NWVT fielded 11 strong skiers for the final club race of the season the Rangeley Lakes Loppet. The racers made their way to Maine in various ways, some leaving a couple of days in advance, others through the heart of the last snow storm, and one who opted to show up the morning of the race. Every ones efforts to get to the race paid off as strong results were posted as well as simply finishing in the challenging conditions were an accomplishment. Many skiers from other clubs did not complete the race but NWVT skiers stayed tough and all 11 completed the race with excellent results.

The Rangeley area was blanketed with 16” of fresh powder from the snow storm on Thursday and Friday. This was cause for an hour delay in the start time for the race. As skiers arrived and checked out the course around the center things looked great. The snow was fast. The temperature was in the high twenties and rising, the sun was bright, and there was very little wind. The trails were freshly groomed with all the seasons’ snow as a base and deep top coat of fresh snow. It seemed that things were setting up for a great event.

The Loppet started with the 50k wave followed by the 25k wave and then the touring wave. Skiers were excited to get underway, but as the stadium funneled skiers onto the narrow trail a skier got tripped up and a chain-reaction pile up ensued. NWVT’s Perry Bland opted to go off the trail into the deep snow to avoid getting in the tangle. He worked his way back onto the course from the waist deep snow and resumed racing. The rest of the clubs 50kers were ahead of the crash. The next big challenge came about 2k into the race. The groomed snow that was not packed by the weight of the groomers tracks in the center of the trail was still soft and gave out under the stress of the racers. This created a “mashed potato” snow condition that made skiing a test of innovative technique, balance and perfect power transfer. To do anything else was an extremely taxing waste of energy. The next challenge came from above. The sun was strong and heated the air and the snow quickly. The snow began to melt. NWVT’s Damian Bolduc was the first to fall victim to draggy skis as he had a fine cold grind on the bases with very little structure. So as he skied they seemed to work more like suction cups than the precision racing instruments they were last year at this race. Damian slowly dropped back as those with faster skis went by. Eric Tremble had an excellent start and skied with some of the top guys for most of the race. Tyler Magnan was also off the front of the main pack in a group of strong skiers. Dhyan Nirmegh was in the next group keeping them in sight and then Lary Martel and Kevin Bessett worked together in the main pack. Perry having gotten off to a bad start steadily worked his way up and caught and went by Damian at the end of the first lap. As skiers took to the second lap everyones’ skis had fallen victim to the wetter than expected conditions. But due to the sun’s heat the snow in the middle of the trail became sticky and was packed by the tour’s by the time the marathoners came for round two. Anything can happen in a 50k race. Tyler and Eric had excellent races hanging tough to the end. Lary and Perry continued to move up through the field while Kevin stayed steady gaining position on skiers who tired as the race went on. Damian was slowly gaining as the rest of the fields skis slowed. Nirmegh had missed a few feeds and started to pay for it as he ran out of gas around the 35k mark. As the marathoners came in to finish Tyler skied strong to the end, Eric faded a little in the final k’s but still held on for an excellent result. Lary kept the pace up and had his best finish in a freestyle race. Perry worked his way up through the field and to 2nd in his division. Kevin finished with an outstanding performance after a tough season. Damian out sprinted a local to take 2nd in his division, and Nirmegh suffered through to a second wind and held off eight skiers working together in a pack for the last 5k to make the first page of results.

NWVT had some strong performances in the 25k as well. Starting in the second five minutes after the first they had to negotiate around the carnage left by the marathoners. Broken ski poles, and hats and gloves severed from bodies littered the trails, as well as discarded water bottles and gel packets. As they made there way around the loop on the massacred trail they found souls dropped from the 50k field. One that they encountered was Jesus Tamez, a friend from the Mad River Valley , who was wondering who brought the gravy for all the mashed potatoes. As they sailed by the inspired some to get back into the race and caused others to drop out. Scott Magnan was the top NWVT skier holding his own in 4th place and winning his division. He caught and passed most the 50k field and offered encouragement to fellow club members on his way by. Next up was Evan Martel. It was his first race of this distance and he did not know what to expect. He handled the conditions well and found his way up through the 50k field as well. He finished a solid 9th and won his division. Jessica Bolduc had the skis with a warmer grind and they worked in a big way as she won the women’s 25k out right. Samantha Martel fought to a top 20 overall finish and won her division as well in NWVT fashion in the 25k for the clean sweep.

All racers should be very happy with completing the race. Although the terrain is relatively easy, the snow conditions gave some unpredictable challenges. The never quit club rule also played a big role as other clubs such as CSU had some of their top skiers pull out early. In a preliminary calculation of results NWVT scored 78 points, CSU… 77. If this holds true, let it be known that every point counts! On another note last week at the Bogburn we beat Ford Sayre. I had the privilege of skiing with their president and he brought up the points series and commented on how strong our team is. It will be exciting to see what the final tally is for Rangeley and the season.