January 06, 2012 (Rumford, Maine) – Famed sports reporter and commentator Peter Graves was on site in Rumford, Maine at the US XC Ski Championships and spoke with women’s 10km FR individual start winner Jessie Diggins (USST-CXC) after her race. Sport insiders have spoken often over the last year about the near limitless potential of  the 19-year-old. Graves also caught up with 15km FR men’s winner Tad Elliott, Caitlin Gregg (formerly Compton), and Sylvan Ellefson.

Interview with Jessie Diggins

Interview with Tad Elliott

Interview with Caitlin Gregg

Interview with Sylan Ellefson

April 05, 2011 (Ketchum, ID) – Fast and Female hosted its third and final X-Country SkiFest of the year on American snow this past Sunday in Ketchum, Idaho. Held under clear and sunny skies, the event was highlighted by the participation of 70 female ski enthusiasts between the ages of 7 to 19 years who had the opportunity to spend a morning of inspiration with 23 ambassadors – 7 of which are Olympians.

As part of the unique event, Fast and Female event participants kicked off their day with first-hand ski tips from some of the world’s best cross-country ski racers including Kikkan Randall, Liz Stephen, Holly Brooks, Caitlin Compton, Morgan Arritola, Chandra Crawford (Canada), and Biathlete Sara Studebaker. All ambassadors volunteered their time to the event and dressed the part to ensure a fun and relaxed atmosphere.

“It was super awesome,” said 17 year-old participant Emily Williams. “We had so much fun dancing, singing and learning new technique drills. It was amazing to spend the day with these great athletes.”

After the skiing, all girls enjoyed a healthy lunch, took part in an inspirational speech, and concluded the day with a fun yoga/dance session.

“The speeches were really inspirational and not just for cross country skiers,” admitted Kailey Wilt, age 14.

In keeping with Fast and Female’s vision, each event segment served a specific purpose to motivate girls to stay involved in sports as a tremendous vehicle for reaching one’s personal and athletic best.

“The looks we saw on our athletes’ faces today showed us what an important message Fast and Female sends to young women,” added Kelley Sinnott from the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation. Sinnott played a key role in coordinating the event along with colleague Ashley McQueen.

Throughout the 2011 winter, Fast and Female hosted three events in the USA, reaching a total of 470 girls in Maine, Alaska and now Idaho. Historically, events are not only inspiring for the young participants but even ambassadors leave the day feeling energized.

“It’s always refreshing to be reminded of kids’ energy and enjoyment of whatever they are part of,” said World Cup racer Liz Stephen. “Fast and Female is a wicked program and the local community and Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation did an awesome job with all the work!”

Parent volunteer, Gretchen Wagner, also commented on the impact of the day: “What an amazing group of women! It was great to see all of the girls inspired by these fast female heroes. Smiles from ear to ear!”

All event participants left with a Fast and Female t-shirt, Buff and autographed poster.

This activity was made possible thanks to valuable local partners such as the Works of Grace Foundation, the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation, Cheatwood Photography, and many parent volunteers. Fast and Female’s national sponsors – including Best Buy, Buff Multifunctional Headwear, lululemon athletica, and Cold-FX – are also providing resources to make this event possible. For a complete list of Fast and Female national program supporters and sponsors, please click HERE.

Fast and Female will be releasing more event information shortly. Until then, continue to visit www.fastandfemale.com.

March 29, 2011 (Engadin, Switzerland) – I just returned home to Hayward after a week long adventure in St Moritz, Switzerland for the 2011 Engadin Ski Marathon. The crust cruising is at its finest right now and, after skiing all day, I am finally able to sit down and recap the events from Switzerland.

The 2011 Engadin was the inaugural CXC Masters Team Worldloppet trip. Originally, my plan was to compete in the Elite Wave and go for the win. That plan changed when I came down with appendicitis two days before the Birkie and ten days before leaving for Switzerland. Although it felt agonizingly slow at the time, my recovery was actually very swift and smooth thanks to the help of my friends and teammates (I had a cowbell in my room and, when I rang it, Caitlin (Compton) and Brian (Gregg) would bring me any food I requested-so long as it was liquid). The day before the trip, my doctor took out the stitches and gave me the go-ahead to fly to Switzerland. Instead of fighting for the win, I was fighting to simply make it through the airport with my luggage.

