Nightmare waxing condtions at Holiday Classic

Results

Sun, Dec  30, 2007 - By Mike Muha

Cliff Onthank surprised himself by winning the Holiday Classic in difficult waxing conditions. Onthank beat out Denny Paull and David Mclean on the 9km course. Tracy Hardin is showed she back in form by winning the women's 9K event over Michaela Harris and Amy Todd. The top junior in the men's event was Brendan Baic.

In the Great Lakes Division junior 6km event, J2 racer Maria Frick posted the fastest time. J2 Ross Williams won the boys event.

Start of 6km junior event

 

Onthank did a warm up on the course to see if he could double pole it. He remarked, "I don't think I can win on this course by double poling." He decided to try anyways inn hopes of taking advantage of potential waxing woes of other racers.

And woes were many. The air and snow temperature were right around the 30-32F range leading up to the start of the 9km race. The kick wax that seemed to work during warm-up was Toko Yellow covered by the harder Toko Red. Using just Yellow caused icing. Using just Red did not provide enough kick. Several skiers also reported that Swix VR50 was working.

A moist snow fell during the warm-up, then the 6km junior event was run. During that race, the snow stopped, the temperature dropped 5 degrees and a dry snow began falling. By the time the 9km race began, conditions had changed enough that everyone's dialed-in wax was now too warm. Icing was widespread throughout the longer race, racers skiing herky-jerky as the snow buildup would bring one or the other ski to a halt at the most inopportune time.

Greg Brown gets around a tricky corner in a tuck.

 

The kick wax nightmare was Onthank's ticket to victory. Although other racers beat him to the top of hills, he out glided them enough on the descents to maintain a lead to the finish.

Racer Yvon Dufour decided to dump the waxable skis and went with a pair of waxless skis. He reported that he had great kick up all the hills while others were floundering with icing.

 

PLACE	BIB	LAST NAME	FIRST NAME	CITY	Dist	TIME	RANK
J2 Female 14-15
1	48	Frick	Maria	Williamsburg	6	0:25:10	4
2	24	Brennan	Brady	East Jordan	6	0:25:51	6
3	16	Kirkwood	Maggie	Sault Ste. Marie	6	0:27:05	7
4	47	Ward	Anna	Traverse City	6	0:30:45	9
J3 Female 13 & Under
1	15	Mallinger	Frances	Sault Ste. Marie	6	0:29:48	8
2	14	Mihell	Wendy	Sault Ste. Marie	6	0:45:27	10
Female 20-45
1	64	Harris	Michaela	Marquette	9	0:38:55	30
2	33	Todd	Amy	Grand Rapids	9	0:42:01	37
3	42	Witbrodt	Hilary	Auburn	9	0:52:07	48
4	62	Stevenson	Gwenn	Oxford	9	1:00:17	53
Female 46 & Over
1	35	Hardin	Tracy	Cheboygan	9	0:38:40	29
2	27	McGraw	Harriet	Petoskey	9	0:53:31	49
3	37	Timm	Cheryl	Bay City	9	1:01:37	54
4	39	Dunn	Mary	Royal Oak	9	1:05:43	55
J2 Male 14-15
1	26	Williams	Ross	Williamsburg	6	0:17:18	1
2	31	Brown	Greg	Traverse City	6	0:20:24	2
3	58	Hauke	Alex	Traverse City	6	0:25:05	3
4	51	Jacobson	Karl	Traverse City	6	0:25:11	5
J1 Male 16-17
1	19	Baic	Brendan	Walloon Lake	9	0:31:21	7
2	25	Brennan	Mac	East Jordan	9	0:33:08	15
3	57	Harris	Kirk	Traverse City	9	0:34:20	20
4	59	Alanson	Mark	Traverse City	9	0:37:12	26
5	46	Jacobson	Alan	Traverse City	9	0:41:41	36
6	54	Tomlinson	Matt	Grawn	9	0:49:20	47
7	55	LaBonte	Scott	Traverse City	9	0:54:09	50
OJ Male 18-19
1	49	Ward	William	Traverse City	9	0:32:06	11
Male 20 To 35
1	21	Stevens	Andy	Lansing	9	0:29:47	4
2	52	Moore	Andrew	Cambridge	9	0:31:37	8
3	50	Coulter	Melzar	Grand Rapids	9	0:31:55	10
4	29	Ivan	Mikhailav	Madison Heights	9	0:36:20	23
5	23	Tarnow	Aaron	Ann Arbor	9	0:36:54	25
6	63	Jacobs	Matthew	Traverse City	9	0:42:50	38
7	61	Curley	Tyrone	Traverse City	9	0:43:24	39
Male 36 To 49
1	3	Paull	Denny	Cheboygan	9	0:29:22	2
2	6	Maclean	David	Ludington	9	0:29:41	3
3	4	Vigland	Todd	Interlochen	9	0:30:43	5
4	10	Dufour	Yvon	Brighton	9	0:30:54	6
5	18	Goodman	Glenn	Bellaire	9	0:32:07	12
6	34	Todd	Dell	Grand Rapids	9	0:33:39	17
7	5	Seaman	Michael	Mt. Pleasant	9	0:33:42	18
8	12	Karlsen	Stephen	Saginaw	9	0:38:10	28
9	20	Green	Jamie	Gaylord	9	0:39:39	32
Male 50 To 53
1	1	Worsnop	Gregory	Paw Paw	9	0:31:54	9
2	41	Muha	Mike	Wixom	9	0:32:38	13
3	40	Gravlin	John	Linwood	9	0:32:45	14
4	32	Weingartz	Chris	Petoskey	9	0:33:16	16
5	8	Heady	Doug	Ann Arbor	9	0:34:04	19
6	38	Madorski	Mark	Leonard	9	0:40:56	35
7	53	Moore	Jeff	Northville	9	0:44:31	43
8	60	Baron	Tom	Vermilion	9	0:44:57	44
9	56	Worrel	Greg	Detroit	9	0:56:20	51
Male 54 To 59
1	45	Onthank	Clifford	Traverse City	9	0:29:02	1
2	9	Luce	Robin	Central Lake	9	0:35:21	21
3	65	Kostrzewa	John	Traverse City	9	0:37:26	27
4	44	Nolan	Dan	Holland	9	0:39:53	34
5	13	Gambert	George	Bellaire	9	0:43:33	40
6	36	Timm	Larry	Bay City	9	0:43:34	41
7	30	Ahrenberg	Bill	Cheboygan	9	0:44:01	42
8	43	Kraai	Rick	Holland	9	0:45:59	45
9	17	Abbe	Mark	Saginaw	9	0:57:38	52
Male 60 & Over
1	2	Smigiel	Steve Sr	Ada	9	0:35:59	22
2	11	Kaltz	William	Pinckney	9	0:36:48	24
3	7	Johnson	Peter	Whitehall	9	0:39:02	31
4	22	Tarnow	Michael	Traverse City	9	0:39:50	33
5	28	Meyer	Jim	Onaway	9	0:48:44	46