I will start by saying the City of Lakes Loppet
race, or rather the epic 3-day adventure that made up the new Minne-Tour
was a blast! Despite any minor growing pains from expanding the event
to longer days and longer trails, I think the Loppet Foundation put on a
great event, and it should only get better.
My weekend started on Friday night at the Finn Sisu Sprints. Honestly this was the first sprint race of my life, and I
really didn't know how I would fare. My quarterfinal heat consisted of
myself, the very fast Andy Brown, my formidable Vakava teammate Craig
Cardinal, and two other skiers. Truthfully even though we had some fast
skiers I think we had the easiest of the heats simply because this was
actually the first sprint race of Andy and Craig's lives too. The other
heats had guys like Matt and Doug who have done the supertour races and
have much more sprinting experience.
The sprint course was approximately 800m with a 100m
straight at the start, followed by a wide, 90 degree left-hand turn
into the short up and down "hill" over the covered walking tunnel,
followed by a 50m flat. This lead to the big hill on the course, which
was actually pretty steep and was a true V1 hill. At the top of the hill
was a 100m flat section with a 180 degree turn at the end. You then
went in reverse on the course to the finish - with the added bonus of a
"jump" on the last downhill (very Québec city-sprint). (f/go has a bunch of pictures of the evening)
In previewing the course it became immediately clear
that whoever got to that first turn would have a huge advantage for the
remainder of the race, as the passing opportunities were very limited.
So for my quarterfinal heat I went out as hard as I could, immediately
jumped to the lead, and then spent the rest of the less-than-two-minutes
of the heat flailing to stay in front. Around the final turn to the
homestretch I was far enough in the lead that I could ease up to the
line. Andy was able to hold onto second to also advance to the
semifinals.
Our semifinal heat was only 15 minutes later, and my
legs were jelly when the gun went off. Now Andy and I were facing off
with Doug Debold and another quick guy, Kasey Basco (dressed as Super Mario, the video game character, not the Swiss skier), and despite my prior knowledge
of how important a fast start was, I immediately found myself in the
back of our group of four. Despite my legs wobbling the whole way, I
stayed right on the back of Andy and Kasey, and around the last turn as Kasey
was starting to fade I actually had a fleeting vision of slingshotting
around both of them into second. Instead as I tried to move around I ran
out of room, heard Andy's pole break, and only could come across the
line a very close (but still) 4th place. So Andy and I moved to the
B-final.
Now I had over an hour to relax, pick up my other
bibs, and wait until my last race of the night. The whole point of doing
the sprints was because they were part of the Minne-Tour series, and
you could get minutes (or seconds) reduced off your overall time for
finishing well in the sprint. Winning got 2 minutes off your overall
time. Winning the B-final (and so finishing 5th overall) got you a mere
10 seconds.
The 10 second advantage must not have held enough
appeal for one of the other B-final starters, since we learned he had
decided to just go home and get ready for tomorrow. But I had paid my
entry fee, and heck, the sprints were fun, so Andy and I lined up with
one other skier for our final. When the gun went off this time my legs
felt normal again, and so I was able to again shoot to the front and
take the lead. I was actually feeling pretty good in this heat and
extended my lead to win the B-final (and those precious 10 seconds)
pretty comfortably. Not bad for my first sprint race! It helped that my
skis felt fast all night despite the cold temps - I went with a layer of
Fast Wax HF Green, a layer of Fast Wax White, and a topcoat of Fast Wax
Flight Arctic on my Salomon skis with a Finn Sisu fine grind.
After the race Craig and I headed off to my parent's
house for the night. Getting a nice meal of pasta and a chance to
finish kick waxing my skis for the next day's race.
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