With timetrials completed and training camps in the rear view, racing started for real this past weekend in Craftsbury with the Rodriguez Sprints and Kendall Classic. MNC was out racing on both days, with Juniors and Masters both getting the bibs on and laying it on the line.
Having a “Royal Court” sprint in the early season is a great idea. The format means everyone races a qualifier, and then 3 successive heats with brackets based on your finish and place…basically, you’re always racing people roughly your same speed (male or female). Nobody is ever knocked out, so unlike a more traditional sprint you definitely get your money’s worth!
Astrid coming into the finish leading Williams, Orford and…hey, we know that Bates skier (Elsa!)!
It’s also perfect as a learning opportunity. Several of our U16 athletes (Mia, Acadia, Isaiah, Jorgen, Liam) had never done a real sprint day before, with the qualifier and then heats. It’s tough to give it your all, then know that in about an hour’s time you’ll be doing it all again three more times…against 5 other opponents!
It was the strongest this race field has ever been. 5 full college teams were present: UVM, Middlebury, Williams, Harvard, and St Mikes…plus all of your usual faces from the Eastern Cup like Ford Sayre and of course Craftsbury. But with strong qualifiers, we knew there would be fierce racing.
All 4 of the MNC girls racing (Seven, Astrid, Acadia, Mia) made it into the top 30 for the women’s field, meaning if this had been a traditional knockout sprint they’d all have made the “open” heats which is very cool! On the men’s side it was lined-up to be a close age group battle between clubs and colleges alike, with Lorenzo leading the charge in the first “block” of racing.
Lorenzo would go on to win this heat, despite taking a little extra time to smile for another camera. Fun is fast.
It was a very wintry day with temps in the upper teens, a fresh coating of snow on the trees, and bright sun. Hard to complain! The racecourse was wide and well-groomed, but that didn’t mean racing in a group was easy…one thing is for sure, experienced racers do not hold back on making moves and being agile in the midst of battle. Everyone got some good practice on movement, reaction, and positioning.
As Liam demonstrates, having one of the right side lanes at the start meant smooth sailing into the first right-hand turn
Acadia chasing down two other clubs we know well: Ford Sayre and Craftsbury
Double Bowen heat with the official “M for Mansfield” starting sign
So after a long day of sprinting, the air got quite cold and it certainly felt like the next day would shape up to be a beautiful cool morning with fresh snow, hard tracks, and blue kickwax.
But this still New England, after all. So as a payment for our one beautiful sunny, cold, clear race day on Saturday, we awoke on Sunday to about 6 more inches of powdery snow, with more still coming down hard. Plus, it felt a fair bit warmer and more humid than the day before.
And then about 20 minutes before the start of the men’s classic race, that snow decided to turn into rain. Did your skis have kick? Maybe. Did they have glide? Maybe. Would there be something that provided both in a reasonable manner? Probably not. The UVM men’s team gave up on classic skiing entirely, as a matter of fact, and took out their skate skis again for some double poling.
Everyone got through this challenging race, which proved a different kind of learning/prep for the season ahead! A highlight for me was not necessarily just the racing, though. In the afternoon was some U16 races, a bit shorter than those earlier in the day. Jorgen and James were ready to go for it, and despite the interval start format it looked like they were charging right from the wand. And they weren’t alone:
A popular item among the athletes these days is the “Soundboks” which is an oversize speaker with a durable battery and bluetooth connection. Think of a large Marshall amp that you can wirelessly play Spotify over from your phone trailside. And now picture most teams having one that they gather around to cheer on their teammates with. And now picture the fact that MNC somehow has 3 of these things (and yes, you can connect and sync them so that all three are in unison).
Needless to say, the wax trailer could probably serve as backup roadie rig for AC/DC at this point.
But love them or hate them (the opinions are very mixed, trust us) they certainly do bring people together! The U16 races on Sunday featured a large gang of U18 racers who had competed earlier in the day out on the steepest hill, running alongside every racer and blasting their vibes. What really made me psyched was to see that even though MNC didn’t have any U16 girls racing on the day (the last event) our crew was still out there blasting music and cheering on everyone in the event.
But back to the racing itself, Jorgen made good on his pre-race feelings of energy and excitement with a big win! And James was only 3 seconds off the podium in 4th. This was a pretty competitive field in tricky conditions, so it was great to see lots of work over the summer and fall come to fruition.
One podium in America (Jorgen at Craftsbury)…
…and another in Canada! (Jonah at the Junior races in British Columbia)
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