Lake Placid, NY

Last weekend Lake Placid was the epicenter of all things Nordic skiing in the Northeast region. NENSA (New England Nordic Ski Association) was thrilled to partner with ORDA (Olympic Regional Development Authority) and NYSEF (New York Sports Education Foundation) to offer two days of the most progressive rollerski programming in the US. Both days saw intense competition and strong showings in both junior and open categories and were a part of the NENSA Bag Balm Rollerski Series. Photos from the weekend.

On Saturday the weekend kicked off with Doubleday, a combination 3k prologue and 1.5k sprint whose results were combined to determine the winners. The events were held on the fast rolling turns and steep climbs of the rollerski track at the ORDA Training Facility. And if the track wasn’t enough – all competitors got exposure to some of the new NENSA agility features including the Bicycle Ramp and Step-down Jump between the two events.

Junior division races were won by Quincy Massey-Bierman of Craftsbury/Mansfield Nordic in the women’s race and Timothy Cobb of EABC/Mansfield Nordic in the men’s race. Canadian competitors made a good showing in the open division races and wins were taken by Nicholas Clifford of Carleton University (Ottawa, ON) in the men’s race and Zoe Williams of Nakkertok (Cantley, QC) in the women’s race. Doubleday was the brainchild of NENSA Competitive Program Director Justin Beckwith. “We designed the event to mimic one of our final Eastern Cups of the year in Dublin, NH” Beckwith says, “With the goal of bringing more fast skiing (sprint and junior relay distances) into both Series. The most exciting part for me today was to see the true ‘citizen race’ nature of the field – not only did we have excellent skiers – but we had skiers young and old – and everyone was clearly having fun!”

Sunday morning brought the NYSEF Climb to the Castle, an epic 2300’ ascent up the Whiteface Mountain Veterans Memorial Highway. A cool, mostly clear morning greeted over 100 competitors who came out to test their mettle against the mountain. Many athletes participated who had also raced at Doubleday – a factor that helped create the largest field in the event’s twelve year history.

The women’s win went to Tara Gereghty-Moats of NYSEF/USA Nordic Combined in 45:03, followed by Jackie Garso of St. Lawrence University in second at 49:24, and women’s Doubleday winner Zoe Williams in third at 49:40. Jake Brown of Craftsbury Green Racing Project took home the men’s win with a non-race wheel course record time of 35:40 (Swenor #2 wheels), followed by his teammate Raleigh Gosling in second at 38:16 and Erikson Moore of Fonders-Laurentides (QC) in third at 39:00.

The NENSA Bag Balm Rollerski series will continue with the NENSA Rossignol Fall Classic in Jericho, VT on October 13 followed by the NENSA Elite Invitational at Trapp Family Lodge on November 3. NENSA will also be announcing details of the Maine Rollerski Cross Festival at Pineland, ME on October 27th this week. Full results of Climb to the Castle and Doubleday can be found below, along with series rankings.

Doubleday Results

Climb to the Castle Results

NENSA Bag Balm Rollerski Series Rankings