Sibley

Results from last weekends Sibley 20k and 50k Skate races.

Men's 20k:

FINAL Place FINAL BIB
PLACE Division Div TIME PACE NO. NAME

1 1/15 16-19 53:42.85 2:42 666 Luke Viljakainen
2 2/15 16-19 53:43.65 2:42 550 Michael Sumppi
3 1/17 20-29 53:45.35 2:42 549 Phil Wood
4 3/15 16-19 53:47.20 2:42 548 Thomsen D'Hont
5 4/15 16-19 55:38.00 2:47 321 Christopher Hamilton

Men's 50k:
FINAL Place FINAL BIB
PLACE Division Div TIME PACE NO. NAME

1 1/18 20-29 2:19:03.40 2:47 231 Stephen Hart
2 2/18 20-29 2:19:49.45 2:48 143 Murray Carter
3 3/18 20-29 2:24:29.55 2:54 134 Nikolai Anikin
4 1/37 40-49 2:24:37.70 2:54 190 Bernie Lacourciere
5 2/37 40-49 2:27:08.30 2:57 96 Werner Schwar

Women's 50k:
FINAL Place FINAL BIB
PLACE Division Div TIME PACE NO. NAME

1 1/11 30-39 2:43:18.05 3:16 209 Brook Latimer
2 1/13 20-29 2:48:01.75 3:22 47 Kerrie Fabius
3 2/13 20-29 2:52:12.60 3:27 144 Erin Carter
4 1/18 40-49 2:54:34.30 3:30 150 Janet Findlay
5 2/18 40-49 2:55:25.10 3:31 125 Deborah Sussex

It was a perfect day, hard track temperatures around -5C. The pace was pretty comfortable for the first 10k with the group working together. Then after the 20k’ers turned off the fun began. Chris Hamilton pulled the grouped a little then stood up waiting a break. I hadn’t led up till that point, so it was my turn. We passed the 14k mark, 6 to go. I didn’t want it to come down to a sprint finish so I’d thought I’d try to push the pace a little and see if I could break away to avoid being outsprinted. The course coming into the final few kilometers are rolling with no climbs, so more or less flat. We had a punishing one-skate going and I thought I was dropping them, after the 18k marker I turned around hoping to only see Sompii, who I could hear. Unfortunately the group of Luke, Thomsen, and Somppi were all still in toe. I thought I can’t hold this pace till the end and still have a sprint, so I let up, and tried to draft to keep some energy till the finish. With a few hundred meters to go, everyone skiing on a hair trigger, wondering when the attack would happen, Luke pulled up beside me, Somppi leading around a slower skier doing the 10k race. Somppi goes right, Luke gets an edge on me left, and that relegated me to third, coming into the final stretch. My sprint finish held off Thomsen, but couldn’t gain anytime on Luke or Somppi.

It was a fun race, and it was good pushing the pace and seeing how my body handled skiing out front and the tactics involved. I’ve learned that to break away on a group on a flat course, you have to hammer, and hammer hard, and long to really break it up. A little more undulation in the course may have created what I needed to break off the front. Good experience. Good times, Good race.

Special thanks to Peter Crooks grooming into the wee hours of the night to make Sibley’s grooming absolutely perfect. Well done to the organizing staff, with nearly 1000 participants.

Cheers

Sibley...AWESOME

Some more pictures. Don't tell my Mom I was dangling my legs over 100m lookout. She thought I was squimish about heights...ha.


Phil, Timo, and Mike at the Lookout
What a ski! Sibley has yet to let me down. Thomsen, Mike, Timo and I got out to the park ready for a great ski. But it turned out to be incredible, we skied 4.5 hours on amazing trails, sun blazing warming from -5 to just above 0. I skied on a new pair of skis I have been working in. They have a fairly aggressive wet grind in the base, so I was hoping it was going to warm up to really try them out. They were rocket fast, they were skiing well in the morning when it was colder, but really pulled away from the other guys when it started warming.

Great ski boys, great ski.

The Sibley ski tour is next weekend, the boys and I will probably do the 20k skate, and the men will pound out the 50k skate. It would be an awesome race, but for us it's too close to nationals to try to get in adequate recovery, while still getting in a good two weeks of training. But I'm really looking forward to next weekend at Sibley.

Lappe Part 2, and Biathlon

Day two of the Lappe Invitational was a skate about 12k, pursuit start. I started 25 seconds or so ahead of Jeremy Hecker and Timo. My game plan was to go out conservative and then finish strong. I knew they would catch me, it was just a matter of time. They caught me going down into the swamp. Jeremy and his hibby's were rockets, standing up behind me in my draft trying not to run me over. Timo put a push on up Massaro's trying to drop the young grasshopper, Hecker, I suppose. He caught up easily on the downhill. Timo's energy reserves were dwindling, Hecker and I carried on, I let him lead at his pace for the time leading up to Klukie Line. In the warmup I had skied Klukies well and felt I would make my move on it. I pulled up beside Jeremy, and said "you ready?" He said, "yup" and we took off. It was fun, I wasn't going to sprint by him and have him feel caught off gaurd. I was wanting to finish strong and catch back up the time I had lost to them in the beginning. I finished strong but not strong enough, only gaining back maybe 15seconds of the time lost. Jeremy skied a great race and I had a lot of fun playing around with tactics and energy levels.

Again thank you to the Lappe staff for putting on a great race. I received a Lappe t-shirt as a prize. I feel part of the gang now.

Monday I was invited to Biathlon practice with Becky Purias. They set me up with a 22 and showed me the basic of shooting. First time shooting a gun so I wasn't expecting much accuracy. We set up prone (lying down) it's easier, a lot less movment and pracitce dry firing along with hitting some paper targets. I got to keep my target and was told I had some nice "groupings" by Thomsen, the wiley Biathlon vet. Standing was a lot more difficult, a lot more movement. Then we were set up infront of the targets, that was the best part, seeing the black circle turn white when you actually hit the target. To say modestly, "I'm an ACE shot" I destroyed Timo's shot.

I was shooting without skiing 2k at an all out effort, my chest wasn't heaving, and my arms weren't tired from the skiing, so it wasn't a fair estimate of my biathlon abilities but it was a lot of fun. Thanks a lot Becky for bringing me out and letting me try shooting.

For all those cross country skiers out there that trash talk Biathlon, "Try it before you fry it"



Timo...missing haha

Cheers