US Team in Norway
Five members of the US Team have arrived in Norway and are preparing to race on Saturday, January 30 in Bjorli, The team, led by Shane Anderson, include Cory Snyder, Lorin Paley, Erika Walters and Madi McKinstry. Also traveling with the team is Roy McKinstry, father of Madi. Roy will be the Team Coach on this trip providing logistical support and filming. For all the results, click here. Following are the first reports of the team’s travels:
Saturday, February 6
Difficult conditions prevailed on a fairly short Classic course. Fairly smooth hard snow provided a good fair track to all. The rolling terrain proved tough for smooth telemark skiing. A tight course kept speed down making the jump tough to make. Spirits were high for the one and only run of the day. What the course lacked in length it made up in toughness. The skate had two fairly steep uphills and many turns.
Unfortunately the results were not as strong as our hopes. Penalties were delivered to many athletes. After giving it our best we sprawled onto the snow gasping for air. No matter the results it was still fun.
Eirik Rykus and Amelie Reymond made it look easy!
Shane Anderson 15th
Cory Snyde 28th
Lorin Paley 10th
Erika Walters 14th
Madi McKinstry 19th
We look forward to coming back to the USA. It looks like more bad weather awaits us! See ya soon.
Shane
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Friday, February 5, 2010 The “pukkellen” proved as mighty and humpy as ever today. Fourteen steep, rolling turns, challenged the telemark skiers today in Rjukan, Norway. Big air was definitely there for the taking. On the first run most women cleared the men’s line. The most difficult turn after the jump just before the “Rap” took out many skiers! Out of the 360° “Rap” and into a quick technical skate surrounded by many cheering Norwegians.
First run for the good ole USA proved tough as the fog hung out for the enitre run. Seeing all the fallaways and bumps was difficult. We put on a good show, making some small mistakes. Erika skied the best but collected 4 penalties. Lorin crashed in the rap. Madi cleared her first jump line. Shane nearly lost it after the jump. Cory skied smooth and learned lots! Would we all learn from our mistakes?
Second run was beautiful. The fog lifted. The sun was almost out. We were ready to attack! The course was slightly turnier and bumpier with the cross ruts from the run before. We were pumped and ready. Lorin went first for Team USA. Skied clean and held onto the hotseat for many positions. Erika went for it. Making a few errors tactically on the pitch but skied a clean run. Zero penalties for Erika on run two! Madi was one of the few to improve her time and skied very well. She thinks the steeper icey runs are the best! For the men Shane skied a smart tactical run taking over first position after starting 3rd and held onto the hotseat for quite some time. It was fun having the camera sticking into my face for some time. Cory skied a much better second run as well.
Women Amelie Reymond 1 Lorin Paley 7 Erika Walters 8 Madi Mckinstry 14 Good Job Ladies
Men Eirik Rykus 1 Shane Anderson 11 Cory Snyder 21
Were getting faster with one race left. The classic. I have never raced the classic in Rjukan but look forward to it. Talk to you tomorrow. Photo courtesy of Maura Connolly. Shane skating passed the crowd.
Shane |
Thursday, February 4
We raced GS on the Svarten run in Rjukan Norway today. The clouds did their best to fight off the sun for most of the day. Finally breaking apart after the second run. Despite all the snow here the race track was fairly firm. Some holes and ruts did develop on some turns but not all that bad.
The course setting was quite interesting, especially out of the start gate as several runs and fall lines come together. You most take all the speed you can off of this top pitch into the flats, errr almost uphill section. The rest of the run has many rolls and blind gates hiding behind hills and a large jump. I think it’s quite fun.
Anyways, we all struggled a little bit with the first run. The style judges were watching with a critical eye! The US team collected 19 penalties between them. Lots on the jump. Most everyone collected their fair share of penalties.
Second run was a little better for most folks. 12 Penalites for the US crew this go around. Shane and Erika made their respective jump lines and landings helping improve their overall standing.
Here is our places today.
Shane Anderson 11
Cory Snyder 26
Erika Walters 9
Lorin Paley 12
Madi McKinstry 20 NOT DFL
Tomorrow we race the infamous Sprint Classic on the Pukkellen “Humpback” Run. It looks the like the weather is breaking and it should be a great race! Talk at ya tomorrow.
Shane
PS. The powder skiing is quite good! Super light fluffy great snow.
Monday, February 1 –
It was a fun race today. Although it was farily cold never above 0 degrees F. The whole Celsius thing is screwing me up. -20C seems alot colder then -2.2F to me. It is fairly humid here making the cold even colder. Luckily no wind!
The classic race today was tough. A one run no holds barred race through gates, a flat 360 degree turns, a roller track section, more gates, off a jump, more gates into a real big 360 banked turn and then a huge freezing skate section. Times were anywhere from 2 minutes 4 seconds 2 minutes 50 seconds. Not many pictures today as batteries were freezing and the video camera blanked out as well.
