UVM Sprint

Skate sprint at Stowe yesterday. The wind was gusting like crazy in the morning, driving the new fallen snow/ice all over the place. Ezra and I made a heroic effort to put up our waxing tent, but had to abandon the idea before we ended up windsurfing across the parking lot. The entire sprint course was on a wide open hillside, so the skiers were in the thick of it the whole time - good thing it was only a 3-minute race. Forrest and Walt qualified for the elimination rounds in 16th and 30th, respectively (top 30 advanced). The rest of our team skied in the consolation heats - every 6 skiers after the top 30 skied in a single heat to determine their final placing, so you could move up or down as much as 5 places depending on where you had finished in the qualifying. Elissa, Maresa, Colman, Niko, and Nat were all able to improve on their qualifying finishes. In the quarterfinals of the elimination heats, Walt stayed right with the pack the whole way but couldn't quite get past them, ending up fifth in the heat to improve his overall place to 25th. Forrest got off to a great start in his quarterfinal and headed into the first downhill in a great position to draft, but ended up getting boxed in, had to check his speed, lost momentum, and slipped to the back. On the ensuing uphill, he got cut off when another skier made a move - that's sprint racing. He was able to fight his way into fifth, but that was all - his final place was 22nd. Overall, this was a fun day for us - people enjoyed the heats and gained some good experience racing in a tight pack. Some of us have some learning to do when it comes to sprint tactics, but that's what we're here for. Back to the usual distance racing next week - we're looking forward to it.