March 29, 2011 (Sun Valley, ID) – Alaska’s Kikkan Randall (US Ski Team/APUNSC) took the lead in the first stage of the Spring Series SuperTour winning the 2.8km free-technique Prologue. Randall had a substantial margin of more than five seconds per km (16.4 seconds) over teammate, second-placed Holly Brooks. Jesse Diggins (CXC) continues to turn head taking third, at 19.3 seconds. With bonuses of 15, 10 and 5 seconds for the top three places, Randall will start the second stage with 31.4 seconds in hand.

Simi Hamilton (US Ski Team/Sun Valley SEF) had nearly as dominant a performance as Randall, topping Kris Freeman (US Ski Team/Waterville Valley) by 9.3 seconds over 3.3km, giving him a lead in the final mini-tour standings of 14.3 seconds. CXC’s Tad Elliott was third at +10.6 in front of a tightly packed group that included Canucks Drew Goldsack (Canadian NST/AWCA) at +11.3 and Brent McMurtry (Canadian NST) at +16.9, with Noah Hoffman (US Ski Team/Aspen Valley SC) in sixth (+17.8). Behind Hoffman the next eight skiers were within 5.1 seconds. The US’s top sprinter, Andy Newell (US Ski Team/Stratton Mt School) was seventh.

The South Bench climb was removed from the course for the Prologue and replaced with the Hammer – a solid A-climb with a fast twisting descent into a 180-degree turn at the bottom before heading up Coaches’ Climb, the last major ascent on the course.

Hamilton, who represents the Sun Valley SEF ODT, had never before raced on these trails: “I’ve skied at Galena a fair amount, but yesterday was my first day out here (at Lake Creek). It was awesome. It lived up to my expectations.”

He was quite pleased with the result. Although he has gained most of his palmares as a sprinter, he said he’s been working on his endurance to improve in distance events. And this was more of an endurance event than a sprint.

“I think my fitness has come a long way this year on the distance side of things, but I still have that top-end speed as a sprinter, which helped a lot today. I skied this race almost like a distance race. I built into it, and tried to ski big, with a lot of power.”

Talking to SkiTrax about next season Hamilton confided that he isn’t sure if he’ll be doing the Tour de Ski next winter. He said he’ll evaluate after the fall, but if he’s ready… “When it comes around next year I’d love to jump into it.” He still thinks Wednesday’s 15Km will be a big test, describing the distance as “hit or miss” for him.

Is he looking forward to the final stage hill climb on Dollar Mountain? “I’m psyched, really psyched . . . for the ski down!” More seriously, he said he enjoyed the hill climb at last year’s Spring Series, and thinks there will be a large crowd lining the hill to cheer on the skiers.

Freeman was in about fifth place two-thirds of the way up the Hammer, but said that he gained back four to five seconds on the rest of the field just on that climb, and also gained over the last uphill and the final kilometer – which he was able to do because of his pacing plan.

According to Freeman, he’s still learning how to ski prologue races. This was his third prologue event – after the Tour de Ski and the World Cup finals – and his approach is evolving.

“The first one I did I just went as hard as I could at the start, which lasted about halfway into the race, after that it was just a pain-fest. Today I was focusing on doing the last uphill (Coaches Climb, a smaller uphill than Hammer) really well, and I think that’s where I put some time in on a lot of the other skiers. That paid off well. You gotta pace it. It’s like running 3,000 meters – you can’t go out like it’s a 400.”

Freeman felt like his effort equated to a World Cup top 30 result, and he rated Hamilton’s performance as a top-15. He was effusive in his praise for Hamilton and his performance. According to Kris, this was clearly his (Freeman’s) best effort in a prologue, especially on the heels of a 50km (72 hours earlier).

Tad Elliott, competing in his first prologue, was at the other end of the spectrum. When asked whether he paced or went for it right out of the gate, he said he went flat out from the gun. “I knew I was having a good one in the beginning, because I felt like I was gliding really well. I was gaining on Drew [Goldsack] and got a split that I was even with Simi at the top of the hill. But I lost time from there to the finish.”

“I put the hammer down right from the get-go. I knew it was (only) eight minutes, and I knew it was a hard course, but I thought I wouldn’t blow up in eight minutes, but I did blow up. I really liked the big climb . . . but liked it less at the top than at the bottom.”

The one-second margin between him and Freeman was a “close but oh so far” amount. Elliott said he’s never beaten Freeman in a distance race, and that’s a big goal for him.

In the women’s competition Randall was strong throughout the course, and had a big margin at the finish. “The course skied really nice – better than I thought it would. It was a good mix of a lot of gradual, some good uphills and fast downhills,” Randall told SkiTrax in a post-race interview.

When asked if she would be going for the premes in Wednesday’s mass-start she was non-committal, saying only that, “It will be fun to mix it up.”

Brooks, a self-described “generalist” was reasonably satisfied with her effort in the short (eight-minute) effort. “Nobody likes to be 16 seconds behind, but if it’s 16 seconds to someone like Kikkan, I guess that’s how it has to be.”

She said she skied steady but “just couldn’t find the top end,” but determined that that feeling was a result of coming to altitude.

“You know, it’s funny, you’re out there, and I was like ‘Oh I just can’t find that top end,’ but I think that’s just how altitude feels. You don’t feel your best, you just kind of struggle, and it feels okay, but you have to remember that relative to the rest of the field, you’re probably feeling okay, and it can still be really good.”

Jesse Diggins (CXC) almost caught Nicole DeYong (Sun Valley SEF), who started 30 seconds in front of her. Diggins said her skis were fast – a two-edged sword, keeping her right on the edge on the descent of Hammer but overall it was “It was a good day.”

She added that she is very much looking forward to the Dollar Mountain hill climb stage on Saturday. She is the only skier thus queried so far who sounds jazzed for it.

The starting positions in the start grid for Wednesday’s mass start 15km for men (3x5km) and 10Km for women (3×3.3km) will be assigned based upon today’s results.

Brooks commented, “Tomorrow will be interesting with a three-lap race (3×3.3km). I’m a little curious to see how that downhill skis in a mass-start. It could be really exciting. I hope there will be a big group of coaches with some extra poles there (on the corner at the bottom of the descent from Hammer), and maybe an extra ski or two.”

Hamilton is looking forward to the mini-tour format as a test. “…I hope so (that I can stay up near the front in the mini-tour). The 15km is kind of a hit-or-miss distance. If it [the snow] sets up really nice tonight and it’s fast, those conditions tend to treat me a little better. We’ll see. I’m going to go out and have fun and ski a smart race.  If things go well, I’ll still be up there [near the top of the standings].”

Live timing results for Women HERE.
Live timing results for Men HERE.