Craftsbury, VT (October 25, 2020) – If there is anything 2020 has taught us – it’s that we need to focus on overall development and every competition we pull off will truly be a blessing.  Three short days ago skiers from across the region competed in the second rollerski race of the summer – the Lost Nation Roll – on the Craftsbury Outdoor Center‘s new rollerski track. The anticipation of winter racing was palpable and this event was a great way to prepare, especially in light of many pandemic-related changes to our race season.

“It feels great to put a bib on, it really gets me excited for the season to come.”
– Julia Kern, SMS T2/US Ski Team

“It’s fun to be here with the team, we get to put on a bib, it is timed, and there are splits. It just feels very real, this is the best way to get ready for the season”
– Jessie Diggins, SMS T2, US Ski Team

Teams competing at the event included the Craftsbury Nordic Ski Club, Craftsbury Green Racing Project, Stratton Mountain School T2 Team, Dartmouth College, Ford Sayre, Mansfield Nordic, and the Fort Kent Outdoor Center. While we would have loved to have more teams and individuals represented at this event and missed your presence, we are grateful that this crew was able to come out for a closely controlled, responsible day of racing.

The newly paved course with a fresh surface made zipping through the Craftsbury hills as fun as it gets. Both the men’s and women’s fields were quite competitive with multiple Olympian and World Cup athletes competing from both biathlon and cross country.

Women’s top-3:
1. Jessie Diggins, SMS T2/US Ski Team
2. Julia Kern, SMS T2, US Ski Team
3. Evelina Sutro, UVM/Craftsbury GRP

Men’s top-3:
1. Adam Martin, Craftsbury GRP
2. Ian Torchia, SMS T2
3. Akeo Maifeld-Carruci, Craftsbury GRP

Junior Women’s top-3:
1. Quincy Massey-Bierman, Craftsbury
2. Nina Seemann, Craftsbury
3. Maggie McGee, Craftsbury

Junior Men’s top-3:
1. Finn Sweet, Craftsbury GRP
2. Brian Bushey, GMVS
3. Bjorn Westervelt, Craftsbury

Full results from Bullitt Timing can be found HERE.

And a wonderful photo gallery from the day by John Lazenby.

NENSA is honored to be hosting a season long club-based challenge, the Hall Mark of Excellence.  Current Standings.

Thank you to the Craftsbury Outdoor Center for hosting and to all the staff, athletes, volunteers, and coaches who made this event possible by following all necessary safety measures.  NENSA is committed to creating safe competitive opportunities for our population – look forward to a Racing Primer on November 1 that will address developments in the Eastern Cup racing schedule.

“Bib & Chips”
Available now on SkiReg.com
Closes December 1st.

NENSA and our venues are working tirelessly to produce a schedule of high level races that will keep competitors, officials and volunteers safe during the COVID pandemic.  As per our Eastern Cup COVID-19 Contingencies we identified a system that will allow for touchless registration and timing systems.  Competitors will purchase a race bib and rent and assigned timing chip.  Each competitor’s bib and chip will follow them throughout the season as a NENSA, U.S. Ski and Snowboard and/or FIS number does.  This effectively eliminates the need for typical registration / bib pick-up – eliminating a touch and gathering points at events.  This purchase will also help subsidize the cost of vetting participants: athletes, coaches, officials, volunteers – including health screenings and adherence to state and county travel guidelines.

These bibs and chips will be used exclusively for the FIS competitions hosted at Craftsbury and all Eastern Cups.  In order to compete in these events, you need to purchase your bib (you will keep it at end of the season) and rent your Zone4 chip (returned at your final start of the year).  Eastern Cup fields (Eastern Regional Qualifiers) will have unlimited field size. FIS races at Craftsbury will be limited to racers with current FIS licenses and the field size is currently capped at 120 participants.  If you intend to race in any of these races you need to purchase your NENSA bib and rent a chip.

Bib purchase and Chip rental ends on December 1st.  At this point competitors will be assigned bibs based on List 10 of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard National Ranking List.  Bibs will be distributed by Club / individually by mail or picked up at the Craftsbury Season Opener.

Craftsbury Season Opener #1 – December 5th

Craftsbury Season Opener #2 – December 12th

Eastern Cup Opener – Craftsbury – December 19th *(competitors race on 19th or 20th)

Eastern Cup Opener – Quarry Road – December 20th *(competitors race on 19th or 20th)

Craftsbury Race Into The New Year – January 2nd

Sugarloaf Eastern States Cup – January 23-24

Craftsbury Rodrigues Cup – January 30th

Gunstock Eastern Cup – February 6-7

Eastern Cup Finals – February 20-21

Come experience this new teaching phenomenon IN-PERSON tomorrow at Stratton at our technique clinic and Coaches Symposium! 3 Hrs. left to register!

REGISTER HERE

THIS WEEKEND!

During the month of July NENSA was thrilled to feature and promote an outstanding virtual event to benefit the Maine Outdoor Wellness Center in honor of Roy Varney, an outstanding Maine athlete who tragically lost his life in a farming accident.

There were 111 participants by the month’s end. Participants ranged across Maine, from York to Camden, across categories, outside of Maine that reach spread out to Yukon a mere 3700 miles, or a 64 hr. drive. That team The Whitehorse Cross Country Ski Club  nearly passed our own staff here at NENSA. It would be remiss to also not mention Mt.Blue who had a great showing. Torin La Liberté from Clarkson University set a blazing 3:16/km pace for the Rockstar (71.19km) category. Leif Harvey from Cumberland, Me rolled through the 7.1km Rollerski a hair over 21 min, then also took the 1:11:19 distance TWICE at 0:03:02/km!

