By Gavin Kentch
The richest prize purse in American rollerski racing last summer, by a healthy margin, could be found in the Shoreline Events rollerski festival, a two-day series of races held in and around Rice Lake, Wisconsin, in July 2023. The top finishers in a classic distance race and skate sprint took home a combined $11,000 last year. (I suspect that the second-deepest prize purse went to the Jim Bridger rollerski races in Bozeman, which doled out $1,500; that is good, actually, but is also less than $11,000.)
The Shoreline Events race series, which began in 2021, is back for its fourth year this Friday and Saturday. Friday morning brings mass start classic races on an out-and-back section of road a few miles east of town; Saturday afternoon sees skate sprints along the shore of the lake, in the center of the Greater Rice Lake Metropolitan Area. You can find Friday’s course map here, and Saturday’s course map here.
Big winners in the 2023 race were Graham Ritchie and Julian Smith of Canada in the men’s races, and Margie Freed and Deedra Irwin of the Midwest in the women’s races.
According to a start list shared from race director Bjorn Hanson, who with his wife Kristin runs Out There ski shop in Rice Lake and is an enthusiastic cheerleader for American (and Canadian!) rollerski racing, both Ritchie and Smith will be back to defend their titles this year.
Likely challengers on the men’s side include much of the current roster of Team Birkie, notably Zak Ketterson, Christopher Kalev, Paul Schommer, Henry Snider, and Aidan Ripp. Plus also Trey Jones, of Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club and the University of Colorado. Ketterson and Jones are on this year’s U.S. Ski Team.
The women’s field is slightly wider open this year, with neither Freed nor Irwin in attendance. (Irwin is currently at a biathlon training camp in Livigno, but recently took to Instagram to urge you to attend.) The distaff side of Team Birkie brings Mariel Pulles to the start line, along with Gretta Scholz and Luci Anderson. Biathletes Amanda Kautzer and Dolcie Tanguay are also in the field.
Roughly thirty juniors from this year’s Central REG Camp, being held this week at the Birkie Trailhead, will compete in Saturday’s sprints. There are a combined 97 athletes on the start list.
[read more: Margie Freed, Deedra Irwin, Graham Ritchie, and Julian Smith Get Paid at Third Annual Shoreline Sprints]
Racing kicks off tomorrow morning with the men’s 15km at 8:30 a.m. and the women’s 15km at 9:30 a.m. Juniors will race a 4.5km course, with men starting at 10:45 a.m. and women at 10:55 a.m.
On Saturday, the sprint qual is at 2:30 p.m., followed by quarterfinals at 3:45, semis at roughly 5:05 p.m., and finals at roughly 5:40 p.m. Awards ceremony to follow shortly after.
More info: results | spectator guide and race details
You’re reading this on Nordic Insights, one man’s labor of love dedicated to publicizing American nordic skiing. Last season’s GoFundMe is literally the only reason why I turned a profit in year one of Nordic Insights, and in turn the only reason why there is a year two of Nordic Insights for you to be reading now: I was okay with working for very little money to get this love letter to American cross-country skiing off the ground, but I didn’t want to lose money for the privilege of doing so. If you would like to support what remains a brutally shoestring operation, this season’s GoFundMe may be found here. Thank you for your consideration, and, especially, for reading.
