By Peter Minde
MT VAN HOEVENBERG, Lake Placid — John Steel Hagenbuch of Dartmouth College and Luci Anderson of Team Birkie were the men’s and women’s winners of today’s 10-kilometer interval-start skate race to open SuperTour Finals in Lake Placid, New York.
With temperatures hovering around freezing and intermittent snow flurries throughout the day, 88 men and 45 women set out at 30-second intervals. The format? Two laps of the new five-kilometer World Cup loop at Mount van Hoevenberg.
A layer of new snow covered what was largely machine-made, wet packed powder, dotted with an occasional icy spot. There were also some soft spots on the loop where racers could bog down. The fishhook, a high-speed, sharp left turn at the bottom of a fast downhill leading into the last big climb, was challenging throughout the day.
“It was a bit soft,” Kate Oldham, who finished in fifth place for Montana State University, said of this spot on the course. “The [machine made] snow can become a bit sugary. And it’s very high speed. It’s a tough corner, but it’s good to have a challenging race course.”
podium photo: Peter Minde
Men’s race: John Steel Hagenbuch leads throughout
Steel Hagenbuch was first at each checkpoint along the way, finishing in 21:46.2, with University of Utah’s Joe Davies a healthy 37.5 seconds back, taking second place with a time of 22:23.7. Graham Houtsma of the BSF Pro team came in third, 6.4 seconds behind Davies.
“It was really hard. It’s a super tough course,” Steel Hagenbuch said of his day. “I’d say one of the more World Cup–caliber courses in the U.S.”
“I’ve been struggling with sickness for a month and a half now,” Steel Hagenbuch continued. “A sinus infection that’s lingered. I haven’t done any intensity since NCAAs. Today, given that I’ve been under the weather for such a long time, and haven’t been able to do the best kind of peaking plan, I just wanted to go out and ski as smooth as possible the first lap, let the race come to me.”
“That’s usually what I do in most races. I’m a slower starter who tends to build into distance races especially,” he continued. “I was getting some really favorable splits early on. I was able to execute that plan and build the effort throughout the race.”
Sasha Masson of Canada, skiing for Centre National d’Entraînement Pierre-Harvey (CNEPH), started fast, just nine seconds behind Steel Hagenbuch at the second checkpoint. He may have started too hard, however, as he faded through the 7.5 and 8.75 kilometer checkpoints.
In seventh place at 2.5km, Davies gradually skied himself into second with consistent splits through the second lap. Of his race, Davies said, “It was pretty good considering, after NCAAs, I had some illness, didn’t really train a whole lot. I was trying to just come here and have fun, not really have any expectations going into the race.”
Davies’s said of his race plan: “I kind of knew that I wanted to open pretty conservatively. I know when the shape is not so optimal you have to be really good with your pacing and can’t just go out and smash it. I tried to just have it pace well, some good even splits, and I think I did okay with that.”
On to third in the men’s race:
“I haven’t really raced in a while, so it felt pretty good to see how the body’s feeling and I’d say it went pretty well for me,” Houtsma said. “The first lap, keep it a little more conservative and then really try to drive it home second lap. I think I was able to do that pretty well.”
Seventeenth at the 1.25-kilometer checkpoint, Houtsma gradually turned up the heat. He had the fastest splits at the 8.75-kilometer checkpoint, and beyond to the finish.
podium photo: Greta Anderson
Women’s race: Luci Anderson never threatened en route to clear win
Like Steel Hagenbuch, Anderson was never out of the lead today, winning in 25:20.0. Erica Lavén of the University of Utah was in second place with a time of 25:42.0. Liliane Gagnon, of CNEPH, pulled up third in 25:51.1. Lavén of Sweden in second and Gagnon of Canada in third made for a notably international podium. That said, because this was a SuperTour race, not a national championship, there was no need for separate overall and domestic podiums.
In an email to Nordic Insights, Anderson wrote, “My plan was to just enjoy the race today. I raced here a lot during college,” said the former University of New Hampshire skier, “so I know it’s a tough course, but my plan was to pace the first 2.5k since it’s mostly uphill and then to really go for it on the downhills and the second lap. I knew that if I went out too hard for this uphill section I would blow up on the second lap, but I ended up pacing it well and having energy to finish the race strong.”
“Conditions were fast!” Anderson added. “There were a couple spots with a bit more new snow on top that were slower, but overall I was very happy that the course held up so well and wasn’t too sugary.”
Lavén skied consistent splits to nab second place, continuing a remarkable inaugural year of American racing in which the 20-year-old has finished on the podium in every single FIS race she has done, including U.S. Nationals, multiple SuperTour stops, the RMISA circuit, and NCAA Championships.
Behind her, Gagnon skied strongly as well, throwing down the fastest splits at the last two checkpoints for third place.
Skiing for Montana State University, Kate Oldham finished fifth in 26.21.6. On the day, she said, “It was really tough. It can be difficult to travel a lot and turn around and race. I’m definitely feeling it today. I wanted to focus on staying relaxed and pushing on the grinding part of the course, the medium grades. And then really push the flat and downhill.”
Erin Bianco finished in eighth place for Bridger Ski Foundation in 26:40.4.
“It was fun,” Bianco said. “I haven’t skied this course since maybe a couple of years ago, in the World University Games. It’s brutal. I like all the climbing though. It’s been a while since I’ve raced, so this is a good warmup into the rest of the week.”
On individual versus mass start races, Bianco said, “I feel like individual start, it’s more of the mental game. In a mass start, you can feed off other people and get the draft, and get in a rhythm with others. It’s just you against yourself in the individual start, but there’s an obvious high point on the course. You just have to push as hard as you can up to there, and then just stay on your feet on the technical downhills.”
“I got into one speed the whole time,” Bianco said. “It was hard to find another gear. I was just trying to keep my feet moving through the deeper snow. Especially on the uphills was the key for me today. Some of the downhills were soft, but it was pretty good out there.”
Some skiers scrubbed a bit of speed into the fishhook. There was one crash and one near miss with an impressive recovery.
Trivia fact of the day: Twelfth place man, Ricardo Izquierdo-Berner of Fondeurs Laurentides, won the 2022 Climb to the Castle rollerski race on the Whiteface Mountain toll road, a few miles to the northeast.
Racing continues at Mt van Hoevenberg on Friday with a national championship skate sprint.
Here are some additional photos from today. Click on any image to enlarge.
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great write-up thanks for this read and the pics
For sure. Peter is crushing it out there. Glad to have him on site.