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This weekend was a weekend of City Sprints, with the World Cup skiers flying around the streets of Dusseldorf, Germany, and the Continental Cup skiers ripping around Lindley Park in Bozeman.  City Sprints are always a blast because the courses are fast and there are a lot of spectators lining the course.  This weekend was no exception.  We had excellent mid-winter conditions with some great fans cheering on the racers in Bozeman today.  Simi Hamilton, one of my former college teammates, laid down the hammer in the qualifier and posted a solid time.  Gus missed qualifying for the heats by .01 seconds.  That’s close even in an alpine race.  He volunteered to be our chauffeur and brought our team back to the hotel for a quick lunch and hot shower before heading back to Lindley for the afternoon heats.  Bozeman got about 3″ of fresh snow last night, but the groomers from BSF did an awesome job making the track firm and fast.  The volunteers also kept the heats running right on schedule, which is not something to be taken for granted when racers are standing around in race suits waiting to start.  It was another solid day for CXC with most of our athletes making the heats and moving on into the finals.  Thanks to Fish and Igor for their hard work, especially re-waxing with the variable conditions this morning.  Looking forward to a long distance ski tomorrow, putting in some volume while the rest of the crew hammers out one of the more fun classic courses I’ve seen in a while at Bohart Ranch.  No pictures from the day yet, but I look forward to posting some as they become available.

We’re off to Silver Star after the races tomorrow, heading back to Canada.  Might be a day or two before the next update, so stay tuned.  We’ll definitely be up there in time to watch the big game at Lambeau on Monday Night.

Well, maybe we don’t tear out the walls quite like Joe Walsh.  We do take out the beds and furniture, then cover the floor with plastic to make ourselves a wax room.  It’s busy in there today, waxing for the weekend.  Everyone is pouring Toko LF blue, the fastest cold wax around, into their skis in prep for a frigid weekend in Bozeman.

Bozeman Best Western Gran Tree: our home away from home for the weekend

Caitlin Compton has been traveling with us this week.  Great to have her back with the CXC crew, bringing our focus up a notch and entertaining us with her stories.  Stay tuned as we dive into the races this weekend.  Here’s Caitlin showing off the stadium at Lindley Park in Bozeman.

Comp-town U.S.A.

Being a Midwesterner, I’m not used to the dry weather in the West.  There are definite advantages to the dry air, like being able to forget wet ski clothes in a backpack and still have them be dry when you’re ready to work out in the afternoon.  One of the disadvantages is that it seems to really dry out my throat and sinuses.  I’ve been trying all the tricks in the book to help get rid of that: taking steamy showers, drinking warm tea, and laying a wet towel over the heater in my motel room.  Those remedies all seem to be working.  In fact, when I was leaving my room this morning, my hand stuck to the doorknob.  While I was waiting for the knob to thaw so I could remove my hand, I realized two things: 1. there is plenty of humidity in the room and 2. it’s going to be really cold outside.

Sure enough, it was -22 F.  Perfect.  Got to try out my new Darth Vader mask by Air Trim.  The classic skiing was perfect with fresh, solid tracks, albeit a little on the slow side.

Of course, you can’t wear a mask like that and not have a little fun with it!  The mask really warms up the air so that when you breathe, it doesn’t feel anywhere near as cold as -22 F.  It also helped take a lot of sting out of the dry air.

Kristina demonstrating how it's done.

We’re packing up this morning and heading north to Bozeman shortly.  Racing resumes this weekend with a Skate Sprint on Saturday at Lindley Park in Bozeman and a 15km Classic at Bohart Ranch on Sunday.

Monday is the first day of the work week for most people.  For me, like most NFL quarterbacks, it’s the one rest day I take each week.  Since my freshman year in college, Monday has always been set aside to do everything I didn’t get to do the previous week, or get on top of things for the week ahead.  After a full weekend of racing, it felt great to kick back and simply relax.  West Yellowstone is practically empty, with a handful of skiers wandering the streets as the tumbleweed rolls in from the Plains.

photo: Zack Simons

Zack Simons from Steinbock Racing was out on the trail taking some great photos this weekend.  This shot is of the CXC freight train: Kuzz and Cook shoveling on a little more coal.

