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| Mount Washington Cup Results: http://www.nensa. net/results/ index.php? io_view=events&top_event_id= 392&season= The Mount Washington Cup was the final NENSA Club Points Series Race of the season. NWVT ranked 2nd among 57 teams competing for the title. We trailed CSU by 73 points going into the race, and were among 4 other clubs organizing a run for advancement it the series. It was a long shot, last year we entered the final race in 3rd place 12 points from first and made up the ground to win. This year things were a lot more challenging.  The day was a picture perfect March day. Cool temps overnight gave way to a rapidly warming morning. The sky was clear with no wind. The trails had been groomed in advance and allowed to set making for very fast frozen granular conditions. Bretton Woods has hundreds of kilometers of trails to work with and designed a fun and very challenging course to race this year. The race started with a half K sprint and turned to climb Coronary Hill, a 2.5K unrelenting climb. This is similar to starting a race at the bottom of Broadway at Bolton skiing to the top and having 12K left to race. Where you were at the top of the hill set the stage for where you would be for the rest of the race. Bridging gaps was impossible as the snow was so fast. If you were in a pace line you could share duties and recover a little better always having a fresh skier pulling the train. Many small groups made this work for them. NWVT’s strong presence was involved in these races within the race start to finish across the field. Skiers finishing summed it up as a 15K sprint. Enough cannot be said about the conditions, spirit and sportsmanship of the day. At the finish it was clear the NWVT had a lot at stake and left it all out on the course. Many sprints were contested and taken by NWVT skiers, and smiles were abundant knowing that we had done our best.  Sixteen NWVT members participated in the race. Performances from all were outstanding, and the blue snowflake uniform dominated the event. It is comforting to be among a team represented like this in a race. You always have somebody to mark, somebody looking out for you, the company keeps you honest, and the support keeps you going.  The Magnan brothers took things out at the beginning and pulled the first pack for 10K. This was an impressive strategy that worked well, but did not entirely pan out to their advantage at the finish. The course was so fast that those who rested had a little more gas at the end. Tyler and Scott did get high results, but faded as some of those pulled away at the finish. Hugh Pritchard of Onion River gave credit where it was due at the awards stating the Magnan Brothers had really set him up for a surprise result and the best race of the season. Damian watched the Magnan’s race unfold a few meters back unable to catch them. Dhyan Nirmegh’s fate was similar to Damian’s, not lucky enough to get into a pack where the draft made all the difference. His result was strong, closing out the top 25 with 4 NWVT skiers. Not far behind Nick Smart, Lary Martell and Tim Cowan were in a seven-way battle. It was quite a sight to see them all come in within 2 seconds of each other. Nick won the sprint with Lary edging Tim by a toe right behind. Nick collapsed in the finish area, Lary who was reluctant to race after doing the 50K classic the day before had one of his better races of the season, and Tim was happy to be in the action working his way up through a field of teammates. Perry was the next NWVT skier involved in a sprint of his own. From my perspective he held off the hard charger at the line, but the results say different. Perhaps he was being the gentleman he is, or the host broke the tie in their favor. Either way it was exciting to watch. John Lavoie was keeping the heat on some of out favorite master’s racers Doug Armstrong, Bob Gray and Bill Holland. It is good we always have some body covering these guys, keeping the heat on these hot competitors. Skiing with them is a lesson in guts. Andre’ Bolduc, Charlie Farrington and Jessica Bolduc traded places throughout the race finishing close together in that order. All pulled away from their closest challengers approaching the finish. Cipperly Good was involved in a three way sprint that included a former Olympian. She ended up in the middle of the mix. Cipperly has been working out at the Weston Ski Track in a secret disguise keeping an eye on our biggest rival this season. Zachary Shuttle rounded out the NWVT men and dunked on his mark, CSU’s David Holmander by 24 minutes. He earned 10 club points in the process. This was the furthest Shuttle has ever skied and he pulled it off well with great enthusiasm at the finish. There were also two newcomers in the women’s field representing NWVT. Annaliese Baumer subbed for her husband Eric Tremble who was out west doing a 90km race over the Continental Divide. She could not have picked a better time and day to do her first points race. She placed well completing a sweep of the FM1 division with Jessica and Cipperly. She was happy with the ski, and the club is grateful that she gave it a shot. Whatever nerves she had at the beginning were wiped away with smiles at the finish. Jenn Magnan debuted for the club. Jenn took a break from soccer to support the club throwing her hat in the ring at the last minute. Her hopes were to counter the Berman effect and ski with Sara Mae. It would have been an epic battle between these two competitors known for their ferocity, but Sara was a no-show and Jenn’s effort ended up being just the ticket to put us ahead of CSU in the point standings.  We got the big announcement on the NENSA page having made up the points deficit and surpassing CSU by 3 when the day was unofficially tallied. Proof yet again that everyone counts. A 24 hour protest period was posted and a few discrepancies were found. NENSA has yet to make the official call as the decision has gone to the Club Committee. Scott and Jessica have done a great job representing our stance and we have some powerful officers on our side, however CSU’s argument is just as compelling. We can rest assured that we have done everything we can to do our best in this series. We raced hard followed the published rules and were a model of teamwork and sportsmanship as was CSU. They want the series just as bad having to travel out of Boston to compete in the series. We can be proud that a club our size, with less than half the number of racers scoring has pushed CSU to have to resort to competing in the gray area to win the championship. NENSA is in a tough position to declare a winner. On one hand CSU did accumulate more points, but could be at the expense of the NENSA bending its guiding principles. We know we did our best, have nothing to hide and no matter what, we had a great season!  Craftsbury Spring Fling Another great day of racing was had at the 2009 Craftsbury Spring Fling. NWVT was represented by 7 racers competing in the 15K and 30K events. It was definitely a huge dose of spring skiing as athletes made there way around the loop.  This year’s Fling presented competitors with conditions they have not seen for a while. Dirty granular snow was the first challenge. It was quite the topic as skiers weighed the options of putting in heavy structure to disperse the water that was likely to be on the course risking that they may trap dirt. The alternative was to put in a light structure in hopes that it would alleviate suction and resist dirt a little better. The choices were debated on a glide testing area just outside the stadium where everything seemed to be working well without any distinct advantage. It was great to see everybody applying different science to analyze there skis. Some even incorporating the help of their spouse in a side-by-side glide test. Looking at the results, it seems that the most successful subjectivity of all the tests was the spouse rule. Might as well make the right pick if you are going to get blamed for the choice. After the wax testing fun was done it was time to start the race and see what performed. Heavy rills did well early but did clog with dirt. Tyler Magnan was probably the first victim of the conditions. His skis got off the line well, but were failing by the 3K mark. He dug in and kept the pace up until the 10K mark and had to back off. Down, but not out he went to work helping gaps open for NWVT racers that came along and aided heavily in holding off competitors from Scott Magnan and Damian Bolduc. Damian had great skis for the first half of the race but then the sun came out and warmed things up. His light structure was not enough to free his bases from the moisture in the snow where the sun had warmed things up. Scott had the most consistent skis. His warm grind was just the ticket for the day and he moved up on the second lap where Damian fell back. NWVT’s top skier was Jake Hollenbach. He realized he was pushing the pace too much at 10K, but continued anyway. By 20K he was toasted. He took 5K to regain his composure and finished the last 5K strong to take 5th overall. Leigh Mallory had a great race as well. He was not too far off the pace set by Scott and Damian and was closing on Tyler in the final climb. He played down his race at the finish, but was excited once he realized his result. Leigh also shared some great beverages at the post race BBQ. Thanks! Perry put in a solid effort. There is something about Perry and races where you have to jump over streams full of running water. He really likes a good challenge and is definitely looking forward to next Sunday at the Mount Washington Cup. He looked strong coming into the finish with good technique and long glides. Lary Martell opted to ski the 15K tapering to do a double next weekend. He skied the race easy finishing right behind Jim Fredericks, then going back on course to cheer on the rest of the club. So who had the fastest skis? It was interesting that two individuals were way up on the results page from previously this season. Keith Woodward (SNOC) and Eric Hanson (Craftsbury) both had results much better than what we have been seeing thus far this season. Coincidentally they are both groomers at Craftsbury, Keith prepared both sets of skis, and Patty Driscoll (Keith’s wife) tested them. Of course Keith is the last guy in the field who will tell you what he did. Perhaps it was intimate knowledge of the trails that comes with grooming them, Keith’s superior waxing instinct, or that Patty has a good sense for fast skis. Whatever it was, these two really came away with great results. Those that had the pleasure of being overtaken by Hanson noticed that well into the second lap he was moving along effortlessly. At the BBQ we all shared our stories of the day and enjoyed some good food, and beer thanks to Leigh. It was another fun race and a great day to enjoy the outdoors. The last challenge Craftsbury threw at us was navigating the muddy dirt road out of the center. Catamount Trail BC Challenge By Eric Tremble Coverage: http://boltonnordic.wordpress.com/ I've been looking forward to the Catamount Trail Trapps to Bolton race for quite some time, pretty much since I crossed the finish line last year. It's an awesome event; difficult race, unknown conditions and tons of variables, great prizes, free food, good cause, etc. The race starts with a couple of k's on the groomed trails at Trapps before dropping down Old Country Rd into the Nebraska valley. Then after two road sections where you need to take your skis off and run, you hit the main obstacle on the course, a long grinding climb up over the ridge, topping out at over 3000 feet. Once you're over the climb, you have to navigate a technical decent down to the Bolton nordic center.
 In the weeks leading up to the event, I was doing a bunch of testing and going back and forth between two pairs of skis, one with a metal edge (for control), and one without (for climbing speed). With the nasty rain, tiny bit of snow, and cold that we got Friday into Saturday, I was back to square one with no idea what I'd use. Luckily, I had time on Saturday to go out and test both the climb (from the Nebraska valley), and the decent into Bolton. I realized that the decent was going to be nasty no matter what skis I had, but the climb was going to be next to impossible on fishscales alone. There just wasn't enough new snow on top of the boilerplate ice, so the scales had nothing to grab onto. I made a last minute decision to borrow a pair of kicker skins and use the lighter skis without edges.
As we lined up to start the race, I sized up the competition (Marc Gilbertson). He had similar skis, but no skins so I knew he would open a gap on me while I was putting on the skins, but I hoped I would be able to make it up on the long climb. Another wild card was Eric Carter from UVM. He was going to give it a go on waxless race classic skis. He'd definitely be fast on the groomed part, but I was pretty sure I'd see him suffering on the climb. Out of the start I settled into 3rd behind Eric and Marc, Eric was quickly out of site on his fast race skis, and Marc opened a gap on me pretty quickly too. Jake Hollenbach was cheering at the top of the groomed trails, and he said Eric was 1 minute ahead and Marc was about 15 seconds ahead. At the first road crossing, I struggled to get my skis off and by the time we got to the base of the climb after the second road crossing Marc was out of site. I put on my skins as fast as possible, but it still seemed to take forever and I almost got caught by the next racers. Once I started climbing I was making pretty good time, and sure enough I quickly caught up to Eric Carter. He must have had no kick at all because he was trying to run up the trail carrying his skis. A while later I passed Sam von Trapp who was doing the tour, and he said Marc was 4 minutes (!) ahead. I thought he was joking. I was sure I was making up ground, but 4 minutes was a lot. I thought it might be over, but I kept on and with only a few switch backs remaining before the top, I finally caught and passed Marc. I tried to get out of site as fast as possible, but I was starting to bonk so it wasn't easy. Finally I got to the end of the ridge, ripped off the skins and headed down. The first few turns were tough due to the icy snow and my shaking legs, but after a few falls I got the hang of it and cruised the rest of the way down to the Nordic center to take the win.
I'll let Rose and Helen jump in with their own reports, but I know they didn't have skins, so they had a tougher time getting up the climb, but just finishing is a real accomplishment. By Helen Smith Rose and I decided to do this race together….and thinking maybe we could win. How incredibly WRONG we were! Having tested out our lightweight touring equipment with our race classic boots the week before on the Bolton side, we thought we were prepared. However, with the ice and rain and tiny bit of powder out there on those skinny trails, we were soooo unprepared. However, we kept plugging along, taking off our skis when we needed to (going uphill!) we made it in under three hours, passing some men along the way and getting passed by those smart people with kicker skins. Seriously though, what a great day, the weather was perfect and the views from the top were incredible. I couldn’t decide whether I was in heaven or hell when I got to the top after 2 hours of experiencing pretty high heart rate. EVERYONE should do this race next year, it was a different type of challenge, for sure, and an Nordic ski experience that is unlike any other. Kudos to Bolton, Trapps, and Catamount, and thanks to Jim Fredericks and Liz Hollenbach.
