At a ski race, you are competing directly against others. There’s no way around it: the timing system provides a pretty objective view of how fast each person skied the course.
It would be so simple if we could keep it at that one layer. How fast can you go? How fast did those other people go? Ok, cool!
The thing is, even the most consistent competitor who seems to always win and is never flustered or faltering is not a robot. Each ski race is a bit of a Venn diagram of competitors…some you race against nearly every event, others you come across from time to time at a larger regional race, and some you may have never seen on snow before.
As a racer, there are probable some skiers you have history with. Maybe you always used to beat them in the BKL days, but now they’re way ahead of you. Is it something in the water over in Craftsbury/Putney/Jackson/Bethel? Are they doing something different with their training? Did they actually start training after all this time? What’s harder to realize, and extremely hard to appreciate in the moment, is that in many cases as a racer you are that skier that might’ve never beaten a rival in the early days, and are now ahead of them with regularity. We tend to only see that relationship from one side, and it’s too often the negative side.
Charlotte on the charge in the skate race
Isaiah with his trademark orange hat and balanced technique
Each day this past weekend in Waterville, the final race was the U16 boys competition. In both a skate interval start and a classic mass start, the top spot came down to an absolute battle between Jorgen Pirrung (MNC) and Matthew Northcott (Caldwell Sport). These two guys know each other well, and have been at or near the top of most U16 races. Jorgen is about 6′ 3″ and skis with a powerful, glide-heavy style. Matthew is closer to 5′ 4″ and skis with an energetic, snappy and crisp style. They are living proof that skiing does not have a singularly advantageous build!
In Saturday’s individual start race, Matthew started 30 seconds behind Jorgen, meaning Sara and Kristen and I could easily take splits and know how they stacked-up against one another. Which one was the hero, and which was the villain? You might expect the answer to vary based on which one you were asking, but put a pin in that thought.
With two laps of a 2.5km course, and three coaches spread out across the loop, we could report that during at least 6 (and more if you could scoping through the trees) checkpoints Jorgen and Matthew were never separated by more than 5 seconds. Matthew would be ahead, then Jorgen, then Matthew. It didn’t seem to depend on whether they were on the hilly part of the course or the flat field section: they just went back and forth the whole time like a street racing scene from the Fast and the Furious:
In the end, Jorgen took the win and Matthew followed close behind. That of course set things up for an intense classic mass start day on Sunday. But the U16 boys race was the final event in a busy day of racing for everyone…
Things dawned cold and clear. It was a brisk -11F outside, and we arrived to a frozen trailer. We even had to bring the space heater and propane heater into the cab of the truck for a little bit to get it going, in order to then heat the inside of the trailer. The start was delayed, which was actually an un-welcome update given the lengthy travel home but…racing was wonderful with no wind, firm tracks, and great snow.
Charlotte held things down for MNC in the open women’s race. Seven was down-for-the-count with the sickness that has been rampaging through the skiers these days after a super successful (but super tiring) trip to Europe for IBU Junior Cup racing. Charlotte moved up almost 10 places from her starting seed though, and made the most of a classic mass start that was essentially a cold and snowy xc running race!
Niko charging up “Hero’s Hill”
In the open men’s race things got splintered quite early thanks to the impressive efforts of Ford Sayre skier and skyrunner extraordinaire James Underwood, who used a tried-and-true tactic of “make them all suffer right from the start” to spread out the field. But an MNC skier with a distinctive blue and white hat could be seen getting a little closer to the front every lap…in fact his time splits across each checkpoint in race went 28th->19th->11th->11th->7th. It was Niko Cuneo out there absolutely charging through the field with his best distance race yet for 12th overall. 10 places back was Lorenzo who used a similar smooth strategy and tactical skills working with the skiers around him to nab his best finish in 22nd, while Pat also continued to impress with his improved classic skiing. Anders and Nico had tougher days with bodies that just weren’t responding, but will bounce back no doubt.
There was plenty of excitement leading into the U16 girls mass start, because the day prior in the skate race something pretty special had happened. The MNC girls SWEPT! That’s right, a bona-fide 1-2-3 finish, making good on what Acadia, Astrid and Mia demonstrated at the last Eastern Cup in Lake Placid. As far as I know, this is the first time MNC has swept an EC podium of any kind!
Mia (on her first lap) and Acadia (on her second) charging together in sync during Saturday’s skate race
So it had to be on everyone’s mind…could they do it again? In a mass start near the front, you always know what place you’re in. Other skiers would surely work hard to claim a place on the podium, and there had to be some targets on the backs of the MNC girls. It was definitely a tense situation, but Mia, Astrid and Acadia wasted no time in getting right up to the front:
Charging at the front. But wait, there are only two here, not three..
Starting the descents from the high point of the course, it was MNC in the top three spots when Mia crashed! With both poles flung out of her grips, she had to scramble to a ditch to get them back on, and climb back up to the trail. At the end of the first lap of two, it was Acadia and Astrid charging up Hero’s Hill together. Antonia from SMS was starting to fade about 15 seconds back, out of sight around the turns. And then into view came Mia with her own 15 second gap to close on Antonia.
It was clear by watching them ski that Acadia and Astrid were going to make it a 1-2, barring any other crashes. But the sweep was now in jeopardy unless Mia could get closer to-
OH WAIT
-I barely had time to register the thought before out from around the field section emerged Mia, now well ahead of Antonia and closing back in on Acadia and Astrid. With an awesome display of composure from Mia in the second half of the race, the back-to-back podium sweep was complete! Acadia charged furiously up the final few short hills looking like she could head right out for a third lap, and for the second race in a row Astrid proved that she has the ability to dig so deep that I think I can see her soul starting to drift away from her body as she barely hangs onto conscious thought and the ability to move her legs.
“I feel like I physically aged three years after that race,” blurted an exhausted Mia at the finish.
“I think you aged three years emotionally after that race,” I replied.
Making some MNC history!
But even after the excitement of sweeping both days, there was still one more race to go on this coastal edge of the New England ski world: It was time for the rematch between Jorgen and Matthew.
With the MNC boys clearly visible on the start line thanks to their matching orange hunting hats (Isaiah Bowen style) it was easier than ever to glance through the woods and see how things were shaping up throughout the race. James and Isaiah started off in the back of the “peloton” but moved up and up throughout the race, finding their best finishes yet. Liam got a taste of the tougher side of the Quarry Road trails, but will be back for the BKL Fest in March with a level of experience he’s never had before.
At the front of the race, two skiers broke away and were locked in a back-and-forth battle much like the day prior. The only difference was, this was playing out in real time, and it was even tighter than 5 seconds at a pop. Often skiing in adjacent tracks, rather than one-behind-the-other, Matthew and Jorgen might as well have been engaged in a choreographed kung fu battle. Matthew would make a push over the top of a hill, and Jorgen would catch him on the corresponding downhill. Jorgen would push into the start of a climb, and Matthew would be forced to respond.
In the end, how else could it possibly end but with a sprint finish and a lunge for the line? You’ll have to watch yourself to see how it played-out:
Yup, it was win #2 in a row for Jorgen! But even though Kristen captured the footage above (which was further validated by the official Bullitt Timing finish camera) it was an unknown outcome for a little bit. In their heads, Jorgen and Matthew might’ve been hoping to come out on top, or hoping the other would end up behind.
But they instead looked around and wondered aloud, “can they just keep it as a tie?”
After two days, two races, and continuous trading of the lead, both would’ve been absolutely fine with a conclusion in which both rivals came out on top and shared the win. It turns out that you can have fierce competition without necessarily having a hero/villain narrative.
Team dinner cheers to a fun weekend in Maine
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