Last week we watched almost all of our bountiful snow turn to grass in the course of 2 days. On Friday while driving to Rikert, patches of snow on the northern sides of hills and forest edges were steaming and sweltering as the cover evaporated right into the balmy air.
On Friday night a wall of cold swept throgh while we slept, and it went from 50 to -5 in no time at all. Rain turned to sleet, then turned to snow, then just kept snowing. And blowing.
Thankfully Rikert had a great base, some helpful elevation, and a trail crew that’s dealt with more than your average share of finicky natural chaos. Courses were changed, but races were not! And it’s a good thing too, because the Pugs had some good momentum going into this one and the racing showed that strength in all sorts of ways.
When it goes from tropical to tundra in 12 hours, with every type of precipitation imaginable, what’s the last event you want to wax for? That’s right, a classic sprint! Last year Rikert also held a classic sprint, also in challenging conditions that resulted in a lot of [unintentional] double poling. I made some bad wax calls that day, and it cost us dearly, and so I was actually somewhat relishing having another challenging classic sprint at Rikert to prove that troublesome kick days are an exception for us, and not the norm.
Thanks to a nice combination of some extremely thin precision klister work and a variety of nice hardwax combinations, our crew (myself, Sara, Kate, Liam, Dan) was able to put together some skis that kicked well and went fast. Of course, that wouldn’t have been possible without fast skiers on top of those boards, and the Pugs delivered.
As the qualifier results rolled in, we learned that Magda had absolutely stomped the women’s race to qualify for the open heats (top 30) in 15th place! Camille also skied into the open women’s heats in 27th, while Aidan nabbed 29th to make it three U16s toeing the line in the heats with the open field! The stage was set and the crowd (or maybe just me) was hyped for a Burt vs Burt quarterfinal with Aidan and Greg scheduled to race in the same heat, although Greg was feeling a bit tired from a string of stellar performances at US Nationals and opted to sit out the heats. Next time!
In the heats, both Magda and Aidan skied really well and were right in the mix, notching 4th in each of their respective heats. That was enough to garner them each 2nd place in the U16 races, and 17th (Magda) and 20th (Aidan) in the whole Eastern Cup. Camille skied right with her heat the whole way too and battled it out to finish 28th overall!
Aidan and Magda with their podium prizes: local hot sauce
Despite claiming to not be a sprinter, Isaac also made the open heats in 27th and skied all the way up to 15th place with 3rd in his heat, barely missing out on advancing to the final. He was looking forward to the distance skate race the next day more though…more on that in a bit.
In the “bittersweet category” were Kai and Jenny, who narrowly missed open heats and would have been strong qualifiers for the U18/U20 heats had those events not been cancelled due to the weather causing postponements and necessitating the elimination of those races. Still great sprint efforts though!
Ali and Sammie were also dangerously close to the open heats, with a fall on the downhill in the qualifier taking Ali out of contention. These two Pugs were out for revenge in the U16 heats though…they each won their semifinal heats, and then went on to go 1-2 in the A-Final, with Ali absolutely decimating the rest of the field…the picture below is from the final, although it looks like an individual start race because Ali was so far ahead of the rest coming into the finish!
Nobody in sight!
We had some first-time sprinters, and a tough crew of wax-support athletes from “MNC South” (Brattleboro) and beyond. Dakota moved up a ton of spots from his first Eastern Cups in Fort Kent, and even though they were under the weather Rose and Lily got after it with a hard fast effort.
During a team meeting on Tuesday we talked about what it means to have confidence, and how that’s a good thing to carry with you. We discussed “power posing”, tried out our favorites, and busted them out this weekend. Before people went off to start their races, the group was really into embracing the poses.
Kai and Jenny powering up
Power poses making their way into the cheering section!
Couple more images from Dave: Rose and Dakota getting after it!
On Sunday things were bright, sunny, and cold. The lack of wind made it feel amazing though, as did the transformed snow which was fast and fun. The racing started out with the U16 5k events, where Aidan notched another 2nd place finish. He and GMVS skier Brian Bushey have had a nice little rivalry going from a few races, and on this day Aidan was in first place after lap 1 before Brian stormed it on the second lap to take his first Eastern Cup win. It’s looking like these two will have some fun together representing New England in Utah in a few months.
The women’s race showed that MNC was a force to be reckoned with, thanks to 4 in the top 10, 5 if you count Quincy’s “dual club citizenship!” 😉
Camille with top style points for the Flylow mittens (don’t tell Toko!)
Q took home 2nd place, while not far behind was a name you can probably expect to see near the front of more Eastern Cups sooner rather than later…it was Ava “I’m not that good at skate skiing” Thurston, ripping along to 4th place in her first Eastern Cup start as a U14!
Camille had a great race to notch 5th, with Ali 6th and Magda 9th to really solidify the Pugs as the major players in this field. Definitely a great way to start the day.
Things were exciting for the older racers, as they competed in their first individual-start distance race this year. Jenny was pumped to start right as one of her biggest competitors was lapping through; she latched on for 2 of the 3 laps, and then put the hammer down and increased her speed even more on the last lap to take 26th overall! Also skiing a super smooth and speedy race was Marika who crushed it with 15th place and has just been on fire and very consistent in all 4 of the Eastern Cup races so far.
In the men’s race, Isaac absolutely stormed the course and cranked out a 6th place overall finish! This was the race last year where he turned some heats by finishing in the top 20, and this year he was really not messing around, finishing as the 3rd U18 behind World Junior team qualifiers Ben Ogden and Scott Schultz. Williams is lucky to have him next year!
Not to be outdone, both Gaelen and Kai showed their distance racing chops. In terms of raw data, these two guys train a lot, and those hours showed their benefit this day with 17th and 25th place overall finishes: big personal-bests for both!
This weekend brought out some real strengths of the team, and although it’s hard for everyone to have their best day on every single day, it’s hard to say we didn’t take another step forward overall at these races. I’m sure part of it has to do with the venue being close-to-home, but more than that it shows a good focus for the past few weeks: people that have been getting out and training well were ready to rock this weekend.
It hasn’t always been easy to balance schedules, training goals, and racing conflicts these past few weeks. For these races though, almost everyone was “in the moment” and not caught up in other areas. Of course, it sounds like that’ll change this week with some exams for a good number of the team, but it’s a good time to take a [short] breather for a few days before we start to build up to a few more one-day races and then the last two Eastern Cups of the season. Looking forward to the action!
Big thanks to all the parents, MNC wax crew, Rikert organizing crew, and all others for a great weekend!
See you again soon Rikert!
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