Just to finish the race today took a lot of heart and skill! Lorin Paley skied beautifully finishing in 3rd position. The first podium for USA in as long as I can remember! Way to go. She put it all together and had a great run. Erika Walters had her best result of the trip as well collecting a few penalites. But skiing very fast in the course finishing in 13th place. Madi McKinstry had nice trip down her first World Cup Classic. Madi finished 19th enjoying her self very much as the youngest woman.
For the boys. Shane Anderson finished 14th place in the thick of things. The competition this year is very fierce. Most countries are training very hard all year round. Their skiing is pretty impressive! Cory Snyder stuck to his position in 28th place. He felt pretty good. Even though the skate was too easy for him.
Thats the news for today. Tomorrow we travel to Rjukan. A train ride to Oslo. A bus from Oslo to Rjuan. We will be taking in the sights and enjoying the ride.
Shane
Sunday, January 31 – It was a beautiful day here. Despite the bitter cold. It’s pretty hard to get warmed up when its well below zero. We are managing our best. We had some improvements and all learned a little bit more about cold survival in our speed suits. Here are some US team results
Cory Snyder 28th
Shane Anderson 13th
Eirik Rykus Norway 1.
Madi McKinstry 20th.
Erika 15th
Lorin Paley 10th
Amelie Reymond 1
All the fun will be tomorrow. The coldest Classic race I will ever attempt. I hope to be able to breathe for the skate at the finish. BRRRRRR. We don’t have cold enough wax for our skis. Any ideas? The saucer green and arctic layover are not very fast so far.
All the teams have been training very hard in the past year. Alot of people are skiing very fast and its a bit humbling to be beaten by so much every run! I guess we need to step it up.
Still having fun. We hope to teach everyone the Pteradactyll game by the time we leave.
Shane
Saturday, January 30,
It was a cold and sunny day in Bjorli. The snow was cold and tough to wax for. The course was challenging with a flat jump and big rap with an uphill skate at the exit of the wrap. Shane Anderson led the US men to a 16th place finish with no penalties. Cory Snyder finished 28th with two strong runs. For the ladies Lorin Paley finshed in 6th place with 1 gate and 2 jump penalties on the 2nd run. Erika Walters finished 17th after falling and recovering on the first run. Madi McKinstry finished 18th and received no gate penalties on either run.
The top three women were Amelie Reymond SUI, Susann Scheller GER, and Katinka Knudsen NOR, For the men the field was paced by Philippe Lau FRA, Mattias Wagenius SWE, and Eirik Rykhus NOR.
Sunday will be GS and Monday the Classic.
Roy
It was very cold here today! Below Zero most of the day. No wind though and some sunshine to try and warm the souls.
The race results weren’t quite what we hoped for. I suppose everyone’s skis felt slow in the wicked cold snow. Lorin Paley finished 6th for the woman recovering from a first gate stumble to represent herself quite well. Erika Walters had a bigger crash first run but pulled off a much better second run. Erika finished 17th. Madi McKinstry in her first Worl Cup Telemark race skied well and rounded out the pack in 18th position.
Cory Snyder was 28th place for the men. He is skiing well just needs to get out of his comfort zone and let it rip some. I fininshed 16th place well out of anywhere I was hoping to be. My body is feeling good and recovered from the January spills. I hope to continue imporving throughout the series over here. It should get better.
The results should be on www.telemarkski.org soon? These Euros are getting faster. Pretty amazing skiing happening over here.
Shane
We (Shane, Erika and Lorin) made it to Norway. It took a little bit longer then expected. A weather delay left us stranded in New York City for a day. I think we walked some 200 blocks around town. It was amazing. Pizza, taxis, skyscrapers and so much more! I actually thought NYC was beautiful. Although my favorite part was walking through Central Park.
After a long day of travel on the plane and another long trip by train, we arrived to a snowy and cold Bjorli, Norway. They are expecting a meter of snow and
-20C temperatures. Whatever that means. Going to take it easy today loosen up our bodies after the long travels and get everything ready for racing in the coming days. Its always good to plan on a few extra days to get to your destination before racing.
I hope everything is well in the USA. Take care.
Shane
We all made it to Norway safe and sound, despite some interesting travel such as throwing baggage off trains and spending the night in New York. Madi and Roy got here about an hour ago. Shane, Lorin, Erika, and I got some sweet tracks at the hill today. There was about two feet of cement snow on the hill, a little different from the steamboat snow they are used to, but it was perfect for me! Tomorrow is training on the hill, with all this snow its should be pretty interesting!
Cory
Note: Cory also has a blog page titled “The Adventures of Cory” that includes his experiences and impressions of his travels. To view his blog, click here>>
Updates from Roy McKinstry’s Facebook
Roy McKinstryAnd we made it to Bjorli with no problems. Lots of new snow here. (Thursday Morning)
Roy McKinstryHayden, Newark, Oslo, 4 hour train ride to Bjorli Norway. Could be a long day! (Wednesday)