The 2 distance races in Yellowstone did end up being my best distance points in several years. I think partly due to the Canadians being there and helping the penalty be lower, and partly due to the somewhat flat, fast courses (especially the skate race.) But hopefully a sign of genuine progress and training as well! In any case it will help me get in a better seed in the future. Aiming for even better points this weekend in Bozeman where the next 2 SuperTour races are!
For the past several years my best races of the season would usually be right around 130 or 125 points, and I’d only manage about 2 to 4 of those a year. This year I’m starting out around 90 and feel I’m nowhere near peaked yet, and my best points came in the race where my pole handle came off, so things are looking good for improving on these races and scoring even better points this weekend in Bozeman!
My West Yellowstone race points:
classic sprint: 142 (race penalty of 42, 0:20 out of first)
15k skate: 94 (race penalty of 36, 2:17 out of first)
10k classic: 89 (race penalty of 30, 2:09 out of first)
I haven’t looked yet but I think at least a few of the juniors must have gotten some awesome points too, so this will help everyone back home because now every time there is a JOQ or other scored race, everyone will get better points since the race penalty will be lower. This will help the juniors get a better start position at JO’s and other big out-of-region races, and sometimes helps them get better support from ski companies, who often have sponsorship criteria such as “top 10 year of birth on ussa list” etc.
In the end, the points system is never perfect and never something to obsess over too much, but it does bear some relationship to individual progress so I think everyone in FW, coaches and parents and admin. people included, can feel good about the fact that skiers in our region are definitely making progress! And at the same time, I think Yellowstone was a real eye-opener as far as how much work we have to do to get on terms with the best skiers in other regions. So, some positive signs, and some opportunities for more progress…keep crankin’!