Stowe Derby Accounts from Ilke and Jake who won the freestyle event for Women and Men respectively: Other NWVT finishers were: Eric Tremble 6th Derbymeister Tyler Magnan Scott Magnan Leigh Mallory 14th Derbymeister Dan Sandberg Malcolm Purinton Congratulations to all for completeing the toughest nordic ski race there is. Results @ Eastern Cup Finale It was a great day to be out skiing on Saturday. Many of the regions top athletes showed up for a challenging race at this year’s Silver Fox Trot held at Oak Hill. It really could not have been a nicer day to ski. The temperature was in the mid twenties at race time. The snow was transitioned, except for a few pockets where the powder held on. Dartmouth did a great job preparing the course; filling in thin spots and leveling the trail. The course was a 5K loop around Storrs pond done twice. 30 second intervals separated racers. Skiers really appreciate how the loop always had something coming at you. Enthusiasts from around the New England came to watch some of the finest skiing in the finest conditions around. NWVT had seven athletes participating in this year’s event. It is great to see more racers attending the Eastern Cup Races. It shows how our skiing as a club has improved. The Men raced first this year, and Jake Hollenbach drew #1 in the start order. Jake did not hesitate to get a jump on the day. By the 1K mark he had significantly distanced himself from the next two racers. As he came through the stadium at the 5K mark he faltered a little through the lap/finish area, but looked strong heading into the second lap. He held off all chasers and was the first finisher of the day. Taking a breather on the bench in the finish chute, he watched the rest of the race play out. When all was said and done he ended up 20th overall. Paul Smith was the next NWVT racer to go off. He had an outstanding race, finishing 25th overall. Evan Martell had a late start, but was next on the results page having his best Eastern Cup of the year. Damian Bolduc followed up with a very fast first lap followed by a lot of suffering on the second. Dhyan Nirmegh was hot on Damian’s heels two places and 12 seconds off. Nirmegh opted to stay relaxed the first lap and crank it up for the second. It paid off as his results keep getting better as the season winds down. As Nirmegh made the final corner into the stadium Chris Nice (Ford Sayre) commented on the perfect line and what an “incredible athlete” Nirmegh is. Nirmegh poured it on picking off collegiate athletes half his age. Tim Cowan was next up. He too had a similar strategy as Nirmegh, and would not be a victim of a sprint taking place between Evan and a rival. He kept up and even closed as he approached the finish. Apparently Tim and Evan had been chasing each other up a 1K long gradual climb at 8K and stayed together to the finish. Next was the man everybody knows, Perry Bland. Perry had a great race knocking 3 minutes off his time from last year. Warming up and cooling down with Perry makes me realize why he has to get to these races so early. Everybody has to talk with him. And they all cheer him on too. Sam Martell held things down for the women skiing for the SLU. She looked strong among the local Ford Sayre and Dartmouth skiers earning her top Eastern Cup result of the year. On Sunday Paul Smith and Martell men finished out the Eastern Cup Series at Gunstock. Evan had his highest place in an Eastern Cup finishing one off of Paul Smith. Lary Martell finished 74th in his top finish of the season too! NWVT had an outstanding start to the weekend at the Eastern Cup Finale. No matter what your take was on the races it was a great time ski. I think this year’s series was the most competitive ever with the top talent from North America attending. While it made it much more difficult to achieve goals set for the season, it gave great perspective on what the top athletes are doing and where we stand among them. Close to the Coast 10K and Flying Moose Classic: Several NWVT racers traveled to Maine this weekend to compete in the Close to the Coast 10K at Pineland, and the Flying Moose Classic in Bethel. Both venues provided great conditions and friendly competition in these citizens’ oriented races. NWVT did well for the weekend facing competition from CSU on Saturday and from Mt. Washington Nordic on Sunday.  Both days provided extremely fast tilled transformed snow conditions. The temperature was in the mid twenties by race time, and the sun was bright. Both courses provided rolling terrain in fields and woods, but were very different by most accounts. Saturday’s freestyle race course at Pineland had gently rolling hills on a 5K loop skied twice. Skiers faced strong wind gusts in the meadow heading out of the start/finish stadium and into the wooded section. Once in the woods the course meandered for 3K before heading back through the fields with the wind at your back to the start area. Sunday was a 20K point to point comprised of two loops that look like moose antlers. The first half of the course had steep extended climbs, and thrilling down hills with the second half tapering off on the grades, but ramping it up on the turns. The weekend had something for everyone, and all NWVT skiers were pleased with their results. On Saturday nine racers skied for the club. Matthew Barton came out of retirement and reunited with former SLU teammate Tyler Magnan this weekend. Matt’s respite since his days at SLU must have paid off as he took the overall win in the 10K beating out second place CSU skier Robert Bradlee by a commanding 12 seconds! This was a good start to the weekend. Tyler took 5th as he raced away from some of the local collegiate skiers. Next up was Damian Bolduc raced fairly conservatively on the first lap opening it up on the second. Scott Magnan followed hanging in on the second lap after an aggressive first. Dhyan Nirmegh was close behind in a master’s battle Ken Remsen (Mt. Mansfield Nordic) and Doug Armstrong (Mt. Washington Nordic). Nirmegh out kicked Armstrong but just could not get by Remsen on the final hill to the finish. Nirmegh is really coming into form as the season progresses; he was only 9 seconds behind Scott at this race. Perry Bland had a great result too! Battling featured NWVT  guest and Perry’s brother-in-law Hank Feifle. NWVT continues to prove that there is nothing better than a good family rivalry to improve results. I am sure Hank is plotting the next match up. Charlie Farrington rounded things out for the men. This was Charlie’s second race for the club, and he continues to improve by training and getting more races under his belt. Jessica Bolduc won her division and was not too far off women’s pace setter Trina Hosmer (SNOC). The hero of the day was Sara Mae Berman; CSU’s relic that came out and put down her first freestyle 10K at age 72. She won the F9 division finishing 12 minutes behind CSU’s newest recruit David Holmander. Berman was quite the celebrity at the awards ceremony and had no problem playing the diva role as Bradlee and Milne’s egos beamed knowing she got the job done for them. This is not the first time CSU has unleashed the Berman’s on the rest of the clubs, they were instrumental in team scoring at the White Mountain Classic. So if they can do it, what is your excuse? Their combined 20 points really helped put CSU up for the day. Everyone had a great day and many PR’s were set on the relatively easy course with rocket fast conditions. This did not make the race easier by any means, and the results are a testament to who can really hammer the fastest. Sunday proved to be another excellent day for racing. Eric Tremble, Tim Cowan, and Camille Bolduc joined everyone from the day before, minus Hank. Scott’s klister testing was key in getting the wax just right for the race. The race started with a parade lap around the Gould Academy Arena. Skiers seem to have difficulty understanding the purpose of the parade lap and should take queues from cyclists on how it is executed. None the less, everyone got out with a clean start. Eric Tremble was off the front He really has these classic mass starts down. He has the finishes down too. He won a sprint and  tiebreak for second overall in the race. Matt Barton took 6th and won the overall pursuit competition for the weekend. Tyler Magnan was next. Tyler rubbed elbows with some aggressive competition at the start but found himself in no mans land after a crash around the 9K mark. Older brother Scott was about 90 seconds back in a pack that slowly spread apart in the second half of the race. After crashing in the same spot as Tyler, Damian found himself in a heated battle with Doug Armstrong, and Ron Newbury (Mt. Washington). These guys were evenly matched in will, and clobbered each other as they reeled in the remnants of the pack Scott skied in. It was a rare occasion where stupid fast paid off and all three had a great time doing it. Damian and Doug won their respective divisions in the Pursuit and probably could not have done it without each other in the 20K. Nirmegh raced day two with a 3 second loss fresh in his mind. He defeated Ken Remsen (Mansfield) by a wide margin and claimed the M6 division in the pursuit. Perry edged Andrew Whelan by a second in one of the most exciting finishes of the day. The climbs in the first half of the race are more to Perry’s liking but he stuck it out all the way to the finish. Tim Cowan was close behind preferring the second half of the race. Tim moved up and was pleased with his result despite having slick skis. Charlie Farrington surprised himself and the rest of the club by having the better of his two days in the 20K. He finished with a powerful double pole distancing himself from those behind while closing fast on those ahead. Jessica was not so hot, tired from the day before and struggling with wax she decided to ski just to finish. In doing so she still captured her division and the F1 pursuit. It was a bright spot in her day to learn that while on course Camille Bolduc had won the Lollipop Race! Camille broke away from the rest of the field with a double pole kick that just comes naturally to the 5 1/2 year old.  Despite strong challenges from CSU and Mt. Washington, NWVT should advance after the dust settles from the weekend. We have broken our tie with Craftsbury and overtaken Dartmouth for second place. As we have closed on CSU, Mt. Washington has closed on us. It will be tight coming out of the final race between all 5. Any club can and will assemble a formidable team for the last race, and all are pumped up for the opportunity to win the series. We need to pull out all the stops. The Red Menace has already proved it can. Maple Onion/Super Tour/Lake Placid Loppet NENSA updated the Club Series scores. NWVT did well at Craftsbury, but CSU continues to be a power house. The series is based on participation and CSU continues to produce the numbers to get big scores. NWVT is doing extremely well and the next races are a good opportunity for us to close the gap. These are much more citizen oriented than the first 3 were and I encourage all to get out and ski! There is a double over in Maine this weekend with a few twists. Besides being citizens’ point races, those who do both will be scored in a pursuit race, and Saturday’s race will also have a partner’s relay division where sweethearts have to kiss or suffer a penalty. See the calendar at www.nensa.net for more info and bring a sweetheart to race. This past weekend was full of action packed racing. We have already heard from Scott and the St. Albans Carnival but there was much racing elsewhere too. NWVT members competed in the Super Tour Races held at Trapp Family Lodge, The Maple Onion 15K at Morse Farm and the Lake Placid Loppet held on the Olympic Course at Mt. Van Hoevenberg. Jessica Bolduc represented the Club at the Maple Onion 15K. It was the first indication that the word of the weekend would be “wax.” Anticipating warm temps most skiers had applied warmer wax, but the mercury was slow to rise in Montpelier on Saturday morning. Most racers used warm skis on a blue day. Jessica persevered as did the rest of the field, pushing the skis over the squeaky snow and finished first in her category and 3rd woman overall. Also representing the club in the BKL race at Morse Farm was Camille Bolduc. She avoided the pileups and stayed on course the entire time, earning herself a maple crèmee! Later that morning racers were contesting the Super Tour in Stowe. This was a Super Tour Race, the UVM Carnival, and an Eastern Cup all in one. Needless to say the fields were huge and deep. Day one was a skate race in very fast conditions. Those who hit the wax just right had exceptional races. Ilke Van Genechten started the day for the club finishing in the top third of the women’s 5K field. Samantha Martell racing for SLU also competed having a great start, but losing some steam on the hills. Jake Hollenbach took top honors for the NWVT Men posting a solid top 100 finish. Paul Smith (Jake’s girlfriend Helen’s brother) edged Eric Tremble by on tenth of a second for 108th and 109th place respectively. Evan Martell had a race he has been waiting for finishing in the middle of the mix of the J1 field. Damian Bolduc had a solid race and Tim Cowan edged fellow M5 rival James Doucett of CSU. Sunday proved to be another story. Inches of rain and rising temps overnight wreaked havoc on the snow conditions for the classic race. When Damian and Perry Bland arrived they were greeted by 45mph winds in a snow squall. The women had been set with klister, but the snow changed that. One of the private school coaches stripped her athletes skis of wax and sent them with nothing as the conditions changed so dramatically during the race. Damian had a wax that was perfect for the transitional conditions. He and Perry tested it during the tail end of the women’s race and it was perfect. Little did they know that the temperature was about to drop dramatically causing things to dry up or freeze. By their start, the magic bullet was nothing more than an expensive sticky mess to clean off the ski. Not all was lost Paul Smith and Evan Martell had a second day of solid results, but Damian, Lary, Perry and Tim had performances they will likely soon want to forget. On Saturday over at Van Ho Rose Long took top honors in her age group in the 25K at the Lake Placid Loppet. She was also top ten overall for women and came out to cheer the boys on in the suffer-fest at the NOTSuper Tour Race on Sunday. Her cheers were the most enthusiastic among the many that were the only bright spot in the day for me! Here is the report from the St. Albans Carnival from Scott Magnan: Several NWVT and BFA skiers participated in today’s St. Albans Winter Nordic Events. A warm night made course prep and Waxing a challenge. By race time things were in good shape with fast conditions. The Nordic Ski cross race was the first nordic race of the day. The skiers faced a challenging course. After a slight uphill start followed by a brief flat they entered a five turn slalom course and exited into the face of a jump. Skiers would then drop quickly onto the soccer field taking a sharp right. Once onto the field it was a flat sprint for 50 meters into the finish. Skiers did an individual time trial to set things up for the semi final heats. With the number of participants everyone was able to ski a semi. In heat one Tyler Magnan won beating Nick Smart who qualified second and Jack Venuti. In Heat 2 Ruth Chippinnelli would beat Sister Stacy to move on to the gold medal round. Heat three would be an action packed race. Coach Magnan would get the hole shot. On gate two Robbie Morrill would try to block pass on the inside, but Magnan knew he was coming and dug his skis in a little deeper, Morrill fell on impact. Zak Shuttle closed but, Morrill rebounded quickly, Magnan would go for big air of the jump. Once in the soccer field Morrill closed quickly and caught Magnan off guard making a late pass for the win sending a strong message to his coach and the rest of the field, entering the finals. The final semi saw Jackie Boudreau defeat Maria Lowe to move her into the Finals. The first medal round of the day, would match Stacy and Maria for the bronze. They were close off the line but Lowe moved skillfully through the slalom course to grab the Bronze. In the Men’s four person Medal final. The Magnan brothers jumped to the lead with Morrill and Smart in toe. Tyler was the first to the gates, the elder Magnan staying close pulling away from Morrill and Smart. It was all business on the jump, both going for speed not air. The Gap would narrow as the finish neared with Tyler winning in a sprint by a ski length, Morrill would end up third and Smart Fourth. The Girls gold medal round Boudreau would lead Chippinnelli by a narrow margin through the gates into the jump, with the race in question Chippinnelli would lose her balance widening the gap as Boudreau sprinted in for the win. In the 4k Classic race the Magnan brothers would take the lead early. Scott and Tyler took turns leading, Scott early on before he slowed to draft on the long double pole section, Tyler would bobble on a corner and Scott took the lead into the second lap. On lap 2 Tyler made an aggressive move for the lead, but Scott held tight until finally Tyler broke away on the course’s biggest climb with one K to go for the 13 second win. Behind these two Robbie Morril and NWVT skier Charlie Farrington fought for third. It came down to a couple of technical turns were Morrill found a big enough advantage to seal the Bronze. The Women’s race would be an epic battle of sportsmanship and family rivalry. At the one K mark race leader Ruth Chippinnelli had a pole malfunction. A little later sister Stacy would catch up, handing off her Bamboo poles to her younger sister, handicapping herself. The two would remain Close for the next couple of kilometers. Late in the race Stacy would Put her 20yr old Karhu Bear Claw touring skis and three pin bindings to good use, kicking much better than the slick Klister waxed skis her sister was using, despite the one pole disadvantage, to take the Gold. A little later Melanie Venuti also using touring skis would come in for the Bronze. 4k Classic Results Tyler Magnan- 9:55 Scott Magnan- 10:08 Robbie Morrill- 11:52 Charlie Farrington- 12:36 Scott Cote- 13:40 Zack Shuttle- 17:01 Trey Good- 17:15 Stacy Chippinnelli- 17:40 Ruth Chippinnelli- 17:52 Jack Venuti- 18:36 Scott Venuti- 26:40 Melanie Venuti- 32:57 ??