Many of the top racers in the country gathered this past weekend in the famed Methow Valley (Washington) for the continuation of the season-long, top national-level race circuit known as the SuperTour - which serves as a qualification series for the World Cup. Fields were stacked with National Team skiers from the US and Canada, as well as many of the top elite racing clubs from Western Canada, Alaska, Bend, CXC, Sun Valley, and elsewhere. Far West Senior Team members Ian Case and Phil Violett as well as junior Alex Hamilton and coach Ben Grasseschi made the trip to go all-out with some of the best skiers in North America.
In the Day 1 freestyle sprints, Ian and Phil both made the quarterfinal heats placing 16th and 29th respectively in the prelim on an insanely fast icy course, while Alex qualified for the junior heats with the 16th fastest junior prelim time. In the heats, Ian narrowly missed advancing to the semis, finishing a close 4th in his quarterfinal after being boxed out for most of the loop, while Phil had some bad luck and fell going into the first uphill which took him out of the running. Alex Hamilton managed to come through in 2nd in his junior quarterfinal to move on to the semis and later the B-Final, finishing at the back in both against some impressively fast juniors.
[1.3k Skate Sprint Prelim Results:
http://www.milliseconds.com/races/detail/1253/142188 ]
Day 2 was the 15k classic race, held at an alternate venue at 4,000’ elevation due to marginal snow coverage at lower elevations on the original course. The dreaded “33 degrees and snowing/drizzling” nightmare kick waxing conditions were the theme of the day, along with some extremely squirrely classic tracks. Most skiers chose to go on “zeros” or “hairies” as opposed to kick wax, with widely varying levels of success as far as getting any grip on the uphills. Coach Ben Grasseschi put forth a valiant effort with the kick waxing and testing and in the end it came down to the athletes’ skis and mental toughness. Ian put up his best-ever result in a SuperTour distance race despite having extremely slick skis, finishing 13th and only 2 minutes, 12 seconds behind winner Torin Koos of the US Ski Team. Phil had a smashing debut in his first national-level race of the season, finishing another 23 seconds back in 15th, just ahead of National Champion and several-time SuperTour winner Leif Zimmerman of BSF in Bozeman as well as some other big names from Alaska, Canada, and elsewhere. Alex struggled with skis, not having a pair of zeros, but still managed a very solid 6th in the J1 boys division!
[15k Classic Results: http://www.milliseconds.com/races/detail/1254/142198 ]
All in all it was a great weekend and everyone benefited from the experience of competing in these high-level race events with some of the best skiers in North America, while racking up some great USSA points (which will help lower the point penalties in subsequent Far West races) and giving Far West some strong, positive exposure on the national stage!
