December 1, 2006 – Coffee cups don’t lie, and with 360 of them missing at the end of a chilly weekend there’s no disputing the success of the X-C.com inaugural Nordic Event Tour weekend November 24th to 26th, which included two podium finishes by Team X-C.com racers Shayla Swanson and Stefan Kuhn in Saturday’s sprints and two Top Ten finishes from team racers Kuhn and Brooke Gosling in Sunday’s pursuit races.

The flurries were flyin’ and the skiin’ was slow, but the bustling and snowy Sovereign Lake/Silver Star Mountain Nordic Festival near Vernon, B.C., the first stop on X-C.com’s seasonal exhibition of the latest and greatest in Nordic gear, outdoor winter apparel, accessories and energy food, was the perfect setting for a colourful and busy demo village set against a mostly grey sky.

For X-C.com’s late-to-bed, early-to-rise staff members, the smell of Kicking Horse Coffee’s brewing Kick Ass® blend in the tour’s new 20-foot demo trailer at 7 a.m. and that first cup of piping hot joe was indeed a strong motivator during setup every day, but the indulgent waft on the morning breeze and throughout the race days also drew hundreds of happy visitors to the event village. By wrap-up on Sunday afternoon X-C.com’s now-expert-brewers had ground nearly 10 lbs. of beans and served somewhere around 75 litres of Kicking Horse coffee!

Guests to the demo village also took advantage of equipment and product displays from various Tour sponsors, testing Salomon’s sleek new lineup of Equipe 10 Nordic skis and checking out samples of the highly sought-after 2006-07 racing boot lineup. Adidas’ hot new line of sport and casual eyewear also stirred up a lot of buzz with both racers and recreationalists, especially those wanting to replace older, cumbersome eyewear with better lightweight performance and sleek design.

Samples of Sharkies Organic Energy Fruit Chews were a hit with both the young and the young at heart, and one-serving packets of Ultima Replenisher sport drink crystals were popular with skiers of all types fresh off the enticing Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre trails and in need of a tasty and all-natural energy boost. Many weekend skiers who defied the blustery winds were pleased to discover the X-C.com exhibition included the sale of Buff Headwear, an incredibly versatile invention that turns into just about any functional small sport accessory you could possibly need, including an all-important neck warmer.

And with X-C.com also hosting the Swix demo tent, countless skiers checked out the brand’s new lineup of poles and received up-to-the-minute waxing tips throughout the festival’s changing conditions.

After a few days of rest and reflection the X-C.com team of staffers is now enthusiastically plotting the next Nordic Event Tour stop at the Canadian Masters Championships February 4-11, 2007 in Rossland, BC. As the comments from this past weekend pour in, X-C.com is looking toward the future and the inevitable and exciting growth of the tour after an overwhelmingly successful launch.

For those of you who also just returned from a busy weekend at the festival the X-C.com team welcomes any feedback and questions. Please contact us at info@x-c.com, we’ll be happy to hear from you!