On Saturday, I went to Hayward, WI for the 3rd Ski and Tea clinic of the year.  CXC Team Vertical Limit teammate, Kelly Chaudoin, came down from Ely, MN to help coach.  We had an outstanding turnout of around 20 women.  The weather was perfect and the snow conditions in Hayward were great.  We met at the OO warming hut, and spent most of the clinic working on skating.  Then, we took a short break and did some classic work.  Hopefully everyone left the clinic feeling great and more confident about the transition from dryland training to snow skiing.  I will be at the next Ski and Tea clinic (#4) on January 17th, and I’m looking forward to seeing all kinds of improvement.  Clinic #4 happens to be the day after the Seeley Hills Classic Race, and the CXC Team Vertical Limit will be at the Riverbrook Ski Shop in Seeley for a Super Fit weekend.  If you are not already planning on going there, this will be an excellent weekend to be in the Hayward area.

Collage from Ski and Tea Clinic #3 courtesy of Linda Cook

After my trip to Hayward, I went back to Lakeville, MN for the Stuber Family Christmas.  I did another on snow clinic with a Women’s group that meets in the Southern Metro area.  We organized at the Cleary Lake trails and worked on classic technique.  Most women at this clinic were beginners and made some drastic improvements at the clinic.  Hopefully no one was overwhelmed by all the new information.  I had a lot of fun working with this wonderful group.

I got a chance to ski on some different trails in the Twin Cities area.  Before the big snow storm, Bryan Cook and I went up to Battle Creek to ski.  We were absolutely amazed at how well the trails looked for having only a few inches on the ground.  We were not surprised to find Phil Zink hard at work pulling a Tidd Tech groomer around the trails.

Christmas at the Stuber's

I’m currently in Rhinelander, WI enjoying the last couple days of Christmas decorations, home cooked meals, and relaxation.  Tomorrow I will drive back to Minneapolis and fly to Anchorage, AK for the U.S. National Championships.  So far the racing season is going great and I can not wait to do some races at sea level.

Right to Left: Rebecca Dussault, Holly Brooks, and Maria Stuber in a quarterfinal heat at Sovereign Lakes (photo from Brian Gregg at www.xcskilife.com)

Today’s sprint race was a lot of fun.  Full results from the qualifier can be found  HERE and the heats are HERE.  hen they are posted.  I don’t remember many places, but I think Kuzzy was 2nd.  We had 3 boys make the heats (Kuzzy, Gregg and Liebsch) and 4 girls (Rebecca, Caitlin, myself, and Jessie).

On the unofficial results posted after the race, I tied with Kate Brennan of the Alberta World Cup Academy for 12th place in the qualifier. Then, I had a really tough quarter final with Rebecca Dussualt and Holly Brooks leading the way. I finished right behind them in 3rd. The top 2 finishers in each quarter final automatically go on to the semi finals.  They also take a couple 3rd place skiers as “lucky losers.”  This is done by bib number, and I fully expected to race again. Unfortunately, the girl that I tied with in the qualifier was also 3rd in her quarter final and the last “lucky loser” spot was between us. They gave her bib #12 for the heats and automatically put her in the semi final, not looking back to see that there was a tie.  Before the heat was about to start, I ran over to Coach Fish (CXC), Pat Casey (USST), and some of the race officials (in a panic) to tell them that I thought I should be in the race and explained the situation. It was a double tie!  They didn’t know what to do right away, so they were going to let me just jump in the race and have a semi final of 7.  Eventually, they decided to look at FIS points to determine who would go on. Kate has better FIS points than I do.  So, I was standing at the start in my bib ready to go and they sent me away.  It caused a huge delay and was a major bummer for me.  I basically drew the short straw.

Now on the official results, Kate Brennan actually finished 0.2 seconds in front of me and undisputably diserved the final “lucky loser” spot.  On the positive side, 13th was a good qualifier finish for me in a skate sprint with such a tough field.  I will take it.

Men's Podium

Women's Podium

This weekend’s races are Olympic Qualifiers for the Canadian team, meaning that the top Canadian finisher earned an automatic Olympic spot.

The CXC Team Vertical Limit Men’s team put 4 boys in the top 6 overall!  Kuzzy was 1st by almost a whole minute, followed by Matt Liebsch (3rd), Brian Gregg (5th), and Bryan Cook (6th).  Absolutely amazing.

Rebecca Dussault lead the women’s team taking 3rd place.  Caitlin Compton, former NMU and CXC Elite teammate who is also traveling with us, was  5th place.  I missed the top 10 by a narrow 0.2 seconds, and finished 11th overall.

Full results can be found HERE for men and HERE for women.  Thank you to our coaches for the rediculously fast skis!