikawa wrote in an email. “The weather has great – bluebird everyday and not too hot. The camp was super smooth … and the energy was always high.”
One of his highlights was going to see the University of Utah football host the University of Southern California Trojans last week.
“It was the first college football experience for all of us and it did not disappoint,” Nishikawa wrote. “People get into it. Go Utes.” (The Utes lost 38-28.)
On Sunday, the men’s team celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with dinner at the hotel. The next day, they ascended 1,600 meters (5,250 feet) on a four-hour rollerski up Mirror Lake Highway east of Park City, reaching 3,300 meters (11,000 feet) above sea level.
Head coach Justin Wadsworth wasn’t able to make it to the workout; he had to fly to Calgary on Sunday after his father-in-law fell and went to the hospital. He was stable and recovering, Wadsworth said Monday, after taking his kids to see their grandfather in the hospital before heading back to the airport.
“I’m taking the kids to Oregon just for a little seven-day break,” he explained.
While his two youngsters meowed “London Bridge” in the backseat, Wadsworth reflected on the Park City camp.
“We’ve done this camp now three years in a row and this one was great,” he said.
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FasterSkier: What were some of the highlights of training around Park City?
Justin Wadsworth: We did some new routes for some long workouts and revisited probably one of the most challenging workouts, which is the back way from Soldier Hollow up to Deer Valley [in Park City]. They used it in the Tour of Utah cycling race, and I think a few of the pro cyclists who have ridden extensively on the circuits in Europe said it was the toughest climb they’ve ever done. We did it on rollerskis last year and then they repaved it this year so it was a bit better. It’s an amazing workout. The climb [up Guardsman Pass] is from about 1,600 meters and then they go out to about 2,800 meters … and we did it skating this year just to keep the emphasis on steep uphill skating.
I think that’s still, as a team, an area where we need to keep improving. Steep uphills are where everybody in the world have a hard time so I think it’s just good to be really efficient at climbing.
The Canadian men’s team rollerskiing near Park City, Utah. (Stefan Kuhn courtesy photo) FS: What were some of the objectives for this camp?
JW: It was a volume camp. Just being at altitude was the main goal, and getting through a lot of the workouts and not coming out of this camp too tired. [We wanted] a lot of the athletes to go easy on the longer workouts and be fresh coming out of this camp so we can really train well the next three weeks before we go to Europe.
FS: Were there many joint sessions with other teams?
JW: There were a couple intensity workouts where we were joined by a bunch of our biathletes and I think [one or two of the American women]. We had a group of 13-14 women for some of the interval sessions.
FS: What about with the men? Was U.S. Ski Team member Noah Hoffman the only one that hopped in some workouts?
JW: Yeah. We would’ve enjoyed having the other guys around, but he was the one that was in town and ready to train at altitude.
FS: How was your men’s training group with the AWCA and development-team skiers?
JW: That worked out really well. We try to get our development-team guys exposure to our World Cup team as much as we can, and I think as a development group they’re in a pretty good place. They’re strong and fit. It’s really good when you have athletes like Devon, Alex, Ivan and Lenny that are proven world’s-best on any day. It’s always good to have your development-team guys have a marker like that, like, ‘OK, if you’re going to get Devon in this interval workout, you can probably bet he’s top-five in the world that day for his fitness,’ so it’s really good to see how they compared and stacked up against the World Cup team guys.
FS: How is everyone health-wise?
JW: Everyone’s doing really well. Ivan had a little bit of an ankle problem. It’s quite strange it wasn’t an acute injury so he had a couple days where he couldn’t classic ski. But besides that, I would say everyone was doing extremely well. I’m pretty happy where the team is and the same on the women’s side. The women looked great, and I really saw a remarkable change in actually all three of the World Cup women. I think they’re doing great.
FS: Was that your first time really observing or working with the women this season?
JW: [After] we split the [men’s and women’s] teams this year, we’ve been at a lot of different camps so it’s been hard to see them. I’ve been at a few workouts where it’s just been Peri and stuff, but to see the women all together and especially with Dasha in that group as well. … It’s good to see that everything’s been going really well with that program and [women’s coach] Eric [de Nys] is doing a really good job.
FS: How and when do you use V02max or similar tests to measure progress?
JW: For the women’s team, they’ve been testing periodically through the summer and we’ve continued with them just like we did last year as well. We’ve been trying some different strategies with the women, so we do want to monitor what changes are happening to their physiology, so that’s been going on and I believe they have one more set of testing before they go to Europe.
