Last Updated: 06.Jan.2018

With the start of the New Year, the GRP skiers are back underway with their race season. Five of the GRP skiers are in Anchorage, AK, and recently completed the first two races of US Cross Country Championships. Meanwhile Ida Sargent competed in the first three (or four, depending how you count it) stages of the FIS Tour de Ski in Switzerland and Germany.

FIS Tour de Ski
The first stage of this year’s TdS was a freestyle sprint on December 30 in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. Sargent squeaked into the qualifying rounds in 30th place. She fought back to finish 4th in her quarterfinal heat and move up to 20th overall on the day. The following day she raced a 10k classic individual, where she placed 30th, scoring more World Cup distance points. She placed 55th in the 10k freestyle pursuit on January 1. The Tour then moved to Oberstdorf, Germany, where organizers planned to hold a classic sprint. Through pouring rain, sideways wind, and lightning, they ran a women’s qualifier where Sargent had a great race, placing 9th. However, a few minutes later a tree fell on the course and forced organizers to call off the rest of the day, so the result didn’t count towards the Tour or World Cup points. Sargent ended the Tour in Oberstdorf, and is now training in Ramsau, Austria ahead of the Dresden World Cup sprints on Janaury 13 and 14. Results from the Tour de Ski are available on FIS-ski.com.

US Cross Country Ski Championships
Up in Anchorage, the skiers kicked off US Nationals with a freestyle distance race and freestyle sprint. In the women’s race on January 3, Caitlin Patterson skied to a convincing victory in the 10k individual start freestyle. Kaitlynn Miller placed 12th and Liz Guiney took 17th. In the men’s 15k, Adam Martin skied into the top ten with a 10th place finish, followed closely by Ben Lustgarten in 13th. Two days later the skiers took on a freestyle sprint. The three GRP women all qualified for the heats, Patterson in 12th, Miller in 14th, and Guiney in 25th. Lustgarten qualified in the men’s sprint in 14th, and Martin was 82nd. In the women’s quarterfinals, both Patterson and Miller won their respective heats, while Guiney placed 5th in hers and ended the day in 24th place. Both Patterson and Miller also won their respective semifinals and went to the A Final, where Patterson took another victory, and Miller placed 4th (2nd American). Lustgarten placed 5th in his quarterfinal heat, good for 21st overall. Up next, the skiers will race a 20/30k mass start classic on January 7 and classic sprints on the 8th to wrap up Nationals. Results from the races so far are available on SuperiorTiming.com.