Now I was able to really enjoy the finer aspects of the trip and no worry as much about the racing. We ended up doing lots of easy skiing to check out the course, drank Rivella (the official sports drink of Switzerland) by the gallon–or liter, rather, while sitting out in the sun, and even spent an afternoon sledding in the Swiss Alps.

For the race itself, I followed the Toko wax recommendation and waxed up my best skis, along with the rest of the CXC Masters, with the straight-forward combination of an HF Red/Yellow mix, JetStream Red block, and topped it off with JetStream Red powder for good measure. The one thing I forgot was a riller, but the temps were supposed to stay cold and the snow dry.

On race morning, we toed the line. I had barely done any skiing, let alone intensity, in over two weeks since the surgery, so I decided to line up toward the back of the Elite Wave and start easy. Over 11,000 anxious skiers danced around in the gates while we waited for the gun to go off. Immediately after the start, I realized I was feeling great and decided to get up front with the leaders-passing about 500 people on the wide lake start and tucking into third place in the lead pack with the likes of Cristian Zorzi, Bjorn Lind, and Remo Fischer. The first 15km of the Engadin are totally flat as the trail goes across frozen lakes to the town of St Moritz and we were flying with a swift tailwind.

Before I left for the trip, I ran into Ben Husby at Junior Nationals on my home trails of Wirth Park in Minneapolis. When I told Ben I was going to the Engadin, he gave me some advice about “how to win the Engadin.” Specifically, “when you hit St Moritz, there will be a steep climb, wide enough for three lanes of skiers coming off the lakes. Make sure you are leading one of those lanes.” At the time, I thought, ‘Okay, Ben, I can barely ski right now, there’s no way I’ll be leading the Engadin at 15km next week.’

However, I surprised even myself (pretty hard to do) and found myself in third place going into the St Moritz climb! Sure enough, the skier in first went right, the skier in second went left and I found myself leading the middle train up the steep climb. Remo Fischer punched it over the top and I hopped in close behind him. We skied together down into the Expo Area at St Moritz and Remo kept the throttle wide open-we were flying! Shortly after St Moritz, he backed off the pace a little bit and I looked behind me, expecting to see hundreds of skiers over my shoulder. To my surprise, there was no one; I’d just made the two-man break off the front of the Engadin-thanks Ben!

I was feeling great. Unfortunately, as we got into the woods, the snow changed from dry and wind-blown, to wet and soggy. We soon hit a downhill and Remo pulled away effortlessly. I was in no-man’s-land doing my best to earn time back on the climbs, but on every descent, he’d pull away more. Soon, the pack we’d dropped had caught me and I was losing even more ground on the descents. I’m not sure how much of it was the fact that I hadn’t skied for the two weeks prior to the race (maybe that’s what got me into trouble-feeling so fresh) or how much was the fact that I had forgotten to add structure (my cold skis had a cold grind: faster than ever in the windblown snow, but way too much suction in the wet snow). At any rate, I slogged it out for the final 20km of the race and still finished much better than I’d expected going into the race. I was satisfied with the race and happy that I didn’t bust my gut in the process. Remo ended up capitalizing on our breakaway and winning by over two minutes.

In the Engadin, I learned an important lesson about the value of structure. Now that the weather is getting warm and the snow is getting soft, it is more important than ever to have the right structure. Go out and enjoy the spring crust cruising, but don’t forget to rill. And have fun!

Muffy Ritz Commentary from Masters WC
I had a very successful Master’s up in Silver Star. Despite being very sick with bronchitis for the 2 weeks prior and even into the racing week, I somehow managed to ski myself into a Gold in the 10 km FS, a Gold in the Relay, and a silver in the 15 KM CL race. I have to make a very interesting remark about the TOKO wax. We ended up using Blue all the way- for every race ( LF Moly, HF Blue, Jet Stream Blue, blue structurite tool) It didn’t matter the temperature, blue always ran the fastest. The temps were very consistent throughout the week- with only about 5 degrees of warm-up during the days. Lows would be around 21 and highs around 26 degrees F. Every night or during the day, a little bit of new snow would fall. What would appear as a red/blue mix – according to the thermometer- blue was always faster. In the rockies, with new snow, blue seems to be the best choice despite the temps. However, if snow temps went upwards of 32- blue would probably not be the fastest choice. I think all winter long in Sun Valley and other nearby races, I never strayed from Moly, HF Blue, JS Blue all season!