With they guys, we haven’t been doing any testing at all. We haven’t really changed our training philosophy that much, and I’m pretty confident through other ways, intervals that we measure and whatnot, that everything’s going well. Testing, for me, you really need to garner something out of it and to make it worthwhile. I think a lot of people test just for the sake of testing and I think for our women, we have been trying some new training methods with them and we do want to see what changes are happening, but with the guys it’s pretty stable.
At the workouts I’ve been to [with the women], you can see the changes. When you can actually notice the changes it’s pretty exciting, but it’s good to back it up with numbers just to make sure we’re seeing what we want to see with them.
The Canadian men’s team during peak season in early October near Park City. (Stefan Kuhn photo) FS: Park City marked the first joint camp between your men’s and women’s teams this year. What did you do together and how did that go?
JW: We had a bunch of dinners together, which was really good, and interval sessions, we kind of crossed paths; we did the women first one day and the men second just because the groups were so big.
It’s always amazing, this team, they interact super well and they’re all really close. It’s fun to get everybody together again and it was a good check up. We all had a team meeting with our sports psychologist, too, during the camp and just made sure everyone has the same goals in mind as far as working as a team professionally.
I think having that team meeting and having the team together for a few meals was really important and it showed everybody that we all are on the same page. It’s really important to have that team dynamic. It’s easy when you’re tired and stuff to get a little lazy with making sure you’re being a good teammate and being respectful, so it’s always good for coaches and athletes to be reminded of that.
FS: What’s the plan for training in Canmore at Frozen Thunder?
JW: They roll out Frozen Thunder on [October] 13th I believe. We’ll be on snow pretty quickly and … just skiing quite a bit. With Frozen Thunder, you don’t want to go too nuts on it because it is only a couple k’s [about two] so you can kind of get burned out on it, but the goal is definitely to just do some of the easy shorter, distance workouts on there and then do a lot of the intensity workouts there and then we’ll still rollerski a lot. You don’t want to crank out a three-hour workout at Frozen Thunder, it’s just too repetitive.
FS: And you’ll see the U.S. Ski Team there again, too?
JW: The U.S. will be joining us so that will be fun. We’re having a classic sprint race on Friday the 26th of October so that’ll be a full-blown, timed, bibbed event so it should be quite competitive. In North America, we have ten of the world’s best sprinters roughly, so it’s pretty exciting to get everybody together – our guys and Simi and Newell and Kikkan and Chandra – it’s just a really competitive field for sprinting so it should be a fun race to see.
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Randall Keeps Head Up, Hammer Down While Healing Stress Fracture
Kikkan Randall getting some help from two Ski & Snowboard Club Vail juniors to hold the hefty Crystal Globe, which she won as the World Cup sprint champion last season. (Courtesy photo) When Kikkan Randall talks about being injured, her tone matches the description of any other day: the sun is shining; life is good.
For more than two months, the 29-year-old U.S. Ski Team (USST) veteran has been healing a stress reaction in her right foot by wearing a walking boot outside of training. An MRI five weeks ago revealed she needed to dial back her workout efforts to 50 percent and stay away from certain activities, such as skiing and running.
As if that wasn’t hard enough for a nordic skier, let alone the defending World Cup sprint champion, Randall discovered last Wednesday that she wasn’t completely in the clear. Follow-up imaging with Dr. Tom Clanton at The Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colo., revealed that her stress reaction – a weakening of the bone in her foot – had become a stress fracture. The good news was it was already healing.
One day before the start of the final USST dryland camp in Park City, Utah, Randall spoke on the phone Monday about her injury and plan of attack for the season ahead. She had just finished a 2 ½-hour mountain bike ride in Park City with her husband, Jeff Ellis, and said she was enjoying spending some extra time with him.
Meanwhile she aimed to stay patient with about six and a half weeks to go until the World Cup opener Nov. 24 in Gällivare, Sweden. Last week, doctors estimated it would be eight or nine weeks before she could resume race-pace intensity.
“That puts me right about when the race season is supposed to start,” Randall said. “I’m hoping I’ll be in at least a good enough place to be able to compete in those races. I don’t know what kind of shape I’m going to be in because I won’t be able to do full-on intervals for a while still, maybe four or five weeks from now, so I’m going to have to change my goals a little bit.”
***
FasterSkier: What kind of goals do you have at this point?
