Sign In July 2011
Help Rebuild the Causeway
The Colchester-South Hero Causeway was severely damaged in spring flooding, and Local Motion needs your help to rebuild this highly utilized resource. Local Motion is the organization that runs the bike ferry from the causeway to South Hero. (The bike ferry won’t run for the foreseeable future.)
Local Motion is working with the town of Colchester and Vermont Fish & Wildlife (owners of the causeway) to seek FEMA money to rebuild. FEMA has already toured the area.
In the meantime, there are ways you can help. Local Motion suggests e-mailing the organization (brian@localmotion.org) if you’d like to help with future repair and/or fundraising efforts, or if you have photographs of the damage. You can also buy a “Save the Causeway” T-shirt (at the Local Motion trailside center in Burlington); proceeds go to rebuilding. Wayne Turiansky, Local Motion member and owner of Amalgamated Culture Works, donated the T-shirts.
New Course Record at Stowe Sprint Triathlon
Dave Connery won the June 5 Stowe Sprint Triathlon and set a new course record of 59:08, beating the course record set by Lucas Moore. These two have gone neck and neck over the years. Check this out:
2007 1st Connery 1:02.46; 6th Moore 1:10.48
2008 1st Connery 1:01.19; 2nd Moore, 1:02.01
2009 1st Moore 59:24 (and course record); 2nd Connery, 1:00.52
2010 1st Moore 59:45; 3rd Connery, 1:00.27
2011 winner and new course record to Connery, with a time of 59:08.
Wow: we can’t wait for next year! Will it be Connery, Moore, or someone else?
On the ladies’ side, Sarah Pribram was the first female finisher with a time of 1:11:18. Not a record, but still quite impressive. Congratulations to everyone who participated.
New Members of Craftsbury Green Racing Team
Clare Egan, Maria Stuber, and Bryan Cook are the newest members of the Craftsbury Green Racing Team. Egan joins as a full-time skier; Stuber and Cook will be the first skiers to join as Green Racing Project training partners—a more flexible arrangement than a full-time member of the team.
Egan is a native of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, and was a member of the 2006 and ‘07 NENSA Junior Olympic Teams. She graduated in 2010 from Wellesley College, where she started a cross-country ski program. She then raced the carnival circuit this past winter for the University of New Hampshire, where she was enrolled in a graduate program in linguistics.
Stuber, of Waukesha, Wisc., raced collegiately for Northern Michigan University and has been part of the elite CXC (Central Cross-Country Ski Association) ski program. Her results include several SuperTour wins as well as a couple of top 10 finishes at Nationals. She’s also had some strong Birkie finishes: 4th in 2010 and 5th in 2011. She is now the head coach of both the men’s and women’s cross-country teams at Southern Vermont College.
Cook, from Rhinelander, Wisc., competed for the Northern Michigan Wildcats in college before joining the CXC elite team. During his time at CXC, he podiumed in both the 30K classic and 50K skate at the 2010 U.S. Nationals, earning him a World Cup start at Canmore, Alberta, where he skied to 41st in the 15K freestyle. He lives in Bennington.
The goal of the Green Racing Project is to provide an environment where post-collegiate skiers can focus on a high level of training while also working on a broad range of projects supporting the mission of the Craftsbury Outdoor Center.
Records Shake-Up on Mount Washington
Two cyclists have lost their claim to the Mount Washington Auto Road course and division records after they admitted to doping.
Organizers of two highly popular bicycle races up the Mount Washington Auto Road—Newton’s Revenge and the Mount Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb—announced this week that the times ridden by Tyler Hamilton of the United States and Genevieve Jeanson of Canada in the Mount Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb will no longer be considered official records for the all-uphill course.
The decision follows the recent confirmation by Hamilton that during his professional racing career he regularly used performance-enhancing drugs, as well as Jeanson’s admission in 2007 that she did the same for virtually her entire career.
Former French cycling star Jeanie Longo retroactively regains the women’s open record. In 2000, her only appearance at the Auto Road, Longo made the climb in 58 minutes 14 seconds, nearly four minutes faster than the then-record time of 1:01:57 that Jeanson had ridden in her Mount Washington debut in 1999. Jeanson returned in 2002 and beat Longo’s time with a 54:02, then won again in 2003, her last appearance here (59:58).
