It’s time for the Craftsbury Marathon! You can expect conditions to be amazing, and probably better than what Craftsbury might promote online…they tend to undersell it, you could say.
Saturday’s classic race looks cold to start, but warming up to reasonable (mid-teens) temps by noon. Add in sun, and you have a recipe for the perfect classic day!
Sunday might involve a bit of snow and more moderate temperatures, but yet again another great ski racing day.
Adam will be present on Saturday: look for MNC either in the basement community wax room, OR look for the MNC tent in the upper or lower field. Adam won’t be present on Sunday, but happy to apply a best-guess wax layer on Saturday!
Classic skis (Saturday)
Clean glide zones (with dedicated glide cleaner) and kick zones. Sand kick zones with 100 grit sandpaper.
Glide:
-Apply one layer of a very cold wax to harden the bases (Start Green, Toko Blue+X-Cold, Swix 5, etc)
-Apply one layer of a mild cold wax such as Swix 6, Rode R20 Blue, or Toko Blue
We will apply a liquid topcoat on Saturday morning. Most likely, we will use Star Next Cold liquid which is reliable, easy to apply, fast to dry, and has good durability! We will also test or look to some structure options on Saturday morning.
If you want to avoid dealing with a liquid topcoat on Saturday morning, a safe bet is Toko Blue liquid, but you must apply this the night before and let it dry at room temperature as long as possible. Scrub with a nylon brush on race morning.
Kick:
Apply a hardwax binder such as Toko Base Green, ironing it in.
We will test kick on race morning. It looks to be a situation where hardwax, or a mix such as Olso, would work well!
Skate skis (Sunday)
Clean glide zones (with dedicated glide cleaner).
-Apply one layer of a very cold wax to harden the bases.
-Apply one layer of a cold-mid range wax as final paraffin layer (Toko Blue, Swix 6, Rode R30 Purple)
A great simple topcoat solution, if applying in advance, would be Toko Blue spray, if you can apply it the night before and let dry completely overnight.
For structure, a very light chevron or cross pattern (such as the Toko Blue 2.0 tool) could be useful!
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