Last Updated: 31.Mar.2015

Sun Valley, ID is a favorite location for Spring Series, the SuperTour races which mark the end of the competition season for most US Nordic skiers. With sunny skies, spring skiing conditions, and the strongest domestic fields of the 2014-2015 season, this year was no different. The Green Racing Project sent 5 women and 4 men to race SuperTour Finals and US Distance Nationals Championships, held at Galena Lodge in Sun Valley over the week of March 21-26th.

10/15k Classic Individual
The GRP kicked things off on Saturday the 21st of March with a 10/15k classic individual. Cold overnight temperatures combined with warm days to create a treacherously icy track, made especially challenging by klister conditions. On the GRP women’s side, only Caitlin Patterson and Emily Dreissigacker competed, with the rest of the GRP women sidelined by illness and injury. Caitlin had the top GRP result of the day in 9th place, a little over a minute from the podium. Emily had a solid result in 34th place in her first SuperTour race as a full-time GRP skier. On the men’s side, Andrew Dougherty posted the top GRP result in 25th place. Next was Alex Howe in 37th, then Pete Hegman in 49th, and Gordon Vermeer in 56th.

Freestyle Sprint
The following day, the trails were no less icy, which made for an exciting qualification round in the early morning. A number of skiers were tripped up by the ice-rink like conditions, but GRP skier Alex Howe was not among them, taking the number one qualifying time in the SuperTour men’s field by over a second. Also moving on to the heats was Gordon Vermeer in 19th. Unfortunately Pete Hegman and Andrew Dougherty missed out on the heats, taking 42nd and 49th, respectively. The GRP women also had two women advance to the heats- Caitlin Patterson and Emily D. in 9th and 24th place, while Liz Guiney just missed out by finishing 31st. In the heats, Alex Howe was in position to advance in his quarter when he snapped one of his poles and proceeded to free-skate the entire uphill finish and just miss a lucky loser spot. No other GRP skiers made it out of the quarterfinals- Alex ended up 13th on the day, while Gordon took 24th. On the women’s side, Caitlin ended up 18th while Emily took 23rd.

Mixed Gender 4x5k Relay
Two days later for the mixed relay, conditions could not have been more different. Up at Galena Lodge, several inches of soft, powdery snow slowed things down significantly for both the classic and skate skiers. The GRP fielded two teams for the mixed relay, each team made up of two female and two male skiers. The first leg was the female classic skiers, and Liz and Kaitlynn scrambled to tag off to Craftsbury 1 in 4th place and Craftsbury 2 in 8th, both very close to the leaders. In the second classic leg, Andrew, skiing on Craftsbury 2, passed the first team and moved into 9th place. It didn’t last for long though; once Gordon tagged off to Caitlin, she skied the second fastest freestyle time in her leg and moved Craftsbury 1 up into 5th at the tag. Craftsbury 1 anchor Alex Howe overtook one more team in the finishing stretch, and the team ended up just off the podium in 4th place. Craftsbury 2, anchored by Pete Hegman, took 12th place, 10th among club-affiliated teams. With APU taking the top two spots on the mixed relay podium and SMS-T2 in 3rd, it was a solid result for the GRP team, matching their finish spot from the previous year.

30/50k Freestyle Mass Start
Finally, the last day of Spring Series held the most challenging races of the week- the 30k and 50k freestyle mass starts. The men raced in the morning in fast and icy conditions (the men’s winner finished in under 2 hours). The top GRP finish came from Alex Howe, who was 17th after skiing in the main pack for much of the early race. Andrew Dougherty took 36th and Pete Hegman was 46th. A few hours later for the women’s race the course had softened significantly, creating slow conditions for many. Caitlin Patterson held on to the chase pack for as long as she could, and matched her distance classic result from earlier in the week, taking 9th. Two places behind her, Liz Guiney rode a solo effort to 11th place, while the final GRPer Kaitlynn Miller came in 32nd.

With Spring Series over, the GRP skiers have mostly wrapped up their racing season and will take a break before starting up training in the spring. To see full results from SuperTour Finals and US Distance Nationals, check the Sun Valley website. Thanks for reading!