Natural Areas Trail Conditions

Dan Fry

03/09/10

So, as promised, here's a quick little summary of Ben and my trip to Wisconsin for this year's Birkebeiner.

So this whole thing would have been a total cluster had Ben's family and family friends not have been out there.  We arrived in the Wausau, WI airport on Thurday the 25th and were greeted by Ben's folks who live just outside of town.  After spending the day in airports and on planes, we rushed to their house, unpacked and headed out to a little nordic ski area about 5 minutes from their place.  We quickly realized that between the insanely fast snow conditions and thick oxygen filled air that we could absolutely fly on the skis.  Thanks to all our Colorado training, even when we did get tired, it took a matter of seconds to fully recover.  It was a nice change after our last fairly big day of training a few days previous to that when we were "skating" through 6 inches of powder at 8000 feet.

So Friday we drove "up north" as they call it, to Hayward, WI where we would spend the night before the race with a couple family friends of Ben's.  Not only did this turn out to be an awesome hook-up to have but Tina who lived there is quite an accomplished ski racer.  She was able to give us some good tips for the next day such as the best way to start with a couple hundred other skiers and where the locals like to sit on their snowmobiles with beer and brats to watch the spandex clad skiers fall over in the fast sharp turns.  When we first got into Hayward, we dropped our skis off for a scheduled tune in the temporary shop set up by the Boulder Nordic Sport guys.  Rather than stress about our minimal waxing abilities, we figured it was worth it to have the pros take care of it which turned out to be the way to go.  While the skis were being tuned, we ran up to the Telemark ski lodge to pick up out packets.  That's when I realized how huge this event was.  All the different categories of racing that was going on had attracted 10,000 skiers.  Even though I had no expectations, I started to get a little nervous at this point.  

Saturday started early.  We get up at 4:30 to eat and catch a 5:30 bus from Hayward, the town where we were staying and also the town where the race finished, up to Telemark ski area in the town of Cable.  We arrived early and tried to relax and stay warm for a bit then headed out to the start.  Because we had qualified for the first amature skate wave, we were there when the elite wave started.  It was pretty cool to see 200 rediculously fast skiers take off for a race that would end up with Colorado well represented in the top 10 along with a bunch of really fast Europeans. 

I guess I must have been nervous at this point because as we were lining up, the announcer said it had warmed up to a balmy 8 below and somehow I was warm.  The start line was the better part of 80 yards wide and probably 4-5 deep.  People take up more room when they have skis and poles attached to them.  Anyway, they started out wave and it became apparent that the tip we had gotten the night before of "stay small" became apparant.  The first few kilometers you really couldn't skate.  It was an exercise in double poling and trying to keep your body and gear out of the way of people who seemed to think they were going to catch and pass the pro skiers who were about 20 minutes ahead of us.  After the first few kilometers were over, things got to the point where you could actually ski.  I'm convinced that the only way you can really do "well" starting in that wave it to pin it from the start and stay away from all the carnage.  It's one thing to do this in a mountain bike or cross race but when you're not the worlds greatest skate skier, doing it in a group of hundreds of other skiers is kinda out of the question.

So Ben ended up just ahead of me at the start and I tried to keep him close because I planned to ski with him as much as possible.  He's got the ability to not got so hard that he cracks in the first half of an event.  I don't have that ability.  At about the 6k marker, I looked up and saw him almost standing still.  As I caught up to him, he looked over and held up a really nice new shiney Swix pole that had been snapped in half.  He had broken it in the first feed zone.  My plan at that point was to look for his parents who were somewhere ahead because they had an extra set of poles.  Unfortunately I never saw them.  At that point Ben was behind me in survival mode and seareching for a spare pole.  After skiing 5k to the next feedzone, he got a spare and kept going.  He quickly realized that the spare was about a foot too short but it got him to the next support area where he got yet another pole that was a lot heavier but closer to the right size.  Luckily, that was the end of the 'mechanicals'. 

We both raced well and had a great time.  I had no idea how rolling the terrain was going to be.  There really wasn't a flat section on the course more than a hundred yards long with the exception of the last 2k that were across a lake leading into the finish in Hayward.  The finish was on main street which was nicely groomed just like the rest of the course and lined with people watching.  The overall experience is one worth checking out if you have the chance. 

Neither Ben nor I had a real goal but I think we both wanted to ski it in less than 3 hours.  I ended up doing it in 2:47 and Ben was 5 minutes back after his ski pole issues.  I'm sure he would have been ahead of me had he not had bad luck.

We are both excited for next season and getting back to Hayward for the 2011 race!  Stay tuned to YGR for details on a nordic ski training / racing group for the 2010-2011 season.  I'm planning on getting the word out for weekly ski trips to Happy Jack, some local Colorado races and then organizing a group to head to Wisconsin and do the Birkie on February 26, 2011!

New Course for the UNC Crit in Greeality March 14th.

Email Alex @  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

YGR readers -

You might be aware of a group that's working pretty hard to bring bike racing back to Fort Collins.  Called the NCCE - or Northern Colorado Cycling Events - the group is dedicated to developing a thriving cycling race culture in northern Colorado.  Through a lot of hard work and dedication from quite a few of your local cycling guys, 2010 is already shaping up to be a monumental year for having fun on the bicycles up here.  Recently we've added another exciting event - an ACA sanctioned cyclocross race.  I won't go into details on the process, but of 26 available race dates, the ACA had over 100 race date requests.  With that kind of response, the ACA was initially set to allocate the dates to promoters that had already proven themselves.  Had the ACA had stuck to their original intention, we would have been long off the list.  But they didn't.  And we have a date.

Now that we have the date, our goal is to put on the best darned cross race on the ACA calendar.  And this is the reason for the post.  We need to secure an awesome venue.  So I'm reaching out to the community to see if anyone has an idea or connection to a location that's in Fort Collins, able to handle 300-500 people on race day, and is excited to have a cyclocross event  on their property.  If you have any suggestions, please feel free to contact us.

And if you're reading this and are interested in being involved with this event at a sponsorship level, please feel free to contact us as well.

This event will be a joint effort by Peloton-Specialzed and the Fort Collins Cycling Team.  Below is a contact for each squad.  Feel free to drop either of us a line with your thoughts.

Thanks all.

- Sam Acheson / Peloton-Specialized

Sam @ Peloton-Specialized

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Tim @ Fort Collins Cycling Team

tim@muddyspoke.com

Not only is the  CSU Crit  regarded as the best crit in Colorado but it's also just out your front door.  Absolutely no reason to miss this one.

Online registration is being handled by the event registration company:  Evntr designed by Fort Collins' own Desmond Yap.

Save yourself some time on race day and register online and if you are planing an event please go local with Evntr.