- First Races Over...

This weekend we had a 15km classic race on friday and a 8.5 - 10km skate race on saturday. In the classic race I did not ski as well as I would have liked, I ended up 22nd place, which is solid but not what I am looking for. The course contained lots of long gradual hills that made for almost all double pole and double pole kick. So our backs took a beating with that much double polling. It ended up being a great warmup for todays skate race. Reese had an excelent race and beat me by a few seconds in the classic race so that was good to see. There were a couple of guys that double poled the whole race on skate skis, it did not seem like a good idea to us and in the end those guys did not have the best day.

The skate race went much better for me, the course was a point to point race that was mostly uphill. The first 6k were pretty easy up and down, just enough climbing to make you hurt but still go fast. Then the last bit of the race was just brutal, it was several k's of a massive hill that just got steeper and steeper. I felt great for the start, my skis were awesome, it seemed as though I could drive my skis hard into every hill and then on the other side on the downhill I could recover very fast and be ready for the next hill. By the time I hit the final climb my body was getting a bit tired and seemed to be filling with lactate very fast. I had not seen the last hill which ended up killing almost everyone in the race. I passed a guy skiing for Colorado on the lower flanks of the climb and then had to stay ahead of him, which I was able to do and put more time into him up the hill. In the end I got 9th place, which is my best distance result ever in a Super Tour race. So I am happy about that and ready to go again next week in Fairbanks for the classic sprints.

This weekend has been a good altitude camp for us and after racing at 8500 feet, Fairbanks is going to be sweet.

Here are some photos from the weekend.....

Waxing for the classic race....

Jacob getting his wax on.

David getting his double pole on..

Jacob starting out.

Anders Haugen (APU) and me coming up behind him..almost to finish.

This is me almost to the finish.

Reese bringing it home.

David almost home..

The haul for the weekend,Team FAST! I got paid for my 9th place overall and David and Reese both got medals for being fast juniors.

This is Bozeman, and this is why I am going home and not going to do a ski race in Bozeman. Not a lot of snow...