January 05, 2011 (Rumford, ME) – Lars Flora brought APU another victory making it three golds so far and then some for the stalwart crew from Alaska as he put the hammer down to win the men’s 15km classic at the 2011 US XC Nationals. Winter is definitely back at Black Mountain as light snow fell on a hard packed track under gray skies. Flora kept the APU flag waving following Sadie Bjornsen’s dominant win earlier in the day in the women’s 10km and was followed 20+ seconds later by team mate James Southam for 1-2 APU punch with Dave Norris (UAF) 3rd on the podium.

Lars Flora quotes

On winning US Nationals
Yea, today was really good, I was very happy with the race. After the sprint I was a little disappointed with my final result – the qualifier was amazing – so I knew I had it in me. Today I went out in the first two laps and just pushed the pedal. I was a little worried out there that I might blow up. But I had really good splits on Noah [Hoffman], and I was building my lead and James [Southam] and I were pretty much staying even. I’ll tell you James came on pretty hard at the end. But I am so happy with the race. Great skis, great course and really impressed with the course and all the people that worked on it.

On the Worlds….
World championships are my major goal for this season. The last two years have been pretty hard on me. I had some health issues and my biggest goal for this year is to race from November to March healthy and have every weekend solid. It seems now that each week keeps getting better. It makes me very confident.

Full results HERE.