| Kikkan Randall Wins World Cup Sprint! |
Alaska Pacific University skier Kikkan Randall won the Sprint World Cup race held on Sunday in Rybinsk, Russia. The race was skating style and despite being in Russia, had a tough field. When an American does well in a race, unfortunately often times people come back at you with, "well, there was probably no one there". Darn it! Why can't we just accept that we are getting pretty darned good?
Just for the record, the top 3 in the Sprint World Cup were there, so were 7 out of the top 10 and 15 out of the top 20. This was a very tough field. Kikkan is now ranked 3rd in the Sprint World Cup.
Andy Newell won the B Final in great form finishing 7th on the day. He is ranked 9th in the Sprint World Cup. Combined skier Billy Demong finished 6th also. Billy is currently ranked 4th in the Nordic Combined World Cup. Go US Ski Team! |
Commentary on Soldier Hollow SuperTour Races
This weekend Soldier Hollow hosted the SuperTour. On Saturday we had the classic sprints and on Sunday mass start skating races. The combination of cold air temperatures (5F to 15F) coupled with constant shooting of snow guns in the valley where Soldier Hollow is made for unusual conditions. It also felt extremely cold due to the ice fog mostly created by the guns.
Rossignol, Team CXC, and Fischer Craft (and many other teams) all waxed similarly on glide - LF Blue/Moly, followed by HF Blue/XCold powder mixed 1:1 followed by JetStream Moly rotocorked in. All had solid skis. Fischer Director of Nordic Racing Chris Hall said, "We followed the Toko glide wax tip all weekend and we had good skis".
For kick on Saturday, there were various solutions varying from White to Blue to Green Spray Klister.
The SuperTour is still being led overall by Laura Valaas (APU) and Garrot Kuzzy (CXC).
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| Photos - Left Laura Valaas, right Garrott Kuzzy |
| NEW! Event Photo Page now available for your enjoyment! |
Action photos from many SuperTour and National races will be posted on the Toko website. If this turns out to be popular, we will continue doing it. If there is little interest, we will spend our energies elsewhere. Find the entry page here or you can go directly to Saturday's SH classic sprints or to Sunday's mass start skate. |
| Teichmann and Bauer still Tops in World Cup |
| Axel Teichmann (GER) and Lukas Bauer (CZE) are still first and third in the overall men's World Cup. Way to go boys! |