Ski camp is all about having a good time.  Here are a few photos from the past week. . .

Bill Pierce carving one of our four turkeys (no leftovers!)

CXC crew taking over the warming hut pre-race. Chuck can't help showing off his guns any chance he gets.

Jessie, what is going on?

The Golden Arches.

The wolves can be heard howling every night, just blocks from our hotel.

Rob from Salt Lake takes his dogs for a ski. Or is it the other way around?

This photo really captures the essence of the Yellowstone Ski Festival, getting out and having fun on snow.  The town doesn’t salt or sand the roads, so you can ski or snowmobile practically anywhere in town.  If you’re into trying out skijoring, a friend of mine, John Thompson from St. Paul, wrote a great book called Ski Spot Run. You can find the book, along with all your skijoring gear, at New Moon Ski & Bike in Hayward, WI.

John Hugus entertaining us with one of his many tales.

The junior team, at odds even before their 18 hour drive.

It’s not going to be the same without the junior and masters team next week.

We did a little racing here too (photo: swix sport)

A brief follow-up to my previous post:  Someone from the Festival must’ve read about the need for podium girls on the SuperTour, because Kelli from Freeheel and Wheel was on hand with kisses for all the podium finishers.  Wow.

Another one in the books.  Solid skate race this morning.  Tried to start conservative and pick it up towards the finish.  Paced and raced exactly like I wanted and I’m very happy with the race.  Congrats to Leif on his win in classic Zimmermann style, laying down the hammer in the final kilometers.  Also great to have Hoff up there for an All-American podium.  Fish prepped some great skate skis for us again today and the training plan he’s written for us is paying off.  We had 3 CXC men in the top six, with Liebsch and Gregg taking 5th and 6th respectively.  It was awesome to hear all the spectators out on the course.  I’m pretty sure there was a corner with all Midwesterners that got me fired up ripping around the course.

Skis are prepped and ready for the 10km classic tomorrow.  After a lot of work on classic technique this summer, I’m looking forward to finally testing my skills in a distance race.

photo: swix sport

Maybe someday the SuperTour will get podium girls for the yellow jersey!

The reason Americans are faster cyclists than skiers.

Today was a solid start to the season.  It was a long sprint-only qualifier on an icy, fast course.  Thanks to Fish for some of the best classic skis I’ve ever skied on–fast glide and easy kick.  Woke up early this morning to a starry sky, which can only mean one thing in West: cold.  The snow set-up solid over night with temps below zero and we had ideal conditions for the race.  It was the first cross country race I’ve ever skied “blind.”  We weren’t allowed to preview the course before the race, sort of like an alpine event.  The icy fast corners took a lot of skiers by surprise and there were a number of casualties on the course.  Big points for everyone who stayed on their feet.  Great to be out racing again!  I’ll try to get up a better report later, but I’ve gotta roll. . .

photo: swix sport - sweet new poles

After a lot of hard work this spring, summer, and fall, the racing season is finally here. . .

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waxed and ready

The hay's in the barn

We’ll be racing a 1.5km classic sprint tomorrow morning at 9am.  There are 400 men and women on the start list, starting at 15 sec intervals.  No heats, just one blazing fast qualifier.  Hit it!

Every year in West Yellowstone, Salomon sponsored athletes lead a clinic called “Ski with the Best.”  This year, we got to ski with the Duluth East Ski Team, one of the best high school teams in Minnesota, as well as a number of other master skiers in town for the  Ski Festival.  Since there’s no Salomon Factory Team this year, the CXC Team led the clinic.

Brian, Audrey, Jessie, Jojo, Gus, Kelly, & Karl

We had an impressive turnout of participants. . .

Black attire required

We broke into small groups to work on ski technique and skills.  My group did a recon mission on the classic sprint course, testing the speed of striding vs. double-pole on the gradual climbs, and racing through the corners shoulder-to-shoulder.  To finish it off, we worked on our lunges across the line.

Amelia, Garrott, Erin, and Annie lunging for the line