By Gerry Furseth
It would be an understatement to say that the weather has been unkind to Canadian skiers so far this season. After a challenging start to the winter from coast to coast, flagship Québec ski area Mont-Sainte-Anne (MSA) received 100mm (4”) of rain on December 18th, followed by warm weather that prevented snowmaking.
It was therefore a surprise to find this message from the organizing committee in my inbox in advance of crucial trials races long planned for early January:
“Thanks to the participation of parents, coaches, and athletes from both regional ski clubs (amounting to over 400 hours of volunteering), and thanks to the work done by the groomers of Mont-Sainte-Anne before this rain, the races will be able to take place with relatively few modifications.”
The two local clubs moved snow, another 130 volunteers put in over 2,000 hours of work to host, and the result was:
– 350 racers had good conditions to race on,
– teams were selected for World Junior and U23 World Championships,
– final selections were made for Canadian teams for World Cup Period 3, and
– all the usual joy of a Continental Cup event with a deep Canadian field.
When you are thanking volunteers (we all do this every event, right?), include Club Nordique Mont-Sainte-Anne and Skibec Nordique in your good thoughts, because there would not have been safe and fair racing at Mont-Sainte-Anne in the first week of January without all of that snow-moving effort.
Put another way, before snow-moving work commenced in earnest, the trails at Mont-Sainte-Anne looked like this:
Then this happened (click any photo here to enlarge):
Somehow, by the time the races occurred, the trails looked like this:
For all my worry about conditions, the local skiers had more faith in their ski community. Sasha Masson, raised in Whitehorse but now in his third season with the MSA-based Centre National d’Entraînement Pierre-Harvey (CNEPH), said it well:
“I believed that even with the little amount of snow, the MSA organizing committee would pull it off and that they did! It was a great trials and the volunteers were fantastic.”
Canadian ski fans will remember Frédéric Touchette as a racer, but it is as a MSA coach that he schooled me on volunteer achievement.
“Normally, the cross-country skiing season at Mont-Sainte-Anne extends from late November to April,” Touchette said. “However, unfortunately, rain and mild temperatures just before Christmas significantly diminished the snow depth on the trails, and there has been no snowfall since. But we were confident that we could still hold our races.”
Thanks to this winter’s western drought and eastern heat, many athletes were having their first race of this season at these trials. To add to the pressure, athletes with aspirations for national selection had to deliver top finishes as most selections were based entirely on this weekend.
The action started on Thursday with free technique sprints. Fifteen U20 women and eleven U20 men qualified for the open heats, which put all the selection interest in that category.
Liliane Gagnon won the final here, clear ahead of Sonjaa Schmidt and U20 Alison Mackie. Gagnon, racing on her home trails, used her local knowledge to make a decisive gap going into the twisty downhill to the finish.
First year senior Xavier McKeever edged out Léo Grandbois and Sasha Masson in a tight finish in the men’s sprint final.
Saturday brought a classic interval-start 10km with straightforward waxing conditions: a relief to the techs, and likely the athletes too.
Schmidt was the first starter of the top women and took the win. U20 Alison Mackie and Jasmine Drolet filled out the podium, 3.1 and 7.3 seconds behind.
McKeever won again, this time by a more comfortable 2.6 seconds ahead of Max Hollmann and 18.9 ahead of Tom Stephen, who both started later.
Sunday wrapped up with a 20km mass start free. McKeever completed a successful weekend with his third win, outsprinting Hollman and Derek Deuling.
Schmidt collected a second win and third podium of the week, outsprinting Mackie and Gagnon.
Full results from all trials races
Successful decision-making
“These were my first races where there were standardized waxing protocols (everyone was on the same glide wax),” Amelia Wells explained to Nordic Insights. “Therefore, ski selection was crucial, particularly on the sprint day when the course was soft and there was a lot of new snow.”
The MSA courses are both old school and not. The sprint and distance courses have climbing zones and technical descending zones. Add in a high-speed arrival at the finish straight, and you have a tactically and technically challenging venue.
