For more races then I can remember we have had pleasant weather conditions for the Yeti series. That didn’t seem to make the rain any more welcome the morning of March 17th when we laced up to battle for the Overall Series championships and the places of the day.
The usual contenders lined up to start with a few newer faces and some notable absentees. Most of the overall titles where pretty well sorted assuming the leaders had their usual good finishes, but the Men’s B category had a 5 or 6 way tie for second going into the final race and for those racers that were there it was truly Sh(n)owTime.
Given the rather dismal conditions it didn’t seem surprising that the lead men got off to a rather slow start with a group of almost 10 reaching the upper most part of the course together. It turned out that defending Yeti Champ and usual fast starter Andrew Clarke (Team SnowRunning.com) was having a below par day and everyone else was unsure of how to lead a Yeti event. Eventually a group of three runners got off the front and started to establish a gap. The conditions were reasonably firm on the climbs and downright slip-sloppity on the descents making some of the tight twisty stuff almost dangerous.
Going into the second lap Colin Dignum took control at the front and used his almost inhuman climbing ability to get away from Justin Mark (Team SnowRunning.com). Justin gamely fought to stay in contact but wisely settled in for a second place finish that would assure him of second overall in the series. Behind them a real battle was shaping up with Shawn Stephens-Whale (Team Yeti), Andrew Clarke, Dave Cressman (Team SnowRunning.com) and Nate Wood (Team Yeti) all looking for the last step on the podium and also third overall in the series between Cressman and Wood. Wood was overtaken just after the first descent and Clarke and Cressman worked together to catch the youngster Stephens-Whale with about 1 km to go. Clarke told Cressman to put the hammer down and he did managing to hold on for third overall and third in the Series. The other two sprinted in to the line and the “Kid” snuck by Clarke on the inside to take fourth.
After the most successful season in Yeti’s history there is no doubt that the sport is in great shape and the fact that the elite racers were clearly outnumbered by the Fun and Fitness crowd means we are all just having way more fun.
Thanks to all the Yeti staff and most importantly the Volunteers!
