Sunday morning brought a 27-kilometer mass-start skate race, aka the Craftsbury Marathon skate race with a protected start for the SuperTour field, to close out Period 3 of the 2023/2024 SuperTour season. Alayna Sonnesyn took the win for the women, and John Steel Hagenbuch for the men.
It was largely a day for traditional New England powers at the top of the results sheet; of the six overall podium spots available across two genders, Dartmouth and the hometown Craftsbury Green Racing Project took two apiece, and SMS one. Michael Earnhart, of APU, was the lone interloper.
There was a similar theme in both races, an unsurprising one in high-end mass start racing that saw a winning time under 64 minutes: Spend much of the race chilling in a large pack, eventually pull away approaching the end. In the men’s race, Steel Hagenbuch (USST/Dartmouth) came through the halfway point in 13th overall, but also only four seconds off the lead, comfortably ensconced near the back of a 14-athlete lead pack. In the women’s race, the lead pack at the halfway mark had already dwindled to six.
Steel Hagenbuch’s margin of victory at the finish, which he reached in 1:03:56.4, was ultimately 4.2 seconds, ahead of Michael Earnhart (USST/APU) in second. Steel Hagenbuch’s Dartmouth teammate Luke Allan was another 0.9 seconds back in third, 5.1 seconds back of Steel Hagenbuch. Filling out the six-deep SuperTour podium were Garrett Butts of APU (+5.5), Thomas O’Harra of APU (+10.0), and Braden Becker of Craftsbury (+14.9).
Margins were larger on the women’s side, where Sonnesyn (SMS) crossed the finish line first in 1:12:04. Margie Freed of Craftsbury was 24.8 seconds back in second, and in turn 10+ seconds ahead of Craftsbury teammate Alex Lawson in third. They were followed by Mariah Bredal of Sun Valley in fourth (+1:11), Sarah Goble of BSF in fifth (+1:30), and Annika Landis, representing the Enjoy Winter Factory Team, in sixth (+1:37).
Both overall winners were pleased with their race on Sunday, while also looking ahead to what’s next.
“I’m really happy with both of my races this past weekend,” Sonnesyn wrote to Nordic Insights. “The body is feeling really great physically, and I feel like the head is in a good spot too. Definitely hoping to continue on this trajectory towards positive distance racing and I’m looking forward to the opportunities that I have in Canmore next and beyond.”
“I was mainly hoping to get another quality intensity session today in preparation for U23s, which I depart for tomorrow morning,” echoed Steel Hagenbuch in comments written on Sunday (i.e., he is in transit today).
“It was a really fun race!” noted Steel Hagenbuch. “The pack stayed together for basically the whole race, and it was pretty hectic with a lot of crashes — including a couple of my teammates taking each other out… I was expecting it to stay together about as much as it did.”
“I was happy with how I felt and executed my race plan,” he added. “Craftsbury is relatively close to Dartmouth, so we drove over the morning of the race and ripped it. It was really cool to see my teammates ski so well today — especially Luke Allan who had a great race and got his first SuperTour podium. He’s definitely in a good spot for U23s and his World Cup debut in Minneapolis. Despite the fact that he’s racing for Canada, it’s going to be a really fun trip together.”
Next up for Sonnesyn, as noted, is racing in Canmore a week from Thursday. Steel Hagenbuch will go crush in Planica first at U23s, then return stateside for the 10km skate at Wirth. You can find a full list of World Junior/World U23 Championships starters here and here, and a full list of Canmore and Wirth starters here.
— Gavin Kentch
