New England did it again, winning the “Alaska Cup” for a third-straight time and earning the honor of top region in the country! MNC was represented on both the athlete and coach side, and after some slight travel issues both Greg and I made it out to Wisconsin for a week of springtime racing.
There was a good deal of snow upon arrival, but right away things started melting…the first classic race happened as planned, but the klister went back into the bags after that! It was all skate all the time from Wednesday onward, and with races pushed to Thursday/Friday/Saturday it was a hectic chunk of time.
Even in the heart of the Midwest you can see signs of Vermont’s mark on the ski world
An early-morning course inspection by the wax crew. Typically things started icy fast, and the key to waxing was nailing the moment the conditions changed to slush, which happened every day as the temps pushed 60 degrees!
During the first race, New England took a commanding lead. Greg finished 15th, while MNC summer crew member Conor Munns took an incredible 3rd place! Course changes forced a multi-lap skate distance race that actually ended up being 7.5km for the U16 men. A long race with two laps and two MASSIVE climbs each lap. Greg picked up his first All-American honors in this race with a 10th place finish, and I think all of New England realized that our lack of snow had reduced the long climbs we’ve been able to train on all winter…we will definitely be working on climbing and V1 efforts this summer after getting a little batted around by Alaska in that race…
Wax room pow-wow. Sprint day brought a lot of changes and rapid-fire testing/application
The sprint race was a fast and furious day. Greg won his quarterfinal but was tripped up in the semifinal. The B-Final featured 4 New England athletes, and Greg and Ben Ogden lunged together for 9th and 10th. The second All-American honor of the week! The next day things got real crazy with a “Patrol Relay Hillclimb” event. The typical relay was cancelled without adequate snow in the stadium. Instead, racers in teams of 3 started together a minute apart to climb to the summit of Mt Telemark. The teams could ski together or break up, but the times of the three racers from each team were averaged to make a scored result. Plus, there were “King and Queen of the Mountain” categories for individual times. Complicated, right?
Sprint Hillclimb Patrol Relay action
The top U16 team from New England featured Ben Ogden, Sam Hodges and Greg. These three raced to a 5th place finish, a great way to cap off the week! Temps were about 65 degrees and the norpine back down to the stadium was a nice way to end the tough races.
This trip was quite the learning experience for myself and Greg, and we’re both coming back to VT with lots to share! In no particular order, here are some very random photos from the week:
Just a sampling of the wax trailer. Skis were 2-deep on all walls…and that’s just one technique (skate or classic) at a time!
The wax job for the classic race. New England has been on klister all year and it showed, with some dominant performances!
When the races were pushed back the wax techs actually got out for a ski NOT on the testing loop! We ventured to the legendary “OO” trailhead, and I made sure to get a photo repping the MNC suit
That strip of snow was part of the skate race a day before this photo was taken…yikes
The Telemark Trails are part of an old defunct alpine hill. I am a big fan of exploring old ski sites so on one off-day Gould coach Jeremy Nellis and I spent about 2 hours exploring the old trails, broken lifts and the massive, ransacked lodge building
Parting shot: delicious cake at the final awards ceremony!
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