NorAm Win, Midnight Flights, Super Tour points and Waxing

After West Yellowstone, Matt Liebsch and I loaded up my brother's car and we drove to British Columbia.  We had decided early in the year that our fall schedule would differ from many of the Americans as we wanted to race the Canadians in a 15km Freestyle at Soverign Lake Nordic Center.  Both Matt and I circled this race as an important one in the fall race series.  Unfortunatly the NorAm fell on the same weekend at the US Super Tour in Bozeman.  Unable to do both we decided to stick with our goal of the freestyle race in Canada.  

Matt, Myself, and our wax tech Sven on the Podium.  Matt and I went 1-2 in the race.

We made a pact that if we pulled off the 1-2 that we would bite the bullet and spend the $$ to go big and fly to Bozeman that evening to compete in the Super Tour on Sunday.

Fasterskier.com had a nice write up about our adventure: http://fasterskier.com/article/the-adventures-of-gregg-and-liebsch-part-i/

Our midnight flight to Bozeman was smooth and we both had good races.  Matt had one of his top 5 FIS results and finished 4th.  I finished right on Matt's heels in 5th which earned me enough points to take the Super Tour lead which means that I get start rights and FIS funding for the period 2 World Cup.  Even cooler, Caitlin is leading the women's Super Tour so we get to make the trip together.

Caitlin and I have a lot of fun on the road.  We both recognize the powerful benefits of being happy while on the road.

Caitlin cheering on the start of the B-Final in preparation for the A-Final.

After the races in Bozeman we traveled to Rossland, BC for another norAm weekend.  It was kind of tough to make the long 9 hour drive when juxtaposed to the 3 hour flight.  All of the travel, racing, and training caught up with me and I felt my body feeling pretty weary after intervals and specific strength here in Rossland.  I took two days off though and am feeling pretty good again.  This also allowed me to serve as Caitlin's wax tech here in Rossland.  Being a wax tech is hard work and I spent a lot of time on my feet.  Thankfully some of our Canadians gave me a lot of advice and did most all of the testing.

Caitlin and the Ninjas

Caitlin finished 4th in both races, although was relegated to the back of the A-final after a lane change in the finish where she accidentally obstructed another racer.  This was a solid weekend for her.  I raced on Sunday but wasn't able to put it together and finished 17th, my worst result of the year.  Thankfully I am feeling healthy again and we are excited to have a few weeks to train as we prepare for US National Championships in January in Utah.