Cook on podium in 30k mass start!
A great day at the races for the CXC Team Vertical Limit!
The big news of the day is Bryan Cook’s third place finish behind APU’s James Southam and USST’s Kris Freeman. Cook was skiing in alone in thrid place 2 laps into the race, behind Southam and Freeman who had broken away, when David Norris of Fairbanks came from behind and surged past Cook. Cook was concerned about this move, but stayed relaxed and kept Norris in his sight. It appeared as through Norris might claim the final podium position until 1k remained in the race. That’s when Cook noticed Norris was beginning to struggle, so made his move. Cook entered the stadium alone and skied to a solid third place finish.
Congratulations also to former CXC’er and fellow Minnesotan Caitlin Compton on her sprint to the finish to claim 3rd in the women’s race.
Cook powering to the finish on the last hill. Not bad after 29.5k.
Crossing the line
Looks like he left it all out on the course.
A great day for CXC.
Men's podium
Meet the press
Other CXC results are:
Women
4. Rebecca Dussault
12. Maria Stuber
20. Kristina Owen
32. Audrey Weber
Men:
3. Bryan Cook
5. Bryan Gregg
7. Tad Elliott
22. Gus Kaeding
31. Karl Nygren
42. Matt Liebsch (despite a broken ski)
Backing up a bit, here is an account of the eventful start of the day for the women:
We thought it was joke when we got a call at around 7:45 this morning telling us it was snowing at the venue. The coaches needed to locate our zeros to start waxing them up for testing. We looked out the window but no flakes were falling at the hotel. By the time we walked out to the van, though, it was a blizzard in Midtown. The car thermometer read 29 degrees. All the makings of an exciting day of racing!
We arrived at the venue and the snow was still falling heavily. The wax trailer was a flurry of activity with the coaches prepping different waxes to test. They told us not to count on getting our race skis much before the start. I proceeded with my warm up, checking in with the wax progress every fifteen minutes. Finally, at 9:40, 20 minutes before the 10 o’clock mass start, I got on my zeros. They weren’t kicking today. I ran back and got my kick waxed skis, which had just finished being prepped. I glanced at the clock in the stadium as I put them on: it was 9:48, twelve minutes to go. They kicked well, but were still a little slick. I dashed back to the trailer to get more wax, but the wax had been taken to the stadium for last minute adjustments! I stripped down to my race uniform and grabbed my skis. I found Brandan with the wax at 9:54, and I still had to pick up my timing chip and get through ski marking. I breezed through there and finished strapping on my poles just as the 1 minute count down began. Safe!
My pre-race experience was not vastly different from that of most of the other racers. People were dashing about trying to get there skis dialed in time. The pre-race chaos was an appropriate warm-up for the congestion and unpredictability of the mass-start, which made for some exciting and intense racing.
What a difference a day makes: the tracks we were looking foward to racing on yesterday.
Kurt Ohlinger 6:28 pm on January 12, 2010 Permalink |
Will Gus and Cook be at the Seeley Hills Classic? Anyone else?
audreyweber 3:25 am on January 13, 2010 Permalink |
I’m not sure who all is racing, but Cook, Maria, and I will be in town for the SuperFit at River Brook.