2010 Newsletter #4

What A Month for Nordic Skiers!

After the very successful 2010 VASA Festival of Races, we also had the quadrennial Winter Olympics underway as well as watching the exploits of our local super-skiers in the World Masters in Falun, Sweden. Many of our local skiers were suffering from sleep deprivation after fifteen days of watching the Olympics until the wee hours of the morning. The U.S.’s unparalled success in the Nordic Combined events has been an epic happening for many of us during the Olympics with more to come. Traverse City skiers, Milan Baic and Cliff Onthank, also collected a total of four bronze medals at the World Masters.


2010 VASA Wrapup

We would like to thank all of our skiers, sponsors and volunteers for making our 2010 VASA Festival of Races a great success. It took the skills and efforts of over 350 volunteers to stage all of our events. Our skiers represented 19 states as well as several provinces in Canada. For all of our events, we hosted well over 900 skiers including 595 Vasa finishers, 146 Gran Travers’ finishers, 50 in the VASA Sprints, 26 Adaptive skiers/trainers, 42 Jr. VASA competitors and 46 in the new Valentine’s tour. To our knowledge, there were no serious injuries.

VASA Grand Champions

This year, we introduced two-day stage racing to the Midwest ski scene. Like the Tour de France tests the rider over various stages, the combined VASA tested skiers’ abilities to follow up a fast freestyle time on Saturday’s VASA with a fast classic time the next day in the Gran Travers’ classic races. This year the xcskishop.com Grand Champion awards went to the skiers with the best combined times for the 50k freestyle and the 16k classic races. The male Grand Champion was Andy Liebner from Soldotna, Alaska who was the overall winner in both races. His combined time was 3:11:01 for 66 km of skiing! The female Grand Champion was our own Amy Wichern with a combined time of 4:04:51. They both won new racing skis contributed by our friends at XC Ski Shop in Grayling. Store manager, Bob Smith , presented the awards.

Cross countryski.com VASA Reserve Grand Champion

Similarly, these awards involved the best combined times for the 27km FS Vasa race and the 16km Gran Travers classic race. The male champion was Denny Paull of Cheybogan who nosed out Cliff Onthank with a combined time of  2:13:35. Our female reserve grand champion was Susan Vigland representing the VASA Ski Club and Traverse City. Susan’s combined time was 2:39:06. Both Denny and Susan received beautiful new racing skis complements of Bob Frye and Cross Country Ski HQ in Roscommon.

Congratulations to all four of our winners and many thanks to the Cross Country Ski Shop in Grayling and Cross Country Ski HQ in Roscommon.for making these awards possible.


Lisa Taylor Notes
To all of the VASA board members, crew chiefs, volunteers, sponsors, vendors and skiers

THANK YOU for making my rookie year as the 2010 Vasa Race Director a great success and much fun. As a veteran of staging races (my first race to create and direct was the 1985 Missing Mountain 10k run in Alma, MI) and of being in races (from the Ionia Free Fair 10k run in 1980 to two Bostons) I was truly impressed by the level of organization and commitment by all of the aforementioned parties. Thanks to the long-time participation by folks who obviously adore VASA and our community, “directing” the race was, well, more like “watching” a beautifully orchestrated symphony. Special thanks goes to George Kuhn who continues to lend his sharp mind to making an otherwise crazy registration process, very sane. And to Woody, who has the energy of a teenager to both work and ski the race, and he has so many friends! Linda Deneen took on the new position of Volunteer Coordinator and expertly combined old-fashioned hospitality with new-age technology which resulted in each volunteer receiving personalized attention. A big hand for the Timber Ridge folks who do so much more than most people could every imagine. And, of course, to President Pete, who gently guided me through with great patience and superb mentoring.

There are over 500 people to directly thank, and we’re hoping that you will continue to be a part of the great VASA tradition. The future hold many great opportunities for VASA including the 2012 US Masters Championships. Thanks for a great mid-February weekend!

Race Photos Now Available!
You may not have noticed while you were concentrating on your race, but we had three professional photographers from Action Sports Images placed strategically on the course.
They have taken over 10,000 images during all the VASA and Gran Travers races. If you check out their website, www.ActionSportsImages.com ;  you will find up to 15 photos of yourself in action. A percentage of all their sales will help fund VASA trailwork projects.

Suds & Snow at Timber Ridge

Many of our skiers, board members and volunteers will be helping out with the Timber Ridge annual Suds & Snow festivities. The party will run from 2-6:30 pm on Saturday March 6th. Nordic skis or snowshoes can be used to get some exercise before you try some of the excellent local microbrews. Live music will be provided by Misconduct and Jason & Nick. All proceeds will benefit local charities and TART Trails. Tickets are $20 in advance and $30 after March 5th. Details & tickets at www.TimberRidgeResort.net.


VASA 2011

We hope that you all enjoy the remainder of our glorious ski season. We look forward to seeing you all again on February 12-13th, 2011. That will be our 35th Anniversary race and we are planning a number of special events to celebrate our longevity.

Pete LaPlaca                        Lisa Taylor                    Jim Datsko
VASA Board President             VASA Race Director    Sunday Events Director