SuperTour Finals

The SuperTour Finals just wrapped up in Craftsbury. Due to the rapidly dwindling snow, the races were held on a 1.6k loop. Craftsbury has done a stellar job making and stockpiling snow this year, and it's a minor miracle that they had enough to pull off even this small loop. Our team was ably represented in last weekend's races by Spencer and Kaitlynn. Spencer had a solid performance in the 3.3k skate prologue, finishing 40th. He was the 10th EISA skier, with almost all of the top EISA skiers in attendance, so this was a very good showing, especially in his first crack at the prologue distance (not quite a sprint, but far shorter than our typical distance race).

The following day was a 10/15k classic mass start. With the snow disappearing rapidly, the course was reduced to a 1.6k loop. The tiny loop meant limited snow access, which gave racers very little chance to test wax and make adjustments to their race skis. Spencer ended up choosing his zeroes, which worked well during the brief testing window before the race - unfortunately, by race time the conditions had changed enough to render them useless. This made for a tough day, but he hung in there and raced respectably considering that he had almost no kick. With this lesson learned, they were able to pull together a workable klister combination for Kaitlynn; her skis weren't great, but she skied a solid race. It's tough enough to do a classic race without someone to help you with waxing and testing, and on a tricky waxing day with limited snow access it's even tougher. Still, I'm proud of these guys for giving their best in trying circumstances.

RESULTS

Even though it's almost April, Spencer still hasn't had enough; he's headed back to Craftsbury for tomorrow's 50k skate race - THIRTY laps on the 1.6k loop. Luckily, some intrepid teammates will be there to cheer him on and, more importantly, count laps. Should be an interesting race.