CXC Team Vertical Limit Blog

Updates from January, 2009 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

• Brian Gregg 2:33 pm on January 26, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

  CXC Strong in Mt. Itasca SuperTour 

  By Brian Gregg

  It was a good weekend for the CXC Team at the first stop in the Midwest Grand Prix. Bryan Cook and Caitlin Compton led the team with a second place finish and Caitlin Compton 3rd in the first day of competition. I had one of my better classic distance results finishing in a tight group of times for 4th place. Sunday was an even better day for the team with Compton winning by a minute and the CXC Men sweeping the podium.

  Mathew Liebsch led the sweep in the 10km Freestyle ahead of myself and Bryan Cook. Splits had Liebsch and me tied at 4km but Liebsch built an 18 second lead on the second lap to win his first SuperTour. Cook who is known to be a strong finisher closed to just 3 seconds behind me at the finish. We had a good lead over the rest of the field, finishing 40 seconds ahead of fourth place, Canadian Luke Vilakinen (NTDC/Big Thunder Nordic). Santiago Ocariz of University of Wisconsin Green Bay continues his strong season posting the top collegiate time.

  Caitlin Compton of CXC led from the wand to win the Women’s race by a minute. Although the race was interval start Compton crossed the line in an exciting sprint finish ahead of CXC teammates Kristina Owen (8th) and Maria Stuber (5th). Kristina Strandberg (Saab/Salomon) finished second with a 50 second gap on third place Lindsey Dehlin (USST). Kelly Chaudoin of Gustavus Adolphus won her first collegiate race, nearly a minute ahead of the next college skier.

  Classic Results

  Skate Results

   

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• kletz 12:47 am on January 21, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

  Whistler World Cup Qualification 

  by Bryan Fish
  We departed Anchorage, Alaska after delays and cancellations to US Nationals. It was good to get the skate race and classic sprint in, but everyone was hoping for more events to be held due to all the previous cancellations of SuperTour events.
  US SuperTour standings after the US Nationals selected the athletes to compete at the Whistler World Cup scheduled for January 16-18th. The modified West Yellowstone SuperTours and the two US Nationals competitions were the only events the athletes had to prove themselves. US National events score double points, so these two races weighed heavily on selection criteria. It was great for those that took full advantage of these few opportunities and unfortunate for those that might have had an off day at US nationals. It seems ironic that athletes train for years to get such an opportunity but selection be based on such as small sampling. That is just how it played out this year. What else can anyone do? All in all, I was very happy how decisions were made about the events. There were a lot of cancellations, but the cancellations had the athletes’ best intentions. Sending out athletes in dangerously cold temperatures and less than marginal conditions would have been worse.

   

• kletz 12:30 am on January 20, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

  2009 Seeley Hills Classic Video 

  The 17th annual Seeley Hills Classic ski races on Jan. 17 were dedicated to the memory of Seeley entrepreneur and ski trail developer Gary Penman.
  The Seeley Hills Classic is a Birkebeiner qualifying race and is sanctioned by USSA. Special thanks to the race director Dennis Kruse!

   

• gkuzzy 10:01 pm on January 15, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

  Olympic Jump Venue 

  More of the same great skiing in Whistler–a virtual carbon copy of yesterday, if not a little warmer still.  The stadium is totally complete with tracks set for the sprint course, v-boards, fencing, and jumbo-tron.  So far, however, this event feels like the smallest World Cup event I’ve seen.  Many teams are much smaller than normal–the Norwegians only have one sprinter here–and some big teams are missing completely; I haven’t seen any Finns, Swiss, or Czech skiers at all.  Because there is only one distance event here, I heard that many teams left their distance athletes at home.  This is surprising considering this will be the only World Cup race on these trails before the Olympics.  Don’t be fooled, though.  Most of the top skiers in the world are here, especially in the sprint field, and the World Cup points are as valuable here as anywhere else.  Everyone in the CXC camp is getting fired up to get out and race.

