Seeley Hills Classic

It was nice to race a local event this weekend. The 17th Annual Seeley Hills Classic was dedicated to the memory of Seeley entrepreneur and arguably it's founder Gary Penman. The CXC crew in Hayward enjoyed some warmer temperatures (10F feels pretty warm relative to what the temp has been)and fresh snow for the 22k and 42km events. Kristina won the 22km and I won the 42km. Click Here to Play Video New this year, CXC filmed the first half of the 42k on a snowmobile in preparation for filming the 2009 American Birkebeiner. Snow fell most of the morning and the Piston Bullys were out working the trail all the way up until the start. Still, the lead racers were breaking through 1-2 inches of fresh snow. The 42k lead group took advantage of the film snowmobile’s tracks searching for a faster line through the slow new snow. The front pack was nearly 10 skiers strong at the halfway point. Once the racers reached the tracks skied in by the 22km skiers the lead group narrowed to four skiers. These four racers skied together before spreading out with 3km to go. I broke away for the win with Bjorn Batdorf of Rossignol just 20 seconds behind. University of Minnesota’s Dave Anderson finished 3rd ahead of Colby graduate John Swain. The video only shows the first half of the race, because the second half of the course has two way traffic. Complete Results