First World Cups!

I raced my first ever World Cups this past weekend and the experience was awesome! I was lucky enough to witness Jessie and Kikkan win the team sprint, watch Kikkan dominate the sprint the following day, be on team Sodie for the sprint relay, and score my first World Cup points in the sprint! I found out I was going to be on a relay team with Sadie while I was flying over to Quebec from Bozeman and even though I wasn't supposed to tell anyone yet, I couldn't contain my excitement. Sadie and I have been skiing with each other for a long time and are great friends so it was a lot of fun to be able to be on a team with her. I thought we skied a great race aside from one minor mishap in the exchange zone and my tired legs the last lap. It would have been fun to move on to the finals but we also probably saved our legs a little for the next day by not advancing. We ended up 13th so we moved up quite a bit from our bib number of 21!

My little champion! (Brooke Mooney photo)

Ida, Jessie, and Sadie in the relay (Brooke Mooney photo)

Jessie just barely turned 21 so you'll have to excuse her lack of champagne spraying skills

The World Cups were held in Quebec city and this was very cool for many reasons, the most important being that tons of friends and family were able to come watch! Thank you to everyone who made the trek north, it was a blast having all those fans and getting so many hugs after the races. It was also a neat venue because it was held in the streets of the city. We skied many laps around a 850 meter course so it was great for spectating and attracted a huge crowd. I think I had one of the most impressive groups of fans out there!

SMS Girls!

Coach Liz

Some Dartmouth girls with the lovely sign my sister made

My sister and brother

Isabel, Twinkle, and Mom

My favorite fan and grandmother, Twink!

Cami and Kristina getting into their cheering

Saturday was the individual skate sprint. I started with bib 50 and had no idea where I would stack up but wanted to try my best to qualify in the top 30 in order to advance to the heats. It was a pretty long sprint course that consisted of two 850 meter laps so I wanted to stay fast and relaxed my first lap and then be able to pick it up a little the 2nd lap. I felt great the first lap and caught the girl in front of me! This is usually very good news but unfortunately it was very hard to pass on this course so I got a little stuck behind her and wasn't able to pass until the final stretch. I tried to stay relaxed and was able to qualify in 26th place! I was super excited in our quarterfinal heat and was lucky enough to have a good start and get out in third place. I knew the start was important because it was so hard to pass and I don't think the order of our heat switched around much after the start. I think I narrowly missed being lucky loser but I was thrilled with the day and ended up 14th in my first World Cup! After being knocked out in the semi-finals, Jessie, Dakota, and I screamed our heads off for Kikkan and Andy who both killed it in the A finals. It was a very exciting day and I was happy to be able to share it with so many friends and family members.

Prelim (Steve Fuller photo)

Andy

Made it onto the big screen!

I had some speedy skis thanks to Fischer, Caldwell Sport, and wax master Gus (Steve Fuller photo)

Coming into the finish (faster skier photo)

KIKKAN! (fasterskier photo)

I am currently at the airport in Toronto on my way to the next races in Canmore. Thursday we'll kick off the weekend with a 10km mass start classic race that will be followed by a skate sprint on Saturday and a 15k pursuit on Sunday.

A beautiful snowy last evening with my mom