  Bryan race waxed our skis last night so we could test them on the course today.  Looks like we’ll be going on klister skis for sure, as the zeros don’t kick at all in the icy fast tracks we’ve got now.  I’ve got my fastest classic and skate skis picked out now and will see how the trail looks in the morning when I make my final decision whether to stride the course on classic skis or double-pole the loop on faster gliding skate skis.

  There are Jumping and Nordic Combined World Cup competitions taking place here this weekend as well.  Following our ski today, we stopped by the jumping complex, adjacent to the Nordic trails, to watch some training jumps.  Here are a few photos from the jumps. . .

  

  Caitlin Compton at the jumps

  

  The jumps don't look that big, but check out the skier flying down the 140m hill

  

  Post-training interviews with skiers a long way from home!

  We watched the special jumping training (skiers that just compete in ski jumping).  There are no US athletes that compete in special jumping.  US skiers Billy Demong, currently 3rd in the World Cup Overall, and Johnny Spillane are training later in the afternoon during the Nordic Combined training.

  

  The drive back to Whistler takes about 30 min, but the views help to pass the time

   

• gkuzzy 11:00 pm on January 14, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

  Sunny Whistler 

   

   We woke up this morning to the first sunny day in Whistler since we arrived last Friday.  In the short time I’ve spent here, I’ve realized that there aren’t that many nice days in Whistler, but the days when the sun actually does come out are beautiful!

  As of today, all of the American athletes are in town.   Several skiers opted to stay in Anchorage for a few days after Nationals to help with the Fast & Female clinic or compete in the UAA Seawolves Invitational.  Congrats to Brian Gregg for his win in the 15km mass start skate!  Now that we’re all here, the wax cabins are filling with skis and flouros and the World Cup atmosphere is finally palpable in the stadium.

   

  The Americans will be competing in different events this weekend, so everyone is out doing their own workout out here to get ready for their race.

  

  Matt Liebsch was out hammering a combo threshold workout, doing the first half on classic skis and the second half on skate skis to prepare for the 30km pursuit.

  

  Mikey Sinnott was out doing some double-pole over speed sprints to get his tempo up for the Classic Sprint on Friday and testing his speedy Salomon boards.

  

  Evelyn Dong is taking a brief hiatus from her Worldloppet endeavors (of which she is the series leader) and honing her skills on the World Cup instead.  Look for the reigning Birkie Champion to score some valuable World Cup points this weekend!

  

  Dark-horse Lars Flora is ready to have a breakout race this season and show how it’s done when it matters most.  Lars looks to improve upon his impressive race on the same trails last spring when he took 3rd place at Canadian National Championships by double-poling his way around the 10km classic loop.

  It was impossible to catch Caitlin Compton on the course today to get a photo.  Must be a sign of good things to come from the newly (re)crowned US National Champion.

  Stay tuned as we close in on Vancouver 2010!

  

   

• kletz 4:36 pm on January 14, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

  What a Difference a Day Makes Part I 

  
  I started to reminisce about the first portion of our race season as we reunited with our van in Seattle, WA. We had left our van in the greater Seattle area at Bob and Kelli Owen’s home since flying back to the Midwest on December 15th. It was cool looking at all the gear left in the trailer from the pre-holidays western SuperTours, including rock skis, rollerskis and helmets – all reminders of the challenging snow conditions left behind. A bright spot that made me chuckle to myself was the two cases of Athlete Honey Milk remaining. Athlete Honey Milk is a new product that our athletes were testing as an all-natural recovery drink including lactose-free milk as the protein source and honey to replenish carbohydrate stores immediately after training. There are all kinds of products out there, but this natural and ingenious combination was a hit with our athletes. Good taste is always a necessary for an athlete to make nutritional items a habit and it was one thing that required no reminding after workouts.

  Today, Caitlin Compton, Matt Liebsch, Garrott Kuzzy and I drove through the rain in Vancouver and Squamish, British Columbia en route to the Whistler World Cups. We were quite excited to see rain. Not a common response for skiers but I think we were all welcoming warmer weather after the bone-chilling cold we left behind this morning in Anchorage.

