Skinnyski Race Team Weekend Recap

Brian May leading out Wave 2 (Photo: Eric Anderson)

With the recent snow storms, it hardly seems fair, but last weekend was the unofficial end to the upper Midwest cross-country racing season. Race Team member Brian May deserves some kind of special award: he and Abbi May raced Saturday morning in the ABR Closer 24K freestyle race against some of the top skiers in the region (Brian 5th, Abbi 3rd!), then they drove nearly six hours from Ironwood up to Lappe Nordic in Thunder Bay, Canada (with a break in Duluth), where Brian competed in the 24 Hours of Lappe Nordic Relay! Fellow team member, Per Nelson was also taking part in that race, as well as good friends Dave and Grant Nelson which together formed the team appropriately named: Triple Nelson Half A May. The guys gave the Canadian National Team Development Centre a good scare and took second overall.

Race Team Results

ABR Closer 24K Freestyle
   Abbi May                   3rd    1:12:09.9
   Brian May                  5th    1:03:16.7

24 Hours of Lappe Nordic
   Triple Nelson Half A May   2nd      492.9K

Wooden Ski Rendezvous
   Scott Sjoquist             6th     0:25:14

Team Member Race Reports

Race Report from Brian May

Choices, choices! One of the more pleasant challenges for the Midwest ski racer is the weekly ritual of making race plans. This past weekend proved no different with Abbi pulling me toward ABR's Season Closer and buddies Grant, Dave and Per pushing for Lappe's 24 Hour Relay. Wanting to keep everyone happy, I did what any (in)sane individual would do ... both!

Saturday morning dawned bright and early as we headed off for ABR. We figured the competition would be stiff with prizes up for grabs of $1000 for the top man and $500 for the top woman (obviously the women's liberation movement hasn't made it to ABR yet!). The start was in waves by age category, so there would be no playing strategic games in the pack while being left behind by another wave. My race plan was simple - go hard from the gun and push all the way to the end.

The youngsters (29 and under) started first and we watched them head out of the stadium and into the woods. Our wave (30-49) went next. With my race plan in mind, I took over the lead near the top of the first hill and started pushing the pace through popple plunge and the next series of ups and downs. By 5k I looked back and only Bruce Bauer was hanging on ... right on! I stepped aside to let him pull for a while and we continued swapping leading duties for the rest of the race. At about the 8k mark, we got a split indicating we were 45 seconds off the pace of the young guys ... despite racing close to full out, we were getting left behind! Heading out on lap 2, the pace was taking its toll ... I was still pushing hard but struggling to keep it going. With about 1 km to go, Bruce made a move and I had no response as he pulled away toward the finish, opening up about 10 seconds in the final stretch. Overall, I ended up in 5th place (2 minutes back), an excellent race and just in prize money :-). On the women's side, Abbi had raced well too, finishing 3rd overall against a couple of fast university racers from NMU and MTU.

After polishing off our pasties and collecting our prizes, we were on the road home to Duluth. Our stop was brief as we showered, ate some supper, then repacked the car for the trip to Thunder Bay. We arrived at Lappe at about 10:30pm, with the race well under way. The guys were doing awesome. They had been even with the NTDC (Canadian National Team Development Center) team most of the day, but with only 3 skiers, they were understandably starting to tire. At any rate, with the prospect of increasing their rest-breaks by 50%, they seemed awefully happy to see me!

I got organized and jumped into the cycle - we were doing sets of 3 laps each at this point, roughly 12km. After loosening up on my first lap, I got rolling and was feeling pretty good. I reeled in a couple of minutes on one of the NTDC skiers and was pretty pumped ... but my bliss was short-lived as they swapped in one of their heavy hitters and I was promptly left in the dust. We settled into the night-time routine of ski, eat, sleep, ski, eat, sleep ...

By morning we had slipped a few laps behind the NTDC team and we knew they were out of reach. With everyone up and about, we switched to doing 2-lap sets and then for the final push to the finish, single laps. It was a nice change and a chance to step up the pace without blowing up out on the course. With 24 minutes to go, we knew we had a chance to finish up two more laps, but we'd have to push to the end. We hammered around, swapping skiers mid-lap ... 5,4,3 and we crossed the line, just under the 24 hour limit!

