This weekend I traveled to Middlebury, Vermont, with some of my XC Ottawa teammates to race at the NENSA Eastern Cup Opener.
Rikert Nordic Center, which borders the Green Mountain National Forest, hosted the event on the fairly new Tormondsen 5km racing course certified to FIS standards. One loop around the course and I recognized many similarities to a course I’d raced in Stowe (fun, winding, plenty of S turns, little rest on downhills) and figured out it was another course designed by legendary trail designer John Morton, a Middlebury College alumni. A large stadium area and two 2.5 km loops make it a great course for spectators. The trails also benefit from man made snow, which seems to be more and more important for these early season events.
This New England race series is something special. The fields are enormous (almost 200 women racing in Saturday’s 5k), and the atmosphere is very friendly and festive. Competitors include current/former Olympians, many club skiers, and countless College teams. Despite the numbers, these events seem to have a more relaxed feel than Canadian races (e.g., at this race skiers and wax techs were allowed to ski on the course during races – showing respect for athlete know-how, and resulting in better wax testing, fewer strict marshalls, and more spectators). We had amazing weather, fairly good snow (augmented by man made snow), and the races went pretty well!
Saturday featured an individual start 5 km classic race – the course was in fairly good shape, despite a few icy S-turn downhills. I had a pretty good race and finished 18th. One goal for Sunday’s 10 km mass start event was to stay on my feet and keep my equipment intact (I anticipated pile-ups with the large field and mostly downhill start). I succeeded, and finished in 25th. I was right about the pile-ups (I saw the first one happening in front of me about 200m in . . . ). I managed to ski around the downed skiers and saw only one more fall for the remainder of the race – the S-turn downhills were especially icy and entertaining!
My XC Ottawa teammates also had great races, enjoyed the weekend, and we benefited tremendously from the waxing help of Chelsea Nordiq – another local club that attended the event.
The results are linked below, and NENSA has posted some photos of the event here:
- SATURDAY: Women’s 5 km classic; Men’s 10 km classic
- SUNDAY: Women 10 km skate; Men 15 km skate
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