Click HERE for a link to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s article on the Birkebeiner.

Yesterday, the XC Ski Alliance and CXC Elite team competed in the Great American Birkebeiner ski race–the best show on snow!  I have been attending this race since 7^th grade and I have done the shortened version (the Korteloppet) many times.   Unfortunately, the race is very close to the NCAA Championships so college skiers seldom do the whole thing.

The Birkie is the largest ski race in North America with 7,461 people in attendance.  It is a very difficult course and it is viewed as the gold standard for skiing marathons in our country.  “Birkie weekend” is one of my favorite weekends of the whole entire year, and this year was no exception.  Usually, I attend the race as a spectator, and now I have a whole new understanding.

It was an exceptional day for the CXC Elite team and the XC Ski Alliance.  Matt Liebsch won by about a minute and had time to stop and pick up his baby,boy Grant and carry him across the finish line.  Bryan Cook had an impressive sprint, and beat out Dan Roycroft, a Canadian, for second place in front of the crowd on Main Street.  Brian Gregg was 4^th place and Andre Watt was 6^th.  I finished 9^th place for women, JoJo Winters was 13^th and Kristina Owen was 15^th.

The classic division was a huge deal this year because Bjorn Daehlie attended the race to spread awareness and help raise funds to find a cure for Multiple Sclerosis.  Bjorn Daehlie has more Olympic medals than any other athlete in the Winter Olympic Games and he is considered the greatest skier in the world by most people.  Bjorn has been retired for several years; however, he was still able to ski the 54 km race very quickly and give all the fans a show on Main Street.  My CXC Elite and former NMU teammate, Gus Kaeding, and Bjorn Daehlie sprinted the last 200 meters of the race neck and neck.  Gus ended up beating Bjorn by a lunge and the people on Main Street went crazy.  It is not often that you get a chance to beat the best skier in the world (even if he is retired) and Gus rapidly became a Hayward celebrity.

Too much happened on Birkie weekend to write about at once.  Stay tuned for more Birkie stories later this week.

Men's Freestyle Team Sprint Podium

The 2009 Madison Winter Festival was spectacular.  This event has a special place in my heart because it takes place in Southern Wisconsin, where I learned to ski and where skiing is even less popular.  When I was a junior ski racer, Yuriy Gusev came over from Russia and started working on cross-country skiing development in the USA.  He told everyone in the Midwest that he would bring spectators to our sport by putting snow on the streets and holding a SuperTour around the Capitol building in Madison, WI.  Back in the day, this idea was beyond ridiculous and Yuriy was laughed at.  Just over one year later, the event took place, and it was incredible.  This year marked the 5^th year of the Madison Winter Festival and it brought thousands of people outdoors to enjoy winter.  On the cross-country side of things, there was a Fit City Kid’s learn to ski event, the high school sprint state championship races, disabled sit ski demos, SuperTour races, and a public ski demo with equipment of all sizes courtesy of the Bicycle Doctor Ski Shop out of Dousman, WI.  In addition, the Madison Winter Festival had a Frosty 5K run and walk, a tubing hill, a cyclo-cross race, ice sculpting, public ice skating, speed skating races, snowshoeing events, snow carving, a rail jam, and a snow bike obstacle course to get the whole community involved.

On Saturday and Sunday, the SuperTour events were freestyle and classic sprint relays.  Sprint relays consist of teams of two people, and each person does 3 laps (4 laps for men) of a 1 km loop.  I was partnered up with JoJo Winters for both days.  We had a blast in the races but, for some reason, we had trouble staying on our feet.  The first day we were right in the mix with the race leaders and then I fell twice on the same lap putting us off of the back of the lead pack and we finished 4^th overall.  Then, on Sunday, JoJo and Lindsey Williams (USST and NMU alumni) had skied off of the front, gaping the rest of the field and then JoJo went down on a corner.  We finished 4^th overall again on that day.  The relays were great practice for us.  We had a lot of fun mixing it up with some of the best sprinters in the country and we got much better in the tag zone by the end of the weekend.  I cannot wait until our next shot at a sprint relay.

Fortunately, our teammates had a little better luck and made the weekend a success for the CXC Elite Team.  Bryan Cook and Brian Gregg finished 1^st in the skate race and 4^th in the classic, Matt Liebsch and Tad Elliot (Saab-Salomon) finished 4^th in the skate and 3^rd in the classic, and Heather Zimmerman and Kristina Owen finished 3^rd in the classic and 5^th in the skate.

Another great thing about the Madison Winter Festival is that I have a lot of friends and family in attendance.  My parents came down to watch.  My brother, Thomas, lives in Madison and he brought a bunch of his friends out on the street to cheer us on.  The Cook family was there supporting the Rhinelander High School Team.  A bunch of my high school coaches were there supporting Peak Nordic, and my high school buddy Dave Kriebel came out to watch.  Thank you to all of the volunteers and sponsors who make the Madison Winter Festival possible!

Yesterday, the XC Ski Alliance went to Minocqua, WI to watch and help their respective high school programs at the Wisconsin State High School Championships.  Both races took place on the same day, with a 5K classic in the morning and a 5K skate in the afternoon.  The skate race in the afternoon was started according to the athlete’s percent back in the morning classic race.  This enables skiers to fight for the overall victory and makes things more exciting to watch.  The weather was warm and made kick waxing difficult in the morning.  There were athletes on hard-wax, klister covered with hard-wax, and straight up klister all in the same race.

The Hayward High School girls were the overall champions, followed by Peak Nordic (my alma mater), and Wausau West respectively; however 2^nd and 3^rd were extremely close and needed to be determined by a tie breaker.   The men’s race was equally exciting, with Peak Nordic edging out Wausau West for 1^st place, and Hayward taking 3^rd.

Bryan’s home team, The Rhinelander Hodag’s had a great day as well, with all of their girls taking between 3 and 6 minutes off of their times from the previous year.  They also had a middle school athlete take 1^st in the classic race which is inspiring for their future.

After the races, the awards were given out at Lakeland High School (Minocqua, WI) and were followed by a slide show and a social event.  Bryan and I did a short presentation/question and answer session for parents and athletes who wanted to learn more about skiing opportunities in college and beyond.