- 33:07 Craftsbury Marathon Full Results: http://www.nensa. net/page. php?id=3120 Twelve NWVT members participated in the Craftsbury Marathon Saturday. The Marathon is the region's premier event with a scenic, yet challenging 25/50K race and tour. The race was a lot different from years past, but things went well and I think most approve of the changes. While the point to point race was missed, the new format had many advantages and made the day run a little smoother. The race was well organized, making it easier for skiers to adapt to the new course. Conditions were perfect again. The temps were in the high single digits to low teens. The snow was plentiful, thanks to another great winter and a dumping earlier in the week that left over a foot of fresh powder. There was a moderate wind that went mostly unnoticed thanks to the high level of excitement for the day. Then new course had it all, as it traversed the five leaf clover that extended out of the touring centers practice loop in all directions. Every effort had a good recovery with the exception of the finish, but by then who cared. Early in the race a wet lake section had skiers worried about skis icing, but to my knowledge no one had that problem. Others worried of losing wax, but again I do not think anyone did. There was excellent coverage and very few crusty or braking areas which aided wax longevity. The course favored the powerful not-so-technical skiers with great endurance. But over 50K every one had their advantages. NWVT had an excellent showing with almost all racers having a PR, or their best race in a long time. Seth Maciejowski and Allaire Diamond volunteered, and checked racers in as usual. It is good to have these two club members keeping tabs on CSU at the starting corral. Eric Tremble was our top finisher coming in 7th overall. He had a great race and fended off a late charge by last years Zak Cup Champion Topher Sabot. Eric held it together just enough as he cracked in the final K’s of the race. Tyler Magnan was next on the results page. He skied much of the race with a group of the top masters before dropping them on the final climbs of the race. After leaving CSU’s Andrew Milne and Rob Bradlee, Tyler was rapidly closing on Dartmouth standout Anson Moxness and former German National Team’s/ World Masters Medalist Frank Feist. Six places and 5 minutes back was Damian Bolduc. Damian had the perfect race as he caught battled and dropped Masters he had marked for this season. A heated final 2K surge by Damian and Carl Johnston kept him honest to the finish giving Damian a big result he has been looking for. Next in was Scott Magnan. “I didn’t have a bad race which is a good thing here.” Scott worked his way up through the field finishing a little ahead of the mix he was in at the White Mountain Classic last weekend. Perry had an outstanding result as he moved up a few notches in the rankings. He was excited the whole day about how good his skis were, and they served him well. Perry finished hard even though there was no one to contest it with. He had a good race going and he made it count all the way to the finish. Malcolm Purinton had a great result in his first race as a club member. He was only six seconds off of Ford Sayers Brice Wing, and about a minute in front of Onion Rivers John McGill. Both are seasoned racers that Malcolm should be pleased about being in contention with. Malcolm moved quite a few spots up the results page from last year while doing it! Hopefully we will see more of Malcolm later this season. Dhyan Nirmegh was the next to cross the line for the club. He had one of his better 50K’s in a while. The long distance stuff is not his thing but you would not know it from how he raced. Even though he was ashen and passed out on the bleachers in the gym after the race, everyone knew he was happy because of the big smile he had on his face. Lary Martell balanced the equilibrium of everyone’s super races by having everything go wrong in his. From the day before to the porta-jon line, to socks, to parking, to poles, crashes, officials…Lary did not get on track until he was sipping hot chocolate at the post race lunch. We should all be thankful to Lary for single handedly baring all the bad karma for the club, not to mention single handedly skiing half the race with only 1 good pole and doing do in 3:30! Still not a bad result, but unfortunate since Lary was on track to be well up on the first page of the results. Then Leigh Mallory was close behind wrapping it up for the NWVT men. Leigh thought it would be a lot better if it was only a 25K going into the race, but he probably found it to be twice as nice doing two 25K’s back to back. NWVT also had two racers in the women’s 50K and one racer in the 25K race. Jessica Bolduc continued to improve, holding off most of her master’s competition until the final K’s of the race. She skied the first lap close to our lone 25Ker’ Andre Bolduc. These two kept each other in sight and Jessica brought Andre’ around to the finish in time to win the Senior Men’s division in the 25K. Jessica skied on strong to the final climb. Exhausted she got over the climb but had nothing left to contest the finish. She felt better after a few hot chocolates and 45 minutes in a heated car seat on the ride home. Maria Cimonetti finished in a pack of M3’s. Her goal was to ski even splits and came close to doing that. Here second lap was within a few minutes of her first. Maria was the first NWVT member to be called for the prize drawing. Since her first choice of a Coffee, Beer and Advil was not available she opted for a ski bag. She did get some Advil before the drive home, and I am sure the Coffee and Beer has been satisfied by now. NWVT really had a great day at Craftsbury this year. All participants have an accomplishment they can be proud of. As a team, this was our best Craftsbury yet! This race will propel our club into the next half of the season. Hopefully our performance here will inspire more to come out for the next three low key races in the club series. A great job to everyone who raced, volunteered, and cheered. This will be one to remember.
White Mountain Classic Full Results: http://www.jacksonxc.org/Events/2009/WMC09_Results.html Nine skiers represented NWVT at the White Mountain Classic in Jackson, NH today. The race lived up to all the hype and skiers were excited about the great conditions, venue and super competition. The crew at Jackson delivered a world class event to the 200+ participants and the day with smoothly without a hitch. Results were posted instantly on a large projection screen, awards were handled quickly and the post race dinner was promptly served hot. Many clubs had the points bug in this one day championship and the friendly competitive enthusiasm beamed from the many involved. CSU dominated the day. They left nothing to chance, even dragging an M9 female out to switch from the touring division and pin on a number. The valiant attempt failed as Mt. Washington claimed the women’s title. CSU did capture the men’s with a near perfect score. With attendance over 100 for their Tuesday night race at the Weston ski track in Boston they have a large pool of athletes to recruit from. Despite this overwhelming mismatch in numbers NWVT held its own. If the teams were scored straight up instead of by age groups we would have held CSU to 1 point. Had it been scored on time we would have won by 53 seconds! But the rules were by age group placement and CSU played their hand well by diversifying over many categories. The temperature at the start was 15 degrees and falling. The surface was expertly groomed packed powder with flawless double and triple tracks set for the 30K. The course was similar to those in the past that sent skiers on a rolling first half on the Eagle Mountain trails then flattening out as they crossed the road and skied along the Ellis River bed. The wind was strengthening with frequent strong gusts but racers were mostly protected from this in the shelter of the woods and hills. The start was the usual White Mountain chaos of a short double pole leading into a hard left turn. This year’s twists were a wider stadium and a short hill leading onto the course. Eric Tremble showed us all how to start in this predicament. Opting for the least desirable spot on the line, the point furthest to the right in the stadium, Eric looked like he put it in fast forward sprinting out of the stadium and across the field on the trail that ran perpendicular to the stadium at the top of the rise at the end of the double pole zone. It was a spectacle that you had to see to believe. Eric continued to set the pace for some time before relinquishing the top spot to Eli Enman the eventual winner of the race. Tyler, Damian and Scott also had particularly good clean starts. Tyler led a pack of the top masters, while Damian struggled to stay in. Scott chased but eventually pulled back to recompose himself which proved to be a smart decision by the end of the race. NWVT skiers established themselves throughout the top half of the field as the race unfolded. Both Eric Tremble and Tyler Magnan were taken advantage of as their closest constituents drafted them for much of the race. With about 1K to go Eric Eley (SNOC) attacked and cranked it in to the finish to take second bringing along another racer and opening a small gap on Eric Tremble who crossed the line in 4th. Tyler fell victim to similar tactics of racers who passed after using his draft for most of the race. Scott eventually overtook Damian around the halfway point and continued on to overtake some of those who fell off the pack that Tyler set the pace for. Damian faded to 25K but put in a strong finish and fended off a late charge from race director Doug Armstrong. The next grouping of NWVT was Perry Bland, Dhyan Nirmegh, and Leigh Mallory. These guys kept each other in check over the course. All were in group sprints to the finish not letting up until after the line. Dan Sandberg chose the White Mountain Classic to be his first race of the year finishing respectably in the record breaking field. Everyone was happy to see him return to racing catching up on what he has been doing since last year’s race. NWVT’s Women’s attendance was low this year fielding only one racer. Jessica Bolduc had a breakthrough race, putting sizable distance on her master’s competition. She started conservatively and picked her way through the field. Passing many skiers was not the only excitement she had. Jessica dropped a pole while feeding on a down hill, and had to back track to retrieve it. In the process she fell and “smashed her knee on her ski” she shook it off and finished the race without it affecting her place or performance, but later her leg became very stiff as her knee swelled. The ski was fine, and the pole will be evaluated for replacement. After the race athletes had a great time mingling and comparing their awards. Perry’s Teal Gloves looked HOT with Damian’s pink hat. CSU Captain Andrew Milne’s Score Card (the back of one of his student’s project poster) was reminiscent of the late Tim Russert’s “Red State/Blue State” marker board. (Note for next year, we will look even cooler if we bring a Magna-Doodle) At the post race dinner Doug Armstrong (Mount Washington) joined NWVT and CSU at the table as the top clubs familiarized themselves for future races. All are looking forward to next week in Craftsbury. The Bogburn The population of 1000 in Pomfret Vermont grew by 30% today as the VOmax hosted the 25th annual Bogburn. Roughly 300 racers and supporters invaded the Haydock Residence for what has become the signature “old school” race in New England. The narrow trails carved out of a Sugarbush and some frozen wetlands at this property provide a unique venue that challenges skier’s abilities in more ways than the average race on the calendar. It is its heritage, course and the hospitality of the Haydock’s that make this event so special and something everyone should experience. Just the drive there is impressive, you crest the hill in the middle of no where and smack into a major ski race. We took some photos of the venue with racers, and after the race. It is amazing to see the difference, and hard to imagine all that happened in the deserted photos. For NWVT photos go to -- http://picasaweb.google.com/jwbolduc/200901BogburnPics?authkey=KHchdorfnX4&feat=directlink#
The conditions at this year's Bogburn were the best that I can remember. There was nothing but deep snow. Even after the race the carved out corners still had over a foot of base left before you could hit ground. The course was the challenging 7K loop for the Women and the men did two with a 1K cut-off at the start of the second lap. This course has it all: short climbs, steep climbs, gradual climbs, flat straight-aways on an earthen dam, sharp turns, narrow trails, smooth surfaces, bumpy surfaces, views…and on. To fit all this in on a single 7K loop keeps racers on their toes! Those with quick transitions, good technique and strong heart tend to prevail at this race. The temps were in the low teens, the snow was fresh packed powder on a firm base, the sun was bright and the wind was light. For the first time in a while the Bogburn was easy to wax for. NWVT fielded fifteen racers and one stowaway that hitched a ride with one of our members to the race. This was an excellent turnout of NWVT skiers of all abilities to kick off the citizens series. Everybody had an outstanding race especially Eric Tremble who took top honors for the club with a sixth place overall finish. But the Bogburn is not just about placing. If you review last years result Andre’ Bolduc lost a battle with the hour mark by 1 second. After a year of stewing over where he lost that second, he came back and bettered his time by 13 seconds. Take that Bogburn second of 2008! Even Martell edged Magnan by one place as he continues to climb up the result page. Scott asserted his classic technique over Damian. Looks like those two are at it again. Tyler Magnan was pleased by besting old rival Andreas Halvorson by 1 place and 3 seconds. Lary Martell upped his game edging some of his competition in the Zak Cup. Perry Bland, Tim Cowan, and Dhyan Nirmegh (Tim put on a pair of classic skis for the first time for the club, Nirmegh had added challenge of a freshly cracked rib in his first race of the season) mixed it up taking 3rd, 5th and 5th in their respective categories, and all finishing in close time to each other. Add a long time friend new to NWVT (officially) Leigh Mallory and this will be a real force in a mass start race. Speaking of new faces, hats off to Charlie Farrington and Wally Good holding it down for the Senior men! Both had great results for starting out on the club circuit after a significant racing hiatus since high school. Breaking it in at the Bogburn is no small feat. The rest will come a lot easier with this one under their belt. Martin Breu, of Middlebury College, who tagged along with Tim to the race, finished solidly on the first page. It was great to see the influence of our efforts spread beyond the club and he was thankful to us for sharing our resources making it possible for him to race today. For the 2nd year in a row 2 women represented the club in the 7K. Jessica Bolduc and Cipperly Good went 1st and 3rd for a solid showing in the M1 age division. These two held their own in a stacked field. Much thanks to these two for there efforts as Cipperly drove up from the Cape to race and Jessica provided the club delicious Banana Bread and Muffins. These were especially effective to cure a cool down bonk. To photos of the result got to: http://picasaweb.google.com/jwbolduc/2009BogburnResults?authkey=16UfJb_1lsw&feat=directlink#5289848378557460706 Magnify and click and drag the photos to see full results of the Men’s and Women’s races. A great job to all today! NWVT proved what club racing is all about. Special thanks to the Haydock’s for putting on another great race. Let’s keep the momentum going! The season has many great events for everyone. Next weekend is an Eastern Cup Weekend in Rumford ME. There are a few committed to going up for these races. The Geschmossel at Bretton Woods is on the 19th. The Geschmossel is another long standing tradition attended mostly by Master’s racers (many just to tour it). Bretton Woods provides registrants with the finer things in ski racing. Held in the shadow of the historic Mt. Washington Hotel, skiers are treated to excellent grooming on beautifully manicured trails and an unprecedented cheese, wine and veggie platter after the race. This is also when we begin to see the big prizes on the table. So if you are looking for a low key event that will pamper you, do not miss the one of a kind Geschmossel. Craftsbury Classic NWVT traveled to Craftsbury today to compete in the Craftsbury Classic. This was a mass start 10K classic technique race. The race was well attended by skiers of all abilities from all over the region  including a large contingent from Canada. Craftsbury did a great job pulling the race together while inundated with day of race registrants. NWVT had a dozen or so members out for the event held in near perfect conditions. The temperature at the start was 15 degrees with partially sunny skies, no noticeable wind was on the course and the surface was packed powder on a firm base. The course was a little different than usual with a mass start in the lower field heading out on race loop, turning onto Bailey Hazen then heading down Eleanor’s Hill to Sam’s Run back to Race Loop for two laps. This was a good challenge for the racers as the first 2k were downhill followed by a ½ K flat then a 1.5K climb to the top of Race Loop with a relatively flat section back to the start/finish area. But what was probably the most significant factor was the co-ed mass start with well over 100 skiers. Most racers got out with a clean start, it was good that racers were on the conservative side to avoid a lot of potential carnage. NWVT members attacked the race with different strategies. A few latched on and stayed in as long as they could. Others did what they do, while a few opted patiently wait for the race to spread out before making a move, and one experimented at the start with double poling with our their poles on! Regardless many lessons were learned over the race by many members. Tyler Magnan, Jake Hollenbach and Evan  Martell were out early enough to have contact with the race leaders and eventual winners. As the race played out Tyler gained the advantage with Jake ran into some traffic, Evan closed in marking Tyler, both with outstanding finishes. Jake made up lost ground catching as passing the two on the second lap edging Tyler by a few seconds at the line. Meanwhile mid-pack a battle between many of the major master’s players was unfolding. For NWVT Scott Magnan, Lary Martell, Perry Bland, Ilke Van Genechten and Damian Bolduc were locked in a heated battle with the likes of Keith Woodward (SNOC), Peter Harris (Craftsbury), Bryce Wing (Ford Sayer), Jim Fredericks (Rossignol) and many others. For the first 4K this boxed pack duked it out racing aggressively as they picked their way through the field. It was a mostly courteous battle to see who was who until the top of the hill at the 4k mark where things had finally spread out and individual styles could open up. The pack split with Scott and Lary taking charge of the first half, and Damian and Perry holding court in the second, Ilke suffered a mechanical when an over zealous Peter Harris knocked off her pole tip making a move on Fredericks in one of the hairpins going  up the hill. As the second loop unraveled, skiers moved up slowly with Damian bridging gaps that had opened up earlier in the race. Ilke regrouped and made up some of the ground lost with a compromised pole. Jessica Bolduc had a conservative start, while Andre’ Bolduc rushed to get his poles on. Jessica patiently picked off racers over the 10K taking on Carol Van Dyke (SNOC) and eventually pulling away and closing in close to Sam Martell at the finish. Andre’ failed to overcome his panic of not being fully prepared at the start and joined Ilke and Jake with a score to settle next weekend at the Bogburn. On the whole NWVT did very well with most of the club feeling rather positive with their effort looking forward to more. This week was a good opportunity to measure things up for the start of the Points Series next weekend. I hope to see everyone at the Bogburn if not sooner! Eastern Cup Opener NWVT ripped things up at the Trapp Family Lodge over the weekend. If the Bolton Opener was an indication of the depth of the skiing field this year, the Eastern Cups confirmed it. Hundreds of the best skiers in the region participated in the two day event under perfect conditions.  Each day saw similar conditions concerning temperature and wind, mid-teen temps and little wind. Saturday had fresh powder, while Sunday had really fresh powder. In fact the blizzard conditions were adding inches on the course during the race!
