March 28, 2012 (Jay Peak, Vermont) – Noah Hoffman (SSCV/USST) showed peak form today, despite an injured shoulder, in winning the USSA SuperTour Finals Hill Climb event staged at Jay Peak, Vermont. After starting 4th, at 36 seconds behind mini tour leader and eventual winner, Kris Freeman (SSCV/USST), Hoffman posted a time of 13:10.9 on the demanding 1.8km course, which climbed 1,079ft more or less straight up the hill.

Brian Gregg (CXC) shook off sub-par results in the earlier races to capture 2nd place, just 10.2 seconds behind Hoffman. Freeman, as the tour leader, started the hill climb first with a 19-second lead on 2nd place Erik Bjornsen (APU/USST), and dug deep in order to stay ahead of the chasers and managed to cross the line first, winning the 4-event mini-tour overall and finished 3rd on the day, 13.3 seconds behind Hoffman.

Freeman had his sights set on keeping Hoffman at bay. “I planned to use my lead over Hoff in the best way that I could,” he told SkiTrax, “To ensure I was the first person to the top of the mountain. I never wanted to hit redline or give him any hope of catching me. I succeeded.”

Hoffman, who finished 2nd in the overall after today’s result (22.7 seconds behind Freeman), overcame a dislocated shoulder (which he suffered in a crash during yesterday’s sprint heats), to win the final stage. “When I started today my goal was to catch Kris Freeman,” Hoffman told SkiTrax earlier today. “It turned out to be unrealistic, but I am happy with the fastest time on the day and second in the tour.”

Proper pacing was key to success in today’s event and Hoffman was focused on avoiding overexerting himself early in the race. “Today was a hard event because there is no recovery,” he explained, “I was focusing on not building too much muscle tension and keeping my skiing sustainable. If you blow up on a course like that, there’s no chance to recover.”

Hoffman also remarked on the fact that the course skied better and faster than it had done during a pre-ski earlier in the week: “The conditions were faster today than when we previewed the course on Monday. I was surprised at how little time the race took. The organizers ran an incredible event all the way through. I am very thankful and impressed.”

Hoffman intends to race the US XC Distance Nationals 50km FR event this Saturday and does not anticipate any trouble with his shoulder, but will await the outcome of an MRI and consultation with his doctor before making the final decision to start.

Second-place finisher Gregg had his best day of an otherwise disappointing mini-tour and was somewhat surprised with the outcome: “Today was a pretty big surprise for me and I am very happy with the day,” he told SkiTrax. “My results in the earlier finals races were sub-par,” he said, “so I entered today with nothing to lose.”

It probably helped that Gregg wasn’t intimidated by the course either: “I enjoy climbing and feel that I am pretty good at it. For many in the field this was the 7th race in 13 days, so I opted to keep the warm-up shorter to conserve energy.  In a race without any recovery I planned on getting up to red line and holding it there until 1 minute to go.”

Ski selection and grind was also a factor today, Gregg felt, with fresh, wet snow covering the course. “They have been getting a bit of new snow the last few days on top of transformed man made. The course was ideal for one of my favourite pairs of soft ground skis with a grind that is fantastic in fresh snow.”

In addition to ski selection, Gregg also speculated that not qualifying for yesterday’s sprint heats left him with more energy than those that had skied deep into the rounds. After starting four minutes behind Freeman, Gregg started slowly working his way up to and past skiers ahead of him.

“To my surprise,” Gregg explained, “I continued to catch a few skiers. I would push to try to catch someone, relax behind them for a few seconds and then try to get the next group.  Most of the skiers had competed in the sprint rounds yesterday afternoon and my consolation prize for not qualifying was being able to come home and rest.”

Gregg also paid tribute to Hoffman’s gutsy win: “I also have to say that Noah was very impressive today taking the win with a separated shoulder.”

Today’s uphill course at Jay Peak invited comparisons with the final hill climb stage on Alpe Cermis in the Tour de Ski, however, the courses were quite different in character, with today’s course going straight into the climbing without any flats, and lacking the switchbacks of the Alpe Cermis. At just over 13 minutes, the race on Jay Peak was also much shorter, resembling a prologue that required competitors to get the lactates high from the start.

A small number of skiers also elected to go out on classic gear despite the lack of set tracks, a strategy that appeared to pay off early in the climb, but that didn’t match the speed of skate skis in the steeper V1 sections.

USST member Andy Newell again sat out today’s competition due to illness, but declared his intention to race in this weekend’s US National Championships 50km race. “I picked up a cold flying back from Norway,” Newell told us, “Basically by the time I was home I was pretty stuffed up with a sore throat. Still not feeling very good, but I’m going to so everything I can to feel better and hopefully race the 50km.”

Many competitors in this week’s SuperTour Finals will also be sticking around for this Saturday’s 50km race.

Hill climb results HERE.
Mini-Tour overall results HERE.