The night sprint is the third race of the five-stage Tour de Twin Cities. The 1.4 K freestyle was held on the fast Theodore Wirth course. The last two stages will be this week end on artificial snow at Green Acres. (unlike the Methow Valley in Washington that had 14 inches of real snow last night)
results
Congratulations to Sam finishing in the mix at 4th. and check out the finish times…the top four were seperated by only hundreths of a second. Thanks to David Owen for the picturees.
The snow looks whiter at night
The snow was 'red hot' at the start
Sunny skies, crisp temperatures and light winds combined for some good classical conditions Saturday morning for the Mayor’s Challenge events. Sunday brought warmer but damp and cloudy conditions for the Mayor’s Challenge freestyle races at Theodore Wirth. Thanks to Bruce http://www.skinnyski.com/racing/ and David Owen www.davidjowen.com for the pictures.
results
Caitlin finishes first in this race!
Brian leads pack....
...but ends up 4th in a tight finish
There is green grass in our front yard in Minneapolis and although it was great to be home for 4 days we set off this weekend to find natural snow in Hayward, Wisconsin and race the Seeley Classic. Six years ago I moved to Hayward and
Cresthill Resort and started my professional ski career. It means a lot for me to race in the Hayward/Cable Community and it was fun to get back for one of the big Midwest marathons.
The storybook weekend started friday evening with a fantastic family ski on the Seeley Trails. Groomed by volunteers and the funds raised through the Seeley Classic ski race the dog friendly trails are a real treat. It was the first time the Caitlin and I had skied on natural snow in 2 weeks. Lahti did what he does best and ran ridiculously fast as we attempted to race him on the downhills. We finished our ski refreshed from the drive and ready for the big race.
The Seeley Classic is a 42km classic marathon race on the Birkie trail with about 500 participants. Unofficially called the classic citizen championships of the Midwest the race rose to a new level this year with the addition of a $1,000 purse for the top male and female. The award was in memory of the late Garry Pennman one of the founders of the town of Seeley and the Seeley classic ski race. Cailtin and I were very happy to both earn the win and the cash purse.
Results.
Enjoying the natural snow in Hayward, Wisconsin
The CXC Team is spread around a bit this weekend and congratulations to the entire crew for a great weekend of racing. Jessie Diggins finished 2nd in today’s World Cup Team Sprint, Santiago Ocariz won the Sissu Ski Fest Classical race, and my good friend Matt Liebsch won the Sissu Ski Fest Skate race. Great work.
Really good to be back in our Minnesota house after being on the road for almost 60 days. We forgot how good our new windows looked.
Off to the 42 k Seeley Hills Classic this week end. It is a major fundraiser for the Seeley Hills Ski Club and the revenue generated has allowed the club to promote skiing in many ways. The club annually supports ski clinics in conjunction with the American Birkebeiner and the USSA. The club was responsible for lighting the Birkie Trail at the OO area. The club has also developed a new 15K Sawyer County Ski Trail in Seeley which it maintains and grooms, and has purchased grooming and moving equipment for use on those trails.
And best of all, this year! Penman Prize: $1000 to first male and female in the 42k race. Wisconsin supports skiing.
RESULTS Brian felt it went well. He said his skis were good…like waxing in the Methow. The new snow in the morning made things softer. Brian had a close sprint finish. Most of the race he was in a pack! These are some photos from Toko.
Santi, Bryan Gregg, and Karl
Caitlin enjoying the softer snow
Bryan Gregg leading Santi
Jennie and Caitlin
The Methow Valley placed four skiers in the top 15 today.
Brian was the second skier on the coarse
Caitlin looking for space
Photos from Toko
Jessie Diggins coming into the finish straight with Jennie Bender and Caitlin Gregg tucked in behind her
Rain,
Rest,
Racing is the happening in
Rumford Maine were the US Nationals is happening. The artificial snow on the short 3 k loup was so wet on Monday that the races were postponed a day to let things dry out. A
Rest day before the
Race! Things did get underway today with the freestyle sprints. CXC girls dominated with a 1, 2 (Caitlin) and 3 finish. Click
here for SmugMug pictures of the girls exciting finish. Brian was 26 in the qualifing time trial.
In the quater finals Brian is on the far left next to Sam Naney in this SmugMug photo.
Here are the results of the freestyle sprints. The unique photo at the top and the ones below are from Ian Harvey - Toko.
Jennie and Caitlin (Spectators in the background need not wear snow boots)
Jessie Diggins, Jennie Bender, and Caitlin Gregg leading out the women's A final
CXC girls having fun on the podium
It is wonderful to be home for the holidays. The skiing is great, the weather is beautiful and my friends are around to go skiing. Unfortunately I spent the first half of the week sitting in bed allowing my body to rest and beat the cold I picked up traveling home from the races in Canada. It is tough to sit indoors and watch your friends play and have fun, but resting is the best way to be able to get back out there soon.
Eating plenty of fruit and drinking a lot of fluids.
Thankfully there is no other place that I would rather be sick than at home with my family. Caitlin takes care of me pretty well, but it hard to beat having your wife, Mom, Dad, Brother and Sister around. I think the cold was a way for my body to say that I need to rest up a bit more before continuing to trade hard.
Now I am feeling great and ready to go. I adjusted my training to accommodate for the few sick days and have entered a volume block of training. Caitlin is helping me out with a peaking plan from her year with US Biathalon and with a few tweaks my Coach Jason and I have a good plan leading up to US Nationals the first week of January.
There is not much snow throughout the world right now, but the skiing in the Methow is fantastic.
Since I have been healthy I have been training 4+ hours each day. It feels great to get outside after taking 4 days off from training. Four days doesn’t seem like much, but looking out at the beautiful weather it seemed like forever to me.
60 days on the road may seem like a long time but the time is flying by. This is my favorite time of year when all the hardwork of summer finally has a chance to show itself in the races.
This year’s new Salomon skis arrived stone ground and ready to go thanks to Nordic Ultratune. My coach Jason and the guys at Salomon picked some really good skis for me this year. In my first skate race on the new Salomon Soft Ground ski I had one of my best sprint qualifiers ever finishing just 3 seconds out of the lead.
Life on the road is even sweeter this year because I have my wife along. We were engaged just 1 year ago after the first races of the season. Do you celebrate your engagement anniversary? As my friend Ardis says, “Celebrate early and often”
The man to beat this year is my ITA teamate
Sylvan Ellefson (On top of the podium in the 10k Skate and today’s 15k Classic). I still have some time to make up but I was very happy to climb on to the podium for the first time this year in the 10k Skate, 15 seconds off of the win.
Tomorrow we leave Montana for the long drive up to Canada and Silver Star Mountain Resort.
Tomorrow we hit the road out West to ski on snow and start the race season. Yesterday Caitlin and I went out to support St Paul Central High School and their nordic team fundraiser the Arctic Comando 5k. Last year the race was held in several inches of snow, this year the high for the day reached 63F.
2 mile and 5k racers on the line
The race course follows the new FIS (International Ski Federation) Homologation standards and is a hard course. People have called the midwest flat, but would disagree after a go at this 5km loop. I am feeling great, yet my winning time on the course was just under 19 minutes.
Fit and ready to go. The first race of the season is on snow and 10 days away.
Uncategorized | JGregg | 
January 25, 2012 11:38 pm | 
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