Trapps Eastern Cup Weekend

The new race course at Trapps is a piece of ski racing art. When we first encountered it on Friday afternoon it was hard not to go too fast on it because its just fun to ski. Its a definite improvement on the old course's skiability while still maintaining the "feel" of racing at Trapps- fast downhills with sharp turns, good climbs, excellent grooming, and of course the brutal climb up and into the finish. There was definitely a feeling of excitement among the team to pull a bib on and throw down on the 5k loop. The girls raced a quick but tough 5k in the morning which went well for both Corinne and Janey, placing 33rd and 62nd overall. These were especially impressive results because the race was a combination of the Eastern Cup, UVM Carnival, and Supertour events. Burke Alums Lucy Garrec and Elise Moody-Roberts, now skiing for Colby and Middlebury respectively, placed in the top 10 overall at 6th and 8th- just barely over 30 seconds off the winner!
The men skied the 5k loop twice on Saturday for the skate race. As fun as the course is to ski, there is no question that it is hard. As one racer told me, "this course is full of 'active rest', which is really just a fancy term for 'no rest'". The final 200 uphill meters into the windblown finish didn't help the lactate build up in the legs, but nonetheless the boys overall had a pretty good day, with Sam finishing 40th and Lucas finishing just over 30 seconds behind in 57th. Although the results haven't caught up to him yet, Evan also had a breakthrough day, skiing technically as good as we've seen him this year.
The classic race on Sunday was a different game entirely. We got to the venue at 8am in hopes of being able to nail down the wax before the girls arrived for thier race, but the combination of sleet, rain, wet snow, more snow, wind, and changing temperatures made predicting wax for more than a 10 minute time period next to impossible. The girls raced on harries, which was the only thing kicking and not icing at the time, but especially in the wind-blown fields they were pretty slow. In the woods the tracks were wet and icy but Corinne and Janey were both able to kick anyway which could not be said for much of the field. Both had stellar races, placing 22nd and 30th, while former Burkies Lucy, Ida, and Elise placed 3rd, 4th, and 10th!
The 15k mens race was not any easier to wax for, as the conditions continued to change in various ways, and some decided to use thier Zeros while others used klister. Suprisingly enough, we haven't had many klister days in the east this year, and some of the guys were clearly not used to working the kick. Overall it was a tough day on the Burkies with the exception of Yannick who didn't seem to care that the tracks were in different conditions each lap and came in 88th overall, 7th J1. From here we have a sprint with GMVS coming up on Friday, followed by February Break and then its on to the Hannover/Gunstock Eastern Cup- and the last chance for some of us to qualify for JOs in Truckee.

Thanks again to the Tarlings for bringing lunch on Saturday and Sunday!!!