Thanks to the Toko Tech Team of their efforts and wax tips at the Masters.

Muffy:)

www.tokous.com.

March 01, 2011 (Hayward, WI) – All winter long, we’ve been testing and finding HF Blue with Jetstream Blue over the top to run extremely well in cold weather, and at the 2011 Birkie, this was proven once again – We went with HF Blue covered by JetStream Blue and had fantastic skis.

Looking at forecasts a few days out, we knew that the weather was going to take a dive from Thursday night until Saturday, so we held off on testing too much until 6am on Friday morning. After some quick runs on the skis at Boedecker, I came back to Telemark Lodge, assembled CXC’s crack team of waxers, and we started running through skis. Part of the privileges of being on the CXC Master Team is getting your skis waxed for the Birkie, so we had 50+ pairs to wax for them, plus the CXC Elite Team skis. Between good organization, good tools and good workers, we were able to get the skis glide waxed before 7:30pm.

The Birkie classic has definitely grown, and we had about 20 pairs of skis to binder and wax. We used a mix of hard-wax binder and a few drops of green klister ironed in with it. Between the forecast and the length of the race, we went slightly warmer than starting conditions would call for — a few layers of blue hard wax covered with green. As it turned out, the weather didn’t warm up as much as we expected, but the kick definitely stuck around.

All in all, I was pretty pleased with the CXC Team’s results — wins in the women’s skate (Caitlin Compton) and classic (Jennie Bender), with Maria Stuber coming in 5th. On the men’s side, Karl Nygren and Eric Wolcott went 2-3 in the classic and in the skate, Bryan Cook came in 5th, with Brian Gregg 8th, Matt Liebsch 9th and Santi Ocariz 17th.

– Jason Cork, Head Coach, CXC Elite Team

Report from the Winner – American Birkebeiner
Heading into the Birkie I had a plan that I set up with my coaches over two months before. We sat down and laid out both the races and the travel that I would be doing in preparation for my peak at the American Birkibeiner.

The weeks before the Birkie were the most important. I was entered in both Super Tours and Marathon races and had a heavy training load. My plan included a two week altitude camp in Aspen, CO. I raced my Hometown City of Lakes Loppet the day before I left and ran into a lot of mishaps along the way. I felt great at the start and was ready to go. The men and women start together which leads to a very tight and busy first couple of kilometers. I was swallowed up quickly in the crowd and proceeded to try and maintain contact with the other women in the race. Unfortunately I maintained too much contact and a little tangle with another woman left me without the bottom half of my pole. I went on to race without a pole for the next couple of K, then with a long pole for another couple of K, before getting a pole that fit for the remainder of the race. I stayed relaxed and was able to hold onto the lead to the finish despite my pole mishap.

When I got off the plane in Aspen I knew I was in for a treat. The mountains were beautiful and there was plenty of snow. I was staying with a fellow racer’s parents and they were some of the best host parents I have ever had. After only a few days I knew I made the right decision to train in Aspen and race the Owl Creek Chase. The altitude was very high but the terrain and ski trails were incredible. The morning of the Owl Creek Chase came and the temperatures were soaring into the upper 40’s. I chose a pair of skis with more structure anticipating a slushy finish of the race. At the start I was on the front line ready to go. I wore my drink belt in preparation for the Birkie and took of double poling when the gun fired. I found a great spot in second place behind a fellow competitor but suddenly I was swallowed up by the girls charging behind me. I went down and found myself leaving the stadium in last place. Thankfully I had both poles intact but I had a lot of work to do to get back up with the lead pack. I made my way up through the women’s field and found myself with the lead group at the 5K mark. Suddenly the altitude caught up with me and I felt like I was carrying a load of bricks on my back. I watched as the other girls skied away from me and those who I had just passed pass me back. I stayed positive again and focused on skiing the rest of my race within my limits. During the last 5K I gave a final push and found that my body had recovered and could respond. I was able to pass seven women and finish the race strong and happy in 7th place.

