ADK Tour de Ski Race 1

Tyler Magnan

12/15/2024

Sunday was the first race in the Adirondack Tour de Ski series, taking place at Mt Van Hoevenberg. I don't know all the details of this series, but it appears to be a five-event points series, emulating the New England Zak Cup series. There were murmurings that the final race will be a marathon at the VIC, which neighbors Paul Smith's College, so that's something to keep an eye on, as it would be a fun event.

The snowmaking crew at Van Ho has made significant progress in preparing the competition trails for big events later in the season. The stadium was blanketed with a thick coating of artificial snow and a small loop around the stadium was groomed out nicely. Other portions were covered in giant snow domes, waiting to be pushed out. The two-lap race course only utilized a minor portion of this, starting in front of the new biathlon range, heading out the flat portion of the competition loop before taking a left onto the legacy trails. The course headed out towards East Mtn trail, climbing for a bit before a downhill back towards Main Street and Flatlander. The remainder of the course looped around the flatter trails and back through the Old Stadium before popping back out to the biathlon range for the finish. Conditions on the natural snow trails were variable. It was lumpy, and there was some ice and some dirty spots to avoid, but generally good skiing. 

The day was kicked off with some BKL races. Johannes Hollenbach, Daisy Tremble, and Oliver Tremble all took victories in their respective races, with Oliver doubling up by taking the 5-6 race, and then winning the 7-8 race with only a couple minutes rest in between. 

In the 10k, the men and women started together. Jake Hollenbach led the way for NWVE, scrambling to hang on to the leaders before settling in and finishing about 45 seconds behind the Junior winner from NYSEF.  Eric Tremble had a quiet start, settling into the pack before moving up through the race. The two took 1st and 2nd for the masters, with Tim Van Orden joining them in 3rd for an all Vermont podium. John Thompson registered with Paul Smiths, but sported the NWVE suit for the race, He paced off a former teammate and put up a solid result while leaving Tyler Magnan behind. I'm not sure it was a good strategic move for John to motivate Tyler to put in some training time ahead of the upcoming BFA Alumni race, but time will tell. 

There were no New England masters women participating. There were around 90 participants in total, and it was nice to see the New York club skiers put on a good event with good participation and a high quality race field.