Published: Wed Mar 26, 2008 2:00 AM MDT

Updated: Wed Mar 26, 2008 10:45 PM MDT

Norwegian rockets Sigrid Aas and Petter Eliassen were victorious in Tuesday evening's Tour of the Golden Heart Spring Series opener.

CXC coach Brian Fish takes a turn at racing.

Conditions were firm, fast, and not terribly cold. Interval-start 5k and 10k skate races were on the agenda, giving local juniors a chance to race with a number of top elite seniors. The courses at Birch Hill are very well-designed, featuring a lot of climbs and corners which are all very skiable. With no excessively steep, long v1 climbs on the course, the biggest challenge was maintaining high speed on some of the medium-gradual uphills, where one could either v2 strongly or fall into a tired v1 with not enough glide and lose a lot of time.

The women's 5Km free technique interval start race was a four-way battle between Aas, runner-up Anna Coulter of the UAF team, third place finisher Laura Valaas of Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center, and Team Rossignol's Martina Stursova. Small time gaps opened up between these skiers early in the race, and gradually expanded, although the race was reasonably tight all the way to the end.

Aas' time was 14:40.6, 8.4 seconds ahead of Coulter, who was, in turn, 11.4 seconds ahead of Valaas. Stursova missed a position on the podium by 13 seconds. UAF Assistant Ski Coach Ingrid Olsen rounded out the top five, 1:16 back.

Heather Edic, Marisa Rorabaugh and Kate Bennett were the three top juniors, in 7th-8th-9th.

The racing started at 6:00PM under sunny skies with comfortable temperatures. Sixteen women were entered in the race, but a number of scratches, including former Fairbanks skiers Kate (Pearson) Arduser and Becca Rorabaugh, brought the field down to 11. However it was a very strong field, and the junior skiers who competed in the race were able to measure themselves against the very best.

The men's race began at 7:00PM, and a gradually increasing breeze and slowly falling temperatures made conditions seem a little colder for the many spectators who had grown accustomed to the conditions during the women's race.

The fastest skiers went out toward the front of the field of 37. Leif Zimmerman of the USST and Bridger Ski Foundation (Bozemen, MT), who was the 10Km classic champion on the Birch Hill trails at the 2003 Junior Olympics, was the first skier out of the gate, wearing bib number 20, and was the early leader.

Starting two-and-a-half minutes behind Zimmerman was 2008 NCAA Champion Marius Korthauer of the Alaska Nanooks, now skiing for Rossignol. Korthauer gained a few seconds on Zimmerman early, Petter Eliassen, starting 30 seconds behind Korthauer, took over the lead at most of the early timing positions.

These three skiers spend most of the race in that order, but within 15-20 seconds of one another. Eliassen had about 10 seconds on Korthauer with two to three kilometers to go. Korthauer was able to narrow that gap to four seconds by the finish, but could get no closer. The final top three were Eliassen, Korthauer (+4.2 seconds) and Zimmerman (+13.2 seconds). APUNSC coach Frode Lillefjell was fourth (+1:17) and UAF skier Vahur Teppan was fifth (+1:22).

Among juniors, Michael Mattson of APU was first (6th overall). David Norris of FAST was second junior (10th overall) and Ray Sabo of UAF was third junior in 12th overall.

Coverage from the Fairbanks Daily News Miner

Sources: Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks, Ian Case
Originaly from Source