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.