What a capper to a fantastic season ! We drove up on a blanket of fresh snow the entire 3.5 hours to Boyne Highlands. Had loads of fresh new snow on the trails. Dave Austin & Hap Wright have done a fantastic job up there cutting awesome new trails ! The classic trails were perfect for classic ! We started out up a good size climb, then shot right down the backside, then basically began an ascent that went on & on. It was a gentle climb, so you could kick & glide all but the final pitch! Again, great for classic ! Then we flew down the backside of the long climb, shot out of the woods at mach schnell onto the golf course for some flatter double pole & kick double pole sections, then back through the "lap" for round two. Top notch grooming.

The Classic Race

The fresh snow provided good kick on Toko Blue (temp range 9 to 27 F). Saturday we awoke to a bluebird sky and 3 F temps ! But it rose to about 33. That swing in the temp made it kind of tricky nailing the kickwax. Jamie Green seemed to have the fastest ascent with obsolete / old stock VF30. It was such a beautiful day, spirits were soaring among everyone ! There was a wonderful soup bar at the Nordic center afterwards, and the kids loved tubing down the hill right in front. A very fun, but tiring day.

The Michigan Cup Committee printed up & provided an info sheet clarifying the rules for allowed technique in classic races, and this was very well received. Clearly most ski racers on the Michigan Cup want everyone to play by the same set of rules, and have been doing so all along.

The Freestyle Race

For the skate race on Sunday, we had a little more new and very wet snow which packed out very well. The course was a different, more extreme one which was "extremely extremely" fun to skate ! Once again, Hap & Dave have done such a great job thinking about the terrain they have, cutting great skating trails, and applying the best grooming resources to give us hard snow world cup conditions and a challenging course. Probably the best weekend of the season.

The wakeup temp was 37F. A lead pack developed right off the line with some usual players including Mike Angell, Stephen Smigiel Junior, 19 year old sensation Brad Winkler (new to seniors skiing), David MacClean fresh off huge success at the World Masters, Chris Weingartz, Denny Paull off four consecutive wins (2nd today), & me !

Boy, was I glad I was skiing with those guys ! It was a huge rumble coming down the first downhilly section with this bunch. Like cowboys on wild mustangs in the desert ! Maybe jet fighters  It was like soaring as fighting eagles. And, best part, we already were off the front on our own! Impossible to overstate how much fun that was.

That was some of the best few minutes of racing in my short career for sure. I was able to hang on long enough to see David Mac drop everyone with a heartbreaking acceleration! Then the rest bunched back up, and I was "just" off them, still in the draft. I was getting shuffled out the back towards the end of lap 1.

The stragglers off the lead pack never reorganized to form a solidified chase group. We came shooting through the bespoke hills again and were just about out onto a long false flat climb, when I took a tumble at the last downhill on a huge berm which had built up from all the skiers in lap 1. Quickly stood up but I had lost momentum literally & mentally. Mike Angell was a quick 10 seconds up, moving fast, got a run on the flat, and he slipped further away for good. He had a fantastic second lap, and a very solid finish in 6th place.

Before the monster wall climb, Chris Weingartz got by temporarily, and told me to get back around him (it was a monster climb). In hindsight I should have stayed behind him on the climb, he played great strategy there !

I thought I left him on the hill climb, but he crested with me, drafted me a couple k to the finishing hill (with me trying desperately to open up a gap on him the entire time). When we came down a hill to the base of the finishing climb, I went wide, inadvertently giving him the hard packed snow & an open door. He opened it. Got a step on me. Held it to the line. Nuts ! Probably 4th in age, 8th overall again !

And so, we end our Individual Michigan Cup racing season on a high note, with the Team Relays yet to play out next week at the Cross Country Ski Headquarters. What a winter. The Michigan Cup rocks! Thanks for the great racing this year everybody! I loved it a lot.