All of this wouldn’t have been possible without Gloria Varney who chose to make Art is tribute to Roy. You can read her full post HERE, and Thank You Willie for #butterfly

Finally Jenny and Sharon Wilbraham both had a neck and neck amazing times running through over 71k on a bike loop.

You can see results HERE which includes images and tracking data. Weekly prizes included a raffle for SKIDA face masks and special goodies from Untapped Natural Athletic Fuel. These raffle winners were:

Week 1 – Skida Face Mask – Peter Minde, Peru Nordic

UnTapped Maple care pack – Dustin Williamson, Leavitt High School

Week 2 – Skida Face Mask – Ellen Chandler, Jackson XC

UnTapped Maple care pack – Brian Sprague, Mansfield Nordic Club

Week 3 – Skida Face Mask – Emily Cartwright, Cumberland County Nordic Club

UnTapped Maple care pack – Fred Call, Bethel Outing Club

Week 4 – Skida Face Mask – Thomas Lewis

UnTapped Maple care pack – Clara Sandberg

There were six categories in this Virtual Event. Each included generous prizes supplied by our supporting sponsor SIDAS and here are the lucky winners:

Rockstar – Sidas Heated Vest – Jenny Wilbraham

Speedy Repeater – Sidas Heated Gloves – Sadie Skinner

BKL/Rec:  Sidas Hat & Buff Combo Pack – Saphrona Stetson

1:11:19:  Sidas Custom Insoles – Brian Sprague

Art for Roy:  Sidas Drop in Insoles and Gel Products – Gloria Varney

Run/Bike/Ski:  Sidas Drop in Insoles and Gel Products – Nico Giangrande

Additionally $888.00 was raised in entry fees to benefit the Center, last week Dustin Williamson accepted a check on behalf of the Maine Outdoor Wellness Center. We especially want to thank all the participants that put in the miles for Roy.

Welcome to the second edition of Throwback Thursday. This week we jump into a Technique clinic article written by our own Peter Hendel titled “Kick Double Pole” published in the late fall of 1997 here is the article from NENN Vol.3 No.2 

KICK DOUBLE POLE – BY Peter Hendel, Holderness Ski Coach

A poorly understood and highly underused classic technique is the kick double pole, or stride double pole. One main reason for this is that most skiers do not weight shift properly and so never benefit from the power of a properly weighted kick. This may be true even if they do weight shift well in their normal diagonal stride.

Why the confusion? I think many skiers are confused in kick double pole because they have an image of the kick leg as sliding or moving backwards during the kick phase. In fact we as coaches may contribute to this misconception by having our skiers kick double pole on dryland or in front of a video by sliding their kicking foot back, which in turn forces them to weight their glide ski! On snow this translates into a premature weight shift and poor kick.

In recent years I’ve tried a sequence of drills to counter this. [see diagrams below] First I have my skiers do #7 and #8 of the Nikolai Anikin drills (falling forward with a step and a kick) and then a double poling with relaxed arms drill. Next I have them tie these three together into the kick double pole.They should pole, weight their right foot and kick off, falling forward onto their (left) glide ski. We repeat this several times to get a feel of the dynamic kick propelling us forward.

Now we move outside and try this on skis. The timing of the arms, kick and weight shift is confusing, so I provide my skiers with verbal cues by skiing behind them and yelling “pole/(weight the)left foot/ kick, pole/(weight the) right foot/ kick,” and so on.Our skiers say that the verbal cues help them get used to the rhythm of the technique and that they really begin to feel the power of a properly weighted kick.

This exercise (No.7)will help you feel the proper motion which should occur as you lean forward and transfer weight from L ski to R ski.Do not push off the opposite leg. Instead just concentrate on letting your weight naturally fall forward. Also, pay attention to your upper body position. In the step position, you should not have excess trunk compression. The rotation happens at the ankle, thus little change will occur to your trunk angle.

(No.8) Is the same exercise as No.7 only now add the kick or push phases which will cause forward rotation of your hips and a relaxed, but straiter upper leg. The kick is very, very important. Pay attention to the strait line of the body from the head to the kicking foot. The support or gliding leg must be relaxed and notice it is relatively straight. The hips must rotate up and over the gliding ski; this is obligatory.

Photo: Nikolai Anikin

In honor of the long history of our organization, and our beloved community of skiers across New England we are going to pause and reflect on how we got here. I myself have been reflecting quite often over the past few months because, for most everyone, the future is more undefined than it has been in living history.

A group of families, from the Berkshire Trails Nordic Ski Club (BTNSC), met on July 6th to hike a 13 mile segment of the M&M Trail. Beginning at the Notch in South Hadley, MA and ending at Mt.Tom in Holyoke, MA.  This section has been rated by Runner’s World Magazine as one of the top 10 hikes in the US.  The range is a series of small mountains close together, so after every decent, there is another climb just ahead – a lot like skiing! Uphill efforts are rewarded by beautiful views.

The lead group, doing the entire 13 miles, was not stopped even by the Connecticut River.  An obliging boat owner with the well known name of Thomas Jefferson ferried them across and they continued up Mt.Tom.

Group hiking is a lot of fun. With a little planning, a successful hike has a destination and terrain to match varying abilities.  A common starting point, with cars left at one or two intervals, allows everyone to start together, and finish where they want to.  The best part of a group hike is that everyone can hook up with someone who goes at about the same speed.  All hikers, big and small, should carry their own food and water supply. Have a favorite hiking spot? Send us the location, or plan a group hike and spread the word.

By Penny Molyneux NENN Vol.3 No.1 Early Fall 1997