Demong & Dong top 2007 BMT
Posted on February 6th, 2007
Ketchum, ID (Feb. 3) Nordic Combined skier and SWIX Athlete, Billy Demong, skied away from the field to claim the victory of the 32nd running of the Boulder Mountain Tour.
The Boulder is notorious for it?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s sprint finishes due to the lack of climbs making it very difficult to break the field apart. Demong threw conventional wisdom out the window and crushed the deepest field ever at the Boulder Mountain Tour. The breakaway came early in the race as Demong followed Carl Swenson through the first preem at 15km. With a slight gap on the field, Demong skied by Swenson and told him to keep going. At that point, Swenson just watched as Demong skied off into the sunset to claim his title. With a slight tailwind, Demong skied the rest of the race solo and ended up winning by a minute and twenty- three seconds. (See Billy?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s Bio under SWIX athletes) FSX skier Zach Violett was second followed by Alpina?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s Marshall Greene.
On the women?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s side, Alpina?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s Evelyn Dong of Bend, OR also skied away from the lead women?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s pack. Evelyn skied so fast that she was able to leapfrog through half the men?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s elite field that had a one-minute head start to stomp the women?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s competition. Evelyn was over three minutes ahead of second place Kate Pearson and third place Inge Travis to round out the women?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s podium.
While the air temperatures were hovering around 20 degrees throughout the course the snow temperature was 2 degrees at race time. Despite the warm air temperatures the abrasive snow required a cold wax as recommended by the Swix Tech Team. The conditioning of the base with CH4 and then doing a race layer of HF4BD proved to be fast and durable.
Eight members from Swix Racing Service provided in-depth wax testing, wax consultation and race support to make this one of the fastest and easiest Boulders in recent memory. Testing started Wednesday and ran through Saturday morning. When it was all done, the original and only recommendation from Swix proved to be the fastest with a fine structure. Swix also provided pole support to the eight hundred skiers to make sure a busted pole did not ruin their day.
Early in the race Rossignol?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s Josh Smullin broke a pole. Josh skied about 5km without a pole and came into the Prairie Creek aid station screaming for a replacement. The quick footwork of the Swix Tech Team Member Eric Jensen got Josh a pole without him breaking a stride. Josh skied to an impressive 7th place.
A big thanks to all of the Swix Racing Service members that made it a great weekend:
Kevin Sweeney ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú Director, Course Race Support
Jack Hart - Wax testing, Expo, Course Race Support
Eric Jensen - Structure Testing, Pole Sprinter, Course Race Support
Kris Thoreson - Expo, Elephants Perch wax clinic, 113th overall
Joe Jensen ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú Prairie Creek man of the people, 45th overall
Melody Scheefer - Wax testing, 5th woman overall
Barbro Hatlevik - Clinics, 8th woman overall
Isaac Wilson - Clinics, 44th overall
Also a big thanks to the residents of the Wood River Valley for producing the largest Nordic ski race in the Northwest.
For full results visit: www.bouldermountaintour.com
Check out photos: www.swixracing.us
?Ǭ†
?Ǭ†
