Valley to host international ski race

MADAWASKA/FORT KENT – Last month the Olympic Torch made its way through Edmundston, New Brunswick on its way to the March Olympics at Vancouver, British Columbia.

Following soon after, scores of the cross country skiers, many of which will be competing in the Olympics, will be here in the St. John Valley for the 2010 Super Tour finals.

The races are expected to bring 200 world class cross country ski racers to the St. John Valley. They will be competing for the U. S. Ski and Snowboard Association Cross Country Championships long distance event. The events wrapping up the U.S. Championship long distance race will be held at Fort Kent and the USSA Super Tour Finals will be held at both Fort Kent and Madawaska.

The Super Tour will be held at the Four Seasons Trails at Madawaska and the Tenth Mountain Division Center at Fort Kent. Some of the racers will have competed at numerous venues across the world before coming to the St. John Valley. The 10-person United States Ski Association Cross Country Team  is expected to be in Fort Kent and Madawaska for the competitions.

The Super Tour Finals have been organized by the Maine Winter Sports Center along with the Four Season Lodge and the 10th Mountain Center.

The week of March 21 to 28 will bring some of the world’s best Nordic skiers in four major events. The St. John Valley events will see the crowning of the best among cross country skiers. They will come from throughout the United States.

Organizers at Fort Kent and Madawaska are excited to introduce the series for the first time ever in back-to-back format competitions. Residents of Maine and New Brunswick will have the opportunity to see world class Nordic skiers in head to head competitions.

Fort Kent has a world class venue that  has already seen worldwide competition including a Biathlon World Cup. Madawaska is looking to its debut in national cross country competition. Volunteers have built the Madawaska facilities and they are anxious to demonstrate to the skiing community that they are ready for a first class event.

Planning has been going on for months already.

"I and we are looking forward to this event that showcases one of Madawaska's best kept secrets," Four Seasons Trails Organizing Committee Chairman John Ezzy, said this week. "We will have skiers from all over the country and we want them to come back to our trails in the future."

"We are promoting healthy lifestyles and this is a worthwhile cause in the area," he continued. "We are also promoting tourism, and we want people to come back. When people see the world class facilities we have here they are more likely to come back."

"This is a great marriage between Fort Kent and Madawaska in bringing an event of this caliber to the upper St. John Valley," Nancy Thibodeau, an organizer of biathlon events at the 10th Mountain Center, said this week. "It's absolutely fabulous to having this happen.

"We should be seeing a lot of high level athletes attend these meets," she said. "This will showcase the sites on the cross country skiing level.  These events should be dynamic for the two communities."

"The long distance race is one of the toughest tests of skiing fitness out there and is expected to be contested by all of the best U.S. skiers returning from World Cup Finals," John Farra, USSA Nordic Program director, recently said in an article in fasterskier.com.

The long distance event includes cash prizes for the top three athletes in each gender.

The USSA Super Tour Finals is a new event and follows a unique format that mimics what is being contested in some World Cup competitions. The races held over three days will have an individual sprint race, a mass start and culminates with a hill climb.

The weeklong series will begin at the 10th Mountain Center in Fort Kent with the U.S. National Championship 30 kilometer female freestyle race and the 50 kilometer male freestyle race on Wednesday, March 24.

After a rest day, the Super Tour Finals will open at the Four Seasons Lodge with two days of racing. On Friday, March 26, Madawaska will host the women's five kilometer and men's ten kilometer mass start classics, and the men and women sprint races on Saturday, March 27.

The Super Tour Finals finale will take place at Fort Kent with a pursuit start hill climb from the Lonesome Pines Trails Lodge to the 10th Mountain Center. The first man and woman to the 10th Mountain Center wins to the competition.

On Oct. 31, the Four Seasons Lodge trails were inspected by USSA  Technical Delegates Jack Jeffrey and Bill Rodgers. They were accompanied by Eileen Carey and Will Sweetser of the Maine Winter Sports Center for the first ever inspection of the facility.

"It's a beautiful place. I'm impressed," Jeffrey said after walking the trails with local organizers of the USSA Super Tour Finals. "It's amazing what you have done here (in Madawaska) with volunteers.

"Your facility needs some tweaking, but things look very good," Jeffrey said. "This facility must have been a labor of love for many people."

Jeffrey said their work at the facilities they inspect is to create fairness and safety in cross country races.