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Tele Racers in the Mist
Whitefish, Montana
January 12, 1999

The Classic

	Swiss coach encourages

Racers battled the mountain on a epic classic course that will be long held as the standard for World Cup courses to come. The telemark classic is the most grueling and difficult event in telemark racing. It has everything, downhill gates, uphill sections, 360s and jumps. The Swiss continued their tour de force taking the top three spots.

In the men's race, Patrick Leopold took first, Remo Rickenbach, 2nd, and Toni Burn 3rd, finished within four tenths of second apart after the grueling three-and-a-half minute course.

Norway's Hege Johannson proved her domination in the Classic, holding off the charge of swiss skiers lead by Mirjam Rubin, who won both of the previous technical Giant Slaloms and former overall World Cup winner Andrea Walker.

	Ludlow scrubs for speed

The clouds blanketed The Big Mountain today like vanilla layers in chocolate puddling. The brief pockets of visability gave the racers an indication of how quickley the ice had formed on their goggles.

The course started with two quick gates leading into the first narrow traverse through the trees, then racers gained speed to enter the first uphill skating section. Dense fog captured the lower half of the mountain, and after eight or nine quick skates racers entered the first set of camel jumps and into the start of the GS portion of the course.

Five quick turns brought racers to the "Buffalo" jump—the monsterous jump of 75 feet was truly a leap of faith as skiers could barely see the landing markers through the dense clouds.

After a dozen more turns in the rapidly deteriorating soft snow, racers tried to suck up the second set of camel jumps leading to a 180 degree banked turn so sharp it was dubbed "taco bender." Then another roller and several gates gave way to the second jump, a mere 50 footer.

At last below the cloud deck, racers entered the final gates at speeds nearing 50mph as they were thrown high up the banked wall of the rieplejkke, "the noose," which forces them to ski 360 degrees. A few skates later and it was back into a narrow traverse through the trees to the final stretch.

Full throttle again, skating with frenzed abandon, racers continued with cow bells ringing and fans yelling wildly in the finish area.

After crossing the line, the top athletes quickly looked toward the timing board to see what the clock has to say. Others recuperate and enjoy simply being alive and able to compete in such an intense sport.

— Jimmy Ludlow, Mountain Zone Correspondent