Burke Mountain Academy Nordic Ski Team: The Final Stretch and Canadian World Cups!

Despite Winter's best efforts we have enjoyed a good final stretch of training in February! Since the final Easter Cup races we dialed back into training mode and our goal was to put in a solid block before tuning up for the Final races of the season at Junior Nationals and Spring Series. We did just that and more. Gatineau Park in Canada may just be our new favorite place to train in Canada...! We were also lucky enough to travel to the World Cup racing in Gatineau and Montreal and it was an incredible experience. For now, we are split into two groups, Kate and Chris are in Wisconsin coaching and competing at Junior Nationals while the rest of the crew is in Vermont tuning up for Spring Series. No matter where we are spread across the country we are a team and we are excited to be together for the final series in Craftsbury.

The Canadian World Cups, by Carter and Orli
The BMA nordic squad headed north last Sunday to find some skiing and then stand face to face with the best skiers in the world. After a few hours in the car, we hopped out to stretch our legs in Gatineau Park. After a bit of confusion at the trailhead, we ended up on a beautifully groomed park road, wide enough to ski three wide. We took advantage of the great trails again on Monday, logging 3 hours classic skiing in hardwax conditions (a rarity this winter.) Although we were hardly ready to leave we packed our bags and headed into the city for the first race of the Ski Tour Canada. We parked outside and took the shuttle bus in, where we caught our first glimpse of some of our idols. The U.S. Ski team women were all on the same bus headed to the venue (A bit of a contrast from the gold plated private jets that fly them around in Norway.) Even though we were a few hours early, the venue was already filling up, and we staked our claim on a good spot to spectate during the qualification round. The course was two loops, so all the athletes warming up came by quite a few times, and we got some video of Petter Northug, and pictures of Martin Sundby standing feet away from us. The US showed solid results in the qualifier with four US women making the heats, which gave us hope of some top finishes. For the heats we found a new spot near the finish to spectate, within feet of the final corner and finishing straight. The US women had a strong showing, with Jessie Diggins advancing to the final and taking 3rd, despite missing a pole plant feet from our faces during the final 100 meters. The US strength continued in during the Men’s race with Simi Hamilton advancing to the final and grabbing third in a four way photo finish. We were so excited for the podium ceremonies that the fences could hardly contain us, so we jumped over and got in the front row for the flower ceremony, proudly waving the american flag for Jessie and Simi. Both the Americans were very gracious, and happy to take photos with us, as they likely get way less attention in Europe. Contrastingly, a salty Petter Northug, who had finished last in the final, would hardly make eye contact with fans after the race. Sergey Ustiugov probably would have taken pictures with us, but he doesn’t speak English, and Danya didn’t know enough Russian to woo him. All of us had lost our voices by the end of the day from cheering, and we were less than pleased when the Canadian directions got us lost in the final kilometers before arriving at our house. Luckily, said house was within walking distance of the venue for the mass start classic race on Wednesday. We walked down to the venue in full US Garb, I was wearing an American flag as a cape, which attracted plenty of attention in the corner coffee shop. We found a nice spot inside the fence of the course where we could see the sketchy downhill and some classic striding. Sundby totally ate it and it wasn’t on the footage that was published later but it was hilarious. Jessie Diggins had a solid race, finishing in 8th place. The men’s race ended in exciting fashion, with Emil Iverson breaking away from Petter Northug and Sergey Ustiugov to take the win, with Northug surging too late to catch his Norwegian Teammate. All in all it was a fantastic time, and awesome to see our idols in person doing their thing.