January 25, 2012 (Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN) – The first-ever Tour de Twin Cities kicked off on Saturday with the classic individual start races. The inaugural Tour, also part of the USSA SuperTour series, consists of five races at two venues in the “Twin Cities” of Minneapolis and St. Paul.  At each of the races, skiers earn points towards an overall ranking and a total of $7,900 in prize money per gender.

Like so much of the United States, Minnesota is suffering from a snow drought and had less than an inch of snow on the ground for the start of competition. Fortunately, race directors had a low-snow plan for the Wirth Park venue – a 3-kilometer man-made snow loop with sufficient climbing, descending, and cornering for an international caliber race. Women did two laps and men did three, for a total of six and nine kilometers, respectively.

With Jessie Diggins – virtually undefeated on U.S. soil this season – in Europe competing in World Cups, the other ladies of the SuperTour had a chance to shine. Diggins’ teammate, Jennie Bender, who now makes her home in the Twin Cities as part of CXC, seized the opportunity, for her first SuperTour win of the season.  “I made sure to really work the transitions. Classic is my strong technique so I was gearing for a win to gain points towards next weekend.”

Rosie Brennan (APUNSC/Rossignol) finished second, ten seconds back. Caitlin Gregg, of CXC and Minneapolis, earned the bronze.

In the men’s competition, Matt Liebsch (Team Strong Heart) won by the narrowest of margins, 4-tenths of a second over Team Homegrown’s Sylvan Ellefson (SSC Vail). Liebsch had the opportunity to capitalize on the crowd’s energy. Since he was raised in the northern portion of the Twin Cities, and skied for the University of Minnesota Ski Club, Liebsch was the emotional favorite. CXC’s Karl Nygren, who also grew up in the Twin Cities, did his hometown proud by finishing third.

Day 2 – 10/15km Skate Individual Start
On Sunday, the second day of the Tour De Twin Cities, it was another case of hometown favorites making good. The individual start skate event utilized the 3-kilometer man-made snow loop at Minneapolis’ Wirth Park.  In order to keep the traffic under control and minimize lap counting, race distances were cut from 20 to 15 kilometers for men and 15 to 10 kilometers for women.

Local hero Liebsch started the day with a target on his back after winning day one by less than a second over Ellefson. Despite the pressure, Liebsch came up on top again, this time beating out Tad Elliott (USST /Team Homegrown) by 12 seconds. Ellefson failed to avenge his day one loss, and instead skied to third. Notably, Brian Gregg of CXC, finished fourth for the second day in a row earning valuable points towards the overall tour classification.

Overall it was a solid day of racing for the Greggs, who live near the venue, as Caitlin, Brian’s better half, showed poise weaving through the lap traffic, to earn the women’s victory by over 15 seconds. Though happy with her win, she really delighted in competing at home: “Racing in front of a home town, on courses right out your door is always a ‘winning situation.’ No matter how I finished, I was psyched to be a part of an event that brought the community together either through racing, organizing, volunteering or spectating! It was a beautiful weekend to be a skier in Minneapolis!”

Chelsea Holmes (Sun Valley SEF), who finished just off the podium on day one, had a better result, finishing second behind Gregg. Maria Stuber, a long-time Midwestern competitor, now racing for Craftsbury, skied to third.

Results

Day 1 Women’s 6km CL HERE.
Day 1 Men’s 9km CL HERE.

Day 2 Women’s 10km FR HERE.
Day 2 Men’s 15km FR HERE.

USSA SuperTour Standings HERE.