The sprint loop was a straight down hill shot into the woods to the Sugar House, then a graduated climb out of the woods up the hill and back to the Start/Finish in the Stadium. Basically you hammered off the line with all out double pole, tucked down the hill building up lactic acid, turned and started climbing, blowing up just as you hit the meadow, slogged up the steep grade of the hill and then wondered who moved the finish so far back as you double poled back through the stadium. The NWVT representatives did this in 3 mins and change. Tyler Magnan, cracked the top 100 in 89th with a 3:03, Evan Martell was close behind skiing for Burke at 3:09, Scott Magnan and Damian were a ways down the results page in at 3:23, and 3:26 respectively. All advanced as far as local standout Eli Enman, which was not past qualifying rounds (a testament to how competitive this field was), but all were pleased anyway.  Things went a little better on Sunday with eleven NWVT racers in competition. The course was a winding rolling 5K in the woods around the Sugar House at Trapps. The race seemed to be held during the heaviest period of snow in this storm, but that did not slow anyone down. The women raced one loop, then the men raced two. Most racers enjoyed the new trails but felt little disoriented while on course. With all the switchbacks it was difficult to know where one was in the race. For some this was a blessing, others… not so much. Ilke Van Genechten looked impressive as she covered the course. She steadily picked off other racers right up to the end, blowing by two more at the finish line with a powerful V2. Sam Martell had a solid showing entering her first collegiate season skiing for St. Lawrence edging out Jessica Bolduc by 4 spots. Jessica had her hands full with the Masters squad but placed well against the field. As said in the past just starting an Eastern Cup Race is an accomplishment.  After a short grooming delay, the men got underway. Evan Martell and Tyler Magnan were out among the main field, while the rest of the crew were placed in the masters field due to being masters, or late entrants. Jake Hollenbach got the top result for NWVT finishing in the middle of the pack. Tyler was the next to finish among some of NWVT’s hot club competition. Damian ripped up the course this week, improving dramatically on last week’s effort. He found himself in battle around 4K with CSU’s Andrew Milne as they nearly ran over Stowe Nordic’s David Hosmer sending him reeling into double pole mode before Andy pulled away. Damian later caught and passed Scott Magnan on turn 2,497 at the 8K mark. Scott had a solid first race remaining very smooth in the tricky conditions. Evan Martell finished between Damian and Scott in the results happy with his effort over a longer race. Tim Cowan looked strong in his second race of the season. He represented at the NYSEF Opener at Lake Placid last weekend. Perry “The Terminator” Bland sported some new eye-wear as he latched onto Craftsbury Nordic’s John Brodhead for the duration of the race. And late entry Andre’ Bolduc skied sweep as he was thrown into the end of the start list with the likes of Jake Hollenbach and Anders Mayer, Middlebury’s #3 man who finished 18th overall.
It was a great weekend to ski, and see how the competition looks. One thing for sure is that everyone has been training. Looking at the results it seems that CSU is lurking in the background fielding many top masters skiers in the race. NWVT looked very strong as well. IT’S ON!!! 
Bolton Season Opener
The Bolton Opener was held yesterday, December 13, in mid-winter conditions! Seventy-five racers from  around New England made their way to the event making the race a great success. Bolton and NWVT were shooting to have 50 -100 racers so 75 was the magic number. Many members volunteered and raced and things went rather smoothly for the first ski race of the season for our club members. The morning started early with volunteers setting up the course, and getting registration going. Temps were in the single digits with a light breeze blowing. The sun was bright as the morning haze gave way to clear skies. The snow was fresh firm powder groomed and set perfectly by the folks at Bolton. It was deep too! The course was as much of a wake up call as were the temperatures. Starting with an interval start, the course was a long 5K, two laps on World Cup and a trip down to Tear Drop before finishing up the last stretch of Broadway. By 9 AM things were on schedule and the Kids Race was off. It was 4 year old Eva Thurston vs. 5 year old Camille Bolduc in the 1K mass start Freestyle from the top of Broadway to the pump house and back to the Finish. Camille took advantage of a timid Thurston and poled away with an early lead. At the half way point the race was neck and neck, with Eva gaining the advantage due to Camille missing the turn around. Eva continued to open the lead to the finish with superior technique and determination. It was great to have these two compete in this division showing promise to the continuation of world class females emerging from Vermont. The Men’s and Women’s fields were stacked with the best of the best in the region. Racers from UVM, Middlebury, Burke and others showed up by the van load. Last years winner, NWVT member Eric Tremble, knew the odds were against him as he started the race as #1. He held off the UVM team who followed in the start order by not getting passed. He was a great mark for them to chase and ended up 5th overall. He was a  little over a minute back from former Olympian Pat Weaver, the overall winner. Other members having a strong showing were Jake Hollenbach, Evan Martell, and Josh Dillon. These three held their own, improving since last season amongst this rather elite field. Tyler Magnan and Leigh Mallory competed as well, shaking the rust off during the first race off the season. Damian Bolduc took home the “What the H@!! happened to you” award for regressing dramatically in the results since last season. The Women had a very strong showing as well. NWVT skiers all had stellar performances, racing with each other among the aforementioned teams. Rose Long started things out for the NWVT women showing good technique as she gets back into action. It will not take much for her to be back up among the top finishers. Jessica started a few spots back and slowly closed the gap on Rose. Jessica still looked fresh going into the second lap. Finally Ilke Van Genechten dug in for her first race of the season. She caught and passed Jessica and Rose as well as almost everyone else on her way to finishing 6th overall. These three were all very happy with how their seasons are starting out and are looking forward to the racing ahead. So the Bolton Opener was a great success for all. The race will continue to grow and get better as we get more experience and word of mouth around about it. Much gratitude to those who donated prizes: Skirack, Seventh Generation, Douglas and Mary Grant Sugaring, and Cat Tartaglia. A special thanks to all who helped out,  especially Liz Hollenbach for taking on the majority of the responsibility and the starters and timers for braving the cold and getting us all out and back on time. And last but not least Perry Bland for barking in the starting gate. He knew each person by name and gave a personalized word of encouragement to each athlete as they counted down to the start. What a great way to start a season! Results: http://www.nensa.net/results/index.php?io_view=events&top_event_id=249&season= Craftsbury Opener I was not at the Craftsbury but results are posted and once again NWVT racers showed their strength. Eric Tremble took second overall in the Classic interval start 10K. Lary Martell, Perry Bland, and Jake Hollenbach all won their divisions; Leigh Mallory was second to Perry in the M6’s. Great job to everyone this weekend! The season is off to a great start! Results: http://www.nensa.net/news/news_more.php?id=2966 Westford Turkey Trot: Many NWVT members gathered for the 17th annual Westford Turkey Trot. We exceeded our goal of 10 club members at the event, and exceeded our podium expectations. Perhaps it was the  4-5 inches of fresh powder that lead to a very successful day for NWVT. It was a very brisk day to race. The temperature at the start was 19, and there was a strong wind bringing the chill into the negative single digits. A fresh dumping of snow coated the Westford roads making conditions slippery for the run. The course was the legendary Westford run, rolling with and unrelenting mile long hill beginning at mile 3.5. The field was quite large with St. Michaels arriving with two van loads of cross country skiers, and Fleet Feet recruiting a lot of its base to show up not to mention all the Nordic skiers as well. The first bright spot of the day for NWVT was Camille Bolduc winning the kids dash. She was 3rd  off the line and quickly overtook 2nd without taking her sights off first she sprinted by and grabbed the first chocolate turkey pop. Then the 10K quickly got underway. Nohea King was out early and ran away with the race. Lary Martell was also off the front of the field. The rest of the crew sat in a little while the race spread out. With Nohea dusting the rest of the field, Lary and Damian found themselves in a loose group of four. With Lary leading for the first five miles the other three changed positions occasionally bringing it all in at the top of the hill. Lary and Damian pulled away a little on the steep downhill, but the other two held on strong. Eventually Damian found another gear on the flats leading back to the school to take 4th overall with Lary close behind in 6th. The next NWVT finisher was Matt Considine, racing for the first time in years. Actually Matt, Jessica Bolduc, Tyler Magnan, Scott Magnan, Andre’ Bolduc and  Perry Bland were in strong group that held together to the top of the hill as well. Racing each other yet working as a team. There is nothing like being in a group of friendly familiar athletes to keep things honest and challenging. The internal rivalry pushes one that much further with the effects compounded by the number of teammates present. Matt and Jess pulled away from the group at the top of the hill and the others spread out over the last mile of the race. Scott had one of the more exciting finishes closing and overtaking a St. Michaels guy in an intense final sprint. It seems Scott has been getting the better of these kicks in the last three races. Cathy Martell was not far behind in the mid-field running a conservative race on the slick roads. NWVT was represented on the winner’s stage well. Camille got to the finish line first in the kids’ race, finishing giving her access to the yummy turkey chocolate lollipop. Nohea and Jessica won the men’s and women’s 10k overall. Tyler , Damian, Lary and Cathy each one their age group divisions. 
 Sugarbush Triathlon and Lake Placid Spring Fling:
With the Sugarbush Triathlon over it is time to write the last report of the season. Things are looking like spring. The birds are coming back, the sugar makers are hoping for one more great run, the cyclists are surveying the long winters impact on the roads, and the snow in the valleys is receding with the warmer temperatures. It was a great season that will continue into the summer with all the great fitness NWVT members built during the winter. For starts Tim shared his perspective on the Lake Placid Spring Fling 15K
Lary and Evan Martell and I skied the incredibly hilly 15km at van Hoevenberg Sunday. Notice I didn't say we "raced". It seemed wherever there was a choice, the course-setter sent us up the biggest hill. Lary and I skied together quite a bit during the first 8 km. Then Lary went ahead and  skied with his son through the last 7km. I could often spot them ahead of me, but never was able to make the gap. With the bitter cold overnight temps warming quickly in the bright morning sun, the Martells waxed perhaps a bit too warm (1:1 yellow-red), and I waxed a bit too cold (2:1 blue/red). But mostly I just lacked initiative and got psyched out by the never-ending series of hill climbs. (No question what I need to work on for next season!) At any rate - for probably my first time ever, I came in the dead-last man in the race about a minute behind Lary and Evan. Never-the-less, it was a beautiful day for a ski at the end of March on mid-winter conditions.
-Tim
There is nothing wrong with dead last on that course, especially if you finish with optimism for next season. On that note the Annual NWVT Banquet was another success. Lots of smiles and beers were had. Not too much business was discussed, but a lot of experiences of all sorts were shared. It was suggested that part of the website should be a blog, which will be easy to do. There was also some thoughts on soliciting some more sponsors to help defray the costs of the season or to help put on a race we hope to host with the Bolton Nordic Center next year. Sleeker uniforms were also recommended...we will see how the sponsorship drive goes and go from there. But for the occasion all were happy to have such great season to celebrate with good friends.
