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William Bon Mardion

April 1-12 Skimo Racing News Shorts: Tour du Rutor, Shedhorn SkiMo, Ski Ecrins

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Our skimo racing recap from last two weekends here in North America and Europe!

USA

Shedhorn Race at Big Sky, Montana – April 9:

Over the last weekend, and for second year in a row, the Big Sky Resort in Montana hosted the Shedhorn SkiMo Race which is now arguably the most technical race in North America. Boasting serious steep descents, plenty of boot-packs and close to 3000m of vertical gain spread over 6 climbs it is shaping up to become a beast of an event going into the future.

High consequence boot-pack. Photo by Myke M
High consequence boot-pack. Photo by Myke Hermsmeyer.
In the men’s race, it was Eric Carter and Tom Goth who took it by the horns during the first big climb. Unfortunately, not long after Tom broke his boot and abandoned the race. From there on, Eric, was pretty much unchallenged and was able to enjoy the beautiful course set by the local ski patrol team and COSMIC series team. He won in 3h 52min with Teague Holmes and Ellio Barcikowski completing the podium.
In the women’s race, we are not sure how it exactly went down as we don’t have regular (or even occasional) correspondent, but overall everyone enjoyed the raced as well! Meredith Edwards took the win in 4h 58min and was followed home by Inge Perkins and Michela Adrian.
Here is what Eric Carter had to say after returning home from Big Sky and as he was just literally changing bags to jump on a flight to Europe to do Patrouille des Glaciers later this month:

It was definitely a super fun race over big terrain! The skiing was full on. I even stopped to pull out my ice axe after I dropped into the first descent. It was steep and long ways down should you fall… Now, over to Euroland for PDG. We have a good team and some goals! Will see how it goes, will be in touch!

» Full results for Shedhorn Skimo race

Europe

Tour du Rutor stage race – Long Distance World Cup – April 1-3:

Just like the more famous Pierra Menta in France, Tour du Rutor is a cool multi-day skimo stage teams race. It takes place over three days every second year at the well-known Valle d’Aosta, a region in northwest Italy.

Matteo Eydallin during the second stage. Photo by Stefano Jeantet.
Matteo Eydallin during the second stage. Photo by Stefano Jeantet.
There were no surprises in the women’s race as the very strong French team of Laetitia Roux and Axelle Mollaret confirmed their domination by winning every stage. Overall, second place went to a Swiss team of Jennifer Fiechter and Severinne Pont Combe and third, after a bit of a rough first day, went to Italians Elena Nicolini with Laura Besseghini.
In the men’s race, there were multiple favourites but no team was really standing out as they were a mix of strong upcoming generation matched by experienced partners. In the end, the Italian team of Matteo Eydallin and Michele Boscacci delivered a flawless performance to win overall after winning first two days and finishing third on the last day. Our SkinTrack chips were on the “dark horse” Swiss duo as the well experienced Martin Athamatten teamed up with strong but still very young Remy Bonnet. They finished second but watch out for Bonnet to start winning World Cups by next year! Third place went to a team of great French skiers, a cheese maker William Bon Mardion and ski lifts electrician Xavier Gachet who’s father won the 3rd Pierra Menta.
» Overall and single day results can be found HERE
» Here you can watch couple of videos from the race.

Ski Ecrins stage race – ISMF series – April 9-10:

This is a two day French skimo stage teams race that Eric Carter and Pascal Egli (SWI) managed to win last year.
This year’s Ski Ecrins race saw wins of Gary Ozeray and Steven Blanc in men’s category and Laetitia  Roux and Tania Naville.

Feb 8-9 Weekend Skimo Racing Roundup

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World Cup

Big, big congrats goes to Melanie Bernier (CAN) for her bronze medal from the skimo World Cup Pitturina Ski Race which is the first ever podium placing on a World Cup level for a Canadian skimo athlete!
pitturina-womens-podium
After the Italian Pitturina race got postponed by a week, due to a big snow storm that rolled over the Dolomites on Feb 1st, Melanie felt that the extra days between her races will only do her good. Here’s an update on Melanie’s Euro campaign she sent us last week.
On Friday, Feb 7, Melanie captured the first ever Canadian medal by finishing third in the sprint event, behind women’s World Cup dominating Laetitia Roux (FRA) and Maude Mathys (SWI). Meredith Edwards (USA) continued to collect valuable World Cup experience and finished 16th.
In men’s sprint race, first went to current sprint World Champion Josef Rottmoser, and second to his German teammate Anton Palzer who actually still belongs to the espoir (under 23) category! Third went to current individual World Champion William Bon Mardion of France.
» Sprint race results – All categories (PDF)
Here’s a short video of the sprint race. You can see Melanie on the podium at 1:32.

The next day at Pitturina race, Kilian Jornet (ESP) took over and comfortably captured his second individual race win of this season. He was followed by every week improving William Bon Mardion (FRA) for second and Damiano Lenzi (ITA) for third.
In women’s category the first two podium spots were captured by the same athletes as in the sprint – Laetitia Roux (FRA) took first while Maude Mathys (SWI) took second. Third went to Sophie Dusautoir from Andorra! Melanie Bernier had a good race and finished sixth, and only by 1 sec behind fifth and 20 sec behind fourth. Meredith Edwards placed 15th.
» Individual race results – All categories (PDF)

North America

After the cancellation of the Ken Jones Classic race at Lake Louise, AB no racing took place in Canada this weekend. But there was plenty of action in the US.
There is a new skimo centre growing in the US and this time in New Mexico! And the past weekend saw two races taking place there – Saturday in Santa Fe ski area and on Sunday in Taos Ski Valley.
UPDATE – Feb 11: Disregard the comments section at the bottom of this article as there was confusion with the results. The following is now correct.

Santa Fe Fireball Rando:
1. Jon Brown
2. Bryan Wickenhauser
3. Scott Archer
1. Stevie Kremer
2. Lindsay Plant
3. Kate Zander
[end-column]
Rio Hondo Rando Raid:
1. Jon Brown
2. Bryan Wickenhauser
3. Brian Edmiston
1. Stevie Kremer
2. Lindsay Plant
3. Kate Zander
[end-column]
Combined 2 days
1. Jon Brown
2. Bryan Wickenhauser
3. Scott Archer
1. Stevie Kremer
2. Lindsay Plant
3. Kate Zander
[end-column] The below results (reflecting overall ranking) were put together from photos sent in by Tim Zander. Thank you very much Tim.
new-mexico-cup-2014-results
Burke Mountain skimo race:
We had a race on the other side of the country, in Vermont, happening last weekend as well. There will be more juicy details from Jonathan Shefftz coming for this one but here are at least some stats for now. Main men’s race was won by George Visser, second went to Phillipe Deguire, and third to Josh Flanagan. In women’s race category Danielle Deguire took first, Isabelle Marcotte second, and Karina Lewis third.
» Results Burke 2014 (PDF)

Upcoming Races – Feb 15-16 weekend

There will be a break on the World Cup scene this weekend because there will be lots of big racing going on in Andorra that will host the 2014 European SkiMo Racing Championships between Feb 14 and Feb 16. The Euro Champs alternate every second year with the Worlds taking place on odd years.
In the United States there will be two races taking place on Saturday, Feb 15:

No racing in Canada this weekend but coming back on Feb 22.