Sunday night we prepared for Monday’s big events. Everyone in our group was doing the 10K Skate except Will, who was doing the 10K Classic.
Eric, Bill and I waxed up our Skate skis in the garage again. This was working well, and on Sunday we even stopped by to get groceries and we found a cheap plastic tarp and extension cord for our waxing operation. The weather was forecasted to be about 15 at night warming to 28 at race time, with a high of 35. Bill was using the Start Wax system, but did put Cera F FC8 on top; Eric used Solda warm, and I used the Swix recommendation of MB77 Moly, w/ HF8 and Cera F FC8 on my new Nanosonic skis. I decided to wax up 2 pair of skis for this race, and waxed my second pair of Madshus, a pair of Hypersonics that were stoneground this year w/ a fine grind. On these skis I just put on MB77 Moly and then HF7. When we got up on Monday morning it was already 25 degrees, and Eric, Bill and I weren’t racing until about 1:00. Will, Odd and Bjorn took off earlier than us.
Will had his classic race at about 11:00. He had planned to use Start Grip Tape – but ran out of tape halfway thru one of his skis! Luckily Peter Hale from Madshus was there to help him out. Will says he used a torch to heat up and remove the goop, and put on some other hard wax. Will said he had a good race and a fun time.
It was a glorious day as we did our warmup with the sun shining and lots of people out and about. Unlike the other events, the 10K State and Classic are held on the same day. So everyone was at the events, especially midday. I tested my pair of skis on the wax testing hill. The other skiers, Italians, Russians and Norwegians were gliding down and then placing sticks in the snow where they stopped. I wasn’t getting anywhere close to them on either of my skis. But the weather was changing fast, and I hadn’t put structure in the skis yet. Bill, Eric and I stopped at the Toko tent to get a large 1.0 mm rill in the skis. On the warmup my skis seem to feel fast, and I decided to use my new Nanosonics.
The Race
We watched Eric start 10 minutes ahead of us. I got a few photos of him getting into his starting position. We saw Eric start, and their group was flying! I got the feeling that we were really going to be pushing at the start. Bill and I did some running around to stay loose. Then we got in our start lanes. This time I started in Lane 10, row 2. There were more people in this race, and someone started in back of me in row 3.
The race started, and the Russian in front of me started out with a bang! I couldn’t double-pole as fast as him, but I was pushing hard. By the time we got to the first corner, I found myself in a good position. I was ahead of Bill, and I counted only about 10 people ahead of me. I had made up my mind to try and stay with the front group as long as possible.
At about 2K the front group started really pushing, and I got gapped by 20 meters or so. Then Bill caught up to me and we skied together through a slight uphill. Shortly after that Bill put on an epic push to catch back up to the lead group and he succeeded! I stayed right on him and tucked in right behind him. Shortly after we caught the lead group, there is a left turn and a nice easy downhill. I was following Bill just after the crest of the hill when I clicked my boots together – they caught up in eachother – and the next thing I knew… crash! I went down into the snow. What a dumb fall, no one was even near me. Dazed, I got up and watched 4 people blow by me. Chris Humber, an American wearing a Rossignol suit was the last skier to pass me. I worked hard to catch back up to him, and one by one we passed more people tell we were about 25 meters behind Bill. Bill was skiing by himself and really moving. Chris was really flying too, and had a really great V2 technique. We skied together until the hill at about 6K, and then Chris started pushing harder and harder until we caught Bill. Bill and I then skied together, but we couldn’t stay with Chris. A few guys were now close behind us, and I pulled alongside Bill too take the lead for a little bit. We started getting closer to Chris, but I looked behind me and there were 5 or more guys close on our tail. I saw the finish area and went for the center lane. Bill took the right lane – I felt like I was holding him up, because I knew he can really sprint. I ended up finishing ahead of Bill by .2 seconds – and 4 of us finished within a second of eachother. What a fun race.
Eric had a great race also. He finished just a few seconds from 3rd place American!
After that we hung around and watched Bjorn and Odd – Odd skied 10K, and Bjorn skied 5K. We came home later, took a nice hot tub, and then made a not so great meal of eggs and cheese.
