October 15, 2010 (Willmington, NY) – While the focus of fourth annual Climb to the Castle roller-ski race up Whiteface Mountain was on men’s winner Kris Freeman – his first win in four attempts – and diminutive biathlete, Laura Specter, in the women’s race, a handful of Canadians quietly asserted themselves in the final results.

Of the 10 Canucks who made the trip to Lake Placid for the ritual debate about the influence of rollerski wheel speeds, four had podium finishes and others came close. Barrie, Ontario’s Team Hardwood sent a contingent of four junior skiers, with the Whiteface race as the opener to a 4-day camp in the Lake Placid area. Also represented were Ottawa’s Nakkertok and Fresh Air Experience, and a couple of clubs from Quebec.

In just its fourth year, the Climb to the Castle has become a must-do for top cross-country, biathlon and Nordic-combined athletes in the US, overlapping with their traditional fall camps in the area. Given the start list, and its close proximity to cities like Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto, the event also offers skiers from eastern Canada a great opportunity to test their fitness against a quality field just weeks prior to the start of the provincial and continental cup seasons.

The race begins at the toll booth for the access road to the summit of Whiteface Mt (4,867ft), just outside Wilmington, NY. The competition is essentially an 8km (5-mile) uphill time trial with a mass start, on a course that features 2,000ft of elevation gain with an average gradient of 8%. There are virtually no flats and no downhills to recover on. This year’s installment also featured strong and blustery headwinds that plagued competitors throughout the race, bringing many to a standstill at times.

In the men’s race, which was won in convincing fashion by USST member Freeman, Aiden Lennie of Nakkertok Ski Club and the Ontario Ski Team finished 2nd among the U23s and a very strong 5th overall, improving on last year’s 12th place finish and besting the likes of USST athletes Andy Newell, Simi Hamilton, Billy Demong and Garrott Kuzzy. Not far behind Lennie was Nakkertok team mate Steffan Lloyd, who finished 6th among the U23 men and 20th overall. The Quebec Team’s Mathieu Fortin cruised to a 10th place finish in the Men’s U23 race.

Also posting impressive results in the J1 category were Team Hardwood’s Scott Hill and Nick Monette, who are also Ontario Ski Team members. Hill placed 2nd in the J1 category, and a solid 26th overall, a remarkable result for the 16-year-old. Skiing much of the race in a group of older skiers, Hill was robbed of the J1 victory by a 1-second margin when NSF’s Tyler Smith took advantage of the draft behind Hill to avoid fierce headwinds, then surged past Hill in the closing metres of the race. Hill also finished just 12 seconds behind  Olympic Nordic-combined medalist Todd Lodwick, and within two to three minutes of Newell, Kuzzy & Hamilton.

Hardwood’s Nick Monette took 4th place in J1. Monette raced hard, but declined to tap into his reserves, he said, preferring to save himself for the early season NorAms in British Columbia. It’s also worth noting that neither Hill nor Monette were on especially fast rollerskis, racing on the same Elpex F1s they use in training.

In the OJ class, Hardwood’s Evan Odell and Patrick Monette finished 8th and 10th, respectively. Odell, who relishes this kind of grueling course, declared the race “one of the hardest I’ve ever done in my life. It was all uphill, a headwind almost the entire time, it was really tough. I loved every minute of it.” Asked if he would return, Odell responded in the affirmative, but “maybe with some faster skis next year.” Rounding out the Canadian men’s results, Mathieu Bilodeau (Fondeurs-Laurentides) finished 17th in the Senior Men’s race, while Paul Junique (Fondeurs-Laurentides) finished 5th in the Masters’ competition.

On the women’s side, this year’s race featured a small field of 15 athletes, with 4′ 11” dynamo Specter (US Biathlon) besting 2009 winner Morgan Arritola (USST) and Liz Stephen (USST). While no Canadian senior or junior women entered the race, Canada was well represented in the Masters category, with Brooke Gosling (Team CXC, and formerly AWCA) finishing in 1st place, and 7th overall. Meanwhile, Fresh Air Experience’s Charlotte Knight, who is coached by Marty Hall, came in 2nd among the Masters women. Knight, who suffered a minor crash during warm-up, put on a gutsy solo performance with little aid of the draft enjoyed by many other competitors.

The 2010 edition of the Climb to the Castle race featured the largest contingent of Canadians yet. With Canada’s national teams usually training at altitude at this time of year, the Canucks aren’t likely to contest for the overall victory any time soon, but as the word gets out about the epic nature of the course and the quality of the field, it could turn into a regular destination for development teams from eastern Canada looking for fast competition. Any takers for 2011…?