November 17, 2010 (Fairbanks, Alaska) – The Goldstream Sports Tour de Ski/Fairbanks will begin with a Friday evening prologue under the lights at Birch Hill, beginning at 5:00PM. Women will go 2.75Km and men will go 3Km, starting at 15-second intervals, in free technique. The course will be similar to the one used at the 2009 USSA Team Sprint National Championships, although the course has been improved this summer to eliminate sidehills, and a little bit of vertical has been added at the high point on the course.

Time bonuses of 30, 20 and 10 seconds will be awarded to the first three skiers in the overall rankings for men and women, and there will also be time bonuses within some classes. Time bonuses are awarded because in such a short race, it is very difficult for skiers to create big time gaps, so the bonuses reward the placings.

Saturday’s race will be the first race in the 15th Annual Flint Hills Town Race Series, the Fairbanks Youth Sports Season Opener, a mass-start, free technique race of 8Km for men and 6Km for women. This race in recent years has drawn upwards of 400 entries in all age classes, including all the Region VI schools and many Mat-Su area schools, as well as several top juniors and seniors from Anchorage.

Start positions for Saturday’s race will be based upon how skiers finished in Friday night’s event, with the highest-ranking skiers from Friday’s race getting the best start positions. There may be some mid-race time bonuses awarded at hill tops and/or sprint lines, and there will also be time bonuses awarded at the finish. Similar to short races such as Friday night’s event, it can be difficult to get a lot of separation in mass-start races, so the bonuses will reward the winners and top finishers, even if the finish is very close.

Sunday’s concluding and decisive race will be a 5Km and 10Km classic event on the 5Km “Three Hills” course, using the pursuit format for starting. Start positions and start intervals for this race will be based upon the race rankings after two days of competition. The leader in the competition will start first. The second ranked skier will start second, etc. If the second-ranked skier is 21 seconds behind in the rankings, he or she will start 21 seconds behind the first-ranked skier, etc. The first skier across the line is the winner of the Tour de Ski.

It might sound a little complicated, but it’s really not. If you have ever followed the Tour de France, even casually, you should have no problem figuring out what’s going on in the Goldstream Sports Tour de Ski/Fairbanks. For the skiers, it makes for a very interesting competition, because there is a lot going on and there are lots of different ways to excel in the event. Goldstream Sports will provide the prizes.

This event will also serve as the Alaska Nordic Cup, the annual competition between the Alaska Nanook Ski Team and the UAA Seawolves. For the UAA v. UAF competition, only the “raw” times will be used — no bonuses will be counted in the Alaska Nordic Cup.

It should be an exciting weekend, and a great way to start off the season for any Alaska ski racer, be they a local talent, a club skier, or a national-level competitor. For more information

on the Tour de Ski, contact Chief of Competition John Estle at sportalaska@gci.net