By Gavin Kentch
The country’s most competitive rollerski racing of the year, the Schützenski Festival that overlaps with the U.S. Ski Team’s annual fall Park City Camp, got underway with the 10-kilometer classic interval-start race earlier Friday.
Athletes competed on matched Hjul rollerskis over three laps of what Strava suggests is a roughly 3-kilometer loop (find the Strava segment “Schutzenski 3.1km lap” for more. Good luck cracking *that* segment top-10.) It was not warm; the season’s first snow graced the nearby Wasatch Mountains above the course. Nearly all athletes competed in tights and long-sleeve tops, if not a one-piece race suit. Jessie Diggins, who typically runs one-plus season warmer than her peers, was the only athlete, in photos I received, in both shorts and a t-shirt, though even she was wearing her eponymous winter gloves.
After three laps around the course, Rosie Brennan (USST/APU) led the way for the women in 25:17.8. Diggins (USST/SMS) was second, 19.7 seconds back, with Tilde Bångman (University of Colorado) third, 53.5 seconds back. There was a healthy contingent of foreign-national RMISA athletes present. Your unofficial American podium was therefore rounded out by Kendall Kramer (USST/Alaska Fairbanks) in seventh overall (+1:57.9).
For the men, Luke Jager took the win in 22:46.8, with U.S. Ski Team and APU teammate Gus Schumacher second, 12.7 seconds back. Canadian Rémi Drolet of SMS was third, 33.5 seconds back. Peter Wolter of Sun Valley, fourth in 43.9, was the third American in the field.
APU skiers claimed three of the six overall podium spots on the day, for what it is worth (some but not all that much imho; October racing on rollerskis is not necessarily highly predictive of, say, February racing on snow. And I say this as a massive fan of the three APU athletes named above.)
The top U20 athlete in the women’s field was Nina Schamberger of the University of Utah, 10th overall (+2:28.3). In the men’s field, Cole Flowers of the University of Alaska Fairbanks was the top U20 skier. Flowers was 15th overall, 1:46.7 back.
There were 45 starters in the women’s race and 66 in the men’s.
Rollerski racing in SoHo concludes tomorrow with a skate sprint, qualifying then full rounds. You can find start lists for that here if you would like. Scheduled starters in tomorrow’s race who were on a World Cup podium last year include, in bib number order, Jessie Diggins, Rosie Brennan, Gus Schumacher, and Ben Ogden. There are a lot of good skiers in the U.S.
Photo dump? Photo dump (click on any photo to enlarge and for captions).
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, last season’s GoFundMe may be found here. Thank you for your consideration, and, especially, for reading.
