Mont St Anne Quebec Cup
By:  Ingrid Hagberg   (2010/12/22)

An XCOttawa contingent of Karl, Megan, Sheila, Katie, Andre, and Ingrid travelled to Mont St Anne last weekend, to participate in the Quebec cup used for selecting the Quebec team for the Canada Winter Games. Held at the same location as the 2007 nationals, the races were on excellent trails, with a great amount of early season snow.

The first day started off with a mass start classic race, with the women doing 7.5km, and the men doing 10km. The women’s race was won by 14 year old Anne-Marie Comeau. Sheila fought to a photo finish between her and Nakkertok’s Michelle Workun-Hill and Alana Thomas, and ended up coming 3^rd. Megan skied to a 7^th place finish. Ingrid and Katie both suffered falls during the race, and finished 28^th and 33^rd respectively. The men’s race started a few minutes early, while Karl was just putting on his skis in the start area. After making his way through all the racers, Karl ended up losing a photo finish to Andre, putting them in 16^th and 17^th place. The race was won by Raphael Couturier, with Nakkertok’s Steffan Lloyd and Patrick Stewart-Jones taking 2^nd and 3^rd. After a hard day of racing most of the team was able to relax, but Andre had to write an engineering exam under John’s watchful eye.

http://www.zone4.ca/results.asp?ID=3262&cat=all

The next day was a 1.25km skate sprint on a tough course with lots of climbing, and several tricky corners. Andre proved the benefits of writing exams as race prep, by qualifying in 3^rd. Karl qualified in 11^th. Sheila qualified in 7^th, Megan 9^th, Ingrid 25^th, and Katie 29^th. In the quarter finals, Megan was unable to advance after a fall close to the finish line put her 4^th in her heat. Ingrid and Katie also did not get past the quarterfinals, but Sheila had an excellent day and easily won the B final to finish in 7^th. Karl made it all the way to the A final, where he finished 4^th, while Andre had a tough afternoon that put him into 12^th overall.

http://www.zone4.ca/results.asp?ID=3270&cat=all

Monday was the final day of racing, with individual start 10/15km skate. Karl fought his way onto the podium with a 3^rd place finish, while Andre finished 11^th. Sheila had another excellent day, placing 2^nd in open women. Megan ended up in 5^th and only 1 second off 4^th. Ingrid and Katie were 26^th and 37^th.

http://www.zone4.ca/results.asp?ID=3278&cat=all

After a long weekend of hard racing, the team packed up our stuff and endured the long drive back to Ottawa. The team would like to send a big thank you to John and Anna for waxing our incredibly fast skis, and for their loud cheering on the course. Also, thanks to all the volunteers and organisers for all their effort in holding such a high quality race.