Team News (Blog) From Europe – Updated with Team Emails

Hi folks

What a day.  We woke up to about 4 inches of new beautiful snow.  Cold gray skies.  Until race time when the sun shined through and turned into a beautiful morning of sushine and sprint classic racing.  The hill was very hard snow and a simple course set. 

We all had a pretty good day.  Ken and Ben battled it out with Ben prevailing finishing in the 40’s  Jeffrey skied strong and rounded out near 50th position.  Peter skied smooth making a few small mistakes and ending up somewhere around 30.  Drew also skied well finishing 25th.  I finally had a good two runs arriving at the finish for a 10th place.  I will take it. 

The girls also skied well.  Lorin 6th overall.  Kelsey 8th.  Erika stuggled but finished near 25th. 

The big news is Drew Hauser is the Overall Junior World Telemark Champioin.  Lorin Paley won the Sprint for the Juniors and ended up 2nd in the Overall.   It was pretty exciting to hear our national anthem.  The first time I have heard it at  a telemark world cup. 

Anyways we are getting ready to come home. Talk with you all soon. 

 Ciao

 Shane

Well the classic race went off pretty good.  Except for the Austrian stern gate keeping.  Plenty of penalties.  I got 3 gate and 3 jump.  I had a good run.  My gate skiing was good I jumped short of the long line felt clean through all of my turns.  The skate was good I just broke down a little bit for last difficult climb.  I think 14th place.  I feel okay with my placing.

Lorin Paley won the Junior World Championship!!!!!  Drew Hauser got third in the junior men.  Jeffrey Gay 10th place in the Junior World Championship.  Erika made it down safe and sound but found out just how difficult the judges could be 10 penalties in the gates.  We are all learning alot especially about penalties and jumping.  Ken Recker was 50th position.  Ben skied well but also recieved plenty of penalties somewhere in the 40’s.  Sorry I lost my result sheet.

One more day of racing on Saturday.  Sprint Classic.  They have been showing the races on the internet at massive-mag.tv.  I am not sure what time they will show it but it has been in the late evening for our american viewers.

Having Fun
Shane

1/22/09
Kreischberg, Austria

 The queen event of the Telemark World Championships took place today with the classic race. The overcast and rainy conditions moved out before the start of today’s race and made for pleasant conditions on the piste. The USA juniors once again proved to the world that the future looks good for the team. Lorin Paley of Steamboat Springs, CO took the gold today with a great performance with victory over Maren Haugstuen of Norway in the ladies juniors.

Drew Hauser of Silverthorne, CO brought home his second medal of the championship, this time a bronze. It was touch and go for Hauser as he lost 8 seconds on the skate to the finish, having a hard time getting over a little rise in the men’s course that was excluded from the women’s event. Hauser is still in the drivers seat for the overall championship to be settled with Saturday’s Sprint Classic, however the margin for error is slim as the winner is determined by total time from the 3 events.

Kelsey Schmid-Sommer of Whitefish, MT took 8th and Shane Anderson skiing out of Steamboat Springs, CO finished in 14th place in the overall classification.

 Results:
Women:
1st Sigrid Rykhus, NOR 1:58,94
2nd Amelie Reymond, SUI 2:02,13
3rd Sandrine Meyer, SUI 2:03,12
5 Lorin Paley, USA 2:13,74
8 Kelsey Schmid-Sommer, USA 2:15,13

Junior Women:
1st Lorin Paley, USA 2:13,74
2nd Maren Haugsten, Norway 2:17,14
3rd Lisa Englund, Sweden 2:17,75
7th Erika Walters USA 2:37,05

Men:
1st Mattias Wagenius, SWE 1:58,77
2nd Bastian Dayer, SUI 1:59,71
3rd Erik Rykhus, NOR 2:00,39
14 Shane Anderson, USA 2:11,24
41 Peter McMahon, USA 2:23,76
50 Ken Recker, USA  2:28,53

Junior Men:
1st Mikko Hupponen, FIN 2:11,18
2nd Thomas Bergfos, DAN 2:13,10
3rd Drew Hauser, USA 2:15,69
7th Ben Paley, USA 2:22,85
14th Jeffrey Gay, USA 2:28,24
1/21/09 FIS NEWSFLASH
First Telemark world champions crowned in Kreischberg-Murau (AUT)

The Telemark FIS World Championships 2009 got underway in Kreischberg-Murau (AUT) today Wednesday 21st January with the Telemark giant slalom races. In good snow yet somewhat changing light conditions the Norwegian Eirik Rykhus was able to defend his 2007 over last season’s dominator Borge Sovik. Frenchman Chris Lau claimed the bronze medal.

In the ladies’ competition the Swiss celebrated a double victory as Amelie Reymond collected the title ahead of teammate Sandrine Meyer while Sigrid Rykhus won the bronze. The championship competitions will continue with the Telemark classic events on Thursday and the classic sprint competitions on Saturday 24th January.

Click here to see all races live.

1/21/09

Hi yall from Telemark World Championships.

 Well the weather was better then what they were calling for but still not great.  Partly rainy and rolling fog clouds made the conditions difficult.  But it’s only GS and what the heck.  First run was a little disappointing for all with many penalties handed out by gate judges for style.  I got 6 penalties?  Only one french man had 0 penalties.  Second run was no easier but we managed to make it all down in one piece. 

 Anyways the good news is Drew Hauser is the Junior World Champion in GS Telemark!!!  He skied very well and arrived on top of the podium.  Jeffrey Gay also climbed upon the podium today with a third place in the Juniors!  He skied really well.  Making better cleaner turns every run.  I think Jeffrey had less penalties then I did!

 Official results come out later.  So we will let you know how the rest of us mortals did in the race.
Time to go eat and tune skis.
See ya bye.
Shane

1/21/09

Kreischberg, Austria

United States Telemark Ski Team members took first and third place in the men’s Junior World Championship Giant Slalom today in Kreischberg, Austria.

Drew Hauser of Silverthorne, CO took the gold and Jeffrey Gay of Steamboat Springs nabbed the bronze. Conditions were difficult as clouds rolled in out all day bringing rain and tough lighting to see the jump. Lorin Paley of Steamboat Springs took 4th in the women’s classifications.

Full results coming soon.

Tory

1/19/09
Well Slovenia was a good time.  It snowed hard. Record snowfall there this winter.  Big powder is pretty much unheard of there it is more known for the blue ice.  Maybe its green cause everything is green in Slovenia.  We had some success there but mainly good preparation for Austria and World Championships.  Its going to be an exciting time.  Only made one wrong turn on our drive today.  Pretty good for some boys from the USA who don’t read much German.  Our hotel is amazing again same as last year.  Anyways ‘ the news for today.  Safe and Sound.  Time for some food.
Shane

1/19/09

Aloha
The races in Kobla didnæt go as hot as the team would have liked. I was slow in the sprint, and ended up with six jump penalties on the race. In yesterdays GS I skied clean and was in 7th after first run, but got three penalties second run and moved back ten spots to 17th. The competition is stacked this year. Oh, and although the mountains were nice to see, it wouldnæt be Slovenia if it didnt rain, and rain it did for the GS but not as hard as last year.
We are leaving Bohinj right now and using the day to be tourists on our way Kreischberg.

Drew