Kikkan Randall: Those first races will have to be to build back up and get in shape, and hopefully be in a good place by Tour de Ski. … Tour de Ski was one of the big goals and I think that’s still a good possibility to go there and perform well. It’ll be fun to see the World Cup races in Sochi (Jan. 1-3) and maybe have some good performances there, but really probably the biggest goal of the season is focused around World Championships and using the second half of the season to test things out and figure out what works well. That’ll give me something to work on next year.
FS: What are you specifically aiming for at World Championships (Feb. 20-March 3 in Val di Fiemme, Italy)?
KR: I’d like to make the final in the classic sprint. I’d like to have our team fight for a medal in the team sprint. I think we can put together a relay, the 4-by-5 k in the top six. This will be the first championships where I’m almost more excited about the team goals than my own. I mean, I obviously want to race well myself, but I’m excited about what we can do as a team. That’ll give me some extra motivation in rehabbing this foot injury, too, knowing that I really want to be there and competing with the team in February.
FS: How did you react to discovering your stress fracture last week?
KR: I think overall it was a positive visit. They did see some new bone growth in the area where the fracture is so they felt that was a good sign, and I can gradually start building back into training, but it’s going to be a pretty gradual process. With skiing, it’s quite challenging because we have so many things to reintroduce – skating, classic, running, strength training – so it’s still going to take me many weeks to build back in, but at least we saw some progress.
That helps knowing just by reducing my training and taking the impact off my foot that it was able to heal, so that makes me feel good going forward. If I behave myself and gradually reintroduce things, then I’ll be in a good place by the time we race. It’s still hard because five weeks of it was an easy target to focus on, and it would’ve been nice to put my five weeks in and jump back in to be being totally normal, but I know that if I continue to be a little bit patient, the season is long. Even if I’m not racing quite as well as I want to the first period, the biggest races are still in the second half of the season. So I’m just kind of focusing on that and focusing on what I can do and using this as a time to work on some of my weakness, and hopefully we’ll all be laughing about this in a few months.
FS: Who are some of your biggest supporters?
KR: Everybody, really, has been incredibly supportive. It was [U.S. women’s coach] Matt Whitcomb that kind of finally sat down with me at the end of the Swedish camp and said, ‘You know, look, this is obviously an issue that’s not going away; as hard as it is to slow down, let’s deal with it now so that you’re good to go by the season.’ So I credit him a lot with getting me to finally do something about it. When I came back to Anchorage, [Alaska Pacific University coach] Erik [Flora] was really supportive, and Jeff and my parents, and then my teammates keep checking in on me and pumping me up and stuff. I’m really lucky to have so many good supportive people around.
FS: How’s your Achilles injury in your left foot?
KR: That’s actually gotten a lot better. That’s the one thing I could work on over the last five weeks because all the PT I was doing was primarily to heal that up. It’s feeling really good, and I think slowly reintroducing running and skiing back in is going to be really good for that injury to make sure it’s totally healed, too.
FS: What’s your training plan moving forward?
KR: I got the clearance to return to normal volume so that’ll be good, and then I can start adding in a little classic striding to begin with. While I’m down here in Park City, I’m going to take advantage of the AlterG [anti-gravity] treadmill they have here to start reintroducing running and combine that with pool running to help build the running back in. If that all goes well, in maybe three weeks I can start adding in a little bit of skating and then a little bit of classic intensity. If all that goes well, I can start doing a little skate intensity and a little running intensity.
FS: You anticipated not being able to do the USST testing at the Center of Excellence (COE) this week. Will you be able to join the team for any workouts?
KR: I’ll be able to join them a few sessions this week because classic skiing, I can, for sure, double pole and I can add in a little striding. I’ll be at the strength center at the same time, but then a few of the workouts will be on my own.
FS: Do you still have to wear the walking boot?
KR: I put two solid months into the walking boot and luckily they said I can actually stop wearing it unless I feel like my foot needs a rest. I did wear it [Sunday] at Fast and Female because I knew that once I got around everyone jumping and playing and dancing, I’d want to do it too, and they said absolutely no jumping until probably after the Tour de Ski so, I put the boot on so I wouldn’t be tempted.
FS: How was the Fast and Female event in Park City?
KR: We had a blast as usual. Those events are almost four hours long and there’s a lot of energy going around so you definitely feel a little worn out by the end of the day, but it’s totally worth it. The girls, you can just tell, they’re having so much fun. They’re like sponges soaking up every word the ambassadors say so you can tell we’re making a big difference.
