February 08, 2016 (Craftsbury, Vermont) – Erika Flowers (Stratton Mountain School T2) delivered a victory in the women’s 10km classic on day 2 of the USSA Supertour in Craftsbury, Vermont while Kris Freeman of Team Freebird double-poled his way to victory on skate skis in the men’s 10km classic with a 6.8-second margin over Cole Morgan of University of Vermont.

Women's 10km CL podium (l-r) Kern, Flowers, Guinney © courtesy of Julia Kern

Morgan’s UVM teammate, Joergen Grav of Norway, finished third. In the women’s race, Julia Kern of USST/SMST2 earned her first SuperTour podium in a tie with Liz Guinney of Craftsbury Green Racing Project for second place.

Flowers took the lead after the third of four laps to take home her first-ever Supertour win and was surprised at her victory as she considers herself a stronger skater and had her eyes set on yesterday’s skate 5km race. She’s been on the “up and up” and making steady improvements after breaking her elbow this fall despite missing out on valuable speed and strength training. Flowers said she considered double poling the relatively flat artificial track, but opted out. “I lost some strength and confidence in my arms and double poling in particular,” she said, “I have been working really hard to re-build strength and double pole technique but I also know that my strength right now is striding and I decided to capitalize on that.”

The race leader after the first 2.5km lap, Chelsea Holmes (APU), made a different calculation and decided to double pole on skate skis. “I am very happy with my decision to double pole,” she said, “I don’t really know if it was faster, but I think so.” Holmes dropped to fourth place eventually, but the performance was tantalizingly close to the first women’s classic Supertour podium raced on skate skis. “Honestly its the coolest thing I’ve done all season,” she said, “For myself and my teammates [who also double poled] I am so proud.”

Men's 10km CL podium (l-r) Morgan, Freeman, Grav © courtesy of Kris Freeman

In the men’s race, double poling was almost a foregone conclusion. “My best classic skis were far slower than my skate skis,” said race winner  Freeman who caught eventual third-place finisher Grav on their second lap and skied they rest of the race together, eventually swallowing up current Supertour leader Eric Packer of APUNSC as well. Freeman finished in 23:30.

Despite his victory, Freeman was critical of courses that allow double poling. “I think that if a classic race is won by double poling, the course should never be used for a classic race again,” he said in an email, “I don’t believe that double pole only racing is a positive move for the sport…that being said I thought Craftsbury and Stowe Nordic did a great job of hosting the event.”

Morgan of UVM, usually a stronger sprinter, showed his distance chops by skiing into the race conservatively. He sat in seventh after the first lap, but moved up to second by the end, while Grav, a Norwegian NCAA racer for UVM moved up from 14^th on his first lap to third after catching the tails of Freeman.

Women’s results here
Men’s results here