For several cross-country ski racers, Spring Break 2010 (SB10) started with an outdoor, double elimination, 2 vs. 2, basketball tournament held at the Kaeding residence in Worcester, VT—also known as The North Central Vermont Basketball Championships.  As one might expect, an organized outdoor basketball tournament in March is risky, especially in Vermont.  Leading into the tournament, the forecast was an unwavering 100% chance of rain.  Instead of canceling the tournament, we spent two days building a tarp canopy over the hoop and sweeping water off the court.

The tournament was awesome.  We had seven teams of two.  You can try to follow the bracket below.

The Bracket

Sunny Skiing at Bolton Valley, VT before our trip to Maine

The 2009/2010 SuperTour ended last week with a grueling pursuit racing format.  There were three races in a row: a 7/10K mass start classic, a classic sprint, and a 5/6K hill climb.  Each of the first two races had time bonuses at various places.  Then, start positions for the last day were based off of your times from the previous two races so that the winner of the the whole series crossed the finish line first at the top of the final hill climb.  Money was awarded to the top six racers overall, making things pretty exciting.

I thought the series was a lot of fun, but slightly favored sprint racers.  A longer, interval start, race would have evened out the playing field significantly.

Unfortunately, I had two major crashes in the initial mass start classic race and was never really in the overall contention.  My best race was the hill climb where I finished 9th place overall.  I even think I could have done a little bit better in this race if I did not have so many people to pass (from the pursuit format) on such a narrow trail.

The CXC Team Vertical Limit’s best finishes were Bryan Cook in 7th place and Rebecca Dussault in 2nd place overall.  Rebecca was also the Hill Climb Grand Champion!  Full results can be found HERE.

Women's SuperTour Final Overall Champions

The racing season is officially over and we are looking forward  to a restful spring back in Marquette.  Before flying home, we spent a few days on vacation in Worchester, VT at the Kaeding residence.