Here’s Wells again:
“On the classic day, getting the right amount of wax was important since the course had a significant amount of climbing at the beginning, which required grip, and flowing downhill terrain in the second half of the course, which required good glide.”
This dynamic is a little reminiscent of Val di Fiemme: steeper climbing sections where the winners are focussed on saving energy and a long finish that requires very fast glide. And, a lot of different ideas about when to make that decisive move.
“It was super nice to be in MSA for trials,” said now-local Sasha Masson, “as the house where I stay is three minutes away and I got to host a bunch of Canadian skiers there and have a great week.”
Team naming
It wouldn’t be trials without selections and first up is U20 World Championships in Planica, Slovenia, next month. The juniors selected for this team were:
Alison Mackie, Edmonton Nordic Ski Club, AB – Alpine Insurance Alberta World Cup Academy (AIAWCA)
Tory Audet, Chelsea Nordiq, QC – AIAWCA
Clara Hegan, Nakkertok Nordic, ON – National Team Development Centre (NTDC) Thunder Bay
Alexandra Luxmoore, Revelstoke Nordic, BC – AIAWCA
Sabine Comeau, Canmore Nordic, AB – Centre National d’Entraînement Pierre-Harvey (CNEPH)
Alexandre Cormier, Club Fondeurs–Laurentides, QC – CNEPH
Raleigh Tarte, Kimberley Nordic, BC
Finn Redman, Telemark Nordic, BC
Garrett Siever, Telemark Nordic, BC
Samuel Picard, Club Fondeurs–Laurentides, QC – CNEPH
In U23, the team is:
Sonjaa Schmidt, Whitehorse Cross Country Ski Club, YT – AIAWCA
Liliane Gagnon, Skibec/Léviski La Balade, QC – CNEPH
Jasmine Drolet, Black Jack Ski Club, BC
Amelia Wells, Strathcona Nordic Ski Club, BC – AIAWCA
Jasmine Lyons, Nakkertok Nordic, ON
Max Hollmann, Big Thunder Nordic Ski Club, ON – AIAWCA
Sasha Masson, Whitehorse Cross Country Ski Club, YT – CNEPH
Luke Allan, Nakkertok Nordic, ON
Tom Stephen, Foothills Nordic Ski Club, AB – AIAWCA
Derek Deuling, Whitehorse Cross Country Ski Club, YT
The most noticeable absence among the U23 athletes is 21-year-old Xavier McKeever, who had won all three trials races. Which brings us to the final portion of selections, for World Cup Period 3 selections.
Nordiq Canada had pre-selected 11 athletes for the full slate of Period 3 races, in both Oberhof and Goms. In addition, Stephen, Deuling, and Drolet earned a start at the World Cup in Goms on their way to U23s.
The original 11 athletes selected are:
Antoine Cyr, Skinouk, CNEPH, QC
Katherine Stewart-Jones, Nakkertok Nordic, AIAWCA, QC
Xavier McKeever, Foothills Nordic Ski Club, AIAWCA, AB
Olivier Léveillé, Club de ski de fond Orford, CNEPH, QC
Julien Locke, Black Jack Ski Club, BC
Sonjaa Schmidt, Whitehorse Cross Country Ski Club, AIAWCA, YT
Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt, Club Fondeurs–Laurentides, AIAWCA, QC
Liliane Gagnon, Skibec, CNEPH, QC
Sasha Masson, Whitehorse Cross Country Ski Club, CNEPH, YT
Max Hollmann, Big Thunder Nordic Ski Club, AIAWCA, ON
Katie Weaver, Hollyburn Cross Country Ski Club, AIAWCA, BC
Once again, no real surprises in the selections. All the selected skiers have a history and trajectory suggesting they will get there one year. There are some younger skiers who took a dip in their trajectory and missed selection this year, but this is pretty typical for younger skiers.
