Rik and Coop coming at you from the Midwest!
The last few weeks have been super fun getting back on snow and jumping into racing season. Over Thanksgiving we took a trip to Thunder Bay with our club, LNR, to get used to boards under our feet again. It was an awesome week and got us all excited for the season to come.
We headed back home and prepared for the upcoming race weekends. We were lucky enough to have Period I of the SuperTour right here in the Midwest. First stop was up north in Duluth, MN. Saturday was a skate sprint, two laps of a pretty mellow course. Qualifiers in the morning went pretty well. With people coming from all around the country to race, the fields were very competitive. After making his way through the quarters and semis, Cooper took 4th in the Junior Finals. Without any sprint heats last year, the Duluth SuperTour Sprint was a super fun time.
The following day was a 10km skate individual start race. With 6” on fresh snow and frozen rain falling on us during it, the race was pretty brutal. Cooper started second, so it was fun skiing on the course with the Top Dogs. It was a good day, ending with 2nd for U18’s. It was awesome to see Minneapolis local, Zak Ketterson, take the W.
The following week we drove over to Cable, Wisconsin for the second stop of the SuperTour. Cable is a historic ski town, home of the American Birkiebiner. It was super cool to be able to get the first two SuperTours in the Midwest, something that is only possible due to our great venues with man made snow.
The first race of the weekend was a 15km skate mass start. It was wild starting off the line with that many people, as we have not had any mass starts or sprint races for two years.
Saturday was a classic sprint day. Adrik qualified in the middle of the junior heats. After a rough qualifier, he was looking forward to getting some redemption in the junior heats- a dream that was quickly ended after a fall in his quarterfinal.
We ended this racing period with a 15km individual classic. Neither of us felt strong during this race. It was a great learning moment about how to push through mentally to be fast, even when you don’t feel fast. After a long and tough race, we were ready to head back home, get healthy, and recover.
Racing season has officially started, and we couldn’t be more excited. Now we have a few weeks before heading to Soldier Hollow for US Nationals. Thank you all for reading and we hope to see you on the trails.
Adrik Kraftson and Cooper Camp
Keep up the good work, boys! I will be cheering you on at Nationals!