NWVT does not sit idle for too long. Two members had bike raced in the morning and made it back for the Banquet. So they like many others are already onto their next season. This could not be more clear than at the Sugarbush Triathlon where at least ten members competed in the Mad River Valley's annual right of spring. Things started out fast with Brendan Barden averaging 6 minute pace in the run, also in the run on were Maria Cimonetti, and Hannah Barden. 3 NWVT teams so far. While Maria tagged off to Dhyan Nirmegh, Hannah suited up for the paddle with Allaire Diamond. The river was in good shape with a good water level that went over most rocks, but such that it was not raging. Paddlers looked like they were able to maneuver the rapids without too much difficulty. At the bike exchange Kevin Bessett was the first NWVT biker out bringing the NWVT member influenced team count to 4. Riding for the Vermont Waterways/Skirack team Kevin chugged up the final climb in 2nd place overall with good form. Brendan/Scott's biker was Andre' Bolduc in his competitive cycling debut. He made his way gaining positions making it look as easy as pie, and had a respectable climb time relying of quads bulked from the ski season. Lary Martell was also on a team bringing the count to 5. He made his way up the hill handicapped by bike shoes that would not clip in. I have been there. At some point you figure you are better off just picking up the bike and running, and that is just what he did. Nirmegh handed off to Maria who also biked with a handicap. She is still sporting a cast from a thumb break. It did not seem to slow her down. Seth Maciejowski also biked for Hannah and Allaire, grinding it out with little time to spare for Allaire to get to the ski exchange by car. Of course NWVT looked the most impressive slope side. Scott hit the course with authority showing everyone how it is done. Lary took a little while to get his skiing legs after the treacherous bike ride, but looked impressive however you called it. Nirmegh got things going in a pack of collegiate skiers, at first being polite, but realizing being the better skier he needed to assert himself and put the guys behind him as well as a few pairs of Craftsbury tights. Allaire got on course and looked great dodging skiers who had wiped out in the thick corn snow that was rapidly running off the mountain in liquid form. In all it was very inspiring to see so many NWVTer's continuing the season in good spirits and mixing it up with three other sports. Mount Washington Cup Report: Thirteen NWVT racers and two NWVT photograpers attenended the 34th Mount Washington Cup. It was great to have so many members come out and finish the season on such a positive note. In the lead-up for this race we all knew the stakes were high with the New England Club Series Championship on the line. NWVT came into the race in third place, twelve points out of first. So we had a small deficit to overcome as well as needing our strongest showing of the season against Craftsbury and Ford Sayre to be the club series Champs. The call went out again, and again and again… we got the response we were looking for, fielding a very strong team. Carpooling worked out nicely as four carloads of people made the journey from various points in Vermont . The drive over presented us with icy roads, and snow, but the conversation was lively. Once on site, we began preparing, keeping a close eye on the competition. First we noticed the parking lot full of MA plates… telltale signs of CSU. Then slowly racers from Ford Sayre started trickling in. Finally the Craftsbury contingent arrived. We put the intimidation factor in action by donning the NWVT jersey in full strength.  We began glide testing skis. As has been the case in recent races the conditions were variable. Ice, slush, frozen and loose granular, packed and fresh powder were all on the seen. For the most part the course was firm granular with a little over an inch of fresh powder on top. Just enough snow to make things a little more difficult to deal with. It actually was fast for the most part with some skis being a little more draggy than others on the down hills. Racers eventually got over to the start, ready to get underway. NWVT dominated the line. With the blast of a horn the racers were off. The first 100m was a double pole zone that quickly funneled skiers onto a wooded trail. Though all the commotion most racers made a clean start. There were no major pile-ups, just a few scuffles. NWVT made its way out impressively. Jessica observed one fall, on the inside of the first corner. A women went down sideways, and had some difficulty quickly getting up with the mess of poles everywhere. Jessica, Sherm and Hannah were able to skirt around easily. Eric Tremble led the team up the first hill. Tyler Magnan, Damian Bolduc, Scott Magnan Ben Pearce and Ilke Van Gentchten fought for positions in the top ten while the Dhyan Nirmegh, Tim Cowan, Andre Bolduc, Perry Bland, Jessica Bolduc, Sherm Wilson and Hannah Barden kept them in sight, peppering the field with a sea of NWVT snowflakes on navy blue. It must have been something to contend with as one competitor exclaimed, “I remember that jersey and red hat from Rangeley”, as two more of the same jersey glided by and blocked for him. The start was intense and the first hill stepped up for over 2k. NWVT was strong, but the hill started to sort things out. In the midst of all the excitement of the start, Scott lost a pole tip and his pole shaft was beginning to weigh him down. Each time he poled off a little more snow filled the hollow tube. Eventually he got another pole and after a brief acquaintance period things worked out fine. As the race spread out NWVT was able to mark familiar teammates as well as other competitors. Eric hung on to third, Tyler moved up to fifth, Damian dropped back a few spots, as Scott pulled ahead after getting his new pole. The next group of Ben, Ilke, Tim, Perry, Nirmegh and Andre switched back and fourth keeping things going, but slowly spreading out. It was exciting to know who was on your side in the midst of a large group, and to know the NWVT train was dominating the field. Jessica, Sherm and Hannah were gapped a little by the main group, but still had plenty of action to contend with as the steady stream of NWVT never seemed to end. Hannah maneuvered around fallen skiers on the downhill, pressing on to the next part of the course. The first loop was basically a long uphill followed by a long downhill. The next loop was more of a rolling series of hills preceded by a relatively long flat section. The accordion affect of these hills continued to spread the field, but NWVT remained strong to the finish, and what a finish it was. The race winner, Tim Donahue owned the race winning by almost 3 minutes, but then NWVT racers started coming in. It seemed like one after another beginning with Eric and ending with Hannah, NWVT racers sprinted in. Many athletes had their best club performances of the season all captured on film by Jen Norton and Mrs. Wilson. We knew we had everything to gain by leaving it all out on the course. Over the season, NWVT has known one thing, you cannot just want to be the best to win the series, you have to be the best. With this in mind NWVT could not have had a more perfect race. 7 racers took the podium today, with 4 first places by Eric, Ben, Andre, and Ilke who also won the Women’s overall. The awards ceremony was adorned with a wine and cheese sampler. While NWVT basked with celebratory toasts, other clubs mingled in to learn more about us and congratulate us on a very long, successful and exciting season. They were interested to see the new and old faces we have brought together, and were impressed with how well we use strategy and teamwork to get results in all the NENSA series. I will not dare say who won the series without the official tally from NENSA, but I think it is safe to say that a lot of other clubs are going to have a lot to think about over the summer, and will be looking back and ahead to the season as a whole figuring out how to capture the Crown! Great job to everyone! It has been an incredible season! NWVT Results: 3. Eric Tremble 5. Tyler Magnan 11. Scott Magnan 13. Damian Bolduc 15. Ilke Van Genechten 17. Dhyan Nirmegh (DID NOT BONK) 19. Ben Pearce 22. Tim Cowan 26. Andre’ Bolduc 29. Perry Bland 41. Jessica Bolduc 58. Sherm Wilson 61. Hannah Barden Bolton BC Challenge and Ski to the Clouds While the majority of the club was at Craftsbury, two NWVT skiers (plus
Chris Rogers who aught to be a member) decided to try out the Trapps to
Bolton back country race. The course starts out on nice groomed trails at
Trapps, but after about 2k of rolling terrain, it takes a left on the
Catamount trail. Once on the Catamount trail, it's ungroomed all the way to
Bolton, and there are many obstacles along the way: first stream, driveway,
and road crossings, then 2400 feet of climbing and a treacherous 1800 foot
decent to the Bolton Nordic center. The talk of the day was equipment, and
everyone had decisions to make. Go heavy and have control on the decent at
the expense of climbing speed, or go light and take your chances on the
decent. The two NWVTers, Leigh Mallory and myself, went with light
equipment. I had fish scaled touring skis without edges and light touring
boots. Leigh had similar skis, but I think his had at least a partial metal
edge. Some other people went with tele gear and climbing skins, but the
most original setup was GMVS assistant coach Justin Beckwith. He had an old
pair of skinny tele skis, but he mounted race NNN bindings on them so he
could use race pursuit boots. He didn't want to fuss with skins, so he used
universal klister for kick. The weather appeared calm at the start
(elevation 1350 ft) with mid 30's and fog but no precipitation. We knew
things could change once we got to the high elevations. At the start
Catamount Trail Executive Director, Jim Fredericks, offered us an
optimistic prediction: the low cloud level meant that we should get above
the clouds and find sunny skies!! Yeah, right...
There were only 12 people in the race, and the start was pretty tame, but
it was funny watching people try to skate on heavy telemark/back country
equipment. Even funnier was when I realized that striding was faster than
skating on the uphills even when the trail was groomed. Needless to say, I
haven't practiced my V2 to stride transition enough. By the time we got
onto the Catamount trail Justin Beckwith had the lead, but I was on his
tails. I took the lead when he choose a long way around a stream, and I was
able to put enough time on him on the climb to hold the lead all the way to
the finish. But about those sunny skies we were supposed to find at the
high elevations? Yeah, well that turned out to be freezing drizzle,
followed by freezing rain, followed by freezing downpour. At the same time,
the snow went from soft with great fish scale kick, to a breakable crust
and moderate kick, to a 1/4 inch crust and absolutely no kick (or control).
Luckily just as I got to the high point I met a group of skiers coming in
the other direction, and the crust was broken up a little for my decent, so
I only fell 4 times, and I think the scrapes from my faceplant through the
crust should clear up in a few days. Leigh decided to take his time and
enjoy the experience rather than race all out (possibly saving himself for
the Mt. Washington Cup next weekend). He took the time to chat with fellow
racers as well as some former students who happened to be out on the
course. Unfortunately this just meant more time for the freezing rain to
build up, and I would guess the crust was at 1/2 inch by the time Leigh got
off the trail. After the finish, we were all treated to drinks, shirts, and
hats provided by Pepsi, then a huge meal, and an ample prize table. This
was a great race, and I can't wait to do it next year.
 Today's race was the Ski To the Clouds, billed as the toughest 10k in the
nation. It has a 4k flat loop followed by 6k of climbing and ~2500 feet up
the Mt. Washington Auto Road. I believe I was the only NWVT member to make
the trip, so this report will be short. The weather was perfect for a skate
race, ~20 degrees, and an icy fast track. Unfortunately (maybe
fortunately), it was quite windy and they had to cut 2k off the climb, so
the race was only 8k. I got off to a good start and was in about 4th
position, but no one wanted to lead (I think everyone was afraid to expend
too much energy before the big climb). I was annoyed by the slow pace, so I
took the lead and stayed there until just before we got to the climb when
Justin Freeman came by. He attacked the climb hard and easily skied away to
the win. I was left to battle it out with a group of college kids. I
dropped back to 6th in the first half of the climb, but I got a bit of a
second wind and moved up to 3rd by the finish.
Eric Tremble
Craftsbury Spring Fling
Many NWVT members turned out at the Craftsbury Spring Fling this morning. Twelve racers competed today tuning up for what is shaping up to be the New England Club Championships next weekend at the Mt Washington Cup 15K. Today’s race went very well for most skiers at least half of the time. The weather played a big role in how things panned out. Overall conditions were better than expected and Craftsbury did an excellent job getting the course ready. The temperature stayed in the mid thirties for the race, but a steady wind with a little mist kept things feeling cold. The race course was the customary 15K figure 8 that brings skiers out of the stadium to Murphy’s field, then around duck pond back onto race loop and out Ruthie’s Run and back on Sam’s Run crossing back onto the core trails and finishing on the last 2k of Race Loop. The terrain rolled and turned though fields and woods. For the first 15k things stayed relatively dry, and firm. About 50 minutes into the race it began raining. This affected people in two ways. They either got faster or slower relative to how they were on the first lap. One would have to call it even at the end of 30K. Wax, ski flex and structure affected performance differently on each lap so everyone was hot, and everyone was not at some point. Jake and Ilke’s skis noticeably improved while Damian and Tyler’s did not. Tim Cowan and Dhyan Nirmegh battled over the race course until Nirmegh bonked with 7K to go, but Tim took a wrong turn adding 2K to the race giving Nirmegh an advantage Tim just could not make up. Scott Magnan, Andre Bolduc, Ben Pearce, Sam Martell and Rachael Sheperdson-Rudden opted for the 15K. Scott paced Damian for the first 7K of the race. At which point he stopped to make a face-down snow angel. The snow was a little tricky as soft and tacky spots would grab your skis. Potential team member Dan Cassidy and Damian also demonstrated grand face-plants somewhere on the course as well. Dan also experienced the fate of Tim with a wrong turn with 2k to go in the 30K. (See http://nwvtnordic.com/zhaz.aspx for an NWVT wrong turn epic) All the 15Ker’s seemed to be happy with their races and it was good to see them cheering on the 30Ker’s during a group cool down. The Spring Fling certainly gave us a dose of spring skiing today. I hope those that did the Trapps to Bolton race will share their stories as well as those who are doing the Race to the Clouds Tomorrow. I hope everybody made it home safely the weather certainly took a turn for the worse on the way home for me. One more week to go. Only 12 points separate us from the first place team going into the final point’s race of the season. This is the closest final race for NENSA in memory, and definitely the closest NWVT has ever been. The series is based on participation so anyone with a NENSA membership counts. Remember last year we took 3rd by only 3 points! The top three teams have been gearing up for the last one. I have seen Ford Sayre doing some pretty intense intervals followed by a 10K time trial. (I matched them from a distance to experience what they were up to). We have gotten all our scoring corrected and all our cards are showing. Let’s finish strong by playing them all! Birkebeiner, Stowe Derby and Eastern Cup Finale NWVT has been hot all season and kept the heat on high this weekend. With conditions that just keep getting better members enjoyed an amazing weekend of skiing. Skiers participated in all levels of the sport from international events to a leisurely recovery ski. It is tough to know where to begin. So we will talk about those who traveled the furthest and bring it in to home.
We will go to northern Wisconsin where two NWVT members participated in the American Birkebeiner. This event has evolved into the biggest ski festival in North America . It has many events for all participants and enthusiasts who make the pilgrimage to the closest thing to the legendary Norwegian Birkebeiner. 15,000 skiers participated in the celebration and the events surrounding the weekend. Ilke Van Genechten trained specifically for this race and peaked perfectly. Ilke cranked through the Elite Sprint Competition and made it all the way to the Quarter Finals among one of the deepest and most talented race fields in North America . She continued her success by finishing 32nd in the women’s field in the 50K freestyle marathon. Dan Sandberg competed in the men’s 50K freestyle as well. He finished well ahead of the majority of the field in 3:06. This race has to be an amazing experience. I hope to hear more about it soon.
