The Duluth sprints were moved to Telemark and the courses were incredibly hard. For those who know the venue, the start was where the Korteloppet finishes, then you shoot down toward the chairlift, up the downhill about 150 meters, back straight down, around a knarly 180 degree hairpin turn, uphill again another 300+ meters, and then back down towards the start/finish area. You were either climbing or decending the whole time, but it felt like mostly climbing. Antoher thing was that all the climbing parts were slanted so you had to be able to V1 on your right side. The field was small but very impressive. The qualifying round went very well for me (4th), but I struggled in the heats finishing 7th overall . Bryan just missed out on the heats, finishing 9th place overall (8 made the heats). Garrott Kuzzy was the only other CXC skier to make it to the heats and he ended up 3rd overall. Kristina Trygstad-Saari and Lief Zimmerman were the fastest skiers on the day. Full results can be found HERE.