Eric, Bill and I waxed up our Skate skis in the garage again. This was working well, and on Sunday we even stopped by to get groceries and we found a cheap plastic tarp and extension cord for our waxing operation. The weather was forecasted to be about 15 at night warming to 28 at race time, with a high of 35. Bill was using the Start Wax system, but did put Cera F FC8 on top; Eric used Solda warm, and I used the Swix recommendation of MB77 Moly, w/ HF8 and Cera F FC8 on my new Nanosonic skis. I decided to wax up 2 pair of skis for this race, and waxed my second pair of Madshus, a pair of Hypersonics that were stoneground this year w/ a fine grind. On these skis I just put on MB77 Moly and then HF7. When we got up on Monday morning it was already 25 degrees, and Eric, Bill and I weren’t racing until about 1:00. Will, Odd and Bjorn took off earlier than us.
Will had his classic race at about 11:00. He had planned to use Start Grip Tape – but ran out of tape halfway thru one of his skis! Luckily Peter Hale from Madshus was there to help him out. Will says he used a torch to heat up and remove the goop, and put on some other hard wax. Will said he had a good race and a fun time.
It was a glorious day as we did our warmup with the sun shining and lots of people out and about. Unlike the other events, the 10K State and Classic are held on the same day. So everyone was at the events, especially midday. I tested my pair of skis on the wax testing hill. The other skiers, Italians, Russians and Norwegians were gliding down and then placing sticks in the snow where they stopped. I wasn’t getting anywhere close to them on either of my skis. But the weather was changing fast, and I hadn’t put structure in the skis yet. Bill, Eric and I stopped at the Toko tent to get a large 1.0 mm rill in the skis. On the warmup my skis seem to feel fast, and I decided to use my new Nanosonics.
The Race
We watched Eric start 10 minutes ahead of us. I got a few photos of him getting into his starting position. We saw Eric start, and their group was flying! I got the feeling that we were really going to be pushing at the start. Bill and I did some running around to stay loose. Then we got in our start lanes. This time I started in Lane 10, row 2. There were more people in this race, and someone started in back of me in row 3.
The race started, and the Russian in front of me started out with a bang! I couldn’t double-pole as fast as him, but I was pushing hard. By the time we got to the first corner, I found myself in a good position. I was ahead of Bill, and I counted only about 10 people ahead of me. I had made up my mind to try and stay with the front group as long as possible.
At about 2K the front group started really pushing, and I got gapped by 20 meters or so. Then Bill caught up to me and we skied together through a slight uphill. Shortly after that Bill put on an epic push to catch back up to the lead group and he succeeded! I stayed right on him and tucked in right behind him. Shortly after we caught the lead group, there is a left turn and a nice easy downhill. I was following Bill just after the crest of the hill when I clicked my boots together – they caught up in eachother – and the next thing I knew… crash! I went down into the snow. What a dumb fall, no one was even near me. Dazed, I got up and watched 4 people blow by me. Chris Humber, an American wearing a Rossignol suit was the last skier to pass me. I worked hard to catch back up to him, and one by one we passed more people tell we were about 25 meters behind Bill. Bill was skiing by himself and really moving. Chris was really flying too, and had a really great V2 technique. We skied together until the hill at about 6K, and then Chris started pushing harder and harder until we caught Bill. Bill and I then skied together, but we couldn’t stay with Chris. A few guys were now close behind us, and I pulled alongside Bill too take the lead for a little bit. We started getting closer to Chris, but I looked behind me and there were 5 or more guys close on our tail. I saw the finish area and went for the center lane. Bill took the right lane – I felt like I was holding him up, because I knew he can really sprint. I ended up finishing ahead of Bill by .2 seconds – and 4 of us finished within a second of eachother. What a fun race.
Eric had a great race also. He finished just a few seconds from 3rd place American!
After that we hung around and watched Bjorn and Odd – Odd skied 10K, and Bjorn skied 5K. We came home later, took a nice hot tub, and then made a not so great meal of eggs and cheese.
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