The week of the Birkie quickly approached and I realized that I hadn’t skied much of the Birkie course in the last 6 years. Brian Gregg took me out daily to the key locations and as we trained we discussed strategy and tactics. As the Birkie morning approached I was feeling great and ready to go. The only question was the temperature. At a frigid -8F I arrived at the start having left one of my Toko mittens at home in Minneapolis. I did however bring my Toko Windstopper gloves and knew they would work well. But how well??? My excitement was high and I found myself jumping and jogging around a lot before the start, swinging my legs and arms often to keep the blood flowing. I have had problems with my feet hands and face in the past when the temperatures have dipped below zero and my fear lay in the fact that I had 50K to ski with temps remaining frigid the whole way. As I approached the start I strapped on my poles as the gun went off and the banner went up I found myself double poling to the best start position yet this season. I ducked into second place behind a Swiss woman and suddenly realized just how fast my skis were moving! I easily free skating behind her and standing up on the slightest of down hills to avoid colliding. Awesome!!! As we cruised through the first part of the race I was also psyched to realize that my hands and fingers were warm and cozy! I stayed at the front of the pack through the entire race avoiding collisions but never pushing too hard to bury myself. My skis continued to soar along the snow without the slightest hesitation and my hands were so comfortable even on the longest of down hills. I was able to get every feed I needed and respond to all attacks that were made.

With 10 kilometers to go I decided to make my move. I knew my skis were awesome and my body was ready so I took off at the front of the group. The other women responded and stayed close behind but I could sense that I was gliding a little further on every downhill and could rest a little longer. As we approached the final 2 kilometers three other women were still with me and the snow began to fall as we were crossing Lake Hayward. Amazingly I felt my skis speed up even more! Wow I thought my skis are still rockets after almost 50K of skiing. I pushed hard and felt the gap between myself and the other women starting to widen. I upped the tempo and power and found myself in the lead as we headed up Main Street. As I approached the finish I saw Brian waiting on the other side. Nothing could have made me happier and ski faster then seeing his smiling face. I charged to the line and realized I had just won as I gave Brian a huge hug.

The weather was still frigid but I couldn’t even tell through all of my excitement and happiness. A little frostbite on my nose was the only effect the cold could have on me that day. My fingers were warm and my spirits were high.

The plan worked and despite setbacks along the way everything went seamless on Birkie morning.

– Caitlin Compton, Women’s Race Winner

Razzle your Drink Belt Contest
Decorate your Toko drink belt and post the image on the Toko US Facebook Page. On 15 March, we will select our favorite. The winner will receive $500 worth of Toko product in the fall when we have everything in stock. Here’s the link to the Toko US Facebok page.

Race Wax Recommendations for the Masters Cross Country Ski World Cup 2011 will be posted on www.TokoUS.com. Direct link to the page HERE. They will also be tweeted (TokoUS) and posted to the Toko US Facebook page HERE.

For Toko Wax Tips for Canadian Cross Country Ski Races, go to the Toko Canada Facebook Site HERE.

January 06, 2011 (Rumford, ME) – Liz Stephen, East Montpellier, VT, took charge in the women’s 20km freestyle event winning by just under a minute over APU’s Holly Brooks who landed on the podium for the second time at the US XC Ski Championship in Rumford. Stephen’s USST team mate, Morgan Arritola, from Fairfield, ID, who raced out of the Sun Valley Education Foundation before being named to the U.S. Ski Team, placed third.

Stephen was encouraged by her result. “I felt great out there and the course held up well,” said the winner. “I tried to put myself in a world cup race and make it even a bigger deal to get all that I wanted out of myself. I got some splits along the way but mostly was just going off the body. A big thanks to all the volunteers for making a great course.”

Full results HERE.

Results (brief)

1. Liz Stephen (Burke Mountain Academy/U.S. Ski Team), 50:03.5
2. Holly Brooks (Alaska Pacific University), 51:01.3
3. Morgan Arritola(Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation/U.S. Ski Team), 51:19.1
4. Caitlin Compton (Central Cross Country Skiing), 51:27.2
5. Kate Fitzgerald (Alaska Pacific University), 52:01.2
6. Evelyn Dong (Cross Country Oregon), 52:29.5
7. Chelsea Holmes (Sugar Bowl Academy), 52:43.5
8. Morgan Smyth (Alaska Pacific University), 52:44.7
9. Nicole Deyong (Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation), 52:47.9
10. Jennie Bender (Central Cross Country Skiing), 53:07.9

December 16, 2010 (Sovereign Lake, BC) – Check out these great video highlights from last weekend’s NorAm Teck women’s 10k skate race at Sovereign Lake, which was won by Holly Brooks (APU). Caitlin Compton (CXC) and Brooke Gosling finished second and third, respectively.