November 23, 2011 (West Yellowstone, MT) – The USSA Supertour kicked off to a great start today in West Yellowstone with a series of individual sprints in both classic and skate technique. The Sprint Showdown featured a unique format in which racers started individually in a 1km classic sprint showdown, followed 60 minutes later by a skate sprint on the same course.

Skiers were met with excellent course conditions for both the classic and skate race. The snow was new and angelically white as the West has received snowfall so far every day of the week. Tracks on the course were firm but not hard-packed giving racers a fast course that was easy to navigate.

The men’s race featured top racers with World Cup experience. American Torin Koos (Bridger Ski Foundation/Rossignol) and Canada’s Phil Widmer (Alberta World Cup Academy), both seasoned veterans, looked very strong in both the classic and skate sprints. Of all the men Koos has had both the most experience and successful career as a sprint specialist pulling off a second place finish in the classic sprint with Michael Sinnott (Sun Valley SEF) taking first just 0.35 seconds ahead of him. Widmer rounded out the top three at 1.12 seconds behind Sinnott.

“It was fun, it was fast, it was exhausting,” Sinnot joked after the race in an interview with SkiTrax. “It’s a pretty tough race format with that sprint double-header … with this course you need to make sure you have a strong finish, it ends on a really steep kick and it’s easy to blow out and stagger across the finish line losing a lot of time.”

Joining Widmer was a small group of Alberta World Cup Academy (AWCA) teammates, including World U23 sprint finalist Jess Cockney, who finished 5th, Gerard Ganier (15th) and Matt Wylie (20th).

In the men’s skate race it was collegiate skier Reid Pletcher from the University of Colorado who won the event with an time of 3:22.95 just a mere 0.25 seconds ahead of second place finisher Michael Sinnot of Sun Valley. Rounding out the top three was Matt Gelso also of Sun Valley. AWCA’s Cockney notched another 5th, while Widmer dropped to 7th, with teammates Garnier and Wylie finishing 17th and 19th respectively.

“This was my first time racing in West Yellowstone,” Cockney told SkiTrax by email today, “and after checking out the trails yesterday for only about an hour or so I was pretty apprehensive as to how my body would respond to the altitude and the finishing climb that was really the focal point of the course. The first qualifier was the classic and I wasn’t warmed up enough to really burn any speed on course but the skate qualifier was a much better feeling and I felt like I was much more aggressive throughout the race my second time around. I usually aim to ski my best in the heats on sprint days so only racing qualifiers was a strange thing for me.”

“As for conditions here,” Cockney continued, “it really couldn’t get any better, it was sunny and around -5C for the second qualifier with lots of snow on course that made for firm classic and skate tracks.’

The women’s field also featured racers with strong past performances including Olympians Morgan Arritola (Sun Valley SEF), Caitlin Gregg [Compton] (CXC Team), as well as the young phenom Jesse Diggins (CXC Team). Diggins did not disappoint snagging first in the classic sprint with a 0.76 second lead over teammate Jennie Bender. Nicole Deyong (Sun Valley SEF) was the third-place finisher at 1.23 seconds back.

“The tracks were so fast and so smooth,” Diggins told SkiTrax in a post-race interview, “the skis were so fast I barely knew what to do with them, I was just trying to stay coordinated.”

“I was super nervous before these first races of the season, like I always am,” she continued, “it was really good to just get ’em out of the way, get ’em done, and now just roll into the season knowing a little more about how I’m racing this year.”

In the skate sprint Diggins of was again the odds-on favorite with her overall strong results from last year and her victory at last year’s US Nationals, however it was Gregg who the stole show besting Diggins by over five seconds and beating third place finisher Kate Fitzgerald (APU) by over 12 seconds.

After the race Gregg told SkiTrax that “it was a difficult course to start off the year, with a big uphill the whole way and then a really solid wall at the end, but I tried topic it really well and I think I came through.”

Heidi Widmer (AWCA) was one of the few Canadian woman to make the trip to West Yellowstone. Normally a talented sprinter, Widmer could manage no better than 16th in the morning classic sprint, but recovered later in the day to finish 6th in the skate sprint.

Friday will feature the skate distance race followed by a distance classic race on Saturday. Conditions should continue to be excellent as the weather in West Yellowstone is predicted to continue to stay fabulous.

Classic Sprint Results HERE.
Freestyle Sprint Results HERE.