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Miscellania...
Came home to Vermont the other day for a ten day break from the racing scene, and to share some Holiday cheer with the family. I endured a pretty long flight back from Europe. I won't bore you with all the details, but the worst part was when the lady sitting next to me, who was so sick she had to be taken off the plane in a stretcher, decided to lay down across the seats and put her bare feet in my lap. That wasn't so bad, except she had some uncontrollable shakes and convulsions and her feet kept kicking up into my face. Fortunately the stewardess found me another seat. Unfortunately, my new seat didn't come until ten-and-a-half hours into the twelve hour ordeal...
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\r\nOn a brighter note, I came home to a decent amount of snow and some nice, cold weather. Last night I went for my first ski at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center. The Center has some great "old-school" terrain and trails. It's pretty fun to ski the little ups and downs and twisty, wooded trails after so many weeks of the 2.5K and other short loops of the World Cup.
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\r\nIt's been cold. Last night it finally warmed to the plus side of zero, and that felt pretty nice after a couple days of minus ten. I started my ski a little late in the day, with only about thirty minutes of light left. I met up with Ian Case out there and we skied a couple hours in the dark It was great. Turned out to be a cloudless night with a bright moon. I had a headlamp but barely needed it. Indeed, some places it was so bright out I couldn't tell I had a light on. The other bonus was that I could ski with a very defined shadow the whole time...all that self diggage really appeals to my vanity...
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\r\nHopefully, skiing stays good...Tomorrow it's supposed to warm with some rain. I really don't like rollerskiing on X-mas...
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The Iceman cometh...I think I froze the caterpillar that's been living on my upper lip...
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\r\nThe Dussault's Report from the Last Weekend of Soldier Hollow Supertour Races
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\r\nRebecca and Kikkan (Randall) teamed up for the 6 x 1km skate team sprint and
\r\nbattled it out against the other top women of our country and others.
\r\nIn the mix of the mass start Rebecca quickly took the lead with the
\r\nothers close behind. Karin Camenisch seemed to be next strongest and
\r\nheld her own behind Rebecca as they came in for the first tag. Kikkan
\r\nbolted out with a slight lead and now it was Brook Baughman's time to
\r\nchase down the leader. On the long downhill Brook took the lead over
\r\nKikkan and when Kikkan came in for the tag it was a tied race. Rebecca
\r\nand Karin skied another all out lap of fast sprint racing and at each
\r\ntag Rebecca and Kikkan were just barely leading. For the final sixth
\r\nlap Kikkan was the anchor leg and lead out of the stadium at a grueling
\r\npace that no one could match. They ended up besting team Rossignol by
\r\n8 seconds. It was a great way to finish the week.
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\r\nSaturday's race was a 10k skate on the Olympic 5k course. The course
\r\nwas packed with relentless climbs and steep fast downhills. It was an
\r\ninterval start with Rebecca starting 34th among the 43 women who raced.
\r\nShe started out at an easy pace and slowly pick it up as the race
\r\nprogressed. She skied a solid race and came across the line in 1st but
\r\nit wasn't long before Sarah Conrad, a 37 year old skate specialist from
\r\nthe U.S., finished :49 seconds ahead of her. Rebecca was surprised.
\r\nShe knew she wasn't feeling her fastest, but she thought she was
\r\ncontrolling the race until she saw the final times. She still skied
\r\nfast over the rest of the field with 3rd place another 1:05 behind her.
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Rebecca at Soldier Hollow. Skiing there looks awesome.
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Tabor Dussault. The smart bet's on him to win the J9 nationals this year.
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Written By: andrewjDate Posted: 12/22/2004Number of Views: 209
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