US National Sprint, Houghton, MI, January 5, 2008
All athletes shown are affiliated with Toko
Wax report on bottom
USST's Leif Zimmerman clean and smooth around the hairpin
APU's Laura Valaas
USST's Liz Stephen
Rossignol's Colin Mahood
CXC's Matt Liebsch
CXC's Garrott Kuzzy
USST's Torin Koos focusing before the final and driving toward the finish
Rossignol's Kevin Hochtl flying through the loose snow of the hairpin
CXC's Bryan Fish redoing skis between heats
USBA/CXC's Caitlin Compton on a mission
Rossignol waxer Clarke Sullivan did a masterful job all week
Awesome downhill technique by Rossignol's Karin Camenisch
Wax Report and Commentary
We had anticipated warmer temperatures and more moisture in the snow. The MTU trails in Houghton glaze up really easy normally, but today seemed out of the ordinary. The snow was colder then I had expected and also did not glaze like I figured it would. An interesting thing was though that despite this, the wax that I had anticipated going with went well. The HelX Warm ran well all day - from the first qualifying run in the morning to the A Final. JetStream High Speed was also going well, but the HelX seemed to go a little better on the glaze and also felt a little better on the climb. My thinking was that as the day went on, the HelX was only going to get better relative to the other top layers. It felt about as good out of the tracks skating and in the speed trap (glazed tracks) the HelX outperformed the JetStream High Speed, so this was only logical. Feedback from other teams was that a good portion of them went with HelX. Our skis were good in any case. The Rossignol team for example qualified 3/3 women and 5/6 men which is a pretty good percentage for such a competitive field. Overall in the men's we (Toko wax) had 4 out of the top 12 and in the women's 5 out of the top 12, which is pretty good considering that there are a lot of fast sprinting unaffiliated collegiate skiers.
Despite the snow not glazing up, structure was necessary for good skis today. A universal type structure ran better than a cold one.
During the qualifying, I was on the high speed hairpin turn at the bottom of the course. Normally, I'd be on the final climb, but I thought it would make for some neat pictures (which it did) and I was curious how people were going to ski it. I was surprised. Out of the approximately 400 skiers who competed today, there were not many who took the corner well (15?). The best skiers came into the corner with speed, took a proper line (slightly wide entry, cutting the inside in the meat of the turn, and then an exit with speed which was wide if necessary), and skied the turn in a quiet manner maintaining momentum and with patience. The most common mistake was in being impatient which I guess could also be called trying too hard. Skiers came into the turn with speed and then even before they were 1/3 of the way through it, they stood up and tried to skate through it using their poles, preloading even. This was a pretty high speed corner and everybody should have had enough momentum to tuck through it easily. Standing up only slows you down. Standing up and then preloading in order to increase poling power slows you down and wastes energy. The snow in the best line was soft and deep. In probably 1/2 of the photos that I took, the snow was kicked up or over a skiers boots. In the fastest skiers (see above), you couldn't even tell that the snow was loose because they rode on top of it. The poling with preloading is a major mistake because first obviously you catch air which slows you down and you waste energy, but you also slow down when jumping up and down because the skis sink into the snow which really slows you down. Then you really do need your poles...
One thing that I recommend for young skiers is to ski in a group (4) and on distance skis, race all of the downhills shoulder to shoulder or head to head. Really race them. You're not going to turn an easy day into a hard day, but you'll learn to ski downhills clean, efficiently, and fast. If you screw up, you get immediate feedback. You also learn about drafting, slingshotting, and generating speed with your legs while in a tuck. What I saw today made me realize that we as a country need to really ski the downhills in training and head to head.
You might say, yeah, but races are not won on a downhill. I say that this is free speed - free time taken off (free in that it doesn't cost you energy). Why not take advantage of it? Skiing is also more fun when you can rock the downhills. Most importantly though, skiing has become more head to head racing and in situations like these you need to be able to pass and maneuver comfortably at high speeds. This is important training. Karin Camenisch for example today went out comfortably and then went to the front on the downhill in each heat which gave her a significant advantage as she lead into the final climb each time. I don't think that at the bottom of the downhill she had worked harder than anyone else, she just was better at it. This was also the same with Caitlin Compton. If you enter the downhill in last, you'll need to ski the final uphill 4-5 seconds faster than the others in order to come in first or second (and you'll need to pass them while doing it which often times is difficult and wastes energy). Assuming that this is the case with qualifying and in the heats, you're out of it before it even begins.