US Nationals Skate Sprint – It was a SKI*GO kind of day
SkiGo and Holmenkol waxes followed up their success in Thursday skate race with another banging performance in Saturday’s skate sprint at Black Mountain.
We arrived at the venue and got out on our test boards. For fluoro powders Swix Super Cera was the winner, ahead of Holmenkol Cold, and Ski*Go C105. We quickly made our rounds with that information and we began testing top coats. For top coats Holmenkol Speedblock Cold was the clear winner for us. The 1.4k loop featured varied conditions throughout. Not only did Holmenkol Speedblock Cold feel the fastest, but it was also the most consistently fast throughout the varying snow conditions and that was something we were looking for.
We have been assisting a couple of athletes this week with waxing so we got their skis prepped and sent them out to test pairs. After they selected their best pair, we brushed them out and applied a fresh top coat in order to provide them with the cleanest, fastest skis possible.
Their skis were prepped with:
Baselayer - Ski*Go LF Graphite, iron, scrape brush
Race Paraffin – Holmenkol Matrix Black/Blue, iron, scrape brush
Fluoro Powder – Swix Super Cera, iron, scrape, brush
Top Coat – Holmenkol Speedblock Cold, handcork, cool, brush
While qualifying took place we cleaned the top coat test fleet and reapplied those waxes. Our focus for the day was on nailing the top coats for the rounds. In Sprint racing top coats are an area where you can really make a difference. By hand corking in the top coats you get maximum speed out of the wax, we refer to this as cold application because it doesn’t involve an iron or rotocork. This works very well in sprint racing because you can easily test a lot of different waxes very quickly by feel and layers of block or liquid can be reapplied between rounds in the stadium area.
Prior to the rounds we tested:
Holmenkol Speedblock Cold, Holmenkol Speedblock Mid, Ski*Go C105 Fluid, Ski*Go C44 Fluid, Ski*Go C105 Solid, Ski*Go C22 Solid, Ski*Go C22/C44 Solids mixed, and Swix FC7 solid white.
The Ski*Go C22/C44 Solids mix was our best. We prepped up skis and distributed information to coaches and service techs.
One of the teams that we know does high quality testing came in and picked up a Ski*Go C55/99 Fluid. Their athletes clearly had excellent skis. For the second time that week I heard a coach say that Ski*Go C55/99 should be referred to a “The Rumford” because it works so well there. In retrospect that should have been in our test before rounds, next time you’re in Rumford you are probably going to want put that in your top coat test.
The Skate Sprint was another day where teams were able to find a lot of different solutions for top coats, but the common theme was Ski*Go. Included among them were Ski*Go C55/99 Fluid, Ski*Go C105 Fluid, and the Ski*Go C22/C44 solid mix. I even know of one tech knowing that the 55/99L was running laid down a layer of that, let it harden for about 20 minutes, brushed it out and then topped in with the C22/C44 solids.
It was great to pack up the wax room and load vehicles knowing we had another successful day. Many athletes and coaches stopped by to say thank you and we really do appreciate that. We would again like to thank the volunteers and all the people that put in so much work to make the week of racing happen and thank you for reading.