  Looking at the first portion of the 2008-09 race season – overcoming adversity and irony were the first things that come to my mind. No one could predict how things would shake out as we departed Hayward at 6:00AM on November 14. The forecast and conditions looked extremely bright as we departed. Snow and cold temperatures blanketed western Minnesota and the Dakotas – such conditions are an uncommon site at that time of the year. Driving was challenging but the excitement of snow overcame the slow travel.

   

• gkuzzy 11:12 pm on January 13, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

  Olympic Winter Park 

  Four days out from the pre-Olympic World Cup, the CXC boys decided it was time to hone their classic skis and classic technique on the race course.  Coach Fish waxed several klister skis while Zach Caldwell of CSS dropped off some freshly ground Salomon “Zero” skis for us to test.

  

  Matt showing off the CXC Arsenal

  

  Bryan working with Matt on technique

  

  
  

  

  Enjoying the descents

  

  Clouds burning off the mountains

  
  

  The “Zeros” are special skis manufactured specifically for temperatures at O degrees C, between the klister and hardwax range.  The base is a rubber and cork composite that can be roughed with sandpaper to function as a synthetic hairy ski.  In the right conditions, these skis are awesome.

  Whistler seems to always have conditions ideal for zeros and today was no exception.  Our zero skis were kicking better and gliding faster than our best klister boards.

  Once we had the skis dialed, we skied up into the hills to spend some time working on classic technique.  Bryan had several drills for us to work on before the races.  By the end of the ski, the sun had burned away many of the clouds, offering the first good views that we’ve seen of the mountains since we arrived.

   

• koskier 9:52 pm on January 11, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

  Interview with Matt 

   

• gkuzzy 8:30 pm on January 11, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

  Whistler 

  

  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  Greetings from Whister, BC.  After two weeks of sub-zero temperatures in Anchorage, the 33 degree sleet coming down at the Whistler Olympic Park trail is a welcome change.

  The CXC Team had a successful, albeit brief, week at the US National Championships in Anchorage.  After finishing the Classic Sprint on Thursday, the team split up and headed in a few different directions.  The majority flew back to the Midwest to get ready for the upcoming SuperTour races.  Brian Gregg stuck around Anchorage to race in the Western Collegiate races at Kincaid, and Caitlin, Matt, Bryan Fish, & I flew to Seattle, picked up the CXC van and drove to Whistler for the pre-Olympic World Cup races next weekend.

  Got a nice, long ski in on the trails yesterday with Matt.  We’re taking a relaxing day off today.  Here are a couple of photos from an adventure around the Whistler Village this morning.  Stay tuned for more on the CXC Team World Cup trip!

   

• kletz 9:16 pm on January 6, 2009 Permalink | Reply  

  Finn Sisu Fine Grinds 

  By Bryan Fish (CXC Elite Team)

  

  The snow here at US Nationals in SLOW and COLD & ski structure is as critical as nailing the wax.  We have been waxing day and night trying to get all our skis up to speed in these extreme conditions.  We are working on skis from a number of grinders and our wax trailer unanimously agree that your Finn Sisu fine grinds appear to be the most well manicured.  We are testing many of the athletes’ skis through speed trap and “feel” testing to help them make their ski selections and what we see in the wax trailer is confirmed in speed trap tests.  The Finn Sisu grinds are our best running skis.  It is not an exaggeration to state that these fine grinds are world class.  Every well ground pair of skis has one thing in common – a knowledge operator that has a sincere desire to provide the skier with great skis.  It is apparent that Finn Sisu has this..

   

  It is also true that the Finn Sisu grinds have been our fastest skis in the last two American Birkebeiners, which shows the versatility.

   

  I sincerely thank Ahvo and Finn Sisu for the GREAT skis. I like to see skiers enjoy fast skis & I strongly feel that the care Finn Sisu shop puts into the skis will no doubt provide a great skiing experience.

   

  Thanks for helping Matt and Caitlin with their podium finishes.  Jesse Diggins was also the 3rd junior and 1st J1.  I strongly feel that the skis played a major role yesterday.