Bozeman SuperTour and onto Canada

After having a great training week in West Yellowstone we headed up to Bozeman, Montana. The Sun Valley Ski Team has been helping me out with wax support and lodging while Eric and Dan are in Colorado making sure our Nordic future is taking names.

Our first SuperTour race was on Saturday and was a skate sprint prelim. I was actually feeling great through the first half of the course. I speed checked before one of the gnarly turns before the last uphill and hit some hidden object under the snow putting me into a bit of an uncontrollable movement of human and Nordic skis. Luckily I didn't fall but I did come to a stop completely perpendicular to the trail.  I finished the race not knowing where my time would put me. I figured my folly took off about 3 seconds. I ended up 10th, about 3 seconds out of 4th. Brutal.

The afternoon I wanted redemption and my body felt really good after a morning of intensity. It was three laps and I continued with my early season race plan or starting off pretty conservatively, big and strong, and finishing strong. The plan worked and I skied to a 1st place finish about 13 seconds ahead of my next competitor, Mike Sinnott who I was gunning for for the Overall SuperTour title and World Cup Start rights.

The last day of competition was a 15km classic race. With a similar game plan in mind, I had a strong classic skier starting right in front of me, Erik Bjornsen. I knew that if I could catch him by the third out of four laps we could ski together and crush the course. Everything went to plan. I caught him on the third lap and stayed on his tail just waiting for the fourth lap to get off his tail and hit the last lap hard. I finished in 1st again this time a full 30 seconds ahead of my next competitor Erik Bjornsen. It was a solid race and a solid weekend. Mike Sinnott needed to place 19th or worse for me to get those start rights. He ended up not having a great race but was 8th in the end. I was very excited for him as I was for myself.

I moved further up the Overall SuperTour list in points and closer in striking distance to Mike. I also currently hold the SuperTour Distance Leader bib. Excited to be skiing so well and to be representing SSCV Team HomeGrown with the help of IN-THE-ARENA.

Race reports are below.

Skate race report: http://fasterskier.com/2011/12/sinnott-takes-victory-in-bozeman-sprint-ellefson-climbs-to-top-of-podium-in-10-k/

Classic Race Report: http://fasterskier.com/2011/12/ellefson-wins-15-k-classic-in-bozeman-sinnott-clinches-world-cup-spot/

SuperTour Standings: http://blogs.fasterskier.com/continentalcup/?p=1156