Dawn Mountain Classic TT

Results here

It was 3x3k on a flat course (men and women skied the same distance). There was a couple steep pitches, but it was easily double pole-able. I wanted to use kick wax so I could work on classic technique, and I felt it was a bit of a risk to my back to double pole the whole way. Dan R. and Dave Nighbor double poled the whole way and ended up 30sec ahead on everybody else.

I started mid pack and Eric DeNys gave me a split "leader by 5" after one lap and "leader by 9" after two laps. This was encouraging since I knew George, Haakon and Nishikawa started ahead of me. Towards the end of the race, Dan caught me for 1 minute and Crooks for 30 sec and I wasn't able to accelerate into the finish. It seems I lost time to most others in the last bit of the race, and, if the splits were right, I gave 29sec to George in the last lap. I probably skied a bit too aggressively on the first lap.

The team of Dan M. and Ray gave us good skis both days. I used new orange Rossignol skis both days and they performed well, and I also managed to avoid hitting any rocks.

Sprint at Kicking Horse

The sprint qualifier was one lap of the course, which consisted of one big, steep uphill, followed by a downhill into a corner and then tuck into the finish.There were a lot of delays getting the bibs and there was no printed start list. Eventually I got bib #6, and I found out one of the girls was #5. When they finally announced we were going to start, they read off the names and it sounded like she was
starting with the men. It turned out they had a written list of names, with number 2,3,6,7,9, and so on. So all of a sudden I was the 3rd starter.

The skis felt good off the start so I let them glide, and I skied balanced hop skate up the hill well, but I wasn't activated mentally and physically properly for a 45 second effort. I didn't really have a plan for staying sharp without skiing. Watching the other guys start, the starter was letting guys cheat by going early, and I had been honest since it was hand timing. Anyway I ended up 17th and only top 16 qualified. The heats were two laps, which would have been better for me. Shout out to Mikey qualified 9th and ended up 4th. He made some good moves in the semi and he skied well in the other heats as well. Crooks won ahead of Widmer and Nishikawa. It was exciting to watch Sarah Daitch lose a close one to Sara Renner. Andrea ended up 3rd, after taking off on the first lap on the other girls.