Winter finally visited us temperature-wise for this weekend. NWVT was once again racing internationally. With temps holding steady at 1 degree and wind gusting to 30 mph NWVT sent three racers to Craftsbury for the Eastern Cup Series Finale. The races were held on the Craftsbury Race Loop, a challenging, technical loop with long rolling hills. The snow was a thin layer of loose granular with a dusting of fresh new snow each day. Day one was a 10k classic. Showing up late with his skis pre-waxed, with straight hard wax, NWVT member Damian Bolduc picked the wax of the day. After a brief test he was satisfied that the VR30 (his favorite kick wax) was working great, and his boycott of klister would continue. He was surprised that most of the other racers were klistering their skis, and they seemed baffled at how well the hard wax was working. After testing it themselves, many decided to lay the hard wax on. Leading off for NWVT Perry Bland skied out, maintaining a fast pace overtaking a few skiers on their second lap. Starting thirty seconds back Damian skied the first half a little easier in the much faster lap traffic just trying to stay out of the way. Starting another 3 minutes back Dhyan Nirmegh attacked the first lap. With the course opened up for the second lap, the three NWVT racers skied their own race. Perry stayed true to form, Damian picked it up, and Nirmegh held on after a fast start. In the end the three finished as they have all season in classic races, with Nirmegh taking top honors for the club, followed closely by Perry, and Damian a little further behind. Perry won his division while Nirmegh took second in his and Damian placed sixth in the senior men. All three continue to improve, closing the gap on those in front of them. All were pretty psyched to return to skate on day two of the weekend.

Day two brought the same extremely fast conditions but warmer temps with lower winds. Eager to skate after a really good classic race, NWVT showed up ready to capitalize on the momentum. It was clear that the competition was looking for NWVT as well. Leading off on Sunday was Damian. More confident with the skate technique he started very aggressively, passing people who started in front of him, and keeping pace with the college skiers who were on their second lap. Nirmegh, and Perry started four minutes back consecutively. Both skied hard as the courses' hill placement demands a lot of the athletes. As Nirmegh battled in close competition, Perry maintained good tempo as he powered over the climbs. Knowing he was having a good race, Damian was surprised that he was not alone at the start of the second lap. He pressed on continuing to maintain pace as he moved through the field. Nirmegh continued to pick off competitors while Perry closed in toward the finish. Nirmegh posted the fastest time for the club, with Damian racing to a PR just 22 seconds behind him. Perry also posted one of his best skate finishes only 5 places and a minute back on Damian. Perry took the second W in his age division this weekend while Nirmegh and Damian finished fifth in their respective categories in this highly competitive field. All were pleased to get two good skis in this weekend, and are pumped up for the races big and small coming up.

Kevin Bessett represented the club at the Keskinada World Loppet this weekend. Results have yet to be posted so more on that later. As for last week some good news. Sugarloaf was a mens' points race and NWVT finished third in the points behind the behemoth CSU and host Maine Nordic. In the overall standings we moved back into the top ten in 8th place. Perry also started his streak last weekend at the Maple Onion 15k with a top twenty finish in what was probably most highly contested citizens' race in quite some time. We had two participate in the Canadian Ski Marathon. Still waiting for word on what happened up there.