The next furthest race was at Holderness for the Cheri Walsh Memorial Classic. Scott Magnan, Lary Martell and Perry Bland competed in the 15K mass start classic race. Opting for the master’s wave made for more exciting racing as everyone kept each other in check on the arduous course. The rolling hills brought out the different strengths in skiers, but the race came down to exciting finishes with all three skiers each in their own pack gunning for the line. Perry’s heroic finish was the talk of the day! Evan and Samantha Martell finished the Eastern Cup series placing well among the best of the best in New England .
On Saturday NWVT sent a very respectable contingent to the Silver Fox Trot in Hanover . Jake Hollenbach, Damian Bolduc, Tim Cowan, and Perry Bland competed in the interval start 10K. Having plenty of time to preview the course, the team planned out a strategy with each member providing a little insight to critical points on the course. Jake was our top finisher, placing 12th in the Eastern Cup race. Damian was 63rd overall and 3rd for masters, tying one of his marked competitors for this season. Tim Cowan was the next NWVT finisher, placing 3rd in his (the most competivite masters division) category. Perry was close behind and just edged his closest competitor for the win in his division. The day was great for skiing, and as has been the case this season, everyone had a great time and could not wait for the next event.
The closest event was the Stowe Derby. NWVT had 4 members participate in one of the longest running ski events in New England . Conditions must have been good as times were fast even with the few K added to this year’s race. Eric Tremble and Jake Hollenbach took 3rd and 4th overall in the Freestyle event just as they did a couple weeks earlier at the Lake Placid Loppet. Jake and Eric were also the only two non-former-Olympian 's in the top four. To be within 90 seconds of Pat Weaver and less than half a minute off Mark Gilbertson; the two strongest skiers in the region is something to be very proud of. Sherm Wilson and his daughter Hannah Barden also competed in the freestyle event exceeding their goals, and overcoming a barrier many do not dare challenge. The Derby is arguably the hardest race there is as it tests skiers technical abilities, mental toughness and endurance in an adrenaline filled 19K race from the top of Mt. Mansfield to Stowe Village .
NWVT truly had many amazing results this weekend. This report exemplifies the vision of what extraordinary skiing is. We saw one member after another achieve astonishing goals on all levels. It is inspiring to see limits this collective of skiers pushed and how much every member has improved over the years, this season, and even since last weekend. And there is no sign of this desire for improvement waning. Thank you to everyone for sharing their experience. If anyone has more to add pass it along. Who knew the last weekend of February would end up being this incredible!
Flying Moose Classic 20K
Seven NWVT skiers made the journey to Bethel, Maine to participate in the Flying Moose Classic 20K. As they journeyed further east the snow got deeper and deeper. Another few inches and it will be up to the bottom of the road signs. In some spots it seemed even deeper as the pavement gave way to canyon sized pot holes. Okay maybe not that big, but deep enough to cause one carload to experience a front tire burst and a severely bent rim. It was exciting to see the deep snow, but it hid a thick layer of ice that would play a role in the race.
Sunday morning greeted skiers with brisk temperatures rapidly warming thanks to a strong southwesterly wind. The sun was heating things up too. With an hour to go, registration was running out of numbers, but oddly they did not seem overwhelmed the least, easily handling the onslaught of unexpected racers. No worries, the bulk of NWVT arrived 20 minutes before the first race official. It has been said that “if Perry is not wearing a top ten number; he missed registration.” Skiers tested, and waited and made their final decisions within twenty minutes of the start.
By the start of the race the temperature had risen to 22 degrees. The course was a hilly, winding, point to point that utilized two large loops. Much of it was protected by woods, with a few K exposed on a golf course. The race could really be divided into two 10K’s with there own characteristics raced back to back. On the course map they actually looked like two moose antlers. After a very crowded start skiers found themselves on smooth trails with the layer of ice tilled with the powder below to make a nice packed fine granular. This was exceptional to race on. Fortunately the steep hills were located on this half of the course. The second half of the race was heavily glazed, seemingly to be more of a heavy loose granular or crushed ice with powder blown in here and there. It was rolling with a mix of climbs and descents as well as a lot of graduals that could be double-poled. It brought skiers on and off the golf course eventually brining them to the finish via a long fast and flat stretch.
The start was rather exciting. Eric Tremble got out with a clean start as did Tyler Magnan. Lary Martell was caught in traffic, with Scott Magnan just behind. Just as Damian Bolduc thought he was in the clear his ski tips got stepped on and he did a face plant getting up just as Perry Bland and Jessica Bolduc went by. Eric was off again in familiar territory with the lead pack. He held his position in the top 5 until he got tangled up with another skier on a fast down hill. After losing contact with the pack the course turned onto the glazed half beginning with a long up hill. This made it very difficult to catch back on, but Eric finished strong within the top ten. Tyler , Scott, Lary, Damian and Perry raced through the main pack, maintaining a fairly tight group at the front. Lead changes were made over the first 10K and the whole group was working relatively well. Eventually things spread out, Scott attacked a hill and broke away, Damian and then Lary got into a battle with Peter Harris, and Tyler fell back while Perry maintained. Jessica found herself taking advantage of pack racing as well using cues from those around her to her benefit. Everyone’s Craftsbury experience made them much stronger and able to handle today’s conditions and it really showed as NWVT crossed the line. Eric leading the club, followed by Scott, then Lary and Damian, Tyler held off Perry, and Jessica finished with a smile and got a big hug from #1 NWVT cheerer, Camille. The post race meal at the pub and brewery was filling, satisfying and just the thing before the long journey home.
Only one club race to go! Not many clubs had the presence of NWVT today. We certainly closed the gap on first place. NENSA Executive Director Pat Cote got a good look at us too, taking time to thank us for our patience while they figure out the points. We need to have a strong effort in the final race this season at the Mt. Washington Cup. This is certainly the most exciting season we have ever had, and the closest we have ever been to winning the club series. We set the lofty goal in November, and have had a great response. This is our chance to put a stamp on the season and give all the other clubs something to think about over the summer. Everyone’s efforts count. Let’s keep it going! Maple Onion 10K Report
The Maple Onion 10K was held today at Morse Farm. Many NWVT members competed with friends from all the local clubs. In only its 4th year of existence, this race has become a fun tradition with traditions being built within itself. Those who came were welcomed with perfect conditions, in a warm, rustic, true Vermont atmosphere.
The course was a 5k loop skied twice. It had a little of everything from steep hills to technical descents. Nothing too difficult, but enough to keep everyone in check. The snow conditions were spectacular with a firm packed powder. Even slow skis condemned to next years ski swap felt fast. After a mass start skiers looped around the arena up a short climb and headed into the woods. Hidden just beyond the tree line was a long steep hill followed by a flat section to recover which led into a short twisty down hill which finally gave way to the easy rolling meadow skiing that reveals what happened in the woods to racers and spectators. The race field had all types of skiers from former Olympians, to first timers.
It was no surprise to see former Olympian Mark Gilbertson cruise to the finish first. Mark seemingly floated by while his closest competitor; Tom Thurston (SNOC), was able to challenge for one lap, gasping loudly completely maxed out. Perhaps it was the acoustics, but the skiers coming around for the second lap followed the trend. Of course the layout of the course pushes skiers to catch those within sight giving them a little extra drive which translates to an all out effort. Next up was Eric Eley(SNOC). Scott Magnan was the first NWVT representative following in a loose pack of 4. It seemed that the finish order was set early on except in a couple of instances such at the next NWVT finishers. Kevin Bessett came out for his first race of the season, and looked great. He skied away from Perry Bland at the start and kept moving up through the field, pulling Scott into sight. Perry was having a good race as well, commenting on how easy a 10k felt after a 50k. A 10k in great conditions verses a 50k in not so perfect conditions at that. These two skiers are looking forward to the best part of their season ahead. Things are looking very promising for them too. Jessica Bolduc was the other racer who gained places during the race. After a slow start, she took a minute out of the female leader Whitney Kaulbach (a.k.a. Mark’s wife) to come with in 4 second of the win. She was on the same skis used by Damian yesterday so perhaps they are on to something. The next racers in were friends of the club John McGill and Al Lasage. Hannah Barden heated things up during a heavy squall that rolled in during the second half of the race. With sleeves rolled up she dueled Lori McGill comfortably prevailing in the end. She was also first called during the prize raffle and scored a sweet pair of Karhu Kabooms. All the skiers made their way in with exhausted smiles as NWVT #1 fan Camille cheered everyone enthusiastically by name. After a nice cool down racers were treated to a home cooked chili, Morse Farm signature maple products and awards.
It was great to see a good turnout for this race. More fun and exciting skiing is on the way. The Flying Moose Classic, Hazen’s Notch, Stowe Derby and much more!
Ichabod’s Revenge 2/3/08
Several NWVT members competed in the Ichabod's Revenge 10km Classic at Sleepy Hollow last weekend. The conditions were variable much like at the Craftsbury Marathon. The course was at an elevation such that it transitioned from ice to snow. Something very familiar to those who raced the day before. The temp was in the mid twenties, and the snow was ice with powder on top. The course brought skiers to the summit of Sleepy Hollows terrain utilizing the race’s namesake trail, Ichabod's Revenge. This is a very tough way to start a race but it is effective in thinning out the racers. Another effect it had was having many racers pulling off the course at the top of the hill to scrape the ice off their skis. Others chose to run down the hills as well, and some had no kick, and no ice. The race was won on wax-less skis that provided the best solution to the days wax dilemma. Eric Tremble was NWVT’s top finisher, doing the weekend double of the Craftsbury Marathon followed by Ichabod’s Revenge. Brendan Barden finished next for the club with mixed feelings. He was happy that he did not have to weight his ski much to get kick, but would have like a little more glide. Spike Clayton competed again after quite a long hiatus from racing. It is good to see him back out for his one race a year, and hanging in with the seasoned racers. Andre Bolduc followed closely behind, frustrated with a lack of kick, but happy to be done the race. Hannah Barden was the only NWVT woman to race. She had a good race; continuing her great season, and streak of only doing the most difficult races. The consensus after the race was that although Sleepy Hollow deviated from its traditionally long courses to one that was short of a 10k, “it was long enough.” Great job to all those who raced, this is one of the most technically challenging and difficult races of the season!
Prospect Mountain Eastern Cup Mass Start Freestyle 10k 2/9/08
A few racers made the journey to Prospect Mountain for the Eastern Cup races this morning. The races were held under cloudy skies with temperatures reaching the low thirties. There were separate juniors and senior/masters fields full of New England ’s best skiers.
The course was a rolling 5k loop with a 200m wall with about 1k to go. False flats were at a maximum while technical turns were at a minimum. Perfect for one NWVT racer. The snow conditions had a light layer of fluff on top of packed powder over an ice base. The course held up well against the several hundred racers.
Junior racer Evan Martell was the first to conquer the course. He had a fast start, and ended up taking 10th among the top skiers competing to make the junior national team. Shortly after the men’s race started. Damian Bolduc and Lary Martell competed for the club in the Masters wave. Having the separate masters start sure makes the Eastern Cup Races a lot more interesting for these athletes. 3 minutes after the carnage of the men’s field left the stadium a smaller contingent of masters men got underway in a more civilized manner. Damian Bolduc wanting nothing to do with the geriatric jokes the field was subjected to during the 3 minute interlude took the field out fast. After leading for 1k he settled into a pack of 3 separated just a few seconds from Lary and the main pack. They skied the first lap calmly picking off stragglers from the previous field. At bottom of the wall at 4k, Damian attacked, and pulled away from the leaders opening a sizable lead and maintaining it to the finish. Lary continued to battle in the main pack which slowly spread out over the second lap finishing in a tight sprint against John Brodhead of Craftsbury. It was great for these racers to have a close competition against their rivals instead of being caught up in the traffic of the combined race. All were pleased with the well run race, and winning the Eastern Cup* was a pretty good feeling too!
Can’t wait to here how things went in Lake Placid and elsewhere. Please send along a report. *Eastern Cup Masters Wave
Craftsbury Marathon Report:
The 2008 Craftsbruy Marathon is now one for the history books. This year’s race was especially challenging from picking wax to the finish. Sixteen NWVT members participated in many different ways. It was great to see so many familiar faces at the race. It was a pleasant surprise to have someone cheering for you at an odd place on the mostly deserted course.
The weather on Friday played a big role in this year’s race. Snow, followed by sleet, then rain, then sleet, then snow, and finally wind, made for some interesting conditions Saturday morning. The start was delayed 2 hours so that grooming could be completed after the rain had switched back to snow. When skiers exited the bus at Highland Lodge they were greeted by NWVT members and race volunteers Seth Macijowski and Allaire Diamond. They also saw that grooming was still taking place as the tracks for the start area were being set.
The temperature was in the low twenties with strong winds from the northwest. The snow was a mix of everything, and the surface was as well. They traditional point to point course was used, sending skiers up hilly terrain first, then down technical hills, to a relatively flat section leading into the rolling touring center trails before the final ascent to the finish on Craftsbury Common. This year’s marathon challenged the racers with the most elements I have ever encountered in a single race. There was ice, packed powder, wind blown snow, water, dirty snow, deep snow, thin snow, icy low hanging branches, falling snow, drizzle, trail swag, broken pole and ski artifacts, yellow snow, pirates… you name it, it was there, probably in the first 100m and on.
The day’s first challenge: what to put on the ski? The NWVT site suggested VR45 on Tues. That is what worked for some. Actually the Toko rep said it best, “everything is working.” But as some found out that having everything on the ski did not work so well. Perry Bland made the call early, and said the thing that is going to work best is having a smart race. His experience told him that nothing was going to be the magic answer, but what ever you have is going to work some of the time so choose your best option. For some it meant kick, others glide. My strategy was to put enough on to get to the highest elevation at 12-13k and then sail/suffer through the downs and flats, not re-waxing until around 30k when long sustained climbs entered the picture again. Luck would have it that I did a good job initially and my wax lasted to the finish. Perry’s wisdom was reflected in many aspects of the race including the results. Jon Arne Enevoldsen, the undisputed local technical master won the race. Undoubtedly his experience, technique and love for the challenge of the sport, got him to the finish line first.