We had, I think, 75 girls age nine to 19 and then about 30 ambassadors. Between the parents and everybody, we had probably 120 people there, which I think is a pretty significant size.
FS: We’ve seen photos of you and the kids holding your Crystal Globe. Do you bring that everywhere?
KR: With the [U.S.] Ski Team, this is kind of the last interface before the season starts so they asked me to bring it down so we could do some photos and things. I pulled it out when we went over to the Ski Club Vail and it worked out to have it at Fast and Female [Sunday]. It’s not the easiest thing to just haul around, but it is really fun to share with everybody. … I’d say it’s about 20 pounds probably in the box that it comes in. It’s kind of an awkward size; you have to hold it off your hip a little bit.
It is definitely covered in fingerprints right now because when I was at home [in Anchorage, Alaska] I was doing a bunch of visits to elementary schools, and I was letting the kids all rub the Globe on their way out of the gym and then everybody got to touch it [Sunday]. It’s going to need a good Windex cleaning in a little bit.
FS: When will you leave Park City (with the rest of APU, which isn’t going to the USST camp in Canmore, Alberta)?
KR: Next Thursday I’m headed back to Alaska and hopefully we’ll be able to get on snow pretty soon after.
FS: What else have you been up to since arriving in Utah?
KR: We went to a friend’s wedding this weekend [in Sundance]. (Former APU/U.S. World Cup team member Katie Ronsse married Justin Libby).
It was a great time. Sundance is beautiful and it was really fun because I haven’t seen Katie in a while. She’s going to PT school in Salt Lake now. It was a great wedding, good time, and it was so nice of them to plan it conveniently around the training camp.
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USST Athletes Descend on Park City, Join Several Others
The Canadian women’s nordic training group on Thursday, including biathletes Rosanna Crawford (second from left) and Zina Kocher (third from right), American Jessie Diggins (second from right), and Germany’s Monique Siegel (front right). (CCC photo) The U.S. Nordic Ski Team’s final dryland camp of the season starts in earnest on Monday, but many of its athletes are already getting after it in Park City, Utah.
Liz Stephen, Noah Hoffman and Tad Elliott generally live in the high-altitude training mecca when they’re not traveling, and Jessie Diggins arrived almost a week ago. According to U.S. Ski Team (USST) head coach Chris Grover, the Alaska Pacific University (APU) athletes rolled into town on Wednesday. He outlined an “early arrival” routine for skiers like them, with some bounding and intensity, a distance rollerski, roll/run combo and testing at the Center of Excellence beforehand.
U.S. Nordic Ski Team member Tad Elliott (tucked behind leader Bill Demong) works out with the U.S. Nordic Combined Team earlier this week at Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah. (Dave Jarrett photo) Between that and the presence of U.S. Nordic Combined and Canadian men’s and women’s teams, they’ll probably stay busy.
By Monday, the entire USST will unite in Park City, at which time they’ll delve into the main course: a weeklong training camp that runs Oct. 9-16.
Grover wrote in an email that the primary goal is exposure to altitude living (at nearly 7,000 feet above sea level) and increase in hemoglobin (Hb) mass. The idea is to boost the athletes’ oxygen capacity before they start racing in Europe in late November.
Another reason the USST is returning to Park City is follow up on labs tests taken in earlier this spring and summer. Grover wrote they’ll determine where athletes have made progress and where they need more work. Testing takes place during the first two days of camp in both the morning and afternoon.
After that, there will be some distance rollerski sessions, bounding and skate intensity and lower-elevation training (in Soldier Hollow or Salt Lake City) mixed in with recovery workouts. On Oct. 17, the USST coaches will drive north to Canmore, Alberta, while most of their skiers fly to meet them at Frozen Thunder (Canmore Nordic Centre’s 2-kilometer loop of stockpiled manmade snow).
“The goal of the Canmore period is to get on snow and to work on technique before heading to the World Cup, and to tune up for racing with some on-snow time trials,” Grover wrote. “The entire team will be in Park City and most of team in Canmore, the exception being the Alaskans who will head home to find snow.”
Other notes:
— German skier Monique Siegel has been training with the Canadian women and Diggins and Stephen in Park City. According to U.S. women’s coach Matt Whitcomb, they joined the Canadians for an interval session on Thursday.
“We haven’t lined up very well for too many workouts as we are just beginning our altitude acclimation period with Jessie and Liz, and the Canadians are in full training camp swing,” he wrote in an email.
