Hello!

Reid here, checking in after our SuperTour races in Craftsbury, VT and as we get ready for the Birkie!

Although our eastern races were very cold, the venues were a ton of fun, and our team had some great results.  Our second weekend of racing after Lake Placid was Craftsbury where we started off with a skate sprint. It was a very interesting day for conditions as it was cold and absolutely nuking snow. This made the course very soft and very tough to ski efficiently. These kinds of conditions are always a great experience since not every race can be firm, fun skiing. Despite this we had some great results. I had a solid day but ended up getting out in the quarterfinal. Graham had a breakthrough qualifier, ending up in fourth and making it to the semifinal and Lauren also proved herself, finishing second overall in the final.

Our second day of racing was a classic individual start, the first part of a pursuit. The cold persisted for this race, but luckily the sun came out making it feel not so bad! We normally don’t do many pursuit races and I had never really done one myself, so it was definitely a fun new type of racing. For those who don’t know how it works, how you finish on the first day depends how you start the second day. Whoever won the first day starts first the second day, and the time back you finished the first day, is where you start the second. For example, I finished 13th in the classic race and had 12th place starting four seconds in front of me and 14th, two seconds behind me. In order to win the pursuit, you have to catch the people in front of you and cross the line first.

So the second day of the pursuit was a skate race. I thought it was a cool way to race, almost like a mass start without all the craziness at the start line. Since everyone around me was just a few second off each other, the race started out very fast, with everyone trying to quickly catch the person in front of them. I grouped up with a solid group almost right away and we tried to catch up to people in front of us. I had one of my best races of the year, starting 13th and finishing 8th, with the fourth fastest time of the day. Finn also had some great races finishing fourth place in both days of the pursuit, just missing out on the podium.

Now we are back in Bozeman with some of us preparing for the American Birkiebeiner in Cable, WI. It is by far the biggest and most exciting race I have ever done, so the stoke level is high! Also we have our first BSF pro-teamers qualifying for a world cup, watch out for Logan and Lauren in Lahti, Finland!!!!

Stay warm,

Reid

‍