Five and a half months is
a long season and a long time to stay mentally and physically sharp. Now
as the season comes to a close, I'm feeling quite exhausted and secretly hoping
the rest of the snow will melt so we can say a final goodbye to winter.
Luckily the season ended with as much excitement as it began so
underneath many layers of fatigue I'm more inspired than ever for a new year
and the challenges and adventures ahead.
Here are some belated
stories and reports from the final races of the year.
The XC World Cup season
ended with World Cup finals in Sweden. The top 50 in the World Cup
overall standings compete in finals. Qualifying for these races was a
"reach" goal for me so it was exciting to make it happen and
experience the progress. Last year the USST had three women and two
men qualify for finals and this year we had six ladies and four men racing in
Sweden which showed our team improvements.
World Cup finals is a
four race mini tour which begins with a city sprint in Stockholm.
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| In my first visit to Stockholm, I had fun exploring the old city while running with the other girls |
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| RAWR! Watch out! |
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| A city square which we ran through |
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| Not a bad race venue backdrop! |
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| XC
Skiing is a big deal in Sweden so it was really exciting to sprint in the old
city around the palace in front of huge crowds |
After having had a few
rough races in a row, I used the energy and excitement for a really good last
World Cup sprint of the year. I qualified in 11th which was a personal
best qualification for me. I used some poor tactics in the heat, attempting
to take advantage of the draft on the windy track next to the harbor but let
myself get boxed in and ultimately finished 4th in my heat and 20th overall.
It was still a very fun day and re-energized me for the last few races of
year.
From Stockholm we drove
three hours northwest to Falun for the last three stages of the mini tour,
including a 2.5km skate prologue, a 10km classic mass start, and a 10km skate
pursuit. Falun will be hosting the World Championships in 2015 and built
some new trails for the event. The trail designers wanted to showcase the
infamous Morderbacken hill and push the limits with huge uphills and technical
descents.
Unfortunately they went a bit over the top and after the
downhill had been skied a few times everyone was wishing they had metal edges
to tackle the icy slope. It was steep, fast, and narrow but didn't ski
well with sharp off camber finishes to the turns which combined with ice pushed
you into the fencing and trees. Skiing it alone in an individual start
race would get your heart racing and in a mass start would be just dangerous.
Skiercross on cross country skis on a narrow trail through the woods
which was steeper than adjacent the ski jumping landing strip? Serious injuries
and maybe career ending collisions and falls were deemed a possibility in
Saturday's classic mass start race so the athletes worked together to propose
course changes. At first we were met with an absolute no since the TV
cameras and timing had already been setup. With athlete safety on the
line, we met multiple times the day before the race and threatened to boycott
the first race of the mini tour if the course wasn't changed. It became a
very heated issue with lots of media involved.
We made the Norwegian tabloids:
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| Democracy in action |
After several more meetings and a high proportion of athletes signing a
petition to boycott the weekend if the course wasn't changed, a compromise was
reached on the morning of the first race. A new course was set which used
only the bottom of the downhill and cut out some of the sketchier turns so
everyone agreed to start.
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| Yes we were going to race! |
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| Racing in the 2.5km Prologue (Salomon Nordic photo) |
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| I had a slow start in the 10km classic but came back on the final two
laps to score distance points with a top 30 finish. Here I am tired and
spent after the last day of racing! |
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Immediately
following the last race we had to pack and after spending five months on the
road, this was quite the process. Here is Noah's ski bag with 30+ pairs of skis
in it. After we finished packing, we got to relax and celebrate the
season with the rest of the World Cup field. It was a fun and laid back
way to meet other athletes.
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We were all very ready to
head back to the US but after months on the road what is one more day? We
stayed to participate in the first Fast and Female event held outside of North
America. It was cool to share this program with our Swedish friends and
to meet some enthusiastic young Swedish skiers.
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| Sixty girls attended the inaugural event and after an afternoon of
skiing, dancing, and talks they lined up to get their pink tshirts. |
From Sweden I flew to California where
I met up with the rest of the GRP. After having been separated across the
globe competing in lots of different races, it was really fun to reunite with
everyone and ski together as a team for the last races of the year
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| The GRP only missing Gordon and Maria |
While we had a lot of
sun, we also had some other "less typical California"
weather but our awesome wax team conquered all the conditions. The sloppy
April conditions combined with 7200' of altitude, a stuffed up nose and a cough
made for some hard racing! I've never seen the entire field walking in a
race but when you're herringboning up a big wall through knee deep sugar at
high elevation in April, sometimes there isn't another choice. At times
it felt more like a slow paced hike at maximal effort than a ski race but so it
goes.
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The 3km prologue was rainy, snowy, and wet. We battled the
sloppy conditions and had a great day as a team with five top 10 finishes.
Here's Pat leading the guys with a top 5 finish.
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| The women's field at the start of the 10km mass start race. Can you find
all the green suits? (Ryan Scott photo) |
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| The start of the men's final for the classic sprints. We had two people
in both the men's and the women's finals. It was a great last sprint for me as
I won the qualifying round and ended up 2nd in the final after winning my
quarterfinal and semifinal heats. |
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| 2nd
Place Buddies |
I
decided to end my season on a high note so after the sprint, I decided to give
my hacking lungs a rest and fly home a few days early, skipping the hill climb
and the marathon.
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The sweet taste of spring!
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| Two buckets of sap is one of the best welcome home presents, especially
since maple syrup is a rarity in Europe |
This morning I awoke to a
few more inches of fresh snow and there is still great skiing on the trails at
Craftsbury so I don't know if I'll be putting the boards away for good yet but
it's also nice to be able to sleep in my own bed, explore some backcountry
and alpine trails, and have the time to put up my feet and rest after a really
fun winter.
Thanks for reading and thanks for all the support along the way!
