CXC Rollerski Championship and Schutzenski Festival
Team Birkie Wraps Up the Altitude Camp in Park City with the Schutzenski Rollerskiing Festival and then straight to the CXC Championship in Cable, WI.
Team Birkie got back to the Midwest this past week from Park City. Before leaving the West, the team raced in the Schutzenski Festival at Soldier Hollow. There was a 10km skate race and a classic sprint on the docket.
Results from the race weekend at Soldier Hollow can be found here:
Highlights from the classic sprint were Karolina Kaleta qualifying 6th in the qualifier and placing 6th overall in the women’s final. On the men’s side Adam Witkowski with a strong 26th and Taiga Moore very close to qualifying with a 33rd spot.
In the 10km skate race Skylar Patten placed 26th, Eli Gore 35th, Henry Snider 39th, David Ronnevik 46th, Ben Boelter 66thJoseph Walling at 68th and Drew Huotari 78th.
A really fun weekend with some hard races ending off a camp with the best preparation for the season to come.
Karolina Kaleta had the following to say after her altitude camp and racing in Utah:
“The altitude camp in Park City was really productive. We did a great job building up our training volume over the past two weeks and getting ready for the upcoming winter. With the season starting soon, it’ll be nice to have that little altitude boost. It was also great to train with the U.S. Ski Team and other teams, see how everyone else is preparing, and get a sense of how our summer training stacked up by doing some racing.
I did just one race at the Schutzenski Festival — the classic sprint. Going into it, I treated it like a hard interval session, so I was pretty surprised to end up 6th after the qualifier. I knew the field was full of high-level professional athletes who usually compete in World Cups, so making it to the final was definitely going to be a challenge — and I was right! All the heats were super competitive, but honestly, I love racing head-to-head with other skiers. It makes things more exciting, and I feel like I have better control over the race. There was a lot of tactical skiing involved, which in the end worked out really well.”
Team Birkie Athletes at the CXC Rollerski Championship
Then this most recent weekend (October 25th and 26th) the team travelled to Cable, Wisconsin for the CXC Rollerski Championships. Saturday was a 10km skate race and Sunday a classic sprint.
The CXC Rollerski Championship in Cable has been a tradition for the team the past years. This year was no exception. Several team members were on the start line both days and looked strong and fast.
Saturday’s 10km skate race was a great day for lots of people on the team with Alayna Sonnesyn and Henry Snider placing first for women and men.
Other highlights were Gretta Scholz 2nd, Roger Anderson 3rd, Emma Stertz and Skylar Patten 4th, David Ronnevik 8th, Ben Bolger 12th, Taiga Moore 13th, Jack Meinert 5th and Drew Huotari 16th.
Results are found here: 10km SKATE
Sunday’s classic sprint was also a good team day. The qualifier was won by Gretta Scholz and Taiga Moore. After quarters and semi finals, Adam Witkowski and Gretta Scholz took the overall wins for the day. Taiga Moore placing 3rd, Skylar Patten 4th and Eli Gore 6th.
"It's always great to be up here and use the Birkie rollerski track," said Head Coach Jake Stiele, "the athletes put in some solid efforts during the two races and got some good practice in for their race day strategies. Shoutout to CXC and the race organizers for putting on a great event!"
Results from the classic sprint found here: CLASSIC SPRINT
Looking Ahead: Getting on Snow - Season Countdown
Next up, several of the team members are seeking snow as we speak. Kevin Bolger is skiing up north in Sweden, Zak Ketterson and Paul Schommer are in Livigno, Italy and Alayna Sonnesyn is on her way to Muonio, Finland. The World Cup for both XC skiing and Biathlon kick off at the end of November so training is being done. We’re counting down!
TEAM BLOGS
”Chronicles of a Training Camp", by Taiga Moore
Hey everyone! My name is Taiga Moore, and this is my first year on Team Birkie. Given that we’re currently at our altitude camp in Park City, I figured I would give you all a look into the secrets behind the training of a professional ski team. READ MORE
“Packing for Europe” by Alayna Sonnesyn
We’re in an exciting time of year when we’ve done the bulk of hard work over the summer and fall. Now we’re just putting the finishing touches on our fitness to make sure we’re sharp for the racing season. This means doing shorter, faster, harder intervals. This might seem like a lot of “work,” however, with the strength and volume we’ve gained as athletes over the past six months, these tend to be the “good pain” type of workouts. My fellow endurance athletes out there can relate to this. When the workout is really hard but it feels good to go hard and make it hurt, it means racing is just around the corner. READ MORE
Join Our Sweepstakes to Win a TREK BIKE!
While the team is around the world, we have our annual Sweepstakes going on - Enter our sweepstakes to win a TREK Bike. Through this fundraiser effort you are directly helping support our athletes towards their goals this season. Several of our team members have goals of qualifying for the Olympics (Milano, Cortina - Italy) and we would always appreciate your support as well as you might be the lucky winner of an incredible TREK bike!
