This was the finish order from this Sundays men’s race.  I think it is the first time that CXC has swept the podium at a SuperTour race.  Cook was 3^rd, Brian Gregg was 2^nd, and I was 1^st in the 10k freestyle.  For Sunday’s race all the CXC athletes placed in the top 10 for both men and women; Caitlin won the women’s race by a minute!

Also, the day before the team did very well.  Bryan Cook was 2^nd place by only 1 sec over a 25min race.  I think it is safe to say that CXC likes racing at Mt. Itasca in Grand Rapids, MN.

This coming week there are races at Telemark Resort in the Hayward, Wi area.  This will be another home course advantage weekend and I will make a prediction that CXC will race well again.  Tomorrow I am picking Leif Zimmerman up from the airport and then we are driving up to race a sprint race on Wednesday.  I have never done very well at skate sprints but I am hoping for a respectable result.  I am most excited for the weekends 15k Mass Start Freestyle race… it should be a lot of fun skiing with all my competitors and teammates.

Back to the Cities and wow… I am busy.  Today alone I have talked to about a dozen people about jobs and given 2 ski lessons and went to Hennipin County to pay my moving violation for an illegal U-turn (I did not see the sign).

It is very nice to be back in the Midwest and I am excited to do some ski racing this weekend.  It looks like it is going to be cold for my races in Grand Rapids, MN.

Besides me being busy, my wife has her hands full watching Grant and, Evan and Angie’s 3 month old, Owen.

30k Pursuit Race:

Today was a fun but hard ski race.  I was more excited than nervous for my race, which is usually a good thing for me.  The morning started very well and I was able to get in a good warm-up and was happy with my ski and wax selection.  My coach, Bryan Fish, was on the ball with waxing so I had very good skis… I wish I could have done them a little more justice.

Instead of going into full details I’ll give a brief summary so no one has to listen to me ramble on and on.

Felt great out of the start, pace very doable, uh-oh… fell on sharp downhill corner on 1st lap, into last place, skied too hard to try to catch up, blew-up, recovered, blew-up again, excited to switched to skate, couldn’t go anywhere fast because I was so full of lactate acid, worked my ass off to catch and pass the 2nd to last place guy so I wouldn’t finish dead last, missed the finish turn off so I had to backtrack and ended up in last place despite all my effort.

Overall I am OK with my race and pumped about the experience.  I classic skied technically better than I have before but should have been able to skate ski a lot faster.  It was awesome to experience the World Cup first hand and be able to ski against the Worlds best.  Since I finished in last place I have nowhere to go but up the next time I ski a World Cup.

Tomorrow I am excited to cheer on my teammates doing the skate team sprint and I am also very excited to come home to my family and the Midwest!

Yes!

The sun finally came out today which is the first time I have seen it high in the sky since leaving minnesota 3 weeks ago.  It was so bright I had to get out my shades for the first time since I left home.

Getting ready to go skiing… our condo in the background

Fish enjoying the sunshine

Excited to get my athlete bib