As skiers got underway it was a familiar scene for NWVT. Allaire and Seth checked racers into the corral. Seth also had the prestigious honor of holding the Craftsbury Marathon Starting Line Banner and moving it aside as the bell went off. Eric Tremble was off the front, battling the leaders. For the first half of the race he struggled with keeping up, but for the second half he found his stride and reeled in several racers finding himself a spot in the top ten at the finish. Next out were Lary Martell, Damian Bolduc and Scott Magnan. Lary got a quick start and settled into a nice pack including Doug Armstrong, Ed Hamel and several other big names in masters skiing. Damian was just behind these individuals skiing with Keith Woodward and Rob Bradley, and Scott off to a slow start eventually joined up with the groups. Lary would hold the lead for the trio until the 45k mark when Damian eventually made his way by with a strong finish well within reach. After fighting his way up and not using a wax conservation plan, Scott had to pull off at 11k to make adjustments to his skis, and ended up chasing Lary, Damian and all the others for the rest of the race. Perry Bland and Dan Sandberg started out together; skiing a majority of the race within sight of each other. Until Perry did what Perry does best and just skied away. Dan hung on and finished, happy to be done and with his effort for the day.
In the women’s race the challenges were ever greater. They had to contest with the 1st wave men who were not having top days, while 3rd wavers who were faster came by, and the course had been scraped out by all those ahead of them leaving only blue ice conditions on the technical downs, and not much of anything to be happy about. Ilke Van Genechten was the first NWVT woman. After encountering a pile up, and not having a great day to begin with she resolved to turn the day into a good training ski and make the best of the long distance skiing opportunity. Jessica Bolduc was having a miserable go at it as well, faced with removing skis and walking a section of the course for the first time in her career, things were not going well at all. The 25k turn off was and even greater mental obstacle for the woman than it was for most of the 1st wave 50k men who pressed on. Both said that thoughts of the club and NENSA points convinced them to continue. In actuality, their strong attitudes and perseverance are some of the values that brought them to race in the first place. There was some personal initial disappointment with their results; both finished the 50k, making them better prepared and stronger for the next race. There was no lack of understanding from the men who knew the challenges they faced were compounded for the women.
NWVT also had some 27k racers. Cipperly Good was back in action taking 3rd place for her age group on the more treacherous half of the course. BFA skier John Lavoie II and his father John Lavoie competed as well. The junior besting the senior by a respectable margin. Wallace Good (1st place: wool knickers division) and Natalie Good completed the tour. If you have ever skied Wally’s back yard you would understand why he may have thought the icy down hills were not so bad. And of course The Boss, our perennial bandit, Mike Cain was out cheering the marathoners on with his inspiring words and ovations. It looked as though he did not get the memo on the delayed start as he was further out then usual probably wondering where everyone was.
What a great accomplishment for all those who completed the race this year. Just finishing said a lot for those who did not have their best day. Completing a marathon is tough. Completing this one, this year, shows commitment and dedication in the face of steep obstacles. For those who had good days it shows experience, wisdom, and strategy, and in Damian’s case coming undone and yelling like a maniac enjoying the thrill of the down the hills to buttoning down good technique for the flats and ups. No matter who you were, yesterday’s difficulties made it a hard day to compete. NWVT showed their guts being one of the few if not the only club to have all its registrants start and finish the race. Great job everyone! This race will only make us better! Valley Cup The Valley Cup took place this Sunday. Perry Bland and Scott Magnan represented NWVT. It was a perfect day for a freestyle race with temps in the twenties. The course was very flat and the 1-3 inch base was groomed to cover the course well. The field was small probably beetween 20 and 30 racers. As with any small field, racers sized each other up during the warm up. A small group from Stowe looked to be pre-race favorites. The race was a mass start with Tom Thurston of Stowe leading a pack of about seven, and eventually winning the race hands down. Scott followed the lead pack of skiers for a K or two, but fadded as fatigue from the day before and average ski's on the fast course slowed him down, he would hold on for seventh. Perry Bland battled in the next pack back, taking turns leading and drafting. Perry would eventually go on to finish around 9th. Both skiers used the race as way to set up for the Marathon next week. Perry feels he is on a role, taking large amounts of time out of the competition each time he ski's. Scott slipped a little, but the experince of the weekend, and the rest week should have him on top of his game come Saturday. White Mountain Classic + Tour deRumford Eastern Cup Reports
It was a big weekend for skiing in New England . NWVT participated in many events big and small from Rumford, to Warren. NWVT skiers were obviously fired up to compete and got excellent results to prove it. Skiers participated in the Tour de Rumford Eastern Cup Races, others in the Masters Team Championships at the White mountain Classic, and finally some skied in the longest continuously running nordic race in New England, the Valley Cup, held at Ole’s XC in Warren VT.
Things started off with the White Mountain Classic. Leading up to the race we were scrambling to find our 4th man for team scoring. Luck would have it, that in a last ditch effort we got an enthusiastic YES! from Eli Enman. The conditions for this years race were the best ever in its short history. Skiers found comfortable temps in the low 20’s under clear skies with a light breeze out of the north. The snow was packed powder on top of a thick frozen granular base. The course started on the east side of rte 16A and looped up on the Eagle Mountain Trails, then came back through the center, crossing road and proceeding along the Ellis River trails before making its way back to the finish at the Lodge. The start was quite exhilarating, with a 100m double pole leading into a sharp and narrow left turn. The race official stated that the race would not be won in the first 100m so take it easy, but as the 10 lanes converged to four, everyone knew a good start was imperative for a good finish. After the excitement of the start the course climbed and rolled for 10k, and then the last 20k was relatively flat. The consensus was that it was a back breaker, especially for those who did not do their 50k double pole workouts on roller skis over the summer.
NWVT had six men and one woman compete this year. Special guest Eli Enman won the overall by 2 tenths of a second. Just enough time to think Farm Service in your head getting one last grunt out at the line. Coincidence? I think not. He knew the stakes were some of the highest he has ever faced skiing for the only Farm Service sponsored team in New England . (All joking aside we are grateful that Eli chose to share his talent with our club, and helping us out at the last minute shows that he is just as great a guy as he is a competitor.) Moments later Eric Tremble finished in 4th overall having skied with a Dartmouth skier for about half the race and then on his own to the finish. The next finishers came with a one two punch from Scott Magnan and Damian Bolduc in 21st and 22nd place. Scott was involved in crash at the start and spent the first 10k of the race overtaking lost positions to get into range of the group he wanted to be in. The effort took a lot out of him and he ended up skiing in no-man’s land with his mark just ahead of him. Meanwhile Damian had a clean start and ended up in a good pack of 3 skiers for the race; taking the W in a three way sprint at the finish, and closing the gap on Scott as he tired. Cranking it up for the finish Perry schooled a few skiers in patience and saving it for the end. Coming into the stadium Perry was fast and smooth as he dropped one racer after another. Approaching the line he almost caught one last skier who scrambled with all he had, just to edge him at the line. Dan Sandberg had his first race for the club and finished an impressive 3rd in the U23 category in his inaugural NWVT race. Jessica Bolduc held things down for the women. This was her longest classic race ever. After a slow start she was just getting things going when she had a bad fall. She battled back again, finishing well among masters women and her efforts won the M1 division. It was the perfect mix of disappointment and success to get things really going for the Craftsbury Marathon next weekend. You do not want to be an obstacle in the way of this skier on a mission. While all the skiers were very pleased with there individual results, the team scoring did not pan out as well as we hoped for. We ended up 4th behind clubs with more even distributions of skiers in the two scoring brackets. Next year will be scored by each division so that may change things in our favor. The race was close as usual, and everybody was happy with their effort.
While the marathoners were racing in Jackson , Anja Jokela and Ilke Van Genechten were sprinting in day one of the Tour de Rumford. Anja took 15th overall and Ilke took 37th overall in the very deep and talented field of 120 of New England best skiers. Junior racers Evan and Sam Martell also had outstanding results in their sprints. They all competed the second day and were joined by Damian Bolduc, Tim Cowan and Lary Martell. For day two the Women raced 10k and the men raced 15k on the challenging Black Mountain course. The conditions were similar to the day before with temperatures just a little warmer for the skate races. NWVT continued to have stellar performances from the juniors up. The course took a serious beating but held up well for the most part to the end of the day when the Masters got underway. Evan started the day out finishing 9th overall in the junior’s race. The women followed up with just as impressive results in the 10k race with Anja and Ilke taking 6th and 10th in the senior division, while Samantha Martell was not too far behind taking 37th in the J1 class. After a long interlude of men, the masters got underway at the end of the day. Tim was first to start for the club, followed by Damian and then Lary. Having all the masters start together in a solid block made for some very interesting racing. Damian, Lary and Tim place well in the masters and held their own among the whole field of close to 200 skiers. After discussing it with a few other racers it was determined that it was fair to subtract at least a minute from each lap of the Masters times due to all the speed being taken out of the course by the earlier racers.
The Valley Cup was held at Ole’s. I know some NWVTer’s were there, but I cannot find results and I was not there so if someone could help me out and send in a report that would be great! All and all we had a great weekend of racing. It was good to see some new faces out there. Things are looking good as we head into the second half of the season. Keep up the great work.
John Sackett Memorial Race Report
It was evident that everyone has raised the bar for mid-winter at yesterday’s race. Perhaps it was the format, the venue or the conditions, but anybody who competed seemed to feel great about their race. It is possible that everyones face instantly froze in smile position as they stepped out of their cars, exposed to deep powder and the frigid Northeast, but the enthusiasm expressed in the chatter told the story.
The 2008 Sackett Memorial was held at Mt. Hor. No argument about the change in location because the conditions there were phenomenal. It seems as if the December dumpings have remained untouched, and have just been added to. The area had a fresh coating of a few inches just the night before. The course was freshly groomed and tracked for competitors who made the trip and braved the cold. The course was two loops; starting on a flat 2k section, then a long winding climb with a short flat section before a slightly technical decent followed by a long straight decent that brought skiers back to the start. Skiers could really get moving along the last K of the loop. The temperature was in the high single digits for the race, perfect for a brisk winter 10K. The snow was deep and the course was completely wooded. In fact you cannot even see a road from the trails, just one vista that overlooks Lake Willoughby and the majestic ledges that plunge into it.
The field was small as was the NWVT contingent, so we still maintained a good percentage of the racers. We had four men and one woman compete. The race format was waves of four skiers starting every 30 seconds. So everybody got on course and underway quickly. This made things exciting for everyone. It also made for some great match-ups. Just about everyone found someone to ski with in one wave after another of hearty skiers.
Perry Bland was off early in the second wave, followed by Eric Tremble who started about mid-field and then Jessica and Damian Bolduc started just ahead of Scott Magnan who was in the last wave. Perry settled into his race and was skiing well, when another competitor came up along and passed him. Perry knew he was not going to be able to gain back the time to beat the other guy, but he decided to stick with him and match his pace for the rest of the race. A strategy that paid off, making a good race even better. Eric got underway and quickly began picking off racers in front of him. He thought he could catch a Burke Mountain Academy skier who started one wave up, but never saw him again after the start. Eric was second over all in the race, his 30 second BMA man won. Jessica, Damian and Scott were in well stacked waves too. Damian was in a back and forth struggle from start to finish with Doug Armstrong, a Jackson skier he has been closing the gap on for two years. While Scott was in a head to head battle of his own against a Craftsbury racer Peter Harris. It was an epic effort as the race between these four individuals unfolded with lead changes, comebacks and friendly words exchanged. It made for the better for all of them as they focused on top form keeping everyone in check. Jessica found herself quickly dropped as the boys charged off to battle each other, but then found motivation consistently picking off skiers over the 10K course.
The race was great despite the small turnout. As Scott said in his preview e-mail things were as perfect as perfect can be. Next weekend is the White Mountain Classic. This is a fun 30K Marathon with a hilly first half giving way to a flat second half. It is well organized and the conditions in Jackson are excellent. It is also the Masters Team Championship with masters team scoring. We have done well the past two years here, With this year looking very promising but are going to be short one racer for team scoring. Let me know if you know someone who could do it, or if you are looking for some encouragement this is it. There is also Eastern Cup Races in Rumford ME, as well as a fun local race at Ole’s on Sunday. So there is something for everyone from a tour to an elite race. No reason not to get out there, the season is only getting shorter. A few of us will be doing the White Mountain Classic and then heading up to Rumford for the 15k skate on Sunday. Send an e-mail if you are interested in carpooling to any of the events, I can pass it along. 2008 Bogburn
Last weeks Mt Hor Hop was a battle of the small clubs, the Bogburn was the battle of the big clubs. CSU showed up this week and in big numbers. Sixteen of there members were pre-registered, and it seems like they brought a lot more. Ford Sayer also unveiled one of its new members. It is apparent that the large clubs have been watching what is going on, and they know that NWVT has been moving up, and they also know that we are a bigger threat than we seem.
Conditions at the Bogburn were challenging. There were glazed tracks surrounded by heavy sticky snow. The temps were approaching the 40’s for the first time since November. The course was the very challenging, twisting Bogburn course that never gives up. Waxing was difficult as hard wax was not working in the tracks while klister was grabbing anything loose. Rex Power Grip Purple was working out of the tracks, and may have been the best choice other than waxless skis, but NWVT chose to go with klister.
We had eight skiers representing us this week. NWVT seemed to trickle in to the race together, and quickly went to work testing wax and eavesdropping on what was working for other people, but mostly we saw what was not working. We met up with fellow competitors from other clubs and borrowed a torch from a loaner on the Mansfield Nordic Team that we have befriended in hopes that one of these years he will defect to NWVT. As we warmed up one skier was feeling good, a few were recovering from nagging colds, and one was working a torch for the first time.
Scott Magnan was feeling good from the start and was the top finisher for the club today. It was tough to gauge where you were in the race as people’s skis varied greatly as well as their fitness. But Scott was hot, holding off CSU power house Andy Milne who started 15 seconds and one place back. Tyler Magnan followed close behind 3 seconds to be exact. Tyler fiddled the most with his skis, and was happy they worked out for him carrying him through the race. Lary Martell opted for waxless skis and was happy with the choice. He was frustrated with the course that provides only one stretch where you can get a good rhythm, but many where you can blow-up. None-the-less Lary had a great result. Damian Bolduc was just a few seconds back pleased with his performance considering the conditions. After a tiring first lap Damian concentrated on maintaining good technique and it paid off. Perry Bland did not have the race he tends to have at the Haydock Residence, but if you averaged it with last year’s race he would have topped all the NWVT racers. He still impressed as he glided by many of the competitors. Andre’ Bolduc could not bring himself to break 1 hour on his first attempt at the Bogburn. He missed it by one second. Not too bad for your first time on the course, especially without a preview and today’s conditions. I am sure he learned some valuable Bogburn lessons; much like his older brother did his first time in the race.
