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New England Masters Sise Cup Finals
by Barb Brumbaugh
Sugarbush
If you’ve been around ski racing long
enough, you know that if you want it to snow, just schedule a speed
event. A rare opportunity in New England to ski super G was once again
only a pipedream as close to a foot of snow fell on Sugarbush on March 2nd.
Some skiers used the opportunity to rest, while others, smart enough to
read the weather forecast, brushed the dust off their rarely used fattie
boards and immersed themselves in powder therapy.
After about an hour of “tolerating”
the snowy conditions, Derek Griggs entered the lodge with an ear to ear
grin stating, “Boy, that really sucked, I don’t know why anyone would
want to do that!” before heading back out for more. While many enjoyed
the powder, others saw missed opportunities to change the outcome of the
seasons leader board. But what are you going to do…that’s ski racing!
You get over it, and start planning for next year, then you convince
yourself that you would’ve met your goals if just that one race wasn’t
cancelled!
Giant Slalom
A welcomed change in venue from
Inverness over to Spring Fling! Doug Lewis and crew welcomed Masters
racers to “his” side of the mountain. GMVS coach Brandon Dyksterhouse
and Killington’s Doug Tucker set two great courses, but it wasn’t the
set that concerned most.
The heavy snowfall on Friday made for
soft conditions for the GS on Saturday. Despite a great deal of
sideslipping prior to racing, Class 7 Gay Folland commented, “the
forerunners left troughs”. The course continued to deteriorate as course
workers, (AKA Doug Tucker) desperately attended to holes and ruts.
Much to the chagrin of many racers,
Pete Donaghy set precedent and enforced correct sideslipping. (See Sean
Florian’s article on sideslipping!). Racers normally accustomed to “The
Austrian Sideslip” (snowplowing the hero line at minimally 30 mph) bit
the bullet and continued assisting course workers to make the course
skiable for later runners - with occasional reminders - old habits are
tough to break! Despite some holes, the course actually improved well
after the women finished and later runners said it “wasn’t too bad”.
Lisa Densmore (W5) scorched two runs
to win the race. Nadine Price (W6) detoured with a little freestyle
skiing in the first run, and took the second from Kim Wolff (W5) but
Wolff hung on for second overall by 0.12. Class 5 Patti Lane held onto
fourth overall as she ripped the second run with the third fastest time.
Anne Nordhoy rounded out the top five.
For the men, it was Brandon
Dyksterhouse (M2) winning both runs. Charging Dykstehouse was Bob Hill
(M4) and the ageless wonder Dorin Munteanu (M8). Both skied smooth and
made the conditions look easy. Well matched Alex Gadbois and Mark
Budreski exchanged race runs for fourth and fifth overall with only 0.13
separating the two Class 3 racers.
The second run either wiped out or
provided for interesting commentary at the post race video review as
cross ruts and holes acted like snow snakes. Hans Truckenbrod commented,
“I benefited from my class casualties and moved from seventh to third”
as class 6 was nearly wiped out.
2007 Sise Cup Overall Winners
The last race on the calendar which
counted towards Sise Cup points found Class 6 Mark George taking the
men’s title for his first overall win and the first time a class 6 racer
has ever won. George took hold of the standings from the beginning of
the season and never let it out of site. As he accepted his trophy,
George savored the moment graciously and said, “I’m never going to win
this thing again, so I’m staying up here and you’re just going to have
to listen to me!”
Carolyn Beckedorff took the women’s
overall title for her second Sise Cup Trophy. An ailing hip and a child
with a fever kept Beckedorff from the festivities and off the slopes for
the final weekend, but her husband Tony DiGangi accepted her trophy -
and drank her celebratory adult beverage.
Age group winners to third place
received coveted Denby Pottery and bragging rights for the year.
With the Sise Cup over for 2007, the
season closes out with the Masters National Championships in Big Sky, MT
and the Eastern Regional Championships at Sunday River, ME. Full results
of Sise Cup overall, age group winners and team results at
www.nemasters.org
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