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Big Weekend for Craftsbury GRP23.Jan.2012 With the CNSC representing in five distinct locations this weekend, from as close by as Jackson, NH and as far away as Otepää, Estonia, the Green Racing Project managed to turn in impressive results from literally all over the place. The big story of the weekend is Susan Dunklee's breakthrough performance in Antholtz, Italy, on the Biathlon World Cup. Susan, in her rookie season on the Tour, has already turned in some impressive results from the get-go in Östersund, Sweden where she finished in the top thirty. But this weekend she showed a new level of her ski speed and shooting accuracy. Susan missed only one shot in the 7.5km sprint, good for 17th place and the top American female finish on the World Cup this season. She was a mere 20 seconds shy of the top ten. With this result, she also qualified for her first mass start event on the World Cup, where only the top 30 ranked women are invited to compete. She finished 27th with 5 misses there, still good for the second best result of her career! Congratulations to Susan. Ida Sargent also notched a top international result this weekend a bit north of Antholtz in Otepää, Estonia on the FIS Cross Country World Cup. For the second time this season, she finished in the points with a 29th place after qualifying 27th in the classic sprint. Ida followed up her strong performance in the sprint with a 40th place in the distance event the next day, a tough 10km classic on one of the most difficult course on the World Cup. She was part of a very strong group of finishes, again, by the US Women's team led by Kikkan Randall in 15th, Jesse Diggins in 18th, Liz Stephen in 21st, and Sadie Bjornsen in 34th. These women are on fire! Ida will sprint again next weekend in Moscow, Russia. A bit closer to home, the majority of the GRP squad began the 5 stage Tour de Twin Cities in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, MN. The inaugural event pulls two weekends of SuperTour racing and a mid-week sprint event into a new stage format with points, rather than cumulative time, determining the winner at the end of the week. In the 10km classic event, Patrick O'Brien led the team with a strong 7th place finish. Maria Stuber, the only female GRPer competing in the Tour, finshed 6th. In Sunday's 15km skate, again at Theodore Wirth Park just outside of Minneapolis, it was Dylan McGuffin's turn to lead the men's squad with an 8th place finish. Maria snagged the GRP's first podium of the week with a 3rd place in the women's 10km. Meanwhile back in New England, Nils Koons did the CNSC proud in his continuing preparation for the Craftsbury Marathon with a victory in the White Mountain Classic 30km. Check out full results from a far-flung and strong weekend of racing from the crew at Craftsbury.
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