Patterson Races La Clusaz Mass Start, GRP Ski at Craftsbury Eastern Cup
Last Updated: 19.Dec.2016
Kaitlynn Miller in the 10k pursuit at the Eastern Cup (Photo Katrina Howe)
In the final races before the holiday season, Green Racing Project skiers had a handful of top finishes, along with their share of crashes and broken equipment! Caitlin Patterson finished off period one of the cross country World Cup in La Clusaz, France, while five of the GRP skiers raced at home in a two-day pursuit at the Craftsbury Eastern Cup.
Caitlin Patterson skiing strong in Davos, Switzerland last weekend (Photo Marcel Hilger)
La Clusaz World Cup
The cross country World Cup wrapped up for the holidays in La Clusaz, on a fully man-made loop of white snow snaking through brown open fields. Caitlin Patterson had a great start to the 10k skate mass start on Saturday, and was skiing in the top twenty at one point. She was in position to finish well within World Cup points when she fell on the final downhill corner and ended up in 37th. She finishes period one of the World Cup ranked 54th on the World Cup distance list.
Patterson will now travel back to the States and join the remainder of the GRP skiers at US Nationals in Soldier Hollow, Utah starting on January 7th. Results from the France World Cups can be found on FIS-ski.com.
Craftsbury Eastern Cup
Meanwhile, closer to home five of GRP skiers raced in the Eastern Cup opener in Craftsbury. Despite tough weather conditions, the groomers and staff pulled off a great race on the 2.5k man-made loop. In Saturday’s 5k classic, Ida Sargent and Kaitlynn Miller led a podium sweep by the GRP, both tying for first place. Liz Guiney placed 3rd, and Mary O’Connell took 8th. In the men’s 10k classic, Ben Lustgarten took the victory over SMS-T2’s Paddy Caldwell by 7 seconds.
Sunday brought more interesting weather, in the form of rain for the 10k pursuit, which started in the same order as the results from previous day. In the women’s race, Liz Guiney took 1st, followed by Ida Sargent in 2nd, after she snapped a pole during the third lap. Kaitlynn Miller skied to 4th place with the 4th best time on day, and Mary O’Connell maintained her starting place of 7th. In the men’s race, Ben Lustgarten slipped back one place to finish 2nd but still had the 2nd fastest time on day.
Check out full results from the Eastern Cup on BullittTiming.
Most of the GRP skiers will reconvene next for US Nationals, while Ida Sargent will rejoin the World Cup circuit in January.