2026 Mora Vasaloppet

 The Mora Vasaloppet Part 1: Saturday Skate Races

The Mora Vasaloppet is a favorite amongst the Vakava skiers, likely because it is a relatively short drive away and because team member Paul is one of the snow farmers. Saturdays skate races didn't draw as many Vakava skiers as usual though, because the Tour de Finn points race was the classic marathon on Sunday.

Andy Schakel led the charge in 8th in the 51 km skate with McEwan in 17th, and Abe 36th while Steph Lewis pulled off a big 2nd place in the women's field!!! For the men in the 34 km skate, Paul Olsen was 5th, followed closely behind by Nate Porath in 6th, Haakon Sigurslid in 8th, Artie Huber 15th, Hans Harlane 27th, Chris Jopp 28th, and Mark Ahlers 35th. And for the women Elena Cattaneo finished 6th and Mary Beth Tuttle 10th. 

Steph racing to 2nd place.

This photo features Haakon with Nate just in front and Paul behind.

 The Mora Vasaloppet Part 2: Sunday Classic Races

I assumed Sunday's races would be quite competitive owing to the Tour de Finn points in the long classic. Given the more competitive field, I lined up in the fourth row. I'd scouted the hill onto the lake and decided I wanted to be on the left side, outside the tracks, as there was a notable pinch point over on the right when some tracks ended. This mostly served me well although my sprint double pole isn't very strong. Erik started just ahead of me and I couldn't keep up to him on Main Street.

As we made our way down to the lake, on one of the longest glide out hills on course, I noted that my skis were running well. I wasn't too far behind Laura (not in the tracks) or Gabby (in the tracks) on the lake. I tried to pole hard on the lake, also outside the tracks, but couldn't quite keep up. As we came off the lake, there was compression in the tracks and suddenly Erik was right in front of me. My kick wasn't great. I had gone too conservative and finally added a couple layers of SWIX 55 which was OK in testing but I was hoping for a bit more so added a tad of START Purple Oslo which didn't give me anything but at least wasn't catching. I stayed right behind Erik in the tracks up the hill leading off the lake but Laura gained on us along with teammate Ben. 

I kept telling Erik to "go, go, go" hoping to catch the pack ahead of us. We got boxed in for a bit after leaving the Nordic Center and then they were just too far ahead. At the first aid station I pulled in front of Erik and was leading through a few twists and turns. My skis were faster than Erik's. But then as we neared the bump north of the Nordic Center for the first time, Erik pulled ahead along with another guy and two women - one in the short race and one in the long race. I tried to ski on their pack but they got a gap on me that I couldn't make up. 

We hit some dirtier snow on the far northeast part of the course and then were onto the hills in the northwest part of the course. Unfortunately my kick was pretty bad. Unlike previous years, I was glad to not have the drops down to the lake with tight corners. There were still a couple downhill corners though where I would have preferred that the tracks were pulled up. I seemed to be gaining on Erik but when we started heading south again, he was stronger in the double pole. Here Margie passed me and I just couldn't keep up with her as she slowly built a lead on me. She had good kick, too.   

I pressed on, trying to ski hard and keep Erik in sight. I suspect the southwest area of the course hadn't been groomed much because parts of it were like skiing in sand. The course was starting to feel a little janky - perhaps too many turns for classic skiing and not enough pulling up tracks to really turn smoothly around them with the marathon skate technique. Before long though we were back around by the Nordic Center and then out on Mora Lake for a loop around the northwest bay before repeating the course for a second time. 

As we came off the lake, I was making good time on the woman who had passed me when Erik did. I recognized her as the 2nd place finisher in the Alley Loop from two years previous. I soon passed her as we went by the Nordic Center. As we looped around, I saw my former teammate Sarah Widder was not far behind me. I don't really like head-to-head racing so kept trying to move fast so she wouldn't catch me but she was close.

A few more kilometers went by, back through the dirty area (told myself it was dirty for everyone), and then back through the hilly northwest section. Snow-plowed on two downhills a tad, the second because there was a crash ahead of me. I appeared to be gaining on Erik but as we turned south on the flats, he surged ahead. And that's where Sarah passed me, in exactly the same place as Margie had a lap prior. I really didn't know how many women were ahead of me but Sarah is my age, so hence, that's a horsee.

Anyway, I haven't been feeling very mentally sharp in my racing this year (certainly not terrible but lacking that extra fight) and Sarah easily got away from me. After a couple more kilometers, my arms were getting tired. I made a comment about the sand as I lapped a woman and got a laugh - I think that was my highlight from the race. There were some gradual uphills that I tried to stride to give my arms a break and reset but my kick was bad so I really had to stand upright and couldn't glide them out so it was back to the double pole. As we skied back across the lake, up Bell Tower Hill, and down Main Street, I really lacked a top gear. 

In the end, Erik bested me by 1 minute and 5 seconds and Sarah by 47 seconds. I always want more, yet should be happy with 5th place and 2nd in my age class (we went 4th, 5th, and 6th in the 35-44 age class). 

Vakava finish-line photo; although in the endless "not good enough" narrative, I finished a minute too slow to make the cut. There were obviously some others (slower and faster) missing as well.

 

Overall, it was an impressive classic showing for Vakava and a good dual between the Juniorits and Seniorits, although us Seniorits got schooled again. Gabby won the women's race with Laura close behind in 2nd for the Juniorit women while Sam Shaheen, Josh Albrecht, and Leif Hanson went 10th-12th for the Juniorit men. I was 5th, Eva Reinicke 11th, and Maria Schilling 17th for the Seniorit women with Craig Cardinal 14th, Brock Lundberg 17th, and Artie Huber 28th to round out the scoring for the Seniorit men. Ian Wright finished 15th but his score didn't count for the Juniorits as only the top 3 from each team count. Similarly, Ben Mullin finished 39th and Erik Pieh 41st for the Seniorits but were also not team scored. For the Vakava skiers neither on the Juniorits or Seniorits, Zach Pannkuk finished 30th and Dave Folland 49th. 

Photo re-do with a bunch of horsees.

Alas, following Mora, Vakava Juniorits pulled ahead of the TCSC Icy Insurgents with a narrow margin of 74.38 points while the Seniorits keep a firm hold on third.