Two women represented NWVT this year. Jessica Bolduc and Hannah Barden. They both had great races in difficult conditions, having to ski the course after all the men trashed it. Jessica got to prove her Classic abilities to her master’s competition while drawing some of the young men in for a close encounter. A J2 rear-ended her half way through the race. Did anyone get that dudes number? Hannah improved greatly from last year showing it just by smiling after the race. It goes a lot better when you have an idea of what to expect. She won her division too!
The Bogburn is one of the most difficult races of the season. Not because there are tons of fast skiers, but because it is a very challenging course that challenges you mentally and physically more than any other race out there. You need to be on your game to do well, and looking at who did, you know who to look for in races coming up. It was another great day for NWVT. Keep up the great work. Mt. Hor Hop Report
Eight NWVT members traveled to the Willoughby State Forest to compete in the Mt. Hor Hop. This venue lays claim to the best snow conditions due to its 16 year history of providing the white stuff and never canceling a scheduled event. You could not argue with that today. The snow was deep, plentiful, firm and fast. For being on the side of Route 5A in the middle of nowhere the host pulled off another great event.
The conditions were near perfect for a skate race. The temperature was hovering around 30 with partially cloudy skies. The snow was packed powder with a hard base, just a touch un-even. There was little to no wind on the rolling course. For 2007, the race was back to the figure 8 double loop. This course has a flat start, then moves onto a gradually steepening 1K climb that ends with a 150m 20% grade to add insult to injury before leveling off and sending you down a fun twisting descent back to the start of the loop.
NWVT had another strong presence among the field of mostly club racers. It will be exciting to see the results as they will provide a true picture of our standing as no team was overly favored by this venue. Pending official results NWVT’s line up looked like the following. Eric Tremble took charge of the day placing 3rd overall, he was followed by the Magnan brothers Tyler and Scott who both had top 20 finishes. Lary Martell and Damian Bolduc followed in a heated battle with a pair of team Craftsbury racers. Andre’ Bolduc and Perry Bland were close behind posting their best results of the season so far. On the Women’s side Jessica Bolduc was off early in the order, chasing a National level racer while holding another off from behind. She ended up in the top 20 in a tight race. Things are looking good for the team as the winter takes shape. We have had good attendance at the races, racked up some great results heading into the difficult Marathon season. We even have a couple representing New England at the US Cross Country Championships in Houghton MI.
We will be having a couple of workouts this week. First will be an informal (wave to each other as we cross paths) easy distance ski at Bolton on Tuesday at 10 AM. The next will be on Wed. at 9 AM at Sleepy Hollow with an interval session to prepare for the Bogburn. The Wed. race series will start up as well with Sleepy Hollow’s going off at 6:30 PM 1/2/08 and Stowe’s starting up 1/9/08. By the way the Bogburn is next Sunday and is a club series race. We won this event last year in team scoring, it would be great to repeat this year but we need to get more skiers there to hold off Dartmouth Outing Club. It is a great race for all abilities, it will take tens of minutes off you marathon times and is a great measure of your fitness as the course design and race field demands a true and honest effort. Hope to see you all out there in ‘08! Notchview and Alumni Race Reports:
It was another exciting weekend for NWVT. Several athletes competed both days in some very fun and unique skiing events. The weather held out both days providing the best conditions considering the possibilities. This has been the best December for skiing in recent memory and it is good to see some  many taking advantage of it and the great opportunities out there.
The first race of the weekend was the Notchview Berkshire Trails Criterium Classic. This was a first for everyone and the only skiing Criterium I know of. It was a mass start race on a short loop pitting a menagerie of skiers against each other for 35 mins. The winner was determined by who completed the most loops in 35 mins. The rest were scored according to time and number of loops completed. So the winner completed 8 loops, followed by several others who finished 8 loops, then those who completed 7, 6…
It was actually quite genial compared to some racing situations I have been in especially when compared to a Road Cycling Criterium, or Cycle Cross Race. The conditions had temperatures in the high twenties, with little wind, and cloudy skies. This made the waxing situation easy once we figured out what was working; it worked the rest of the day without the sun changing the snow conditions.
Five NWVT racers made the trip to the race. Scott and Tyler Magnan left early spending the night at NWVT member Jeremy Gibbon’s residence, while Ilke Van Genechten, Eric Tremble and Damian Bolduc left early traveling the day of race. It was a small but strong contingent of racers with all placing in the top 3 of there respective divisions, and Ilke placed 3rd overall among the women. It was a great day for all, from staking out the perfect indoor waxing area with a private bathroom, to the group cool down. Of course during the race it was go time with all participants putting forth their best efforts. From the start NWVT seemed to merge together through the chaotic staging area to the top of the hill about 1k into the race. At this point the field began to spread as did the club. Eric maintained pace with the elite men while Tyler lead the charge for the bulk of the field and Damian and Scott carried on in the front of the pack. Ilke was in a tight race for second for the entire time, while the lead woman was in a league of her own threatening Tyler Magnan. All finished in that order with Eric on the lead lap and the rest -1 lap. On the last lap Scott was able to latch onto lapping skier and put some distance on Damian. Ilke was edged out at the line by the 2nd place skier who was using all the tricks she could to keep the advantage. All were happy with there efforts, and pleased with the experience of this being the first classic race of the season.
Day two was the BFA Alumni race. Day one went so well, that all returned and were among the 20+ NWVT members that took on the current BFA ski teams as well as a small delegation from Clarkson. The conditions for the Alumni Race saw temps in the 40’s, sun and strong wind. All were happy not to have the predicted rain. The course was a little slow with then moisture in the snow suctioning the ski bases to the surface of the trail. For the first time in the men’s field no one was able to run away with the race, there were actually four NWVT men in contention that skied almost the entire way together only breaking up with half a K to go with some having more in the tank than others. For the women one NWVT member was able to make a break and gap the next 3 racers, however the top BFA skier mounted a strong countered and gained a lot of time in the final K. It was not enough to overtake the lead, but very respectable effort to close the gap. The day saw NWVT members winning both 6k events, the alumni men crushing the BFA, and Clarkson teams, the BFA women handling the alumni field with a strong fight against NWVT who just barely edged them in team scoring. The 3k event was dominated by smiles and alumni returning to their roots in skiing, some a little out of shape, others a little rusty, but all ready to settle a long running bet or an untold score. In the end it is all about the bragging rights, be the overall Victory, the most new facial hair, the most new waistline, the oldest skis, the oldest wax, or the most over the top signature pants, everyone leaves the Alumni Race a Winner! Great Job to all this weekend!!! Let’s keep it going through the season. Happy Holidays!
Bolton Opener
NWVT had eight members compete in Saturday’s Bolton Opener and several helped out in various volunteer positions to help pull off the fun event.
The morning started out early, and cold. As the course was set up the temperature  hovered just above 0. By race time it had crept up to 4 with clear skies. The race was a 30 second interval start that sent racers out to do 3 laps on the rolling Picnic Loop. The snow was nicely packed but very cold and relatively slow. This combined with the nature of the loop made the race more difficult than one would initially think. After an exhilarating first half of the loop the racers had to turn and find themselves faced with a slow grind back to the top of the loop. What was deceiving was just how hard they had skied down through the woods to the horse pasture finding themselves a little more taxed than expected for the climb. As they went over the hill, it drained more out of the athletes each time they rounded the lap zone. On the final lap racers were ready to take the turn-off for the finish. Though the field was small, it was very competitive. Having the race on the shorter loop also gave the field a larger feel as the early starters would lap around and be paired with a fresh starter and so on.
Eric Tremble got the ball rolling for NWVT starting in second position 30 seconds behind Stowe Nordic ace Tom Thurston. Within the first lap Eric had all but closed the gap. He went on to drop Tom and win the race. Jake Hollenbach was the next NWVT finisher. He had a mild mishap which cost him a few precious seconds and positions in the short and fast race. It was almost impossible to recover from any error during this race as there was no time or place to gain anything back. The next to finish was Damian Bolduc with Scott Magnan following close behind. The gap was small but still not in Scott’s favor. We will see what happens next week when Scott can pull out all the stops at the Alumni Race. Scott has the advantage of designing the course, and knowing Damian as a racer better than anyone, and has in the past, modified the course in his favor and Damian’s disadvantage, but it gets harder to do each year. Next up were Andre’ Bolduc and Josh Dillon just a few seconds back. Andre’ contending with an epic commute involving wrong exits, running out of gas and bumming gas from an antique Tucker groomer resulting in a late arrival still had a good effort and did not let on to the stress of getting to the race until after when one could detect the stench of gasoline on his chauffeur Brendan Barden who missed the race due to dealing with aftermath of the events getting to the race. Josh Dillon moved up a lot since last week, and made out good on an inside bet for a dinner with 10 seconds to spare in the spread. In the Women’s race NWVT took the top two spots. Ilke Van Genechten hammered for three laps virtually passing the entire field to take the overall win. As she powered over the hills it was clear that nothing was going to distract her focus or get in her way. Next up was UVM alumni Anja Jokela showing a few of UVM’s current skiers how it is done. This was Anja’s first race for the club as she joined in true club spirit, “yeah, sure, I’ll do that.”
Well the 2007-2008 season continues to be the winter that is. I traveled from Lyme , NH to Burlington today with nothing but deep powder the whole way. If you get a chance, take a snow day this week. It will be worth it.
Craftsbury Opener What a way to kick off the season. Sixteen NWVT members made the journey to compete in the Craftsbury opener on Sunday. This is a record turnout for the club! We even surprised ourselves with the attendance and have certainly made an early impression of what’s to come this season for the rest of the New England Clubs.
The conditions at Craftsbury were excellent as promised. They did a great job grooming trails for the 150 skier field. The 10K course took skiers over the challenging Race Loop trails twice. The double dose of the long climbs had racers legs and lungs burning as they made their way to the finish. The conditions were a little tricky as some of the course was softened by the large field, and other sections had cold windblown snow that could stop a skier in their tracks. But overall it was a great day to be out with temps in the mid teens and a bright sky.
NWVT had skiers peppered though out the field with the final results showing some good match-ups. Leading things for the club were Jake Hollenbach and Eric Tremble. These two also represented the team on Saturday at the Lake Placic Opener. They skied with among the leaders and took 1st and 2nd in their category. Next came the Bolduc/Magnan assault. These two will be gunning for the Alumni Race coming up with the friendly rivalry. Lary Martell and Brendan Barden battled their way close behind with some serious competition from Jackson, Craftsbury and Ford Sayre. Then a near 4-way tie came from 3 NWVT skiers in a battle with our favorite opponent Bill Farrell. Leigh Mallory, Andre’ Bolduc, and Tim Cowan were all in good company and have a great competitor to set their sights on in Bill. It was news to us the Leigh had signed on, but we will take him. Tim who is new to the club and getting back into racing had and outstanding result with 4th in the super competitive M5 Class. The next pairing came from Josh Dillon and Perry Bland. Both posting great results for the first race. It would be interesting to see what would have happened between these two had this been a mass start race. Bringing it in for the men was another new racer Sherm Wilson who held strong in 7th position for the M5’s.
The women had an outstanding day as well with a near perfect score! NWVT took 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the S2 division. Ilke Van Genechten had a top 10 among some of the top collegiate athletes. This after taking 5th in the Atomic Sprints the day before. Allaire Diamond and Hannah Wilson finished out the divisional sweep keeping each other in their sights for the entire 10K. Jessica Bolduc started the season out well with a 3rd in the M1 division and finishing among some of her stiffest competition from last year on their home course. A special thanks to Jen Norton for watching Camille Bolduc. It allowed for both Jessica and Damian to race, and they were some of the loudest NWVT fans supporting us on the course.
I hope that everyone was very encouraged with there performance on Sunday. It was great to see so many out there enjoying the great early season conditions. If all are signed up with NENSA, and the results are accurate we collected close to 120 points for this effort. What a great way to start the season. I hope the team continues to build and we see and get to know more of the new members. Hats off to the Muffin Baker! See the full results at www.nensa.net. Westford Turkey Trot The Northwest Vermont Ski Club kicked off the season at the Westford Turkey Trot on Saturday, November 17, 2007. Seven members made it to the annual event. The conditions were Classic  Westford Turkey Trot with below freezing temps at the start, a bright sun warming things up, and a light breeze to give the runners a little challenge.
The first event was the children’s 100 yd dash. Camille Bolduc participated in this event and met all three of her goals: 1. to run the whole race by herself and not be scared, 2. to smile at all the people cheering for the racers, 3. to get a chocolate turkey lollipop at the finish. Then she was swept up into  the running carriage and pushed by Jessica Bolduc in the 2 mile race. Jessica was tapering for the New England Masters Cross Country Championships on Sunday, but still managed to get the W in her age class. The rest of the members took to the traditional 10K course.
The course starts off relatively flat, but heads for the hills around the 3.5 mile mark, then down the hills to the 5 mile mark with a rolling, but progressively up hill last mile. Eric Tremble took things out for the club, working his way up to second place and holding that position to the finish. Damian Bolduc followed a little further back, after having a more conservative start. Tyler Magnan followed close behind after working for Damian the first 3 miles. Scott Magnan and Perry Bland rounded out the finishes for the club with times and places consistent with years past.
After the race members visited and reminisced while the prize drawing took place. Perry and Damian checked out the results of the memorable 1997 Turkey Trot on this the tenth anniversary. It was the year Damian had talked his roommate Joe Gingras to come out and take and easy cruise to the win, then Jessica Wadsworth was called up early in the prize drawing bringing home a gallon of the fancy grade good stuff, and Perry schooled Damian on saving it for after the hill.
A good time was had by all and things are looking up for the upcoming season. If any one had been on snow send along report of the conditions. We are all anxious to hear.
 
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