“Today I witnessed one of the most amazing individual
performances I have ever seen!

Unknown to me Matt crashed within 50m of the start landing
him at the bottom of a pile of 20 – 30 skiers. Matt broke
his pole and damaged a ski (lost his hat and Casco’s as
well). I was waiting on the first hill but didn’t see Matt
in the first 10 places, not in the first 20, the field was
almost by me and I turned to look uphill to see if I could
see him and I heard Matt call my name. By the time I saw him
he was passed me and Caitlin Gregg handed him a pole — but
the wrong one. At this point Matt was near the back of the
group, maybe 80th out of 97 starters!

I caught Matt at the next climb and gave him his left pole.
Matt had made progress and was trailing off the large group
of leaders. The pressure was on at the front, there was an
intermediate sprint on the 2nd lap. Matt was working his way
through the field. I saw him at 3 points each lap. Skiers
were starting to drift back, but Matt was making his way up
through the field, alway just off the back of the lead group
who were really pushing the pace.

After the sprint the pace seemed to slow, but Matt kept up
the hurt and not only latched onto the lead group but pushed
toward the front… with more and more leaders getting
shelled.

With a 1/2 lap to go Matt was 2 – 3 sec behind 1st place
with 3rd in the distance behind. At the top of the last hill
Matt took the lead!!! He entered the stadium first and in an
amazing finishing spring he was just pipped at the line –
finishing 2nd by less than 0.1 sec.

The effort and determination Matt displayed today was
incredible. After the race as I listened to him talking with
others it was clear why he nearly won. He never discussed
the possibility of loosing, only of how he could ski his own
race… with the possibility of a top finishing result.

Congratulations Matt!!! That was an amazing effort and
result.

Greg
”

 Photo via PT Timing

I LOVE racing at home and the race organizers did an amazing job with lack of snow we have had! Great job to all the racers that came out and the Team Birkie racers looked AWESOME! 

http://fasterskier.com/2012/01/liebsch-sweeps-first-weekend-of-tour-de-twin-cities/

A huge thanks to all my sponsors, training partners, co-workers and everyone who supports me!

Also, thanks to Jacob Beste who worked hard and wrote an awesome training plan for me!

My race at Elm Creek with Team Strong Heart was a success and I want to thank all the volunteers and participants!

Marybeth and I have decided to bring the kids to West Yellowstone for Thanksgiving.  Just call us crazy. Seriously, it will be a fun trip and I am always excited when I get to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. It will be our first family road trip.  

This weekend are the ski erg championships so come out and participate.

http://www.skinnyski.com/training/forms/2011/skiergcontest.pdf

Happy Halloween from my strawberry and caterpillar.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TeamBirkie

Perfect set up for an athlete, Dad and homeowner of a huge yard.

I came home to a sick family. So I have been taking care of them and catching up after 11 days away. Friday is Marybeth’s birthday. She deserves a great day, not too many people would support me in so many ways!

I will have some exciting press releases this month.