Today’s individual race at Skimo World Champs in Pelvoux, France featured a mass start event over 1645 vertical meters for men and 1385 m for women. The race was hotly contested but France came out on top, dominating the podium in both categories.
Today’s recap was written by Eric Carter and edited by Stano.
Top 3 Overall
Men
William Bon Mardion midway through the race. Photo from ISMF.
After a fast start, Spaniard Kilian Jornet led throughout the race with a 35 second lead at the midpoint.
By the finish, however, William Bon Mardion (FRA) had taken the lead, distancing the chase group by 30 seconds in the final downhill, and posted a winning time of 1h 22min 36 sec.
Jornet and only 22-year old Matheo Jacquemoud (FRA) came tight to the line with Jacquemoud placing second and Jornet rounding out the podium.
Boots fact:
- Bon Mardion races on La Sportiva Stratos Cube boots
- Jacquemoud on Scarpa Alien 1.0
- Jornet on Pierre Gignoux newest model
Women
Laetitia Roux (FRA) quickly established a significant lead over her competitors, almost 5 minutes at the first summit.
Mireia Miro (ESP), Gloriana Pellissier (IT), and Axelle Mollaret (FRA) were all in contention for the podium but the French skier, Mollaret, managed to come from fourth to finish just 2 seconds before the Italian, Pellissier.
Roux’s gold medal time was 1h 20min 3 sec.
Boots fact: Roux and Pellissier race on Pierre Gignoux and La Sportivas respectively. Mollaret is likely on Scarpa Aliens.
Video in French
North American athletes
Of 23 nations represented at this years World Championships event, USA began the day ranked 9th and Canada in 13th. Both teams started with high hopes to score some points and continue to bring up their rankings.
Men
Reiner Thoni (CAN) was the top North American male finishing in 26th - approximately 14 min behind the leaders. Thoni hit a deep compression in the final descent and lost a ski. This likely cost him couple of places since the three racers in front of him finished only within 1 min ahead of him.
US National Champion John Gaston finished in 31st place, only about 30 sec from top 30, and about 1:30 behind Thoni.
The rest of the men clustered close behind around 40th place:
36) Max Taam (US)
38) Tom Goth (US)
39) Andrew McNab (CAN)
40) Marshall Thompson (US)
42) Peter Knight (CAN)
43) Brad Schalles (CAN)
65) Mateusz Burgunder (US)
Women
Janelle Smiley (USA) and Melanie Bernier (CAN) led the North American women finishing within 30 sec of each other, in 13th and 14th. Stevie Kremer (USA) was just shortly behind in 17th, about 2 min later.
The rest of the girls placed like this:
25) Nina Silitch (US)
28) Martha Burley (CAN)
30) McKenna Douglas (US)
31) Meredith Edwards (US)
33) Carla McKirdy (CAN)
More details + Photos
Official gallery - http://www.ismfskievents.com/news/2013/0-post/56-pelvoux_2013_-_photo_gallery_individual_race
Results: http://ismf-ski.org/www/index.php?q=node/45®ister=&page=ListRacesAction&id=223&id_parent=88
More details on US racers: http://www.ussma.org/blog/brackec/world-skimo-championships-seniorespoir-individual
My name is Stano Faban and as a member of the Canadian National Ski Mountaineering Team I have been fortunate to compete in races like Pierra Menta or World Championships.
Wow, pretty good job by the NA’s. I was hoping that one of the ladies would sneak in the top 10 but a little more time is needed for sure. Thanks for getting this out so quickly Stan. And wow, it really looks like Bon Mardion dropped some weight since we were in Europe a couple of winters ago. He’s a pretty big guy for being so fast…..reminds me of someone else I know!
James, I was predicting that Reiner will have the engine to sneak into top 20 but knowing there is another about 10 racers capable of that. So it was gonna be decided by very small details. His fall in last descent and the small time gap to 22nd were those small details