February 25, 2009 (Gatineau, QC) – This past week I had the pleasure of being the Technical Delegate at the Gatineau Loppet, Canada’s largest cross-country ski race. Some of you know it as the Keski, Keskinada or the Gatineau Loppet. Whatever name you use, it means fun! Saturday is Classical 53, 29, 16 and 5 km races; on Sunday 53, 29, 10 km Freestyle, with a 2km Mini for the Jack Rabbit age skiers (our Bill Koch age). The Mini starts with a song on how to warm up before you ski with cartoon charters leading the song. The cool part of the Mini is it’s in the afternoon allowing the parents who ski the Loppet to ski it with their children in the Mini. This is something that we should learn from: cross-country skiing is a family sport.

Getting back to the Technical Delegate part…
I arrived on Wednesday afternoon in light rain. Thursday brought more of the same with the rain being heaver during the day. As a Jury we meet with the groomers to get an update on the trails. The groomers felt that the low areas on the wooded (“the bush” as they call it across the border) part of the race course would be washed out or not hold the weight of the snow cats. With that in mind, we the Jury made a plan to use most of the parkway in Gatineau Park for the ski course. The weather forecasts called for the rain to stop by late afternoon and changing to snow. The plan was to stay off the course, let the water drain through the snow pack, and start grooming at 6:00 am the next morning. The rain stopped but the snow did not mineralize. It did get cold.

On Friday morning the Jury met the groomers on the race course via snowmobile. As we turned the corner on the course we had an impressive view of four snow cats grooming in tandem. The Competition Committee have been through this before and had a number of contingency plans on file. After our meeting we agreed to use contingency plan 5-A.That we would use most of the Parkway for the ski course. As a Jury we felt it was the safest and would provide the best skiing. Some of the locals thought otherwise, that we should have used the original course, but they we not responsible for the safety of almost three thousand skiers.

Saturday and Sunday turned out to be “Bluebird days,” to quote from Marty Hall. The course was groomed to as if it was a World Cup race. It was cool to see skiers from New England like Gina Campoli and John Brodhead who won their age class in the 53km classical. Other New England skiers like Nancy and Peter Davis, and Wes DeNering who skied 53Km both days! I also saw Marty Hall.

Along with the skiing. there were other activities such as the ski expo, music and a great feed after the race, where skiers can share stories about their race. My hat goes off to the Competition Committee for a job well done! Don’t miss on the 32nd edition next year.
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