Results: Results – New England Nordic Ski Association
Results – New England Nordic Ski Association
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New England’s hearty Nordic Skiers traveled to Woodstock, Vermont for the Annual Bogburn Classic. For many, this was the first time any had skied at the Woodstock Nordic Center. I believe this was also the first time the Bogburn has been relocated to an alternate course. Heroic measures were taken in order to give us all another weekend of racing and the limited crew of organizers pulled together a great event at the alternate venue. Much thanks and appreciation must be given to those that made this race possible as they could be seen throughout the day wearing many different hats to make the race a success. Especially the Haydock’s, and Nick Mahood who managed to keep much of the legendary Bogburn character in a very different venue.
The hot topic of the day was the snow. Back by popular demand were last year’s Bogburn conditions. Some improvements were made with a little less running water on the course; only one thin spot opened up, and for the most part, tracks were over a firm base. As you may remember last year there was running water on the course, a washout or two, a few spots opened up, and for anyone in the Clydesdale Category, the tracks were bottomless. Other than that, it was melting snow cone snow. On the subject of organic matter, NWVE was piloting a new klister to us, Swix Nero, which has properties to stay clean and not spread down the tails of the ski. This was mixed with some Rex OV which also has some organic matter repellent. This was kicking fine, but zeros and R-Skins were working just as good, and many opted for a double pole on skate skis. I believe that those that double pole on the Bogburn Woodstock course must also double pole on the Bogburn North Pomfret course. I have seen it done well and let us not forget the Bogburn No Poles feat achieved by Brendan Barden who broke a pole and dislocated his shoulder early in the race not long ago.
All Master’s Racers did two laps of the course that hugged Kendren Brook for a long “9km.” The loop started on the golf course and took Brookside West, crossing to Brookside East which has some wooded rolling hills. Skiers then made their way to Easy Grade, looped around the Knox Meadows and returned to the Lap/Finish area in the stadium via Flatlander. This course was a significant change from the traditional Bogburn course as it had only one semi-technical turn and not much for hills. A vast majority of the race was double poling. With my running legs, I would much prefer a counter-clockwise hilly loop to a flat clockwise loop. But today's conditions were challenging enough, and a headwind on Flatlander for the entire return trip added difficulty. While not as strong as those we saw in Jackson, the nearly two-kilometer-long section into the wind was exhausting.
People seemed happy with their wax selection and decided to go for it! It was the first time in many years that I did not get to see the BKL races, though I am sure they were as inspiring as ever and full of future stars! The U16's and Women started at 12:30 with 30-second intervals. First, the boys went out with many choosing to double pole, then the girls. The U16's were stacked with many athletes peaked for their championship season. Mansfield Teammates Ava Thurston and Magda Lelito went 1-2 with Ave taking a decisive win. The hometown favorite Victoria Bassette (Woodstock) took third, holding off a strong contingent from Ford Sayre with Catherine Bregou, Lucy Glueck, and Eloise Van Silver. On the boy's side, it was the mountain clubs that dominated the top 5 with SMS' Mathias Boudreau Asa Chalmers, and Fin Bailey taking first, second, and fifth and Frost's Neil Guy, and Elvis McIntosh splitting them with third and fourth respectively.
Let’s hear it for the Masters Women! Amy Caldwell (Putney), and Kathy Maddock (Dublin) went 1-2 in the stacked field. JoAnn Hanowski rounded out the top five! JoAnn looked great holding technique while some of the U16 boys were letting their skis slide a little on the herring-bone sections of the course. Gina Campoli (Craftsbury) was also climbing well among those that had opted to double pole the whole thing. Sara Falconer (Mansfield) seemed to be having a good time as she took the technical turn in stride, exclaiming it was the best place on the course to watch as I happened to be at that point in my warm-up. Dorca DenHartog was back in action just missing the top ten by a few seconds. Though I am sure, she was pleased to give her Ford Sayre Junior skiers some inspiration. Sarah Pribram had a good race in the yellow jersey. She started a little ahead of Ava Thurston coming through for her lap and held her off until the final meters of Ava's race. She immediately came back to the men reporting the Rex OV was a good call. Trina Hosmer (Stowe) also had a good race. She must have been pleased while overtaking Carrie Nourjian (Stowe) who took the leaders advantage at the Mt. Washington Cup. Trina had another skier in her sights, Kasie Enman who edged her at the Geschmossel, while not able to overtake Kasie on course, she did gain and got her by one place in the results. Starting a little further back in the order, Ann Burnham (CSU) had plenty of people to catch as she made her way around the course. Jessica Bolduc also found motivation in chasing from the last of the pre-reg start order. She overtook Carol Van Dyke (Stowe) and set her sights on Rosemary Shea-Cobb (Mansfield). Ellen Chandler made the best of the day taking the M6 division. Maja Smith took off before the finishing touches were added to her skis, but felt that due to the deteriorating conditions and the fact that most of the course was double poling she was not missing much anyway. It was an exciting race to watch with a lot of action throughout with the Master’s mixing it up with the Juniors and Seniors.
