Just like that we are counting down the days till departure for Eastern Cup Finals. In keeping with tradition, and a good tradition to have, this third Eastern Cup weekend continued our roll of momentum toward the stressful end of the season. The VT Qualifier was the mid-season boost of confidence needed to take our racing another step higher, and we saw our best collective effort yet in Rumford.
Sammie in a photo by River Valley Graphics
On Friday we drove AWAY from the big snowstorm, instead having a real fun time navigating sleet and ice on our journey down the venerable Route 2. There was in fact some new snow in Rumford, but not nearly what we would return home to.
Saturday’s individual start skate races were on the cold side, with silky packed snow and steam billowing from the lungs. The women started it off with a few really strong showings such as Rose and Sammie who have put up some of their best distance races this season. Right in that pack were Hattie and Finnegan who continue to be locked in a battle for the U16 team with CSU and a few other competitors we have keen eyes on!
The course featured a lot of rolling downhill at the start, before climbing on mixed terrain toward the legendary High School Hill which was lined with fans and coaches giving their loudest encouragement to tired bodies. The sun was out and after testing wax in puffy coats and squeaky snow in the early morning, most were out enjoying the bright blue sky and snowy trails for the men’s race. The girls team positioned themselves on HS Hill while Charles put forth his best race of the season, catching a ride from the Middlebury College skier who started 15 seconds behind him and sticking it out the whole way to slide ahead of some big competition.
On Sunday morning we could feel the cold inching in underneath the cheap, poorly-insulated hotel door at the Blue Iris Motor Inn…Rick actually pulled back the curtain on the sliding back door to reveal the ice that had built up inside the room. Sure enough, it was -11 out there during the wee hours. The coaches dined on luxurious oatmeal and coffee prepared on the official MNC hotplate and hit the trails to test kick and glide for a chilly classic sprint.
We arrived to find a big rise in temps to -9, and a sprint course laid out with tracks that were, uh, how do I put this…it was very “Rumford”.
Rose gaining ground on one of the more acceptable sections of tracksetting on the course (River Valley Graphics)
Good thing we can be kind of scrappy when we need to be. Kick was also interesting and provided the big lesson and coaching takeaway from this race weekend. The weather was very cold…around 4 degrees at race start. The course was what many would consider pretty flat, save for one hill where striding/running was required for abotu 10-15 seconds. Various green hardwaxes were working and we chose a combination that we felt provided both kick and free glide. Everyone had this same wax on, and the different reports were staggering. We had every response, from “perfect” to “just a little more under the toe” to “my skis are complete $#&@”.
Interestingly, this spectrum occurred roughly along the lines of age and experience. Classic sprinting is one of the toughest events to race in: everyone knows smooth classic skiing is beautiful and effortless. But channel that into a 4-5 minute race and most tend to ski a lot more haphazardly and uncontrolled due to the feeling of “this is so short, I have to go faster and faster and faster”. Oftentimes though, going harder doesn’t make you go faster and this is never more true than classic skiing. What’s really required is careful reading of the course, the conditions, and your technique of choice for various elements of the loop.
I would love to have kept a timer out there, but in a 5 minute race this course was probably broken into 3.5 minutes of double poling, 1 minute of being in low tucks, and 30 seconds of striding. Adding it all up, kick becomes relevant for 10% of the race. Of course you want that 10% to be GOOD kick, but in hearing feedback from athletes who have done a lot of classic sprinting, the takeaway was to be comfortable with enough kick to run or stride up the main climb and then not sacrifice anything on the larger double poling and tucking portions of the course. One athlete’s report: “I tested my skis and thought maybe they were a little slippy, but I knew I was just going to get out of the tracks and run up that hill anyway, which I did.”
Now, it’s probably easy to read into this as me complaining about people wanting more kick. That is not the case! Kyle and I applied kick, more kick, and even more kick as folks came back. But it’s important to come away from the experience with a takeaway that can be used for the future. As early as Sunday night I was texting with Sara about the workouts we’ve done that helped skiers handle that course well, along with ideas to incorporate in the upcoming summer. Days like this are why Eastern Cup racing is so valuable!
Charles in an SMS-sandwich (River Valley Graphics)
Anyway, on to the races. The qualifier was fun to watch, especially from the stadium area where skiers came flying into the last straightaway with guns blazing. Charles continued a killer weekend with an absolutely devastating qualifier in 8th place! Not to be outdone, the women put 4 into the open heats with Sammie (15th), Ali (17th), Finn (27th) and Julia (28th). Making it into the open heats is a huge deal in these races, with college skiers sticking around to contest the day along with other Eastern Cup teams. On the women’s side only CSU put more skiers into the open heats, which is a really cool marker of where this team is at. Just outside was Rose in 33rd, making her one of the top qualifiers for the Junior heats. In the U16 heats we had Hattie, Lydia, and Virginia all representing!
Open heats came first, with Charles hanging on to 4th in his heat. It was a super fast one though, and he moved onto the semi-finals as a result. In one of the most hotly-contested heats of the day, with poles flying and elbows being thrown, the report was that Charles slid through the chaos and nabbed his first overall Eastern Cup top-10 in 10th place!
In the women’s heats, MNC suits lined up in race after race. This was a little bittersweet, as after the hype of some great qualifying nobody made it past their quarterfinals. But that’s to take nothing away from some really exciting racing. On the big climb, Ali went for the Klaebo move and ran past the whole field, but unfortunately on the long downhill into the finish the others were able to catch her draft and slingshot around. Although they were all involved in tight battles, Sammie, Julia, and Finnegan were out in the Quarters. But it’s a pretty good feeling to know that no matter how a heat goes, you scored a top-30 and got to race head-to-head with the top guns.
In the Junior heats there was a lot more excitement, with Rose having a really good double pole start (a goal she has been working on) and taking 3rd in her heat. At the very end of the day, we had some of the most exciting and cool moments. The shadows were growing long when the U16 girls lined up. Hattie absolutely smashed her first heat, to the point where I realized I never told her that if she was winning by a lot she didn’t HAVE to go hard the whole way and could save some energy for the final (spoiler alert, she had plenty of energy for the final). In what was a very intense personal battle, Virginia put on her best game-face yet and hammered out an epic battle with her rival from Putney, Caroline, coming all the way down to a lunge.
An epic finish! (River Valley Graphics)
Virginia has gotten more aggressive and assertive with every race, and this was another step up toward what I think will be a really cool end-of-season run at BKL fest (still an 8th grader) and U16 Championships in March.
Lydia was a little bummed to not move on after a great qualifier, but has gotten two rounds of head-to-head racing in both sprints this year and is now shooting up in the overall U16 rankings. Lots of young MNC speedsters on the cusp of big things.
The drive home was, as always, a good chance to reflect. Each weekend has gone a bit better as we get ourselves in race mode again and again. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that a few years ago we would have been thinking “I hope someone can make it into the open heats” and we’re now having to use a whiteboard after the qualifier to organize skis into the “open heat pile, Junior heat pile, and U16 heat pile”. All of this after an already-successful skate day on a tough course and slow snow that left nothing to skis or technical skill, really…just the fittest and fastest in the bunch.
I can’t lie, and they’re public so everyone can see anyway: we’re LOCKED in tight battles across the board for “bubble” spots on some championship teams. No way to sugarcoat it…this weekend is going to be really huge. Luckily I know that we race better and better when the pressure is on. Time to pull out all the stops!
U16 girlz ready to shred some heats
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