Carbo Load with Pie and Bread

This Saturday was a busy weekend for HURT-nation and folks were traveling in all directions looking for strong starts to the racing season.  Coach Halligan took a tough U18 crew to the first NENSA Eastern Cup in Craftsbury for the individual classic race followed by a pursuit freestyle on Sunday.  Brian Beyerbach led the way on the results sheet with a 67th overall finish for the weekend.  Nino Manzella had a real strong finish right on his heels. Dan Manzella capped off the HURT boys show with a strong performance and a marvelous classic effort on Saturday.  In the women's race it was Eliza Blood who grabbed the top HURT spot with a 73rd place finish in a very deep and dense race field.  Emily Atamanchuk and Briana Fitzgerald got there first taste of Eastern Cup Racing with strong efforts on both days.  Full results for the overall weekend can be found here: https://www.nensa.net/results/

The NYSSRA points series opened with two races: The Osceola Pie race and the North Creek Nordic Fest. The North Creek Nordic Fest was met with mid-winter snowy conditions on Saturday and even though the concurrent high school race was cancelled due to tricky travel HURT made a strong showing on the course in the club race and on the podium.  Here are some shots of the steps.

The women's podium featured NY skiers (now Castleton College skiers) Emily Cromie (2nd) and Megan Greene (1).  4th place Castleton skier is featured in this picture even though the 3rd place was grabbed by fast skiing NYSSRA-regular Gabriella Frittelli.

You have to show up in the junior girls race to get on the podium!

Paul Allison, Doug Diehl (not pictured) and DPK take the steps on the masters podium. The Directress #2 waits patiently to get her dad's podium bell. 

Seamus Tomb (1) Alex Fragomeni (2) and Will Davis (3) in the boys 5K.

Podium finishers were joined by Casey Tomb, Brendan Tomb, Julie West and Alec Davis.  Full Results can be found here: 

Unfortunately, heavy rains drowned out the scheduled Sprint Race slated for Sunday morning but it was still a strong start for an event that looks to grow and bring lots of folks to the great venue at Gore and to the great business in the North Creek Region.  All award winners walked away with homemade dessert breads from Cobble Creek Farm!  Thanks to UHTA (Upper Hudson Trail Alliance) for hosting the event with us!

Not to be outdone, the baked goods kept coming at the Osceola Pie Race and HURT sent a Western delegation to the Tug Hill for the goods.  Ed Luban had a great day on home turf in the deep deep lake effect powder and once again lived by the old standby rule...."You have to show up to beat me!"

visual approximation of skiing in the Pie Race POW.