In 2002, 24-year-old Tom Danielson of Connecticut became the first and, so far, only person to ride up Mount Washington in under 50 minutes, clocking a time of 49:24 to better Hamilton’s performance. While Danielson’s 2002 time is the men’s open record, Hamilton’s 2006 time had remained the record for men aged 35–39, until this week’s announcement from Mary Power, director of the Hillclimb and of Newton’s Revenge, the other bike race held each summer on the 7.6-mile Auto Road. Now the men’s record-holder for that age group is Mike Engleman, who, at 39, finished second to Hamilton in 1997 in a time of 53:53.
“These races are held independent of any other governing body, and we have never conducted drug testing for them,” Power said. “However, following the revelation by Tyler, as well as Genevieve’s earlier confirmation that she used banned drugs from the age of 16 until her retirement 10 years later, we are respecting the rulings of national and international cycling federations, and we are no longer recognizing any of their times here as records.”
Newton’s Revenge will be held this year on Saturday, July 9, with a possible postponement date of July 10, if the weather on the 9th creates hazardous conditions on the mountain. The Mount Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb will take place on Saturday, August 20, with a similar weather-alternative date of Sunday the 21st. Each race starts at 8:40 a.m. with the Top Notch (elite) group, followed by three successive waves sorted by age group at 8:45, 8:50 and 8:55 a.m.
New Name for Ski Museum
The Vermont Ski Museum has officially changed its name to the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum to reflect the organization’s commitment to including snowboarding.
The Stowe-based museum is preparing to move forward with a new website, new logo, and, over the next 18 months, new exhibits and materials.
“The museum’s board of directors has long recognized the need to formally acknowledge snowboarding’s Vermont heritage, and we’re pleased to announce our decision to change our name to include snowboarding,” said Tom Sequist, Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum board chair. “The roots of skiing and snowboarding run very deep in Vermont, and we’re committed to collecting and preserving their Vermont history and continuing to be a resource for those seeking information about skiing and snowboarding in Vermont. We’ve always included snowboarding in our exhibition and look forward to expanding our snowboarding collection.”
The Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum is changing its existing logo to reflect the addition of snowboarding in its official name. Rebranding is being undertaken by Lance Violette Design of Stowe. The firm is a stalwart in the ski and snowboarding industry, with its owner Lance Violette most notably having been responsible for hundreds of Burton Snowboard graphics and many of its most influential marketing campaigns.
Four New Inductees to Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum Hall of Fame
The new inductees to the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum Hall of Fame are Karen Huntoon Miller, John Morton, Greg McClallen, and Preston Leete Smith.
Miller, a graduate of Rutland High School, won five world championships in mogul skiing and is now in the Freestyle Hall of Fame. She appeared in Warren Miller’s Ski in the Sun (1981), among other iconic films.
Morton, a regular columnist for Vermont Sports, skied four years on the Middlebury College ski team. There his aptitude for cross-country emerged, first as Eastern Intercollegiate Champion in 1966 and ’68, then as runner-up in the 1968 NCAA Championships. A four-year assignment to the U.S. Biathlon Training Center at Fort Richardson, Alaska, was interrupted by a tour of duty in South Vietnam. Upon release from active service in 1972, he taught and coached in Anchorage before returning to Vermont as head coach of men’s skiing at Dartmouth College in 1978.
McClallen started his career as a teacher and coach in 1966. After six years at Otter Valley High School, where he got the ski team organized, he moved to Rutland High School. There he taught English and coached cross-country running in the fall, skiing in the winter, and track and field in the spring. His ski team won 17 titles, and in 1976, the New England Championship for Nordic and Alpine combined. In 1987, McClallen received the National Coach of the Year Award for skiing.
Under Smith’s leadership, Killington became the largest ski resort in eastern North America and to this day is recognized worldwide as one of the big players in North American skiing. Smith’s vision led Killington to the forefront in snowmaking, grooming, innovative lift infrastructure, and learn-to-ski.
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