Siegel will continue training with the Americans through Sunday when she heads back to Germany, Whitcomb wrote.
— Just as it did in July, the U.S. Nordic Combined Team is hosting Norway in Park City. The Norwegian Nordic Combined Team will be in the area for about a month, U.S. head coach Dave Jarrett explained. Meanwhile, his guys will travel to Europe for a jumping camp from Oct. 15-25.
“It is very busy in PC,” Jarrett wrote. During his team’s time trial Wednesday morning at Soldier Hollow, the Canadian men’s and women’s biathlon squads were also there, along with the Canadian women’s nordic team.
“We are here, US XC men and women will be here, Canadian XC men and women, Canadian BT [biathlon] men and women, Norway NC, and US Para [Paralympics] team will be here as well,” he wrote. “Would be fun to get one session together but probably not feasible.”
— The Canadian men’s cross-country team leaves Park City on Tuesday after more than two weeks of dryland training. The women’s team departs Saturday for St. George, Utah, about a five-hour drive south, where they’ll train through Thursday.
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Canadian Women ‘Far Fitter and Moving Faster’ at PC Camp
The Canadian women’s training group stops for a photo during a workout Oct. 1 near Park City, Utah. From left to right: Amanda Ammar, Emily Nishikawa, Chandra Crawford, Alysson Marshall and Perianne Jones. (Photo courtesy of Amanda Ammar) After nearly two weeks of dryland training in Park City, Utah, the Canadian women’s cross-country team will pack up and head to St. George on Saturday. Saint what?
One of the fastest growing cities in the U.S., St. George is tucked in the southwest corner of the state about 300 miles (483 kilometers) from Park City. It requires about a five-hour drive south, and the group is going to the 75,000-population metropolis to train through Wednesday.
According to women’s coach Eric de Nys, this will be the first time the team has added the destination to its annual Park City camp. In an email, he wrote that they sought St. George for its lower elevation (2,860 feet or 872 meters) compared to Park City (6,900 feet or 2,103 meters) and Soldier Hollow in Midway, Utah (5,463 feet or 1,665 meters).
“St. George is something that I decided we would add on only for the ladies,” de Nys wrote. “It should be fun, hard work and our last dose of summer temps until the spring. We have some fun things planned for down there for team building, too.”
***
FasterSkier: All are the women’s World Cup team members (Perianne Jones, Chandra Crawford and Dasha Gaiazova) there, along with development-team skiers Alysson Marshall and Emily Nishikawa, and Amanda Ammar (independent)?
Eric de Nys: Yes, everyone is here. Dasha is following a plan in conjunction with our men and has joined us for two intensity sessions [as of Wednesday]. The group has been a great compliment to each other and have been working very hard.
FS: Who’s writing Gaiazova’s plan, and what is she doing differently?
EDN: [Men’s assistant coach] Louis [Bouchard] is writing Dasha’s plan and it was felt that the men’s regimen would give her what she needs at this point in her development. She is doing less than the men but starts the various workouts with them and goes about her plan at her pace etc.
FS: What’s been the objective for your women in PC?
EDN: The objective for the women’s team has been a continued building of team environment with our women’s group in conjunction with some exposure to altitude training and then finishing off the camp with some intense efforts at a lower altitude in St. George. Essentially, we are starting to gear up for the racing season.
FS: How’s the training going?
EDN: The ladies are doing very well and are in a very different place than they were at this time last year. … [They] are far fitter and are moving faster in workouts. … I know this is true based upon a few tests we have done at home.
FS: Who has made noticeable improvements this season and in what areas?
EDN: I would say that all the ladies have made significant strides forward this training season and I am excited to see them race.
FS: Have you had any time trials or joint workouts with the Americans?
EDN: We haven’t had any time trials yet and we may have Liz and Jessie join us [Thursday] for an intensity session. All of our hard work has been interval based so far and we plan to have a TT in St. George.
FS: Are your athletes doing any testing? Are you able to use USSA’s Center of Excellence [COE]?
EDN: I guess you could say that every day is somewhat of a test : ) but no, we haven’t had any formal testing to speak of down here. The COE is not available for our use and even if it were, it sounds like it is a busy place these days with many of the US athletes lined up for their annual fall pilgrimage of testing.
FS: When you get back north to Canmore, what will be the focus at Frozen Thunder?
EDN: Specific intensity on snow and race preparation!
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