On the Men's side, it was a little different with only one Master cracking the top 10. Peter Kling (GMVS) took third overall. Just outside of the top ten NWVE put nearly five in a row across the line. Chris Burnham skied his way into thirteenth still recovering from back to back marathon weekends at Bretton Woods and Gatineau. Andy Klem took 15th skiing in short-sleeves. Luke Shullenberger tied with Andy double opting for the double pole. Luke attributes is success to putting in hours on the Ski-Erg. Eli Enman was happy with his exertion, but not his result, coming in 17th. Tom Thurston was skiing like an animal as he made his way through the field. Picking off Robert Bradlee and myself as he double poled to 18th. Adam Terko (Mansfield) was right in the mix of starting with many of these athletes. He easily passed me early in the race and went on to track down Eli giving him a boost as he went by, but was unable to catch Andy before the finish line. Chris Burnham took pace off Adam for as long as he could, but Adam was on and pulled out of sight today. Tyler Magnan was a little early in the start order and had to contend with a lot of Dartmouth skiers. He used his R-Skins again and is getting very comfortable with their potential. Neal Graves (Stowe) took the double pole option and was a good metric for Tyler to measure off from. Racing up a storm from the later ranks was Chris Nice (Ford Sayre). Chris's experience and adaptable skiing technique aided him in getting a top 25. It is amazing to watch him effortlessly transition throughout a race and work with whatever he has to keep his momentum. Robert Bradlee (CSU) powered through the race. After he was overtaken by Tom he stuck to him for a long time matching him on the hilly section and not losing ground until the second half of the long flat double pole to the finish line. Stephen Wright was not totally happy with his skis prior to the race but had an outstanding result winning his age group over Mansfield’s Rick Costanza who also had a great race. The elevation profile favored Kyle Darling as powered through the race. Undeterred by some who missed turns he reeled them back in and retook his position. Ed Hamilton was happy to get a ski in today. He looked strong holding off a hard charge from CSU's Steven Moreau. This year's Bogburn was not my type of terrain being relatively flat, and as stated earlier, clockwise. I ended with the result that is becoming familiar this season, one place behind Mansfield’s Dakota Amblo. Jim Fredericks was a rightfully a little disappointed to find himself behind some people he passed on the results page. A combination of factors contributed to this, but hopefully, it does not discourage him or inspire him to eliminate more variables in the race such as a loop here or there. Tim Cowan had the inspiration of Leigh Mallory wearing the leader’s jersey to motivate him to keep the pace up. Tim had plenty of power to use, and since there was no breaking through the ice base on most of this course, he had a much better result than last year. Leigh looked good wearing the yellow jersey skiing with great technique. It was nice to have two NWVE racers wearing the distinctive leader bib at the Bogburn. Too bad they did not have to wear the matching golden Bogburn tights! Christopher Namie (Bow) was excited that his daughter Lillian came back from testing favoring his favorite klister and went about apply a mix of Start Wide and Swix Aqua. Appropriate choices for the melting course. Jonathan Chafee (Ford Sayre) returned to racing on the less technical course close to home. He was excited to be back among friends and the racing scene and was grateful for an NWVE brownie after the race. John Brodhead (Craftsbury) was also out in force finishing in under an hour and winning his age group over David Hosmer (Stowe). David seemed to be making the best of the situation and even had to track a couple of skiers on his first lap before heading out for the second.
The Bogburn 2018 will be another to remember. All racers were happy to have the event and the opportunity to race even though conditions were deteriorating. The race staff did an excellent job and were working hard all day to make sure things went smoothly. There are always a few snags at a race, but race director Bob Haydock reminds us of the Bogburn Motto: "anyone who takes this race too seriously will be disqualified." This motto is ironic because the best part of the Bogburn IS taking it WAY TOO seriously! After the race, a nice contingent of NWVE Mansfield and CSU skiers all enjoyed a friendly recovery meal together at The Worthy Burger before the journey home.
Damian