The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Mushy and slushy with a little bit of rain
Six skiers from the Crested Butte Nordic Team (CBNT) made the trip to the Soldier Hollow (Utah) Super Qualifier on Friday and Saturday, January 30-31. The prestigious event is held at the famous Olympic venue and gives the local Nordic ski team insight into the bigger world of Nordic racing, with teams throughout the western United States in attendance.
“For a lot of the skiers there, it’s the biggest race of the season,” says CBNT head coach Austin Ross. “They get to see hundreds of kids who are doing the same training and racing they are. I think it’s inspiring.”
What might not have been so inspiring was the weather, as athletes were subjected to warm temperatures and even a little rain, making for tricky conditions during the sprint races on the first day.
“It was interesting,” says Ross. “A bit of rain, warm and slushy. After the qualifiers the course was pretty torn up and it was pretty challenging for all of the Rocky Mountain [Division] kids, because we never see conditions like that.”
Furthermore, while the CBNT team has some decent sprinters, the race format doesn’t necessarily fall in their wheelhouse.
U16 skier Woody Martineau had the best showing of the six CBNT skiers in the sprint format as he made it to the quarterfinals before getting eliminated, finishing the day in 23rd overall out of 116 racers.
The rest of the team had a mixed bag of experiences that first day with some racers succumbing to the tricky conditions and falling.
“There were a couple of them who had trouble staying on their feet. It was definitely a learning experience,” says Ross.
The kids spent the rest of Friday resting and regrouping for Saturday’s event, a mass start classic race. Fortunately, the kids got a chance to preview the course on Thursday and were aware of the new race venue.
“That was really valuable,” explains Ross. “Because of the conditions they had to change the course and we got a chance to check out the man-made loop they had prepared.”
Because Soldier Hollow is a former Olympic venue, the courses are wider than most and a little more amenable to mass start races, but the new course did have a sharp corner that had the potential for carnage. As a result, Ross had his kids ready for anything heading into the event.
“We talked a lot about mass start strategy and everyone was prepared,” says Ross.
It turned out, the pre-race talk played out as both Aiden Truettner and Martineau got tangled up and hit the deck in the sharp corner during their races but managed to make spectacular comebacks and post solid results.
Truettner managed to recover from the debacle to finish in 12th out of 89 racers in the 15-kilometer race with a time of 49:28.9. Martineau had a similar comeback to place 13th out of 108 racers with a 10-kilometer time of 16:28.0.
“You have to stay relaxed and ski back into the race gradually and not panic,” says Ross. “I was really proud of the way they reacted.”
Sam Crossett finished 57th in her U18 class, Benjamin Swift placed 40th, Ian Eldridge placed 52nd in the U16 age group and Robbie Oberling crossed the line 33rd out of 87 racers in the U14 class.
“It was a really successful day, I thought,” says Ross. “The kids handled the tough conditions well.”
Both Truettner and Martineau also moved up the Rocky Mountain Nordic rankings with their results on Saturday and are in a great position to qualify for Junior Nationals with one Junior National Qualifier (JNQ) race left on the schedule.
“It was good to see them put down races that bumped them up in the rankings,” says Ross. “As of right now, they’re both in. It would take a pretty big day for someone to bump Aiden out and it would take something monumental to bump Woody out.”
The team is back in Crested Butte ramping up for the 29th Annual Alley Loop on Saturday, February 7, and will close out the regular season with the final JNQ in Aspen February 14-15.