It was an exciting finish in many respects. With a few minutes to go, Becky Laakso came through the start/finish to break through the 250 km mark ... a new milestone in the women's solo category. The NTDC team was pushing to the end and just managed to surpass their previous course record (by 500 meters!). Our Minnesotan women's team was in a tough battle with a group of older guys from Thunder Bay. After the finishing gun, the men returned to proclaim themselves the victors by a single meter ... but they'd miscalculated and were actually a lap behind! All in all, a fun race ... great course, lights for night skiing, good food (pot-luck style) and great hospitality. We headed home and it wasn't long before I was drifting off to sleep in the passenger seat ... zzzzzzzz.

Race Report from Per Nelson

The Nelson’s (Josie, Dave, and Grant) have an annual mission to put together a team USA for the 24 hours race at Lappe Nordic center (on the outskirts of Thunder Bay, Ontario). After several past recruitment tries they got me.

Everyone who reads this page should know that Lappe is (maybe the only) a true model of a real, great ski club on this side of the Atlantic. The 24 hour race is the annual ski festival sleep-over. About 15 teams of all ages race against the beautiful flowing Lappe lit course to rack up the kilometers (or should I say kilometres?)

Through a reputation for excellence (top notch clubhouse, course, race facilities) Lappe has drawn the world’s best skiers over the years, and this weekend, some of Canada’s best for the 24 hour race. From the USA this year, it was two Nelson spawned teams: “the lady loonies” and “triple Nelson half a May”.

Action got underway at high noon on Saturday. I lead off the American men into the lead (using the philosophy of a very wise friend who once say that you should always lead the race. If not at the end, then better do it at the beginning.) Josie skied the Looneys into third through the leadoff leg.

Throughout the day on Saturday, Triple Nelson skied the three man rotation HARD (banking on Brian May showing up late after picking up his prize money at ABR 25km) and held the lead until dark when the development team got serious and chewed up our 8-10 minute gap in a single 2 hour pull by one fast skater. When Brian showed up at about midnight, it was becoming obvious that we were getting into a bit of a spot. The development team (coed 7 person) began pulling away at a rapid pace as kindhearted encouragement of the Father of Lappe, Reijo Puiras cushioned our fall from the lead.

Overnight, bad went to worse for team triple-half. Somewhere around 2:00 in the morning I came back to the sleeping area after a pull and a snack. Brian woke up and asked, “Did you catch that guy?” “No,” I said, then after thinking: “what guy?” Brian clarified, “That guy who went past me at mock 10.” “Oh,” I replied unnecessarily “No, I didn’t get him.”

As morning broke, breakfast was served by the local Subaru dealer, and The Looneys found themselves in a race with a group of six Canadian masters from the Lappe club. As the noon approached, the competition between the two teams heightened. With 7:00 minutes to go the Looneys’ 1:20 lead was shrinking.

With 3:00 minutes to go Loonies anchor Kelly Rood skied through the tag zone followed 45 seconds later by a Lappe masters’ tag to fresh legs. At noon, the sound of three gun shots signaled the end of the race just as Lappe overtook Kelly out on the course. The course judges gave Lappe a one metre advantage. Much later we found out that the Loonys had actually won the duel by one lap minus the meter taken at the end.

I have trouble being critical of races, and particularly race organizations, so I feel that perhaps my comments maybe construed as overly positive. That said, the genuine hospitality and premier facilities are worth the drive, particularly for a great event like this. Lappe clearly stands out in venues in the region. Thank you very much, Reijo and Lappe.

The Loonies: Josie Nelson, Kelly Rood, Katherine Himes Lescher, Margie Tilman, and Claire Wilson (the Louisiana tough-girl).

Triple-Half: Per Nelson, Dave Nelson, Grant Nelson, Brian May.

Find out more about the Skinnyski.com Race Team

Skinnyski Skiers

ABR Closer 12K Freestyle
   Tim Fitzgerald            11th       0:40:44.6

ABR Closer 15K Classical
   Tim Fitzgerald            36th       1:02:20.3