(photo credit A. Dorais' blog)
A warm, sunny day for the Vertical race today. The Vertical is essentially a bottom to top drag race with 610m of climbing. The course is comprised of steep skinning and low angle gliding so choosing the right set of skins is essential. I chose a full width skin that came to the back of my heel. This leaves a lot of ski exposed for gliding.
I lined up in the second row behind the ranked skiers. The nerves were really kicking in. No one around me was speaking English so I had to internalize my feeling of panic. It was a large group of 83 racers tightly packed together. I was worried about a clean start; no broken poles, etc. I made the decision to start conservatively to avoid a potential crash. I was determined to move up after the initial start so 30 seconds into it I moved to the outside of the pack and drilled it. I quickly moved up to the top 20. I jumped on the back of the lead pack and tried to settle into the pace.
Within a few minutes Killian and one other racer established a gap and pulled away from the pack. The low-angle terrain (which suits my build) allowed me to stay with the chase pack (Which included the fastest uphill skier in the world. I had to pinch myself.). It was incredibly exciting to be within sight of the leaders for the entire first half of the race. I was psyched to be skiing behind the German racer that had dominated the sprint race earlier in the week.
As the course got steeper I lost a couple of places. Steeper terrain is better suited to smaller racers, not 6’3, 170lb Americans. It was great hearing “Go USA” in strange accents throughout the race. As I came into the final flat section of the course, Michael Silitch gave some great on the fly coaching. I wish he could have tagged along and coached me all through the race. The final section of the race was super steep and I lost a few more places. I had been waiting for “Ruck the Truck” Ruckman to pass me and he didn‘t disappoint, within a minute of the finish line there he was.
I put in a huge effort to try and overtake Greg and caught him with-in 75 feet of the finish line. I didn’t have anything left at that point and he crossed 6 seconds ahead of me. I crossed the line and dropped to the ground. I proceeded to lay there for a few minutes as the officials took off my skis and asked me if I needed to be carried (uh, yeah…). I said “no thanks” as I struggled to get to my feet. As I fell back down I decided to accept their help.
"Monsieur skimo racer; please move."
(photo credit A. Dorais' blog)
Team USA had a great day with Ruckman 27th, Simmons 29th, Nelson 46th, Dorais 49th and Thatcher 73rd . The U.S. woman also had a great day with Smiley 13th, Young 20th, Douglas 22nd and Silitch 28th.I believe I had my best race ever today. My Trab/Scarpa combo worked flawlessly! Thanks to Verde PR for getting me on top of the line gear this year.
I’ll be competing in the team relay race tomorrow. Each country enters one team consisting of 4 athletes. I’ll be racing with Gaston, Thomson and Ruckman. There’s a fierce rivalry established between the US and Canadian relay teams. Lets go Team USA!
(Photo Credits: Max Taam)
Race Results Here: http://ismf-ski.org/www/index.php?q=node/45&page=ListRankingsAction&type=view&id_parent=550&id_parent2=&id_parent_parent=224
