Day 2 of the SilverStar and Sovereign Lake North American/ SuperTour races was a 10k mass start skate race for both men and women. The air was cold and the snow was slow, and with a grueling 5k lap, the BSF Pro Team was ready to grind and contend for the win! The course started with a 1.5 kilometer climb before leveling off with a flat section. The course then climbed even more to the high point. A long descent down, with a massive wall right at the bottom burned the legs for sure. The course then descended a little more with a small climb before entering the stadium and ending the lap.
The team had a strong showing with Sarah and Reid Goble leading the team both placing 4th. Finn finished right behind Reid in 5th. Mariah ended up in 10th, Hannah placed 13th and Erika was 15th. Graham finished 14th and Simon was 20th. The entire team finished in the top 20! Finn, Reid, and Sarah recap the day below.
Finn here; I was really looking forward to this race but was also very nervous. I knew that with the course being so challenging, the pace would be probably pretty slow, with no one wanting to lead. And I know my strengths as well as I know my weaknesses, and I knew I didn’t want to come into the final wall with a group of 30 men and have a sprint for the finish. So I relaxed and hung in right around 3rd on lap 1 and heading out on lap 2 I decided to go to the front and push the pace. And for the next 4 kilometers I led a group that started out with 40 people, through the course. Slowly all but 5 other people had felt the change of pace and fallen off my back. My legs were burning and into the last wall all 5 people passed me, but I was able to hang onto the back of the pack and pass one skier in the finish to end the day in 5th. I was certainly hoping for a better place, but I know I can grind and I am very excited for the individual race on Sunday.
Hey all! Reid here to give my thoughts about our first distance race of the season. A mass start as the first distance race of the season can be a little nerve racking with everyone feeling very excited about the season. Although I was definitely nervous myself, I was much more excited since I really like mass starts and the craziness involved with them. Last season I had a couple races that I felt fine in, but just got too complacent at the start and lost connection with the lead. With that in mind, my goal going into this was to just be prepared to go very hard from the beginning, so I focused on getting a very solid warm-up in. With that said, the beginning of this race was definitely pretty hectic with people wanting to find a good position. The course started out with the biggest climb right away and there was a lead pack of about 30 people by the top of it. Getting through the climb I was in a solid position towards the front of that group. On the downhill, a skier right in front of me lost his balance a bit and was catching my skis, so I was praying that he did not fall! Luckily he stayed on his feet and when I was right on him, pushed on his butt to get ourselves some more space and be free. Somewhere in there I must have broken my pole because the next push I did, it snapped in half. Some coaches from another team gave me a pole, but it had a left strap (my right pole broke) and I skied with it until I saw my coach, Andy, who gave me another one - which was pretty short, but at that point I didn't really care. After all that I was toward the back of the big pack and just knew I had to wait until I saw an opportunity to move up. Near the end of the first lap I was able to ski up to around 10th place and then again through the stadium to 5th place. This was good since my teammate Finn made a really good push that dropped most of the big pack up the big climb and although it definitely hurt, I knew I had to stay with. After that I skied with the lead group and near the end of that lap another skier made a hard move over the top of a hill, which put a bit of distance between second and third place. At this point I was going for that third position into the final stretches, but couldn't quite catch back up and ended up fourth place, with Finn right behind me! This was a great race for me and also BSF is probably the strongest team here after these first two days. Most importantly, it felt good to be back on skis and racing!
Hi all, Sarah here. Today, I was feeling some first race jitters, but mainly just excited to push myself and see what I was capable of. In our team meeting the night before, Andy gave some race advice that resonated with me. Instead of thinking about a race in terms of distance, we were encouraged to think about the race in laps. This race was a two lap race, so I thought about my race plan in that way. I have been feeling dialed with my training this fall, so I wanted to put myself into the lead pack and not get separated on the first lap. I wish I could say that I put more thought into my race plan, but truthfully my only plan was to hang on. Mass starts can get a bit chaotic at the start, so I made sure to keep my skiing tight to not get tangled with others. When we hit the first sustained climb, I decided I did not like where I was in the pack, so I put in a controlled surge to move up towards the front. During that first lap I made sure to just relax and focus on skiing well. In intervals since being on snow, I have been working on not getting bogged down and forcing technique. Meaning, that I feel like it helps me to not switch frequently between V2 and V1 on gradual climbs and not muscularly fatigue a lot. It was not until the second to last hill, on the final lap, about 2k from the finish, that someone decided to try and make a break. I would say I was expecting this and set myself up on the hill so that I would be able to react. On the last climb I found myself in the top few and feeling like I had it in myself to push hard up and over the hill. I then found myself leading down through the stadium, which is not exactly what I wanted as it can be more tiring to lead on downs and flats. I decided to embrace it and just keep pushing as hard as I could. I did get passed by three girls in the finish stretch but I was proud that I took a risk and finished in the mix. It was fun to be out there in the pain cave with my teammates and friends - I’m looking forward to seeing what we accomplish in the next two races here in Silver Star!
Check back in for race recaps from the skate sprint and 10k individual classic race this weekend!
