January 28, 2012 (Lake Elmo, Minnesota) – For the fourth stage of the Tour De Twin Cities on Saturday, the Battle Creek SuperTour moved east to Green Acres Rec. Area in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. Due to the low snow conditions in the Twin Cities, organizers had to abandon the scheduled venue, Battle Creek Park, which does not have snowmaking. The alternative site they chose, Green Acres, is a snow tubing park that has expanded its services to include cross-country skiing on man-made snow.

The course for the mass start classic alternated between pancake flat farm fields and steep climbs around the tubing hill. Women skied two 2.5-kilometer laps, while men skied four. The collective opinion among finishers was that the race course was far more challenging than it appeared on the video posted by race organizers.

With intermediate sprints on laps one and two offering 15, 10, and 5-point bonuses to 1-2-3, a fast pace from the gun was assured. Sure enough, things were so aggressive that both the eventual winner Dylan McGuffin (Craftsbury Green Racing Project) and second-place Matt Liebsch (Team Strongheart/Team Birkie) finished the race with a new pole. Caitlin Gregg was one of the CXC athletes who came prepared with extra poles at the side of the course. “It was crazy. I brought out three poles and gave away two right away.”

One of the poles Caitlin gave out went to Liebsch, the biggest victim of the crazy start. As the group merged to three tracks, Liebsch tangled, got a pole between his legs, and in his words, “superman-ed” onto the trail. “I did a squat jump and got right back up, holding my arms up to protect my poles, but then I got slammed from behind.” That was the beginning of a pile-up that caught up twenty or so starters. “I was mosh-pitted out there,” said Liebsch.

By the time he got up, Liebsch was in the bottom 10-20 percent of the field. He quickly worked his way through the back of the pack racers, but was out of contention for the intermediate sprints. With no sprint contested on lap 3, Liebsch was able to make up time, and finally near the end of lap 4, he took the lead from McGuffin.

Although McGuffin took the win with his finishing sprint, even his day did not go according to plan. “My plan was to not fall in the first 100 meters, but I did not manage that.”

Not held back as badly as Liebsch, McGuffin made it to the lead pack by lap 2. “I tried for the lap 2 sprint, and did not get it, but I was able to carry that momentum and move into the lead.”

On lap 4, with Liebsch closing, but third place well off the back, McGuffin says he “stopped really pushing.” When Liebsch passed, McGuffin got on his heels and drafted down the final descent and into the stadium. As the second one into the finishing lanes, McGuffin paused while Liebsch selected a lane. “If I lost any time it was there.”

Still, McGuffin closed in the final 5 meters, lunged, and felt confident enough to celebrate by throwing one arm in the air. Officials consulted the video before announcing McGuffin as the winner by one tenth of a second. CXC’s Karl Nygren, who was in the lead group for most of the race, finished third.

Women’s Race
The women’s race was no less exciting, as CXC’s Jennie Bender gapped the field in the stadium, and went sprint pace for her first lap. This was not necessarily Bender’s race plan, but she made a momentary decision to take advantage other skiers’ hesitation at the start.

“There was a long delay before the horn with no count-down given. I had watched the men’s start, so I knew how they were starting us. When the horn sounded, some started and then sort of stopped. I knew this was the sound, so I just went. I thought, let’s take it out and see where it goes.”

The chase pack consisted of APUNSC teammates Rosie Brennan and Lauren Fritz, as well as Caitlin Gregg.

Bender put 100 meters on the competition over the first kilometer and a half, and then earned the intermediate sprint with her competitors still well back. On the second lap, Brennan was able to take a little off of Bender’s lead, gapping her teammate and Gregg in the process.

Bender still crossed the line with time to spare, throwing her arms up in celebration. Brennan claimed second while Gregg passed Fritz on lap two to grab the last step of the podium.

The Tour finishes at Green Acres on Sunday with a skate pursuit based on Saturday’s results. Bender and Liebsch enter the final race as favorites for the overall classification and $3,000 each.

Full results HERE.